Chairman
Board of Governors
430 17th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20006

October 9, 2015

OFFICERS
Chairman
Bonnie McElveen-Hunter
Vice Chairmen
Laurence E. Paul, M.D.
Melanie R. Sabelhaus

BOARD OF GOVERNORS
Jennifer Bailey
Ajay Banga
Afsaneh M. Beschloss
Richard K. Davis
Allan I. Goldberg, M.D.
James W. Keyes
Joseph E. Madison
Bonnie McElveen-Hunter
Gail J. McGovern
Suzanne Nora Johnson
Richard C. Patton
Laurence E. Paul, M.D.
Melanie R. Sabelhaus
David A. Thomas, Ph.D.
Carol B. Tomé
Tina M. Tyler

Dear Mr. Elliott,
On behalf of the Board of Governors of the American Red Cross, I wanted to take the
opportunity to respond to your recent emails requesting information for a profile of
Gail McGovern.
The American Red Cross has been privileged to have Gail at its helm for the past
seven years. During that time, she has shown extraordinary leadership, overseeing the
transformation of this great humanitarian organization to ensure we are consistently
good stewards of our donors’ dollars, and that we will continue to be there for people
in their time of most critical need.
When Gail joined the organization in 2008, in the midst of the nation’s financial crisis,
the Red Cross faced a number of challenges, including turnover in leadership, an
unwieldy and inefficient organizational structure, outdated systems, and fundraising
that wasn’t keeping up with expenses. Over the last seven years, Gail - a recognized
business leader with proven success running large organizations - has worked
tirelessly to develop and direct the plan of action that has reduced expenses,
strengthened service delivery and brought the Red Cross into the 21st century so we
can reach more people and continue to fulfill our mission for decades to come.
In particular, Gail has shown a laser focus on improving the Red Cross in the following
areas:
•

Strengthening service delivery by increasing financial support to clients and
volunteer hours, one of the most essential components of service delivery. In
the last fiscal year alone, financial support to victims of home fires and other
local disasters grew by more than 4 percent, and volunteer hours grew by 18
percent. In addition, Red Cross launched a new National Home Fire campaign,
which so far has resulted in the installation of 125,000 smoke alarms, nearly
312,000 children trained to be safer in emergencies, and 26 documented
lives saved.

•

Restructuring the chapter network, which has been critical to improvements in
service delivery, by eliminating layers of management and reinvesting this
savings in front-line services to people. These changes have led to engaging
more volunteers in our humanitarian work and more sharing between chapters
of resources, staff and best practices.

•

Re-engineering our disaster services operations to provide a more
standardized set of services delivered at the community level by Red Cross
chapters closest to the people we serve. Earlier this year, Red Cross handled
simultaneous, large-scale disaster operations in multiple states resulting in
4,190 shelter stays and 117,265 meals served. Client satisfaction survey
scores showed 80 percent rated our services as excellent.

 Mr. Elliott
October 9, 2015
Page 2
•

Right-sizing our blood services operations to address falling demand and prices throughout the
entire blood industry, while still providing 15,000 units of blood every day to meet the needs of
hospitals and patients.

•

Increasing financial donations while reducing expenses so more dollars go to people in need.
Under Gail’s leadership, Red Cross increased donations from individual, corporate, and
foundation donors by 14 percent, outside of major disasters. At the same time she acted to
eliminate redundancies and consolidate back office operations – such as IT, payroll, marketing
and HR. As a result, last fiscal year Red Cross spent approximately $108 million less on
management and general than in FY2007, before Gail arrived.

•

Harnessing the power of new technologies to deliver services and communicate with a wider
audience. Red Cross now reaches more than two million people through Twitter, nearly
700,000 through Facebook, and through 7.2 million downloads of12 mobile apps is giving
people life-saving information about first aid, hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires, tornadoes and
shelter locations.

Many of these changes were difficult, especially when they cost the jobs of dedicated, hard-working
members of the Red Cross family. But the Board of Governors agreed they were absolutely necessary
to preserve the organization’s ability to carry out its critical and lifesaving mission to all Americans.
At her core, Gail is a humanitarian who cares deeply about the people we serve – never forgetting that
we are able to do so because of the generosity of our donors, volunteers, partners and the American
public. Whether she is visiting Red Cross shelters or serving chili from an emergency response vehicle,
everything she does, and has done in her tenure at the Red Cross, is in service to our mission.
Over the last seven years, Gail McGovern has earned the respect and trust of management and the
Board of Governors, yet she attributes her success to the employees, volunteers, donors and supporters
of the Red Cross. She is an exemplary leader and the American Red Cross is stronger now than it was
seven years ago because of her many innumerable contributions.
Sincerely,

Bonnie McElveen-Hunter
Chairman