The American Red Cross: Stronger and Financially Stable
An Update From Gail McGovern, President and CEO
Two years ago, I took on what has been
the most challenging and rewarding
experience of my professional career
when I became president and CEO of
the American Red Cross.
Faced with multiple large disasters that
year—both in the U.S. and abroad—I
quickly understood what an amazing
position we are in at the Red Cross. We
are local, national and international—a
borderless movement that truly
emphasizes humanity above all else.

address that situation. The Red Cross
made significant layoffs of headquarters
staff in 2008, and last year we suspended merit pay increases and the 401(k)
match for all employees.
We also had to reinforce a costconsciousness that reached into every
area of our operations—from big areas
such as real estate, vendor contracts
and telecommunications, all the way
down to the little things, like office
supplies.

One way the Red Cross has done that
is by sharing back-office functions such
I spoke with donors, employees and
as finance, payroll and accounting,
volunteers, and learned that we needed
instead of each of our nearly 700
to focus on six areas: achieving financial
chapters having
stability,
separate operations.
strengthening
For example, as
. . . we are coming through one
fundraising,
of June 30, 2010,
of the toughest economic
revitalizing the
90 percent of our
Red Cross brand,
environments in our country’s
community chapters
advancing blood
now have their
history, and we have made
safety, improving
accounting
enormous progress just in the
teamwork and
performed by a
revamping our
past two years.
regional accounting
IT systems.
hub.
A great deal has transpired over the
past two years—hurricanes, floods, the
Haiti earthquake, budget challenges and
the economic downturn—and I wanted
to give you an update on what we’ve
faced, what we have accomplished, and
what the future looks like.

Achieving Financial Stability
When I joined the Red Cross in June
2008, one of the biggest challenges we
faced was our financial situation.
As of June 30, 2008, the Red Cross
had a $209 million operating deficit and
a mandate from our Board of Governors
to eliminate it in two years. We were
forced to make some painful but
necessary cuts in order to immediately

Our combined efforts have paid off,
as we are now wrapping up fiscal
year 2010 with the operating deficit
eliminated. This is a huge accomplishment, and it was achieved through the
hard work of each and every Red Crosser
to ensure that the Red Cross will
continue to be there every day to help
the millions of people who count on us.
This is an important turning point for the
Red Cross—we are coming through one
of the toughest economic environments
in our country’s history, and we have
made enormous progress just in the
past two years.

Even with this good news, we know that
we still have significant challenges
ahead. Starting with fiscal year 2011,
which began July 1, we have projected
the need to come up with even greater
efficiencies and more innovative
fundraising to keep our books balanced.
However, seeing how far we have come
in such a short time makes me confident
that we are up to the challenge.

Strengthening Fundraising
While we will always raise funds during
times of disaster, we recognized that in
order to remain viable in the future, we
had to fundraise differently, working as
one organization to ensure sustainable
operations across the country.
Two years later, we’ve come a long way
in strengthening and coordinating our
fundraising. And with 91 cents of every

Hurricane Ike

dollar spent going directly to provide
our humanitarian services, our
fundraising initiatives remain efficient.
In 2008, at the height of a hurricane
season that had eight named storms hit
the U.S., the Red Cross launched a
$100 million campaign to fund disaster
relief. This was certainly an audacious
goal, given that we were starting from
zero. In just nine months, we surpassed
our $100 million goal, raising $95 million
in cash and $15 million in in-kind

Talia Frenkel/American Red Cross

Introduction

 donations, during what were probably
the most challenging economic times in
the last quarter century.

financing and the construction of
transitional and permanent shelter.

Even with all these successes, we have
to be relentless, year-round fundraisers.
The Red Cross mission is vast: we
supply nearly half of the nation’s blood;
teach skills that save lives; provide
international humanitarian aid; support
military members and their families; and
feed, shelter and give emotional support
to victims of disasters.

The “Gifts That Save the Day” Holiday
Giving Campaign enabled us to actively
seek donations during one of the
biggest times of the year for giving. We
also learned many valuable lessons
about which issues touch Americans the
most. We found widespread support for
gifts in support of members of the
military, for vaccinations for children
overseas, and for people affected by
disaster. A proven winner for us, we will
launch another holiday campaign in
2010 that promises to be even bigger
and better.

Each day brings with it hundreds of
disasters in the U.S. alone—most
commonly house fires. We also see
larger-scale disasters such as wildfires,
floods, tornadoes and hurricanes each
year. In light of these facts, we know
that we must be prepared to respond.

Revitalizing the
Red Cross Brand
One of our challenges has been to
become a 21st century brand that builds
upon our 129-year-old mission and
history. This means demonstrating the
relevance of the Red Cross today, and
making the brand “cool” by using new
media to make everyone, particularly
younger people, want to be a part of it.

The devastating earthquake in Haiti in
January showed once again the
compassion and generosity of the
American public. So far, we have raised
more than $460 million for Haiti relief
and recovery. In addition, more than $32
million of this amount was pledged $10
at a time in a record-shattering mobile
giving effort that represents a gamechanger in fundraising.

Thanks to the generosity of our donors,
the American Red Cross, in
collaboration with partnering
organizations, has embarked on what
will be a multiyear recovery effort in
Haiti, focused on water and sanitation
projects, disaster preparedness, health
programs, financial assistance, micro-

IFRC

Annexe la Mairie, Haiti

We’ve done a great job of showing how
a historic institution can be effective
with social media and new forms of
communication. We’ve embraced
blogging, tweeting, Facebook and other
forms of social media not only so we
can build relationships and stay current
on public opinion, but also to quickly
share information such as shelter
locations during disasters.
Social media has also broken ground for
new fundraising methods. For example,
in 2009, Target held a Facebook
campaign in which people voted for one
of 10 charities to receive a share of $3
million. As a result, the Red Cross
received more than $790,000.
We are also working hard to ensure the
Red Cross has a consistent voice, sound
and look across the country, which will
increase the public’s understanding of

what we do. Building
a stronger brand
identity is helping us
break through the
“noise,” helping our
supporters remember us, return to us
and recommend us to others.
We’re in a great position right now.
Currently, the public views the Red
Cross as second only to the public
library—the gold standard—in terms of
community value. And the Red Cross
continues to lead other large nonprofits
in public trust ratings.

Advancing Blood Safety
We understand the tremendous
responsibility we carry as the nation’s
largest supplier of blood. The Red Cross
collects and processes approximately
43 percent of the nation’s blood supply,
about 6.5 million units of blood each
year. These units of blood are then
manufactured into about 9.5 million
transfusable blood products for patients
across the country.
Someone receives a blood transfusion
from a Red Cross donor 21,000 times
a day—and many of us have either
needed blood or know someone who
has needed this lifesaving gift.
Donor and patient safety are our highest
priority. Our goal is to provide the safest
blood supply possible for those in need.

Daniel Cima/American Red Cross

We will be there for the long haul, and
we will be responsible stewards with
every dollar donated toward Haiti.

As another example of our efforts to
improve fundraising outside of times of
disaster, we launched a Holiday Giving
Campaign last November with national
television advertising, aggressive media
outreach and a new online catalog that
enabled people to give gifts to the Red
Cross in the names of others.

2

 The Red Cross is fully committed to
meeting all FDA standards, and we have
made significant progress, especially
over the past two years, in improving our
regulatory compliance by implementing
system-wide changes to our operations.
These changes have produced results:
as of May 2010, there has been a
33 percent improvement in problem
resolution from January 2008.
We are proud of our progress, but are
continuing to do even more to improve
compliance and protect the safety of the
blood supply.

Revamping IT

A Look Ahead

For the Red Cross, making sure we have
up-to-date computer infrastructure and
technology is critical for our operations.
Two years ago, much of our computer
infrastructure was made up of old,
incompatible legacy systems that
needed to be modernized. We needed to
get some of these systems into the 21st
century, determine which programs
should be outsourced, cut costs and
increase the use of current technologies.

Embracing change is no easy feat for a
complex, 129-year-old institution like the
American Red Cross. But in order for us
to stay relevant and grow, we need to
look toward the future and be open to
new—and some may say radical—ideas.
It could be a new fundraising concept,
an untapped partnership, a technological
innovation, or something we can’t
conceive of yet. The point is that we
must grow and evolve with our world,
because our world never stands still.

Under the leadership of a new chief
information officer, we now have
multiple IT initiatives under way,
Improving Teamwork
including creating a centralized
At times in the past, Red Cross national
fundraising database and replacing
headquarters and our chapters and
multiple data management systems with
blood regions around the country did
one system in Biomedical Services,
not work together
which will
closely enough.
streamline blood
. . . I am continuously inspired
However, given our
collection.
and increasingly confident that
serious financial
One of our most
situation two years
we can meet any challenges
significant changes
ago, it became
that come our way.
is the implementacritical for us to
tion of a uniform
work as a team.
learning management system, which will
In order for us to work as “one
manage and track all Red Cross training
Red Cross,” as we call this effort
courses, students, instructors and certifiamong ourselves, it was essential to
cation data system-wide. Due to be
establish open lines of communication
finished this year, it will replace current
across the organization—to change
learning data systems and serve as one
what had primarily been a top-down
central platform for both Web-based
decision-making structure. With this
training and blended learning for internal
increased collaboration, everyone has
and external learners. Simply put, it will
a stake in the results and in our services
unify our organization under one system
to the public.
and save money in the process.

I believe that by sharing best practices,
acting with transparency and having
clear accountabilities, we are well on our
way to creating a culture at the Red
Cross in which all employees feel that
they are part of a supportive, highperforming team.

H20857

We have also launched a new website
for blood donors and redesigned our
public website, redcross.org. These
changes are helping us to stay fresh
and work more efficiently in serving
the public.

Hurricane Ike

Talia Frenkel/American Red Cross

Together, we figured out how to cut
costs and work in a lean environment,
coordinate our fundraising and provide
chapters with better support. By
establishing shared systems across
chapters, blood regions and all lines of
service, we are driving administrative
costs out of the system and enabling
our workers to devote more resources
to our mission.

More and more frequently, the public
turns to the Red Cross when they want
to help those who have been affected
by disaster, so part of my vision for our
future revolves around a new era of
volunteerism, where a culture of service
extends from retired baby boomers to
tomorrow’s teens.
I also envision a strong culture of
preparedness in our country, where 50
percent of the public is trained in CPR
and first aid; 75 percent of K-12 schools
have preparedness curriculum and Red
Cross clubs; and 30 percent of the U.S.
population donates blood.
No matter if you think these goals are
boldly ambitious or plainly unrealistic, I
have no doubt we’re up to it. As I have
traveled around the country and the
world, meeting Red Crossers and the
people who come to the Red Cross for
help, I am continuously inspired and
increasingly confident that we can meet
any challenges that come our way.
I am also very aware that much of our
progress is due to the strength of our
partnerships—from those we collaborate
with and the thousands of volunteers
who deliver our services, to those whose
financial investment puts our mission
into action. Thank you for your support
and the vote of confidence it represents. 

3