Red Cross Needs a Tough CEO

To the Editor:

The appointment of a tough regulator, Mark Everson, head of the IRS, to the presidency of the beleaguered American Red Cross (“From Charity Watchdog to Charity CEO,” May 3) was good news.

As your article noted, just as Mr. Everson’s selection was announced, the Red Cross was stripped of its leadership role in coordinating the provision of shelter, food, and first aid to victims in disasters. The Federal Emergency Management Agency will assume that role.

To further tarnish the agency’s image, there have been several indictments, arrests, or convictions recently at chapters in California, New Mexico, and West Virginia involving questionable spending totaling several hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Mr. Everson has to deal with a major structural change in the way in which the agency is governed. Many of the Red Cross problems are attributed to governance. In the past, there has been significant board trouble, with its choice of staff leadership, husbanding of its resources, conflicts of interest, and board-attendance issues.

Mr. Everson comes to an organization that has been replete with problems that span decades. He follows a number of presidents that had been forced out, the last two with sizeable (and controversial) golden parachutes. The Red Cross continues its decade-long fight with the Federal Drug Administration over violations of blood-safety rules and failing to comply with a 2003 agreement to correct such practices.

Hopefully the past is not a precursor for the future. In one instance the board criticized a previous national Red Cross president for firing an executive after finding that the executive was involved in a $1-million embezzlement. In another case, the Red Cross settled for less than half of the $120,000 stolen by a chapter executive.

For years, the agency has been criticized for raising money for one disaster, and then withholding a large chunk of it for other operations and fund raising.

Mr. Everson has a big challenge ahead. He deserves a chance to wade through the morass, gather the necessary leadership, and change the course of a ship that has gone astray. Those that had considerable trust in the American Red Cross want to renew that trust. All Americans want to see an organization with the wherewithal to erase its compromised past and fulfill its mission.

Gary Snyder
Managing Director
Nonprofit Imperative
West Bloomfield, Mich.