American Red Cross

Overview

The American National Red Cross, known as the American Red Cross, is the United States’ congressionally chartered humanitarian organization, founded by Clara Barton in 1881 (American Red Cross). It provides disaster relief, collects about 40% of the nation’s blood supply (Britannica), trains people in first aid and CPR, and supports members of the U.S. armed forces and their families. It is the U.S. National Society of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement — not the same body as the ICRC or the IFRC (ICRC casebook).

The scale is large and mostly local. Britannica reports around 66,000 disaster responses a year — mostly small events such as house fires — and, in the early 21st century, some 35,000 employees, about 800 chapters, and nearly a million volunteers (Britannica). It is funded entirely by donations and product proceeds (Britannica). The blood figure carries the sharpest implication: because the Red Cross collects about 40% of the U.S. blood supply, a disruption at this one organization would ripple through hospitals nationwide (Britannica).

Founding and charter

The Red Cross idea began in Europe, not America. In 1859, Swiss businessman Henry Dunant witnessed the aftermath of the Battle of Solferino in northern Italy, where some 40,000 troops were left dead, wounded, or missing. His 1862 book A Memory of Solferino urged national relief organizations of trained volunteers, and the next year he joined a Swiss-based committee that became the International Committee of the Red Cross (HISTORY.com). That committee adopted the red cross on a white background — an inverse of the Swiss flag — and in 1864 twelve countries signed the original Geneva Convention on humane treatment of sick and wounded soldiers regardless of nationality (HISTORY.com).

Clara Barton brought the idea to the United States. A former teacher then working in the U.S. Patent Office, she had supplied Union soldiers during the Civil War, earning the nickname “Angel of the Battlefield,” and after the war ran the Missing Soldiers Office, tracking down some 22,000 men for their families (HISTORY.com). She had learned of the movement while recuperating in Europe and volunteered with the ICRC during the Franco-Prussian War (American Red Cross). She founded the American Red Cross on May 21, 1881, won U.S. ratification of the Geneva Convention in 1882, and served as president for 23 years, retiring in 1904 (American Red Cross; HISTORY.com). Under her, the organization added peacetime disaster relief, aiding victims of the 1889 Johnstown Flood, which killed more than 2,000 people, and the 1893 Sea Islands hurricane that left some 30,000 people homeless, most of them African American (HISTORY.com).

The organization’s legal standing is unusual. It received its first U.S. federal charter in 1900 (HISTORY.com), and today exists as a federally chartered instrumentality of the United States under 36 U.S.C. §§300101–300113 — neither a federal agency nor an ordinary private charity. The 2007 Governance Modernization Act confirmed that status and shrank the Board of Governors to 12–20 members, with the chairman recommended by the board and appointed by the President (U.S. Government Publishing Office). Cliff Holtz, chief operating officer for seven years, became president and CEO on July 1, 2024, succeeding Gail McGovern after more than 15 years at the helm (The NonProfit Times).

Blood services — and the segregation fight

Blood is the Red Cross’s second pillar, and its history carries the organization’s most consequential moral failure. In 1941 the Red Cross started a national blood donation program to collect blood for the armed forces; by 1945 it had collected more than 13 million pints (HISTORY.com). In 1948 it launched the nation’s first blood program for civilians, and by 2017 the program provided approximately 40% of America’s blood and blood products (HISTORY.com).

The science behind that program came largely from Charles Drew, an African American surgeon and blood-banking pioneer. Drew ran the Blood for Britain campaign shipping plasma to Britain, then became director of the Red Cross’s New York blood bank, tasked with collecting blood from 100,000 donors for the military (Singapore Medical Journal). But the military and the Red Cross labeled each unit of blood by the donor’s race, so white patients would not receive blood from Black donors — a policy Drew called ridiculous and insulting, with no scientific basis. He resigned from the Red Cross in 1942 (Singapore Medical Journal).

The blood operation has also drawn regulatory scrutiny. The NonProfit Times notes that the federal Food and Drug Administration lifted its consent-decree oversight of the Biomedical Services division after almost 23 years and $47 million in fines (The NonProfit Times).

Disaster relief: from Johnstown to Blackwell to Katrina

The Red Cross’s disaster record is one of both reach and repeated criticism. In 1898 it aided the U.S. military for the first time, in the Spanish-American War, and in 1900 it assisted after the Galveston tidal-wave disaster (Britannica; HISTORY.com). In World War I it grew from some 100 chapters in 1914 to more than 3,800 four years later, recruiting 20,000 nurses; in World War II it recruited more than 104,000 nurses and sent more than 300,000 tons of supplies abroad (HISTORY.com).

The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 was its first truly national-scale civilian test. President Calvin Coolidge declared that “the burden of caring for the homeless rests upon the agency designated by Government charter to provide relief in disaster — the American National Red Cross,” and put Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover in charge of a quasi-governmental commission directing the response (History News Network / Congressional Research Service). The Red Cross aided about 640,000 displaced people, with 307,208 staying in more than 150 camps, many for up to four months, and delivered over $21 million in aid (History News Network / Congressional Research Service). But the same report documents the dark side: in some camps local officials brutalized Black evacuees and barred them from leaving, relief workers forced Black men, sometimes at gunpoint, to do flood-response work, and some evacuees’ allotments were diverted to the planters they worked for (History News Network / Congressional Research Service).

Smaller disasters show the same pattern of local response. After the May 25, 1955 tornado struck Blackwell, Oklahoma, devastating 29 city blocks at an estimated $12.5 million in damage, the Red Cross provided shelter to the displaced, while National Guard crews cleared debris, martial law was declared, and utilities were largely restored within the week (Blackwell Journal-Tribune). The episode shows the Red Cross’s typical disaster: a town like Blackwell, where the 1955 Blackwell, Oklahoma tornado destroyed homes and workplaces, and the job was shelter for the displaced.

The modern era brought larger operations and sharper scrutiny. After the 2001 terror attacks, the Red Cross angered donors by earmarking some 9/11 gifts for unrelated purposes (Associated Press via Indian Express). Its Hurricane Katrina response in 2005 drew wide criticism; it afterward acknowledged overwhelmed volunteers, inadequate anti-fraud measures, and too few partnerships with local charities (Associated Press via Indian Express). After the 2010 Haiti earthquake it raised nearly half a billion dollars, yet a ProPublica/NPR investigation found it built just six permanent homes despite apportioning about $170 million to “shelter relief” and planning about 700 — and that its 130,000-person housing claim counted transitional shelters, rent assistance, and construction training (The Guardian via Taipei Times). The Red Cross disputes that account, saying it helped build and operate eight hospitals and clinics and moved more than 100,000 people from makeshift tents into improved housing (The Guardian via Taipei Times). Its Superstorm Sandy response drew similar criticism, likewise contested (The Guardian via Taipei Times). Trust has proved durable: donations for Hurricanes Harvey and Irma in 2017 topped $300 million, and about 40,000 new volunteers signed up (Associated Press via Indian Express).

What the American Red Cross is not

The name “Red Cross” covers three distinct things. The American Red Cross is a National Society: National Societies act as auxiliaries to their own governments’ humanitarian work, and must first be recognized by the ICRC before joining the International Federation, the National Societies’ umbrella organization (ICRC casebook). The ICRC is the Geneva-based body that originated the movement; the IFRC, established in 1919, comprises 191 member National Societies with a Geneva Secretariat and coordinates international emergency relief (Sri Lanka Red Cross Society). The American Red Cross is the U.S. member of that system — not the ICRC, not the movement’s governing body, and not a spokesman for other countries’ societies.

	American Red Cross	ICRC	IFRC
What it is	U.S. National Society	Geneva-based committee that originated the movement	Umbrella federation of National Societies
Founded	1881	1863 (as the Swiss-based committee)	1919
Headquarters	Washington, D.C.	Geneva, Switzerland	Geneva, Switzerland
Core role	Disaster relief, blood, military-family support (U.S.)	Guardian of humanitarian law; leads in armed conflict	Coordinates National Societies; international disaster relief
Relationship	Member; recognized by the ICRC	Recognizes National Societies	ARC is one of 191 member societies

FAQ

Is the American Red Cross a government agency? No. It is a federally chartered instrumentality of the United States — chartered by Congress and confirmed in that status by the 2007 Governance Modernization Act — but it is not a federal agency. It is supported entirely by donations and proceeds from Red Cross products rather than by government appropriations (U.S. Government Publishing Office; Britannica).

Is the American Red Cross the same as the International Committee of the Red Cross? No. The ICRC is the Geneva-based body that originated the Red Cross movement in 1863. The American Red Cross is the separate U.S. National Society, founded in 1881. It must be recognized by the ICRC, but it is governed by its own Board of Governors and operates under its congressional charter (ICRC casebook; HISTORY.com).

How much of the U.S. blood supply does the Red Cross provide? About 40%. Britannica reports the organization collects almost 40% of the U.S. blood supply, and HISTORY.com gives the same figure for 2017. That share is why the blood program’s regulatory history — including the FDA consent decree — matters well beyond the organization itself (Britannica; HISTORY.com).

Why was the Red Cross criticized after the 2010 Haiti earthquake? A ProPublica/NPR investigation found that of nearly $500 million raised, about $170 million went to “shelter relief,” yet only six permanent homes were built, while the organization’s claim of housing 130,000 people included transitional shelters and rent assistance. The Red Cross disputed the findings, citing hospitals built and people moved from tents (The Guardian via Taipei Times).

What this profile does not claim

This profile does not state current employee, volunteer, chapter, or revenue figures, because the fully-read sources give those only as period snapshots. It does not quote the Red Cross’s mission statement verbatim, because no fully-read source carried its exact wording. It does not adjudicate the full Haiti spending breakdown, because the Red Cross’s detailed post-investigation accounting was not read in full — it reports both the investigation’s findings and the organization’s rebuttal. It does not assert that the Red Cross’s Katrina, Haiti, or Sandy responses were fraudulent; the sources document mismanagement and disputed claims, not fraud. It does not claim the Red Cross operated in Blackwell beyond what the Blackwell Journal-Tribune retrospective supports — shelter for the displaced — and it does not name a current board chair, because no fully-read source verified one.