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weeks to estimate the dollars required to address the needs created by the acts of September

$11.$ And services couldn$$t and didn$$t wait.

Contrary to the perceptions of many U$.$S$.$ citizens at that time, the Red Cross doesn$$t

maintain a huge pool of dollars, just waiting for the next disaster to happen. When a need

occurs, the local chapter draws on its own local disaster fund, generated by its own fund$-$

raising efforts. Depending on the size and resources of the chapter, it might not have sufficient

reserves to address a major disaster and so turns to the national organization. The chapter can

gain assistance with advertising to solicit additional donations, as well as dip into the national

Disaster Relief Fund, which contains dollars that poured in from donors after previous disasters

but were not needed to provide services to those disasters$$ victims or relief workers. The local

chapter must replace funds taken from the national Disaster Relief Fund.

Following September $11,$ advertising soliciting for donations began immediately, right

along with disaster relief services. Using its prior experience, the Red Cross typically plans the

advertising flight and stops advertising when it reaches a certain percentage of its monetary

goal. If$,$ for example, the Red Cross estimated that it would take $$1$ million to address near$-$ and

moderate$-$term needs resulting from a disaster, it might stop advertising when donations reached

$$600,000,$ knowing that donations would continue to be generated by people who respond less

quickly to the advertising stimulus. In an October $2001$ press release, the Red Cross estimated

that it would spend $$$$300320$ million to provide ongoing disaster relief following the September

$11$ tragedies,$$ with almost one$-$third of the expenditures supporting $$more than $35,000$ Red

Cross employees and volunteers working at three primary disaster sites providing food, shelter,

and grief counseling.$$

The efforts of the Red Cross were very visible in the aftermath of the collapse of the twin

towers of the World Trade Center and the assault on the Pentagon. It assisted FEMA workers

and those operating at Ground Zero, as well as families displaced by the towers$$ collapse and

families who lost their loved ones, their employment, and their residences. The media covered

the Red Cross$$s important role in disaster recovery in great detail.

September $11$ generated a great deal of frustration among Americans, who felt helpless to

respond productively. Blood wasn$$t needed, as there were so few injured survivors, and the

Red Cross did not have the resources to freeze the blood generously donated. Few could

contribute the specialized skills needed to clear or reconstruct the sites or replace the firefighters

and EMTs who died. Such frustration led many Americans, and those in other countries as well,

to make financial donations. Their largess generated donations in amounts never before seen

by the Red Cross.

Within nine days of the tragedy the Red Cross knew this particular donation drive was

going to be like nothing in its prior experience. In a press conference held at Red Cross

headquarters in Washington, DC$,$ then president Dr$.$ Bernadine Healy announced the

establishment of a strategic blood reserve, to be located in eight locations around the country,

offering a two$-$hour response time anywhere in the United States; the extension of counseling

services to all Americans via their local Red Cross$$s trained mental health counselors; and the

establishment of the Liberty Fund. This last step was unprecedented. The Red Cross had

never before created a national fund for donations for a specific disaster. Prior to September $11$

it had tracked designated donations internally and locally. At that time, the American Red Cross

Board of Governors$$ policy covering disaster donations was that all advertising solicited

donations for $$this and future disasters.$$ However, if a donor specified that his or her donation

be used for a specific disaster$$s relief services, then the Red Cross honored the donor$$s wishes.

All dollars within the Liberty Fund were donations designated $$for the support and

assistance of families harmed by terrorist activity.$$ On October $1,$ representatives from the

Japanese Red Cross presented the American Red Cross with a check for $$7\mathrm{.}2$ million. By

November $11,2001,$ the fund had received donations totaling $$543$ million, against an estimated

need of $$300$ million.

The magnitude of the Liberty Fund soon prompted media scrutiny of the American Red

Cross$$s fund$-$raising practices. First the media revealed that the Red Cross was not distributing

all the funds collected. Then it discovered that the Red Cross was planning to spend only

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those funds needed by the families for disaster services and hold in reserve for $$future disasters$$

those dollars it deemed unnecessary to expend. Then the media criticized t