I get why people are frustrated with the Red Cross, truly. I am frustrated too and it is agonizing to see families who so need those funds having to wait. But the demand placed on them by a government who has been happy to let them to lead relief efforts is extraordinary
Planning for the long term is smart. Administrative costs are reasonable and people need to be paid. Also, processing and vetting literally thousands of applications takes time.
It’s not the Red Cross that is the problem. It’s the model. The way we do relief work hasn’t sufficiently evolved to meet the challenges we’re facing now and will continue to face.
And the government who have outsourced so much to charities are the problem too. The Red Cross and other agencies have, as @Paige_Burton says, been set up to fail.
