Donate to Hurriance Harvey Relief efforts - earn UA miles
 

Received this email from UA. A very worthy cause. Link on united.com front page.

Thank you for posting...just gave to the Red Cross for Harvey relief.

UA has released the following last Saturday
and today
One comment, as in the past, you are separately charged the card credit fees and crowdrise processing fees -- amounted to $5.80 on $100 test.

If you don't care about the miles, giving directly to the charity is more cost effective. Just add roughly 2.5% to cover the typical credit card fees.

Before giving to the Red Cross you may like to read this:

https://www.propublica.org/article/t...ecret-disaster

UA added Greater Houston Community Foundation which must have been set up later (I think by the city). This was my choice. Red Cross is too political in my view.

Also - read the fine print. I believe UA is only giving out 3 Million miles max., at about 20% miles for dollars, once $600K of donations is made - (.2 x 3M) then miles stop.

Currently at $500K+ in donations - so getting the bonus points is about to end. Although you can still make donations - just no UA points.

Thx for info.

And so it is clear i don't judge anyone who gives to RC. I have in past and may in future. That article when I first read it made a big impression on me and I thought worth sharing

I donated to this and also to the United We Care employee relief fund. Oscar is matching donations up to $1m to that, no miles but nice to help out employees who need it - https://www.crowdrise.com/unitedwecare

I remember after the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989, people were donating to the Red Cross left and right thinking what they donated would go directly to those in need for that particular disaster. A couple of years later, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that there was over $2million not distributed, yet there were people living in temporary housing all over the SF Bay Area and the Monterey Bay Area. Since then I always will find an alternative to RC.

Ever wonder where that donation money goes?

Keep these facts in mind when donating. As you open your pockets for yet another natural disaster, keep the following salary facts in mind---

The worst offender yet again for the 11th year in a row is the UNICEF CEO; he receives $1,200,000 per year, (plus use of a Royal Royce for his exclusive use where ever he goes and an expense account that is rumored to be well over $150,000.) Only pennies from the actual donations goes to the UNICEF cause (less than $0.14 per dollar of income).

The second worst offender this year is Marsha J. Evans, President and CEO of the American Red Cross...her salary for the year ending in 2009 was $651,957 plus expenses. She enjoys six weeks of fully paid holidays including all related expenses during the holiday trip for her and her husband and kids. She also receives a 100% fully paid health and dental plan for her and her family, for life. This means out of every dollar they bring in, about $0.39 goes to related charity causes.

The third worst offender again for the 7th time was Brian Gallagher, President of the United Way who receives a $375,000 base salary plus so many expense benefits it's hard to keep track as to what it is all worth, including a fully paid lifetime membership for two golf courses (one in Canada, and one in the US), two luxury vehicles, a yacht club membership, three major company gold credit cards for his personal expenses...and more. This equates to about $0.51 per dollar of income that goes to charity causes. Every time there is a major catastrophe the Red Cross and similar organizations like United Way are given all the media attention while other charities are left in the shadows.

But what the media fails consistently to remember in their promotion of the organization is that the American Red Cross have been caught time and time again withholding money in the wake of horrible disasters that require immediate release of funds.

The Red Cross, under the Liberty Fund, collected $564 million in donations after 9/11. Months after the event, the Red Cross had distributed only $154 million, and the majority of the money was NOT used towards helping victims rebuild their lives.

Footnote; Elizabeth Dole, wife of Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan., took the Red Cross helm in 1991 and served without
pay until 1992. Dole has donated $500,000 of her own money to the American Red Cross, and has a net worth of over $20 million dollars.

I gave to Houston Food Bank: http://www.houstonfoodbank.org/

Will this keep miles from expiring? If so, seems like a its worth the 4.5% service fee to donate and keep miles active if one is close to having their miles expire?

Believe this will, Generally any activity in your account will reset the expiration. I'm waiting the posting of these miles to +1's account to bump the expiration.

As horrible as this sounds, friends who work in humanitarian aid have urged that I (and others) wait before giving money. Their thesis is that when it's too early, there is little clarity on where the money needs to go, but lots of urgency around organizations trying to show how involved they are in order to gain visibility from a long term perspective (and I don't mean to imply malicious intent there - it's part of being a charitable organization).

I think this plays into some of what is referred to in that Red Cross story - the empty vans being driven about.

Hard to know what the right thing to do is to be honest, but where years ago I was inclined to give just to feel that I had helped, I'm now more keen to somehow actually ensure a difference is made.

Either way, it's all better than the ubiquitous thoughts and prayers.

It did extend the miles!
 

Took a while, but the donation did finally cause my mileage expiration to get extended.

BJFly