I found this out the other day: if you donate to the Red Cross for a specific relief (for example, what's happening in Japan) the money they receive can only be used for that. If there is any left over, they cannot touch it afterwards--for example, there's about s$17 million dollars left over from Hurricaine Katrina that they are not allowed to touch because it was designated for a specific cause.

However, if you want to donate to the disaster relief, what you can do is donate to the Red Cross' general fund. They will take money from there for any current disasters, and if there is still money, it can be used for other relief funds as they're needed.

I wanted to let everyone know this, that way there isn't any money sitting in a vault, unused, when there are people who really need it.

I dont see whats wrong with using left over money...

I don't either, but I think it's Federal Law or something. Some stupid red tape crap, ya know. D:

Hmm. Thats stupid, makes sense but stupid.

Yes, it's very frustrating for me and I'm not in the Red Cross or one of the people who donated lost money. I can't imagine how irritating that is for them! D:

Yeah I seem to remember hearing about some law that prevents charities from using funds raised for one specific purpose for another different purpose. It's supposed to keep charities from cheating or tricking people out of their money but in the Red Cross's case it kind of hurts them.

i didnt even think that money for a disaster relief can have an unused part something like this:
RED CROSS: "here you go US$ 250mil for the katrina hurricane" RECEIVING PEOPLE:" oh, thank you so much!" *after 8 months RECEIVING PEOPLE: (to the RED CROSS) "there you go, US$17mil change, we didnt need it anymore!" RED CROSS: O.O "noooooooooooooooooooooooo!"