American Red Cross

We just experienced a major disaster and I got to see firsthand how volunteer organizations provide necessary and very welcome relief to displaced and affected people. For a poor, rural northern California community without large financial resources, the immediate response of volunteers and resources from surrounding communities a was very real and tangible lifesaver for thousands of people.
Unfortunately, in any such disaster, there are the inevitable turf wars of who is going to be responsible, who can call the shots and who can deliver aid to those who need it. In this local disaster, the real loser of the non-​profit turf war was the American Red Cross. In my estimation, they lost it by their own hand.
By the time the Red Cross arrived on the scene, shelters had been set up in numerous locations to house and care for people who had been displaced by the Valley Fire. Local volunteers rose to the occasion to set up and staff the shelters, provide much needed information and direct affected people to appropriate relief centers and resources. Donations of food, clothing and material needs were being provided for in abundance. In the middle of a terrible disaster, some things were actually working and people were receiving care.
Then enter the Red Cross. Volunteers were told to go home, send back and refuse any material donations and only accept cash, and BTW, make sure the cash was payable to the Red Cross.
With high six figure salaries and countless benefits provided to their management, no wonder they only want cash. Needless to say, the Red Cross was blatantly ignored in this disaster. The excellent local volunteer effort thankfully continued and the Red Cross personnel were left to sit in their air conditioned buses and fiddle with their smart phones while real work went on around them in spite of their surly attitude.
For me, this experience has been an eye opener. I’ve lived outside the United States and have witnessed the brave efforts of an all volunteer Red Cross in Central America during a disaster. That kind of effort and personal sacrifice on the part of hundreds of unpaid volunteers prompted me to donate my own time and resources to the Central American Red Cross. After returning to the United States, both my wife and I have donated our time and effort to serving on a local non-​profit board, aiding in homeless shelters, youth shelters, counseling centers and food banks. With that experience, I fully understand the importance of maintaining financial solvency and retaining qualified people to run the organization. In the United States, it’s not easy to balance the requirements of maintaining an organization and still be able to provide the much needed services to clients. Even though an organization is run as a «non-​profit», it’s still a business. It has to remain solvent. It has to maintain an income, and has to pay its own expenses in order to be able to provide services. As long as those requirements are in balance, you have a fully functioning organization. When those requirements are out of balance, at best you have overpaid executives and poor services. In the worst case the agency just goes out of existence entirely.
From my perspective of having been witness to this local disaster, it appears the American Red Cross is out of balance. High six figure salaried executives, and poor service looks to me like the American Red Cross is in need of some very serious self examination before they become even more out of touch with the people they have been entrusted to serve.
I hope this experience has been a wake up call to them. I hope they can get their act together and can once again be the trusted, reliable organization they once were. Unless or until that happens, my donations will go anywhere but to the American Red Cross.

Having difficulty understanding your actions in the Valley Fire catastrophy.
You are not using donated funds for Local relief? Explain why?
If thats what you are doing, get out of town, and let the locals handle relief.
Appears they were doing fine without your interference.
Please respond and explain your actions