American Red Cross is Recognized for Building National Partnerships that Foster Volunteerism

The American Red Cross has received a Partner of the Year award for outstanding accomplishments in involving corporate, non-profit and government partners in the Red Cross mission to provide relief to victims of disasters and help people prevent, prepare for and respond to emergencies. The prestigious award was presented on July 17 at the National Conference on Volunteering and Service in Philadelphia convened by the Points of Light Foundation and the Corporation for National and Community Services.

The Partner of the Year award was bestowed by Connect America, an initiative of the Points of Light Foundation uniting a network of diverse national organizations working together to leverage volunteering and other resources to increase individual and collective impact on communities. A second organization, HOPE worldwide, was similarly recognized during the luncheon ceremony presided over by Neil Bush, chairman of the Points of Light Foundation and son of former President George H.W. Bush.

The Red Cross, a member of Connect America, enjoys enhanced relationships with several organizations who are also members of the program. For example, Connect America member Shell Oil Company provided hundreds of volunteer hours to hurricane response and recovery and co-branded and distributed Red Cross disaster preparedness information throughout the Gulf States at each Shell station during 2005. Accounting firm KPMG LLP promotes Red Cross blood drives at most of their corporate offices, thereby providing hundreds of units of lifesaving blood annually.

The Red Cross collaborates with The Salvation Army, a member of Connect America, on disaster response and recovery and engages Motorola employees in Chicago as local disaster volunteers. Several thousand Red Cross volunteers serve every year with the Department of Veterans Affairs Voluntary Service Office. In addition, the Red Cross has developed the core preparedness curriculum for Camp Fire USA programs.

"The American Red Cross is very honored to be selected for this national recognition,” said Don Dudley, Senior Vice President of the American Red Cross Office of the National Chair of Volunteers. “The award highlights not only partnership and outreach efforts during and after hurricane disaster response in 2004 and 2005, but also the great strides the Red Cross is making every day in building partnerships community-by-community across the United States.”

The American Red Cross helps people prevent, prepare for and respond to emergencies. Last year, almost a million volunteers and 35,000 employees helped victims of almost 75,000 disasters; taught lifesaving skills to millions; and helped U.S. service members separated from their families stay connected. Almost 4 million people gave blood through the Red Cross, the largest supplier of blood and blood products in the United States. The American Red Cross is part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. An average of 91 cents of every dollar the Red Cross spends is invested in humanitarian services and programs. The Red Cross is not a government agency; it relies on donations of time, money, and blood to do its work.