Haiti sms donation campaigns face 90 day delays

Looking at their most recent Form 990, the American Red Cross has over a billion dollars in liquid cash/savings, with another 1.5 billion in more fixed assets, and cash flow of over 3 billion.<p>90 days is nothing. Agitating for clearing the funds faster is just going to add overhead.

The Red Cross has a large operating budget, and knowing the donations are coming allows them to draw down their level of cash on hand.

In South Africa these short code collection methods are insanely expensive. Roughly 50% of the transaction cost goes to the network.<p>I've seen now that the united states has monthly rentals on the shortcode? And they don't take a collection fee? Am I correct?

Even if you don't have assets and flow to cover it... That's what <a href="http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factoring_(finance)" rel="nofollow">http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factoring_(finance)</a> is for and surely there's a company out there that'd do it for free / for publicity.

<a href="http://ConvoyofHope.org" rel="nofollow">http://ConvoyofHope.org</a> is a highly rated charity with a warehouse in Haiti and people on the ground. A web donation is still pretty convenient, so if your looking to put your money to work ASAP, look them up.

But, knowing the money is coming is enough for lots of relief-related spending to occur: drawing down existing balances below usual levels, putting supply/travel purchases on credit, etc.<p>Even if actual cash is required, a 90-day loan backed by the certainty of mobile payments clearing should be dirt cheap, too. So this delay may not make much of a practical difference.