The Clock's Ticking on Red Cross Overhaul

Mentality Shift Sought Before Hurricane Season

American Red Cross leaders Bonnie McElveen-Hunter and Jack McGuire plan changes such as redesigning how the charity gets cash to victims. (By Nikki Kahn -- The Washington Post)

John "Jack" McGuire lives with a deadline.

As the interim chief of the American Red Cross, he has exactly 72 days until the onset of hurricane season, when changes in the organization -- forced by its uneven performance in last year's storms -- are supposed to be in place.

The giant charity has launched its biggest overhaul in decades after complaints about how it reacted to the epic hurricane season, criticism of its treatment of minority evacuees and unhappiness from Congress about how it governs itself.

In interviews last week, McGuire and Bonnie McElveen-Hunter, chairman of the Red Cross board of governors, defended the organization's performance but also outlined ambitious plans to revamp the $3 billion charity's disaster response in time for the new hurricane season.

Changes include redesigning how it gets cash to victims, partnering with more faith-based groups and revamping its system for moving supplies.

With Hurricane Katrina, McGuire said, the Red Cross's biggest sin was reacting based on its response to previous hurricanes.

"I hate to use the word 'failure' because, in fact, many of our people really did great stuff," McGuire said last week. But "we had a failure of imagination. We didn't think big enough."

As a result, McGuire, who has applied to get the Red Cross's top job permanently, has vowed to change the "we've always done it this way" mentality that prevails in parts of the 125-year-old organization.

To illustrate, McGuire waved his hand around in his office in the ornate marble Red Cross headquarters across from the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.

"Part of our culture is here in this room," he said, gesturing toward the formal furnishings, the stiff oil painting of founder Clara Barton over the fireplace and a 1951 poster advertising a Red Cross Cold War program.

Some critics are skeptical of Red Cross promises to improve, noting that it has made similar pledges before.

"It's like you're dealing with an active alcoholic," said Peter Dobkin Hall, a lecturer in nonprofit management at Harvard University. "They make all kinds of promises to change, and it doesn't happen because they're not willing to do the work."