Reference no: EM133144393

The American Red Cross

For more information see American Red Cross Governance for the 21st

The American Red Cross was established in 1881 and subsequently set up by Congress as a chartered organization, which established its mandate with governance by a Board of Governors with 50 members. In recent years there has been media criticism of the Red Cross and questions whether the way it was run was appropriate to the new demands that it had to face. In late 2005, the Senate Finance Committee initiated a Congressional inquiry into several aspects of the organization's governance. Subsequently, in February 2006, the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee wrote expressing concerns about the mission and organizational culture of the Red Cross, the size of its Board of Governors, the participation of board members, and whether they were sufficiently independent to exercise proper governance. As a result, the Board of Governors set up a comprehensive assessment of its governance model to identify concrete reforms and streamline the organization's ability to meet the growing demands of its mission.

Century

at https://www.redcross.org/www-files/Documents/Governance/BOGGovernanceReport.pdf

1. The constitutions of corporate entities set up with charitable objectives often call for members of board members to be representatives of various stakeholders. If you were designing such a constitution, what interest groups would you require to be represented? (Consider beneficiaries of the charity, employees, donors and other benefactors, the state, regulators, societal interests, and any others).

2. Should the chief executive or other senior executives of such organizations be members of the board or rather be required to attend meetings without voting rights?