Red Cross gets $100 million from Feds.

It might not be the $700 billion that the feds approved to rescue the economy, but the American Red Cross will get $100 million from Congress to help pay off the high costs incurred during disaster relief this year. It still leaves the organization with about $60 million to raise, which it hopes to by the end of the year.

Since September 2007, the Red Cross has spent about $263 million responding to disasters while raising $63 million in contributions, according to Laura Howe, director, disaster public affairs, leaving another $100 million still to raise. The organization had raised about $40 million by mid-October.

The $100 million from Congress, which will cover costs for any presidential-declared disaster that occurred during 2008, was included in a continuing resolution just before the federal fiscal year ended in September, Howe said.

During the severe 2004 hurricane season, the Red Cross raised some $62 million in designated donations and another $36 million for the Disaster Relief Fund. By September, the organization had raised but $12 million for hurricane relief while this past summer it made a plea for donations to the Disaster Relief Fund, which essentially was depleted.

Of the $3 billion in total revenue for the Red Cross in Fiscal Year Ending 2007, about $47 million was classified as government support and $600 million in public support.

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