My Nonprofit Reviews
achalaverma
Review for Catholic Relief Services, Baltimore, MD, USA
Now lets listen from a person who has been in close contact with the work of Catholic Relief Services in India. In India CRS mainly donates to diocesan organisations- in India these organisations are mainly known not to practice what they preach. I still think that the contributions by the church in India are overwhelming - in the field of health and education but these are mainly money spinning machines now. Ask this to any parent in India searching for a school to admit his child.
In terms of the work, I have read the reviews by some donors who seem to have the idea that CRS has its base on the ground. During an emergency (and I have been personally involved in many of these ), what they do is to rain down a lot of "expatriate" consultants who do not know the conditions on the ground before they come- at one time they brought in an intern who wanted to spend christmas out of the US. These consultants mainly have their work experience in African countries where human resources and infrastructure might not be of good quality- in India, we have the best human resources possible, trained, committed and willing to go that extra mile. What these consultants do is to just capture an office and go on typing on their laptops and work on some formats which have absolutely no use. And we believe that the huge salaries and the hardship allowance they get could go to provide succour to a few thousand families more.
Now let me relate the work of its so called partners. What these diocesan directors want is a project - so that the funding that CRS provides can be diverted towards their own selfish ends and the worst part of it is that CRS management know about it but save their jobs- they all want to be polictically correct. At the end of the year, implementation and reports are nowhere to be seen but what can be had is just tall promises in the name of God.
Staff do not say these things because this is inherent in their culture promoted by the management, I have seen CRS staff manipulating books of accounts at the partner locations.
More Feedback
I've personally experienced the results of this organization in...
India
If I had to make changes to this organization, I would...
Nothing, it cannot be done, it is inherent in the management
Will you volunteer or donate to this organization?
No
How much of an impact do you think this organization has?
A little
How did you learn about this organization?
As a member of the public
When was your last experience with this nonprofit?
2010
Dear achalaverma, We are very sorry to hear that you have been unhappy in your experience working with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in India. We did forward your review to our staff member that is in charge of all of CRS operations in India. However, without particular details, we are unable to address these allegations specifically. Regardless, we do take all complaints very seriously and have multiple mechanisms in place to make sure we are working as transparently, efficiently and effectively as possible, including outside auditors that ensure our record-keeping is true and accurate. Additionally, we have a whistle blower policy and we encourage you to submit any complaints through the online form or by calling (Toll Free) 866-295-2632. You can access the secure form confidentially by copying and pasting this url into your browser: https://secure.ethicspoint.com/domain/en/report_company.asp?clientid=12748&agreement=no&override=yes Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention. Please know that we strive to maintain very high standards in our operations, as evidenced by our Guiding Principles, which every staff member is expected to uphold: http://www.crs.org/about/guiding-principles.cfm Sincerely, L. Durington, Online Community Manager at Catholic Relief Services Headquarters in Baltimore, MD
