Organizational Development

American Red Cross International Services works in partnership with the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement to improve the lives of vulnerable populations around the world. The International Movement consists of :

• 181 Red Cross and Red Crescent national societies,
• The International Committee of the Red Cross and
• The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

As part of the International Movement, the American Red Cross works directly with other national societies to help them build their capacity to better serve the populations within their own countries.
For this reason organizational development support to other Red Cross and Red Crescent national societies is one of International Services six focus areas and helps fulfill our vision to provide development and relief to the world's vulnerable. Organizational development is a crosscutting function present in all American Red Cross international programs because it aims to strengthen the internal capacities and organizational infrastructure of our partner national societies - our local implementing partners overseas - to promote them as a key resource in their community, empowered to mobilize a more effective, expanded and sustainable response to improve the lives of the vulnerable.

The American Red Cross organizational development approach promotes the active participation of the community to help identify problems and implement solutions.
This empowering process positions national society leaders as change agents, while the American Red Cross provides a framework and resources. The American Red Cross provides direct, hands-on technical assistance to national societies and develops business tools and procedures tailored to the local context. This may include support in:

• Conducting an organizational capacity diagnostic,
• Facilitating strategic planning,
• Designing volunteer recruitment systems,
• Developing local strategic alliances,
• Enhancing financial sustainability, and
• Strengthening the society's image.

Chapter Involvement
One of the greatest resources of our organizational development programs is pairing American Red Cross chapters with other national societies. In this fashion, American Red Cross chapters lend their expertise to national societies in specific areas including volunteer and youth development, fundraising, income-generation projects, and governance development. Chapter leadership has also assisted with strategic planning initiatives and evaluations of current national society capacity and resources as part of a comprehensive organizational development program.

American Red Cross Organizational Development Projects
The American Red Cross supports several capacity building initiatives with its national society partners in regions throughout the world including the former Soviet Union, the Caribbean and Central America. The majority of these initiatives are fundamental parts of larger projects that focus on American Red Cross core competencies of emergency disaster response, primary health, tracing and messaging and food programming. Many of these projects are administered by American Red Cross organizational development delegates in conjunction with national society staff and volunteers.