Nancy Blaschak Named Regional CEO for Western New York and Finger Lakes Regions

Brings 34 years of Red Cross experience to position

WNY and Finger Lakes Regional CEO
Nancy Blaschak

ROCHESTER, NY, April 1, 2013 – Gail DeNicola, American Red Cross Division Vice President, Northeast, is pleased to announce the appointment of Nancy Blaschak as Regional Chief Executive Officer. Blaschak will lead the newly-merged organization, which includes the current Western New York and Finger Lakes Regions, to improve service delivery throughout the community.

“I cannot think of anyone more qualified to lead the Red Cross in Western New York and the Finger Lakes Region than Nancy Blaschak,” DeNicola said. “Her expertise and years of experience will help make the Red Cross an even stronger presence in both communities going forward.”

Blaschak has been with the Red Cross since 1979. As Regional Executive for Western New York for the past 21 years, Blaschak has led the Red Cross response to several incidents, including the October Surprise storm of 2006 and the crash of Flight 3407 in Clarence, NY, and she recently returned from New York City where she directed the Hurricane Sandy Long Term Recovery Project.

“I am honored to have been given this opportunity, and look forward to working with our amazing staff, volunteers and supporters to lead the Red Cross into an exciting new era,” Blaschak said. “By combining our resources, we will be able to improve upon the disaster preparedness and response, assistance to military members and their families, health and safety training, blood services and other community services that residents in both the Finger Lakes and Western New York regions have come to expect from their local Red Cross.”

Blaschak holds a BS in Business Administration from the University at Buffalo, an MBA from Canisius College, and completed post-graduate studies at the Hauser Institute for Not for Profit Organizations at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Nancy and her husband John live in Eden, NY along with their two children.

Don't believe everything you read!

(Note: This does NOT apply to the Winter Storm Warning that starts at 1am Friday. You should absolutely believe that, and prepare ahead of time.)

I am a proud graduate of a university that has a top 10 college basketball team, a team I began rooting for long before ever stepping foot on the campus as a student, and a team I follow closely to this day. Last week, social media and internet message boards were inundated with rumors that the team's star point guard was going to be suspended because of academic issues. Lo and behold, who was still in the starting lineup for Saturday's game but the star point guard. On Monday, said point guard was named the school's scholar athlete of the month. So much for the academic issues!

You may be wondering what this has to do with the Red Cross. Well, last week I was also asked by not one, but two supporters to help them respond to a viral email that had made the rounds featuring unflattering information about the Red Cross and some other non-profits.

Several inaccurate emails have been circulating for some time about the salaries of large charity CEO's, with a frequent uptick in activity during the holiday season. These emails contain inaccurate information about the compensation of the president and CEO of the American Red Cross, and in fact are wrong about the name of the Red Cross CEO. These viral emails include the name and photo of Marty J. Evans and mistakenly refer to her and her compensation as the current CEO, even though she left the Red Cross many years ago.

The president and CEO of the American Red Cross is Gail McGovern, and her base salary has remained $500,000—without any pay increase—since she joined the American Red Cross in 2008. This is considered well within the range for executives of large non-profits like the Red Cross, a $3.3 billion organization.

The American Red Cross meets all standards of the Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance. One of the BBB's standards for accountability is that a charity should spend at least 65 percent of total expenses on program activities. The American Red Cross vastly outperforms on this measure, spending an organization-wide average of 91 percent of every dollar raised on humanitarian services.

The Red Cross is committed to transparency; as it has for nearly the past decade, the Red Cross has posted its Form 990 in full on its public Web site, www.redcross.org. 

But you don't have to take our word for it. You can also check out the independent watchdog website Charity Navigator. While you're there, you may want to check out the "facts" about the other non-profits mentioned in these emails, considering how inaccurate their Red Cross information is. Because remember, some people never let the truth get in the way of a good story!