Your Red Cross Update

Gifts Greater Than Their Appearance

Veronica Oberholzer has read thousands of letters during the five years she has been with the American Red Cross. But as a Development Operations Manager she knows that each donation letter that arrives at her desk in the fundraising department has a meaningful backstory, like the one that still touches her.

“I received a check one day,” Veronica explained this past May, “with a note saying, ‘Recently, I had to have four pints of donated blood. Thank you.’” Not long after, she was surprised to receive another letter from the same man, followed by more donations as he, “kept sending a check every few months.”  Months passed as his letters became regular bursts of joy for her department of two, and, “I was always moved when I saw his name, imagining that those four pints of blood had kept him alive, and thinking now he was living his life.”

But then, one day Veronica received a very different message. “It was a letter from the man’s wife, saying that her husband had passed away.” Deeply affected by this, Veronica understood that the donation letters expressed deep gratitude for the brief but important extension of his life. As his wife stated in her letter, the donated blood allowed him to use his remaining time by being more loving to family, friends, and neighbors.

Veronica saw this happen in her family. “My own aunt’s last days of life,” Veronica made sure to add, “were improved by receiving donated blood. And I really appreciated this couple reaching out and letting us know what that meant to them. And here it meant so much to us too.”

Listening to The Stories

Letters are just one way people express appreciation to the Red Cross. It takes a good listener and a lot of empathy to pick up the phone at Adele Velastegui’s desk. As a Development Specialist, Adele knows that phone calls are an important aspect of her job. On the phone, she goes out of her way to, “create a positive experience for the donors.”  Often, she ends up in conversations full of gratitude, in part because, “I genuinely enjoy talking to the people who call in.” And it isn’t just the long calls that are meaningful. She said, “Even if there’s a standard question,” she’ll give the caller the same attention.

It helps that many callers are inspired by the Red Cross’s mission, Adele added. This has made it easy for her to be curious and to stand in the shoes of people who want to share their stories and appreciation. Adele’s ability to empathically listen stems from her work helping refugees in Uganda before she joined the Red Cross. After all, it was the patience and attention—qualities that she values and replicates—she received from a Red Cross employee that drew her to the role of fundraising for an organization that has been providing medical and disaster relief support to people around the world for more than a century.

Notes of Appreciation Over Time

Donor letters or calls can sometimes show up at the Red Cross years or even decades after an initial connection with the organization. Veronica recounted several such incidences, including one that had an unusually long history. “I once received a letter with a curious bulge in it. When I opened it, I found a Red Cross pencil with an enclosed letter that said the person’s grandmother had passed away in 1974. The person thought we might like to have the pencil, which was really sweet.” And now, fifty years later, Veronica has that pencil at her desk, there as a symbol to remind her and others of the decades of meaningful messages written, sent, and offered as small but mighty gestures of thanks.