It is generally bad form for charity employees to appear wealthier than the ordinary people from whom they solicit donations. So when China’s “business general manager for the Red Cross Society” started showing off her expensive possessions and affluent lifestyle on Weibo in 2011, it did not take long for netizens to strike back. Images of Guo Meimei with her large villa, Maserati sports car, Cartier watch and dozen designer handbags generated a hate campaign that hit the charity hard. Almost three-quarters of survey respondents said they would no longer contribute to the Chinese Red Cross in the wake of the scandal. When a 7.0 earthquake hit Sichuan province in April, the organization reached the disaster area swiftly but was severely hampered by the dearth of donations. The Red Cross has since said it will reinvestigate the Guo Meimei affair to re-establish public credibility.
MORE: Postquake Fundraising Flop Exposes Credibility Failure at China’s Red Cross