“I am most looking forward to connecting with other alumni through ARCAN, hearing their stories and finding ways to volunteer. I hope to be able to join one of your get togethers soon!” 

– Tim Downey, ARCAN Member and Former Division Philanthropy Director, American Red Cross

Tim Downey - Wrapping up 20 Years of Red Cross Fundraising Service

Tim Downey began his career with the American Red Cross during the fall of 2005 as relief efforts continued following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and retires 20 years later, on October 24. It is estimated that Tim has raised more than $100 million during his Red Cross career.

Congratulations, Tim and welcome to ARCAN!! 

Tim’s first role with Red Cross headquarters was focused on cultivating donors to support International Services. Tim says one of his fondest experiences with Red Cross happening following training in Geneva with the IFRC and the ICRC.

“I traveled with a group of donors and fellow Red Crossers to Benin to witness a large measles vaccination campaign,” said Tim. “The groups included an interesting blend of interested donors and the wonderful actor Sydney Poitier. As the group traveled around rural Benin in vans to visit vaccination sites, our van became separated from the group and lost. We stumbled upon a group of young people waiting to be vaccinated. There was a table and a chair under a tree. That was the ‘vaccination office’ and there were a dozen or more young mothers and children waiting their turn. A small boy wearing a bright orange shirt asked me in French my name. We talked a bit, and I asked him to pose for a photo with me. We posed for a few and within minutes we were surrounded by a large group of youngsters who all wanted to be in the photo. This remains one of my best memories in twenty years.”

Tim added, “Later in my Red Cross career, I organized a large group of Delta Air Line employees and Red Crossers to volunteer installing smoke alarms in a mobile home community south of Atlanta. We installed hundreds of smoke alarms that day, for free, for families who had little or no early warning devices in case of fire. It was a beautiful spring day and actually a lot of fun. Within a year, one of the alarms installed by my small team within the group woke a family and alerted them to a fire. They all escaped and we helped save a life”! 

He later co-led another donor observation trip to Banda Aceh, Indonesia where donors learned about Red Cross/Red Crescent recovery efforts following the Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami. Tim then switched to the domestic team, where he was responsible for New York based donor partners, such as American Express, AXA Equitable, Citi and Morgan Stanley.

Following a year away from the Red Cross with the United Nations Foundation, Tim returned to resume handling his New York corporate partner portfolio only to learn that Red Cross relationships needed to be renegotiated following the global financial crisis of 2007/2008. This led to the creation of Red Cross Disaster Responder level of corporate partnerships. Following this, Tim switched to covering partnerships in the Southeast and Caribbean, where Tim had been managing the Coca-Cola relationship since his international duties. For more than 15 years Tim was responsible for Red Cross partnerships with Coca-Cola, Delta Air Lines, The Home Depot, UPS and others. Red Cross has seen a substantial growth in these partnerships with Tim’s leadership, especially with Coke and Delta. Both are now actively supporting blood drives and have become steadfast financial supporters.

During his tenure with the Red Cross, Tim created an on-air partnership with the Home Shopping Network (HSN) where Red Cross spokespeople appeared on air to talk about disaster preparedness and shoppers were invited to support the Red Cross. This resulted in more than $500,000 in online and telephone donations via HSN. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Tim worked with fellow Red Crossers to create a global online concert hosted by Coca-Cola to benefit the IFRC, ICRC and American Red Cross COVID education efforts. He worked closely with Red Cross Biomed colleagues to bring Delta Air Lines to their role as the leading corporate blood drive sponsor in the country and worked on a video with Delta to showcase the partnership in-flight.

Given his role as relationship manager with ten of Red Cross’ top corporate partners, Tim has also connected his corporate contacts with each other so that they can learn about other successful partnerships. He has been invited to speak about the Red Cross by Coca-Cola, Delta Air Lines, The Home Depot and UPS. Tim has been deployed to assist fundraising efforts following several hurricanes and he co-led a donor observation trip to the Florida panhandle following Hurricane Michael.

Over the past 20 years, he has filled in as both a director of development and chief development officer in Atlanta, New Orleans and Palm Beach. He has served as mentor to several members of the fundraising team and worked closely with many chief development officers. It is estimated that Tim has raised more than $100 million for the Red Cross during the past 20 years.

Tim and his husband Peter recently relocated from Washington, D.C. to Lewes, Delaware where they have become active in the community and enjoy living close to the water. In addition, they are working on an old house in Scotland which they plan to use as a vacation home. They share large families and relish spending time with many nieces, nephews and their children.

Please join us in thanking Tim for his service to the Red Cross and all those who the organization helps. We’re so glad we can stay connected through ARCAN, Tim. We can’t wait to hear about your next adventures!