My impression when donating for Katrina relief was that the money would go to those who had little or no insurance coverage for the damage they sustained and that volunteers were helping those who were unable to pay for the labor needed to do the repairs. If someone had insurance coverage, other than a lack of laborers, why did the jw volunteers need to be involved? If one had insurance monies coming to them but there was a shortage of laborers, why couldn't they pay the volunteers for the work they did and let them donate it to the society if they chose to ? It seems like the society used this as a money making opportunity and a way to garner good P.R. For themselves.
I know a former JW who is used to be high level part of the International Building Committee who said he left the Org. because of all the corruption he saw while working in that capacity. For example, he said allegedly there were JW contractors/ suppliers secretly marking up the cost of labor and materials to make a profit off the funds donated by other JW's and other fraudulent goings on having to do with shuffling of funds and breaking of local building and zoning codes etc. Although this doesn't surprise me....I'm nevertheless very disappointed.