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It’s admirable that Americans’ first instinct when disaster occurs is to open their wallets and volunteer their time. Since this has never been a nation that relies wholly on government to take care of those in need, citizens’ first impulse is to pitch in, whatever their politics or faith.

As the first images of suffering emerged from Houston, the flow of cash, food, clothing and rescue equipment into Texas seemed to rise in tandem with the floodwaters. Yet it’s inevitable that not all this largess will reach Harvey’s victims, or be well spent. For that reason, it is important for Americans to be as discerning with their money as they are philanthropic, avoiding scams and asking for greater accountability from trusted charities like the American Red Cross.

The Red Cross is the flagship of charitable institutions. It is also a master of promotion. After every disaster, its ads, celebrity testimonials and distinctive logo are everywhere, beseeching Americans to donate blood and money. This week Barack Obama became the Red Cross’s latest Twitter pitchman, urging Americans to make a $ 10 donation by texting “HARVEY.” During President Trump’s televised update on the response in Texas on Tuesday, a Red Cross representative sat front and center. Corporations find donations to the Red Cross a ready way to demonstrate they care: The organization has already raised millions from JPMorgan, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Dow Chemical and others for its Harvey efforts.

This is all to the good, assuming the money flows to the right places. But after years of media reports documenting the Red Cross’s disaster relief failures — including after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Sandy and the Haiti earthquake— some Americans instead are giving to smaller, local charities with a track record in Texas.

A 2015 investigation by Pro-Publica and NPR documented the Red Cross’s glaring failure to account for how it spent the $ 488 million it raised in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake in 2010, including such basics as how many people were assisted and how much money was spent on overhead.

In the aftermath of Hurricanes Sandy and Isaac, Red Cross officials in Washington “compounded the charity’s inability to provide relief by ‘ diverting assets for public relations purposes,’” Pro-Publica and NPR reported in 2014, citing an internal Red Cross report. During Isaac, a Red Cross relief truck driver named Jim Dunham described how supervisors ordered trucks usually laden with aid to drive around empty, for appearance’s sake. Mr. Dunham characterized the Red Cross’s relief effort as “worse than the storm.” During Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, the organization was plagued by delays in distributing aid, amid profound disorganization on the ground.

The Red Cross is working to provide shelter and other aid in Texas; it is too early to gauge how well it is doing. The Red Cross is not, however, saying what specific steps it has taken to make sure that this time around donors can be certain that a vast majority of their contributions will go to the people whose plight moved them to give.

In response to multiple questions on Tuesday, including about what new accountability measures it has put in place, it issued only a brief statement that it was not “seeing any backlash” from donors.

Despite the Red Cross’s enormous size and revenues ($ 2.7 billion in 2015), most of the disasters it responds to are relatively small, like single- structure fires. Its record on large- scale operations is spotty, and given the enormous amount it collects from Americans, the scope of its ambitions and the fact that a chunk of its budget comes from government agencies, there has been less accountability than Americans might expect emanating from its grand marble headquarters in Washington. In its most recent assessment, Charity Navigator, a nonprofit organization that evaluates charities based on their Internal Revenue Service filings, gives Red Cross three of four possible stars based on its 2015 filings, but only two stars for financial performance.

Everyone who responds to a disaster learns invaluable lessons that can or at least should be carried forward to the next one. Emergency crews fine- tune their operations; governments reassess funding priorities; home and business owners better protect their property. So it should be for charities, too. Groups like the Red Cross are stewards not only of enormous budgets, but of a more precious commodity: Americans’ willingness to give.