About The Ready Rating Program

Organizations understand the need for being prepared and ready for disasters, but often consider the process for getting better prepared as cumbersome and complicated. Since its inception in 2008, the Ready Rating program has been recognized by preparedness experts as the much needed, easy to understand and not intimidating solution for helping an organization take the steps to become prepared to respond to and successfully withstand a disaster and other emergencies. Are you new to Ready Rating?  Check out the link below for immediate access to help videos about the program enhancements.

Answer: No, there is no cost for membership. Members are only financially responsible for costs incurred to improve their preparedness.

Answer: The Red Cross Ready Rating program provides a framework designed to: 1) Help businesses, organizations, and schools become prepared for emergencies; 2) Help increase the level of preparedness among individuals and families; and 3) Encourage businesses, schools and organizations to help their local communities prepare for emergencies.

Answer: This program does more than provide useful emergency preparedness information. The Ready Rating Assessments and Membership Seal make emergency preparedness measurable and visible, bringing concrete elements to an expansive framework. Additionally, the American Red Cross can provide a number of services to enhance emergency preparedness efforts that your organization undertakes.

Answer: The Ready Rating Seal is a visible statement that a member organization, business or school has committed to improving their level of preparedness by participating in the Ready Rating program. In adherence with Red Cross guidelines, members can also publicly display the Ready Rating Seal to show their commitment to preparedness.

Answer: Any business, school, or organization who is committed to improving their emergency preparedness is welcomed and encouraged to join the Ready Rating program.

Answer: The Red Cross employed a powerful combination of research and practical experience to create a program to address the important components of preparedness. The Ready Rating program not only provides members with helpful information — it also recognizes members for their efforts.

Answer: For over 125 years, the American Red Cross has responded to emergencies both large and small, and helped people prepare for them through education and training programs. The Red Cross continuously builds on its experience to proactively deal with emergencies and disasters; this program is a step forward in our ongoing efforts.

Answer: The American Red Cross’ most recent research shows that more than half of Americans say they don’t feel prepared for an everyday emergency, let alone a catastrophe. Because emergencies can happen at any time, there is a constant need to prepare for emergencies.

Answer: No. The American Red Cross is not a government agency and depends on the efforts of thousands of volunteers and donors to provide a wide range of community support services, including disaster relief, First-Aid, CPR/AED and water safety training, services to military personnel, international services and support for blood services.

Answer:  For questions or issues related to forgotten passwords or usernames, access to assessment data or any other technical issue with the site, please contact a team member or submit a direct support ticket.

Created in 2008 by the St. Louis Area Chapter, Ready Rating was originally designed as a marketing tool that would help to open doors and allow conversations to take place within businesses, organizations and schools about how to better prepare for emergencies. However, the program became much more than that in a short amount of time. In 2009 the St. Louis Area Chapter was joined by American Red Cross chapters in the following eight (8) cities for a two-year pilot: New York, NY; Chicago, IL; Raleigh, NC; Washington, DC; Los Angeles, CA; San Francisco, CA; Dallas, TX; and, New Orleans, LA.

With the financial support of the Ready Rating National Founding Sponsor, Anheuser Busch, the nine (9) pilot chapters have demonstrated that the Ready Rating program is valued by it members, and helps businesses, organizations and schools improve their levels of preparedness. This is demonstrated by an average increase in members’ Ready Rating assessment score of 14% the first year, and a dramatic 50% in the second year!

In 2010, management of the Ready Rating program was transitioned to American Red Cross national headquarters, and with the addition of Sam’s Club as a National Sponsor, several enhancements to the Ready Rating website and tools were added to the program. The enhancements include a streamlined process for new members to sign up and begin using the program, an update of the assessment to better align with the Department of Homeland Security Private Sector Preparedness Guidance (PS-Prep), and increased capacity to make the Ready Rating program available nationwide. Beginning in 2015 the ReadyGo and ReadyAdvance Assessments as well as the Emergency Action Plans EAPGo and EAPAdvance meet or exceed minimal OSHA standards for organizational preparedness.

  • By using a shared Organization ID, each of your facilities/sites can be linked so that their Assessments and Next Steps Reports can be viewed and sorted from one Organization Manager account.
  • Only the Organization Manager account can see all their facilities’ assessment information; each of the individual facility accounts will only be able to view their own information.
  • A numerical code (Org ID) is assigned to your organization; as new sites sign on they will enter that code during the creation of their profile.
  • An Organization Manager profile will be created specifically for the purpose of seeing the assessments done at the various sites. The Organization Manager will be able to view and sort those assessments as needed.
  • This also means that the Organization Manager will have two separate accounts; one for viewing all of the different sites’ assessments and one for their own site’s assessment, if necessary.
  • This functionality is perfect for school districts to view assessments done at schools within the district and for any business with more than one location.
  • What’s the first step?   If you are not currently a member, please set up an account on the Ready Rating website by going to the ‘Join’ section above. Once that step is complete, please send an email to websupport@readyrating.org requesting the Organization Manager role be applied and be sure to provide the following information below.  A confirmation email containing your Organization ID #, and instructions on how users can subscribe to be an Organization Member will then be sent to the email address provided.
    • Organization Name, Address, City, State, and Zip
    • Organization Manager Name, Phone, and Email Address
    • Usernames for any other member accounts that have already been created and need to be linked

Industry Standard SSL Security

The Ready Rating site deploys an industry standard SSL security certificate. The wildcard certificate is 2048-bit security and is used in various areas of site data submission and data display. The SSL cert is enabled on the Profile section of the site as well as the entire Assessment Center. The Assessment Center is self-contained within one page and section, meaning all submissions, displays and reports are transmitted while within a forced SSL session.

2FA Member Login

Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) increases security of member accounts & environments, by ensuring that the right set of eyes has access to member information and protecting member accounts from unauthorized access.

Assessment Encryption

All responses to and displays of Ready Rating assessments are encrypted using a SHA256 algorithm.

Assessment Reporting

Ready Rating members receive a Next Steps Report for each assessment taken. These assessment reports do not contain any member identification if you print them out. The printed report does not reveal any information or details about the member having taken the assessment.

Additional Details

Assessment scores, which are encrypted, are stored in the Ready Rating system associated only to a member ID and never in a directly accessible profile method. Access to the data is available client-side on the publicly-accessible website.

Distribution of printed member reporting information, like the member Next Steps Report, is outside the jurisdiction of the Ready Rating system and must be managed and monitored by member organizations.

Member Testimonials

I must wholeheartedly commend the Ready Rating program for its outstanding approach to preparing for disaster. Ready Rating explicitly details the importance of preparedness, emphasizing that 40 percent of businesses never recover. That’s a statistic one simply cannot ignore! Rather than generalizing, the program clearly defines whom one should contact and what steps should be taken to prepare for the unthinkable. And, the annual rating examination that members take helps us to easily track our progress as we strive to get better. I cannot too highly commend the program. I am so glad we chose to participate!

Mile High United Way, Denver, CO

When we first were contacted about the Ready Rating program, I was skeptical. After meeting with our Red Cross representative, I was convinced that this would lead us to a safer and better prepared school. I have not been disappointed, the help has been great!

St. John the Baptist School , St. Louis, MO

If an earthquake hits the St. Louis area, do you know the emergency plan at your child’s school? Schools must be prepared to respond to a variety of situations, from dangerous weather to potential outside threats to pandemic planning. As a school administrator, it’s my job to make sure your kids are safe during the seven hours a day they spend with us. That’s why the Mehlville School District was among the first to join the American Red Cross Ready Rating program. This program rates our schools on a 65-point scale of preparedness Thanks to this program, we now know exactly where we stand and what we need to do to improve our readiness. And the Red Cross is there to help us every step of the way.

Mehlville High School, St. Louis, MO

Ready Rating has proved valuable to our organization and has served as an important guide for our preparedness program. With assessments, online resources, and mobile capabilities, we not only strengthened our program’s foundation, but also learned how to continuously improve it, and engage in new ideas and features. Ready Rating has taken a multitude of useful information and put it in a central location, simplifying the process of preparing employees and their families for the unexpected. The outreach to our organization is greatly appreciated, and we are proud to be a Ready Rating member. We would encourage those in our community who need a starting point for their emergency preparedness plan to participate in this program.

City of Fort Collins Utilities , Fort Collins, CO

United Way is already incorporating many of the tools and tips from the Red Cross’ Ready Rating program. It’s information that is easy to share with all staff and will help us increase our knowledge of how to be prepared in times if crisis or disaster no matter where we are. I would like to thank everyone at the Red Cross for creating this important program.

United Way of Greater St. Louis , St. Louis, MO

Our school took part in the American Red Cross Ready Rating program this year. The Ready Rating Team was helpful and supportive in moving our school forward in being prepared for a disaster. After we completed the assessment the Red Cross conducted a full day of training at our site. Our entire school community (students, staff, and parents) learned a great deal by participating in the training.
It was a valuable and worthwhile experience.

Golden View Elementary School, San Ramon, CA

The Red Cross Ready Rating program was a key component of our full campus review concerning safety and emergency preparedness. The self-assessment allowed our team to build and expand our common language around a shared set of goals, while providing action items for areas in need of improvement. The ongoing relationship with the American Red Cross has also been a reflection to our community of what we value. There is no greater authority when it comes to safety and business continuity, and it is an honor to have this partnership.

The Hamlin School, San Francisco, CA

When Express Scripts looked at the Red Cross Ready Rating program, we saw a reputable brand name. The Red Cross is recognized worldwide for emergency preparedness. We have found that Ready Rating is a great framework for those that already have a solid business continuity program in place. The Red Cross offers the expertise and resources to evaluate your plan looking through a different lense.

Express Scripts , St. Louis, MO

The Ready Rating Program has been extremely beneficial to Stout Street Foundation. We have been updating our Emergency Response Plans annually, which has been effective. All of the information that was presented by the Red Cross helped up us really prioritize and focus our efforts on being ready for situations that are most likely to occur in our specific location with our specific demographic, and plan accordingly. Our Red Cross representative listened to all aspects of what we do at our company, so everything from employee preparedness in their personal lives to first aid trainings that are available to us were discussed, and everything in between. This process of getting everyone on board is time consuming but not overly costly. I would highly recommend this program to any company that is able to participate. Too often we focus on all of the day-to-day activity and just hope for the best; however, by taking the time now to prepare we are making a long-term investment in the success of our company.

Stout Street Foundation , Commerce City, CO

Membership in the Red Cross Ready Rating program has given IMC effective building-blocks for crafting a comprehensive emergency response plan. The 123-Point Assessment provided valuable insights on which disasters we’re most vulnerable to and outlined clear steps and milestones to ensure the safest and most efficient response. We found the program scaled precisely to our planning needs, no matter what types of preparedness we previously had in place. This type of exercise should be a top priority for all organizations in order to safeguard employees and mitigate risks to business operations.

From an HR perspective, the Ready Rating program has fostered a heightened sense of security at IMC. From a flood in the server room, to violence in the workplace, our employees take comfort knowing that we have contingencies and policies in place to respond to emergencies and disaster events. Individuals have become engaged in the various volunteer roles that the program appoints. Similarly, there are valuable steps provided to educate employees on emergency preparedness outside the work environment, which underscored IMC’s strong commitment to work-life balance and community involvement.

IMC , Reston, VA

Ready Rating is a must have program for an organization of any size. Ready Rating is a powerful assessment and planning resource. Valuable assessment tools for seasoned risk managers, or those beginning a program are difficult to find in one place, but Ready Rating has it.

S2Risk.com , Parker, CO

After working with the Red Cross, we now have a heightened awareness of the importance of both school and family emergency preparedness plans. All members of a community need to work together to develop a plan that everyone is comfortable with. It’s important to think things through and plan — not just react to emergencies.

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque School , St. Louis, MO

I have been very impressed with how easy the American Red Cross has made the Ready Rating program for us to utilize. Situations that I may never have thought of are presented and this helps me prepare my school. There is an added benefit of the stipend. Overall, this is a totally worthwhile program that every school should be a part of.

St. Richard Catholic School , St. Louis, MO

I found the Ready Rating program helpful in organizing our thoughts in the initial setup of our churches’ safety and security program. It has been seven months since we did the initial review. Ideally I would like to go through the scorecard sometime this summer and use it as a tool to measure our progress, as well as an aid to prioritize areas where we can improve. Having our initial scorecard as a baseline will be invaluable. Thanks for your assistance in making our church a safer place.

Sloan's Lake Community Church , Denver, CO

I find this program helpful in many ways… but one of the ways is reminding me how much we have done to be ready for emergencies. With so much focus on H1N1, I was worried that my other areas would not be addressed. However, when I did the assessment, I realized that we really are in pretty good shape, and I have a direction for the areas that need work. Thanks for the Ready Rating program.

St. Katharine Drexel School , St. Louis, MO

The Ready Rating program has helped our organization realize what goes into planning for emergencies and allowed us to begin planning to help our community and reach out to other communities in their time of need.

Gethsemane Lutheran Church , St. Louis, MO

The Ready Rating Program is a wonderful tool for helping businesses get their safety programs moving. Taking the 123 Assessment really helps you see where you need work and where you are doing well. Our entire safety committee attended the Ready Rating Training with Troy Staples and we took away solid information and tangible tools to help us with our safety planning. In addition, it inspired many of us to also take steps to be more prepared in our personal lives. This is a great resource, we are so happy to be a member.

MWHS , Lakewood, CO

In school emergency preparedness there are not many barometers to measure and evaluate the practices that we have implemented. The Red Cross Ready Rating program provides our district tools to insure that we are covering our bases when it comes to emergency preparedness. In addition, the Red Cross Ready Rating program also provides information on how to meet those emergency preparedness needs. The partnership between the Red Cross and the school district will not only benefit the staff and students, but the entire community as whole if and when a community-wide disaster hits. In closing, we look forward to working with Red Cross Ready Rating program.

Littleton Public Schools , Littleton, CO

Current Member Listing

Organizations who take steps to prepare for the unexpected help to create safer, and more resilient, communities. The American Red Cross thanks Ready Rating members for doing their part. Below is a sampling of Ready Rating members from across the country. Use the search fields to find members by company name. If you are a current Ready Rating member and do not see your name on this list, please login to edit your profile settings. Simply change the value for the “Visible on Website” field to Yes and your organization’s name will appear in this listing.