Boardman created a Woman's Advisory Committee, an organization that coordinated volunteer activities for American women seeking an outlet for their patriotism during the war. In 1944, she retired from her volunteer role as secretary of the Central Committee after receiving the organization's Distinguished Service Gold Medal.

"The nation owes you its gratitude, wrote President Franklin D. Roosevelt for the occasion, "for almost 45 years of service to an organization of which the American people are very proud, and have reason to be proud."

Reincorporation of the Red Cross (1900) and a Revised Congressional Charter, 1905
In June, 1900, the American National Red Cross was reincorporated by an Act of Congress. The 1900 charter stipulated that an annual financial report should be made to Congress, but provided for no official audit of the society's accounts. It did, however, protect the name and emblem of the organization, prevent outside groups from starting their own Red Cross organizations, and prohibit commercial firms from using the emblem without permission. The new charter proved unsatisfactory. Following a short-lived congressional investigation, a reorganization of the society was effected in 1905 with a revised Congressional Charter, which was written by Mabel T. Boardman and the Honorable John W. Foster. This charter established a strong government connection with the Red Cross, which was reiterated when, in 1911, President Taft announced that the American National Red Cross was "the only volunteer society now authorized by this government to render aid to its land and naval forces in times of war."

New Red Cross Branches Established, and the Role of Chapters Changes (1906-1908)
The first American Red Cross chapters, organized in 1881, created a model for local involvement that is still used today. Each chapter, subject to the policies and regulations of the national organization, is responsible for all local activities.

After 1905, Red Cross state and territorial branches were organized to set up a national network that would end the disruptive local autonomy that had threatened the internal unity of the organization under Clara Barton. In 1909, chapters began to report directly to national headquarters to ensure that their activities were coordinated with those of the national organization. The District of Columbia Chapter, pictured above, was chartered on May 15, 1905.

New Fund-Raising Efforts Include Membership Campaigns and Patriotic War Drives
After the 1905 Charter was granted by Congress, the most pressing job of the volunteer leaders of the reorganized American Red Cross was to rebuild the membership and its treasury. Mabel T. Boardman and then Secretary of War William Howard Taft, a member of the Red Cross Board of Incorporators and Boardman family friend, concentrated on fund raising for disaster relief abroad in an effort to develop the organization's public image. The fund-raising effort was helped when President Theodore Roosevelt designated the Red Cross as the official agency to coordinate the distribution of relief following the San Francisco earthquake in 1906.

Because the American Red Cross treasury seldom contained enough money to conduct a disaster relief operation, Boardman attempted to build an endowment fund that would enable the Red Cross to prepare in advance for emergencies and strengthen the organization overall. With the coming of the First World War, the organization began fund-raising on a large-scale basis, conducting patriotic war drives and annual Roll Calls to build its membership. Posters by famous artists became a vehicle for such fund-raising. One of the most popular was Alonzo Earl Foringer's 1918 oil painting depicting "a modern madonna." "The Greatest Mother in the World" became synonymous with the American Red Cross, and every dollar given to the Red Cross War Fund was used for war relief.

Plans Commence to Construct a Permanent National Headquarters Building
Following the reorganization of the American Red Cross in 1905, plans were made to construct a permanent national headquarters in the future. The Red Cross, operating out of a government office in Washington, D.C., was outgrowing its space.

In 1913, Congress authorized a $400,000 appropriation for a site and building for the American National Red Cross with the provision that private citizens contribute an additional sum of not less than $300,000. The well-known firm of Trowbridge and Livingston designed the first permanent home at 17th and D Streets, N.W. in Washington, D.C., within walking distance of the White House and across the street from the Corcoran Gallery of Art. The groundbreaking took place in 1915.

American Junior Red Cross Created
On September 15, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson officially announced the American Junior Red Cross movement, telling young people that they could now share in the "best work in the great cause of freedom." Within 18 months, the Junior Red Cross signed up 11 million members who volunteered their time and money to serve their school, community, or local Red Cross chapter. They also contributed moneys to the National Children's Fund that endowed three French children's hospitals, established libraries and playgrounds, and helped finance schools in Italy. They filled friendship boxes for children overseas, tended war gardens, engaged in "the conservation of second-hand articles" such as fruit pits for gas masks and scrap metal, and gave "assistance to the Government of the United States and the American Red Cross in many other lines of work." In all, members of the American Junior Red Cross helped produce 10 percent of the 371 million relief articles between 1918-1919.

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