Gov. Jay Nixon wants Missourians to keep their donations coming to help the people of Haiti in the aftermath of the catastrophic earthquake. Nixon announced in a statement Tuesday that new links on the state's Web site will direct people to sites where they can donate to relief efforts.

KBIA's Kyle Stokes talked with the leader of the local Red Cross. He explains why relief agencies can put dollars, instead of goods, to better use.

The Red Cross buys in bulk. That's according to Mike Odneal, executive director of the Mid-Missouri chapter of the Red Cross. And largely because of that, Odneal says a little more than 90 cents of every donated dollar goes directly to aid efforts.

Donated goods, like canned food, toiletries, and blankets, on the other hand, prove to be much more of a hassle:

"The sheer fact of getting them from a local operation to a regional operation to a national operation to an international location requires a lot of people, a lot of storage, a lot of money, and the donations that are made in materials actually end up costing much more than the actual value of the goods themselves."

As of noon Tuesday, Odneal says mid-Missourians have donated just over 7-thousand dollars to the local chapter of the Red Cross. That figure doesn't take into account donations made online, in grocery stores, or through the State Department's text message donation program. And Odneal says the need for donations will likely persist for a long time.

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