At the outset of the Great War, the Canadian Red Cross had only a handful of workers and $10,000 in the bank. However, with war declared, the Red Cross launched an aggressive campaign to rally support and recruit new members.

Advertising posters were distributed across Canada calling for donations and new chapters sprang up quickly across the nation. Bull terrier dogs, commonly known at the time for their pluck and tenacity, with boxes strapped on their backs were used to solicit donations.

By the end of 1914 the Canadian Red Cross had managed to raise in excess of $250,000, a fifth of which was sent to the British Red Cross to help in the difficulties there. Besides this huge sum of money, Canadians had also recruited many men and women as nurses and doctors to treat injured soldiers.

During the war, the Red Cross provided humanitarian aid to those who suffered by providing medical treatment, knitted items, comfort kits, and trench necessities. Millions of garments and surgical dressings were produced and sent overseas. Injured soldiers from either side were treated in a humanitarian fashion with and given caring treatment.

Besides providing aid, the Canadian Red Cross was also responsible for for keeping track of wounded soldiers as they moved from hospital to hospital as well as contacting family members of those soldiers wounded in battle.

By the end of the First World War (1918), money and goods worth $35,000,000 had been raised by the Canadian Red Cross. Convoys of ambulances had been sent to Britain, hospitals had been supplied and manned, and many soldiers and civilians had been treated with caring and professional treatment by members of the Canadian Red Cross.