Samaritan's Purse

Samaritan's Purse is an evangelical Christian charitable association that offers aid to people in physical need as a means of Christian missionary work. Franklin Graham, son of Christian evangelist Billy Graham is the president of the organization. Samaritan’s Purse operates in more than 100 countries around the planet. Its international headquarters are in Boone and North Carolina, having additional U.S. facilities in North Wilkesboro N.C and Charlotte. Also its associate offices are in Australia, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Netherlands, and the United Kingdom while its field offices are situated in some 20 countries around five continents.

History

Bob Pierce established Samaritan’s Purse in 1970 with a visualization “to meet emergency needs in tragic areas through accessible national churches and evangelical mission agencies.” Pierce had formerly established World Vision in 1950. In 1973 Franklin Graham and Pierce met and they made numerous trips together visiting relief projects and missionary allies in Asia and elsewhere. In 1979 Graham became president of Samaritan's Purse after Pierce’s death in 1978. 

As the organization expanded, Samaritan’s Purse not only endowed mission partners but also started to build up its own large-scale relief projects like providing medical care amid conflicts in Somalia in 1993, Rwanda in 1994, Sudan since 1997, Kosovo in 1999, Afghanistan in 2002, and Iraq in 2003, rebuilding or repairing thousands of houses after Hurricane Mitch in 1998, the El Salvador earthquakes in 2001, the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, and Hurricane Katrina in 2005, chartering emergency airlifts to Indonesia and Pakistan in 2005, North Korea in 2007, and Myanmar and China in 2008 and distributing food to hundreds of thousands of displaced people in Uganda and Darfur.

Current activities

Samaritan's Purse's  medical mission in West Africa and Liberia was one of only two medical NGOs vigorous in Liberia during Ebola outbreak in the beginning of the 2014. Both Samaritan's Purse and SIM USA have been aggressively engaged in treating the recent outbreak of Ebola hemorrhagic fever in Liberia. On August 1, 2014, the organization declared that it was relinquishing 60 extra personnel from Liberia. Dr. Kent Brantly, a Texas-based doctor who was working for the organization, was the first U.S. Citizen to catch the Ebola virus in Liberia while treating the disease. He arrived in the United States and was treated and then released after nearly three weeks in a special isolation unit of Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. 

Mission statement

Samaritan's Purse mission statement utters that the organization looks for to meet the spiritual and physical needs of people experiencing from war, poverty, disaster, disease, and famine, with the intention of global missionary work attendant on charitable aid. Samaritan’s Purse seek outs to concentrate in emergency relief, shelter, water and sanitation, food and nutrition, medical care and public health, HIV/AIDS, and community-based livestock and livelihood projects.

Ongoing programs

Samaritan’s Purse comprises several ongoing ministries.

• Disaster Relief.
• World Medical Mission
• Children’s Heart
• Turn on the Tap

Financials

During December 2012, the organization generated over $376 million. Among that amount, 89.3 percent goes straightly to projects; 4.3 percent is used for organizational support; and 6.2 percent is spent on fundraising. The organization has obtained a 4 star rating (out of 4 stars) from the monitoring organization Charity Navigator. The "Consolidated Statement of Activities" section of the organization's 2014 accountant's report lists the total revenue as $520.4 million.