Reply #11

http://www.bbb.org/charity-reviews/national/religious/samaritans-purse-in-boone-nc-281

Better Business Bureau was only able to confirm that Samaritan's Purse meets 6 out of 20 possible standards of accountability for rating charities.

BBB found that SP did not meet 3 of 20 standards and could not make a determination for 11 more because of the failure of SP to provide the requested information. So basically SP gave BBB the proverbial middle finger salute.

Perhaps most egregious is that Graham serves as both a paid CEO (483,000 in 2009) and chair of the board of directors. This is a gigantic no-no for any organization for obvious reasons. I thought it was not even allowed by the IRS for a charitable organization but apparently it is or at least they are choosing not to do anything about it. Maybe he does not vote but it still is very suspect. Note, Graham also pulls down an even larger salary as the CEO of Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (which notably declined to be reviewed by the BBB, perhaps because of the crappy review of SP. So basically, BGEA gave the BBB not one but two middle finger salutes).


Evaluation Conclusions

Samaritan's Purse (SP) does not meet the following 3 Standards for Charity Accountability.

Standard 4: Compensated Board Members - Not more than one or 10% (whichever is greater) directly or indirectly compensated person(s) serving as voting member(s) of the board. Compensated members shall not serve as the board's chair or treasurer.
SP does not meet this Standard because:
The paid chief executive officer also serves as the chair of the board of directors.
3 out of 22 (14%) board members are compensated directly.

Standard 12: Detailed Functional Breakdown of Expenses - Include in the financial statements a breakdown of expenses (e.g., salaries, travel, postage, etc.) that shows what portion of these expenses was allocated to program, fund raising, and administrative activities. If the charity has more than one major program category, the schedule should provide a breakdown for each category.
SP does not meet this Standard because:
The organization's functional breakdown of expenses did not include all of its major program categories.
In response to this finding, the charity stated, in part: ". . . we follow all generally accepted accounting principles in our financial statements."

Standard 16: Annual Report - Have an annual report available to all, on request, that includes: (a) the organization's mission statement, (b) a summary of the past year's program service accomplishments, (c) a roster of the officers and members of the board of directors, (d) financial information that includes (i) total income in the past fiscal year, (ii) expenses in the same program, fund raising and administrative categories as in the financial statements, and (iii) ending net assets.
SP does not meet this standard because the most recent annual report did not include:
Total income.
Total expenses for each program in the same categories that appear in the organization’s financial statements.
Total fund raising expenses.
Total administrative expenses.
Total end of year net assets.
In addition, the BBB Wise Giving Alliance requested but did not receive complete information on the organization’s governance and oversight, effectiveness measures, finances, solicitation materials, donor privacy, and fundraising disclosures and is unable to verify the organization's compliance with the following 11 Standards for Charity Accountability: 1, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 13, 14, 15, 18, and 19.
Samaritan's Purse (SP) meets the remaining 6 Standards for Charity Accountability.