Lutheran World Relief’s Donor Confidence Score recently dropped from 53 to 51 points.
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It lost points because the relief and development organization is not a member of the ECFA and its financial efficiency rating is 1 Star.
MinistryWatch Financial Efficiency ratings are determined by a number of categories, two of which are asset utilization and fund acquisition. Currently, Lutheran World Relief (LWR) has $69.1 million in net assets. It also spends 14% of its revenue on fundraising, compared with its sector median of 6%.
Lutheran World Relief’s main focus is on ending poverty through “rural economies and agricultural livelihoods, sustainable farming practices and humanitarian assistance.”
One of its most recent projects is creating food security in Togo through a partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“The five-year project reaching 25,000 smallholder farmers improves agricultural production techniques, enhances post-harvest processing, strengthens farmers’ cooperative capacity, and expands their access to markets for horticultural products,” according to its website.
Revenue rose steadily from 2019 to 2023, increasing from $48.6 million to $61.3 million. LWR’s expenses have also grown.
This is due, in large part, because in 2018 the organization merged with IMA World Health while also acquiring CGA Technologies and founding Ground Up Investing and Farmers Market Brands. These organizations now all live under the umbrella of Corus International.
According to Corus’ Executive Vice President Tim McCully, “The growth in revenue and expenses comes from combining the organizations, which also brought significant efficiencies. The consolidated revenue of the combined organizations is around $160 million.”
He further explained that “although we merged back-office support, including the executive teams and all the central functions like finance, HR, and procurement to improve efficiencies, the work done in the field is still done by the different organizations based on their specialties.”
Each organization—IMA Innovations (now called Corus Solutions), IMA World Health, Lutheran World Relief and Corus International—also files separate 990s.
McCully noted that, “on a day-to-day basis Corus International operates as one, however for filing we maintain separate entity reporting. As such, a more useful source of information on our work is the consolidated accounts on our website.”
Corus is “engaging with the IRS to change the way we file (it is possible to file as a group) to help make this clearer, as we are conscious that it can be confusing for our supporters,” McCully explained. “I would also note that this filing approach distorts negatively our efficiency ratios, which are in fact better than most peer organizations.”
Daniel Speckhard is the CEO of Corus, but his salary is listed on each organization’s filing. In 2023, he made $664,684.
McCully told MinistryWatch that “Daniel is paid one salary and benefits package for his oversight of all five entities. The total remuneration, in line with IRS rules, is listed on all the entities’ filings, unlike the revenue and expenses which are listed only for those entities.
He also explained that the 990 for their 2023 fiscal year (Jan. 1, 2022–Dec. 31, 2022) was a bit unusual because it shows a “four-year deferred compensation package” that was paid out to Speckhard. This artificially inflated his numbers since it relates to a period between 2018–2022.
“His base salary and benefits remain now around $590,000. This is checked every year by an independent third party to ensure that it is in line with 27 peer organizations and pitched at the median level,” McCully said.
According to its website, “Corus unites an array of nonprofit organizations and businesses, each with specialized expertise in health, economic development, impact investing, humanitarian assistance, and technology for development.”
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MinistryWatch Donor Confidence Score: 51 (out of a possible 100) “Exercise Caution”
MinistryWatch Financial Efficiency Rating: 1 Star (out of a possible 5 Stars)
MinistryWatch Transparency Grade: C
Revenue in Most Recent Year Available: $61,383,371
Five-Year Revenue Trend: Increasing (by about 26%)
Percent of Revenue Lutheran World Relief Spends on Fundraising: 14%
Percent Peer Group Spends on Fundraising: 6%
CEO/President: Daniel Speckhard
President’s Salary and Other Compensation: $664,684
A complete MinistryWatch profile for Lutheran World Relief can be found here.
Find recent MinistryWatch articles mentioning Lutheran World Relief here.
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