W.E.R. | How We Operate

General FAQ | Gifts-In-Kind FAQ

World Emergency Relief receives hundreds of urgent aid requests every year from deserving people in the U.S. and overseas. Each project WER embraces must be fully accountable for its' own program integrity.

Our staff and field workers follow over 30 procedures to deliver a single shipment of emergency supplies from the U.S. to a foreign port - not including the additional effort (and costs) to get our goods from port to project, often over jungle roads or through an active war zone. Our domestic programs, both disaster relief and for Native Americans, are held to similar levels of accountability.

We developed our “Seven Basic A’s” for program selection in 1985, which we expanded to "Eight Basic A's" in 2001. Each of our projects must meet:

1-Asking: We must be asked to help. Otherwise, we can’t possibly know what aid to deliver, where, when or to whom. WER never ships for the sake of shipping.

2-Accessability: Can our supplies be safely delivered and stored under adverse circumstances? Will local laws or practices (i.e., Customs delays or organized crime) hinder our work?

3-Acceptability: Will our efforts be accepted locally? American aid and Christian ministry are not welcomed resources in some cultures.

4-Availability: Can WER get appropriate resources to do our job? Can we meet the requests of our project colleagues for specific needs? We will never knowingly ship junk.

5-Affordability: Resources must be used wisely and committed carefully. In any WER outreach, we strive to avoid commitments we can't meet; Solid hope isn't built on shaky promises.

6-Appropriateness: Is the proposed outreach a proper effort for a Christian ministry and a charity representing the United States of America? Would our donors be pleased or offended by a particular effort?

7-Accountability: Will our resources reach the people we are determined to help and be properly used? Will we get field reports? Are site visits possible, even in war zones? Can we meet regulatory and audit standards, both in the U.S. and overseas?

8-Anti-terrorism: Can our prospective partners supply adequate information proving that our resources are not directly OR indirectly helping terrorists, drug causes, or money laundering?

Furthermore, our partner charities must fully subscribe, in writing, to the AERDO standards for Gifts-in-Kind (see www.aerdo.org) and provide a current, detailed and complete budget, Board approved, and signed by both the Chief Executive and Board treasurer. Organizations with $100,000 USD or more in annual resources must also submit an independent, certified audit.

Not every group works this way, and we respect other methods. However, this approach works for us and assures our donors of their maximum positive impact on troubled lives.