Impact Report 2023

CEO Mark Zander You're choosing to care

Greetings Members! Welcome to Samaritan Ministries International's 2023 Impact Report! This report is about the impact you have had on the Body of Christ in 2023, fueled by the love of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit. It's about the impact 80,000-plus families can have by ministering to each other through some of the most difficult physical, emotional, spiritual, and financial seasons of life. It's about 270,000-plus children of God made in His image choosing to love and care for each other in the way Jesus called the early Church to care for one another as related in the Acts of the Apostles. Members working together as a Christian community to share each other's medical burdens in a Christ-centered way to help redeem a broken health care industry, one beautiful person and one medical Need at a time.

Let me highlight a few facts and stories you'll see in this report that demonstrate Samaritan is a ministry and movement propelled only by the power of the Holy Spirit—He is at work every day in each of you, both individually and collectively as a community. In fiscal year 2023, our community shared over $411 million across more than 58,000 medical Needs. This love and care goes well beyond just sharing money. Each year, cards and notes in the hundreds of thousands and prayers in the millions are sent directly by you to your fellow members in need, asking God to deliver to them complete healing, loving comfort, joyful peace, and so much more.

In this report, you'll read about the tangible impact you've had on real members' lives in their most difficult seasons. You'll read about Tiffany, a young woman with a pre-existing cancer Need who received an amazing amount of donations from fellow Samaritan members. You'll read about Morgan, a child in Alaska who received support while recovering from a severe burn injury. And these are just two of thousands of fellow members you've ministered to this past year.

My hope for you is that through this report, you will see a glimpse of what our staff gets to see every day — a Holy Spirit-led community of Believers working together to be the light of Christ for those in need, doing it the way Jesus would want it done. You rejoice with those who rejoice when a baby is born or a surgery is successful. And you also mourn with those who mourn when a test result isn't what someone had hoped to hear or an accident has occurred unexpectedly. You take your own experiences in this fallen world to comfort one another, all while practically helping share costs.

Occasionally I'll hear someone mistakenly describe Samaritan as "cheap Christian insurance." Nothing could be further from the truth! Samaritan is a Christian ministry, a nonprofit ministry, with a mission to redeem a broken health care industry through a biblical sharing model. This model is nothing like insurance. We're not a company, we're a biblical community doing the ministry of loving, caring for, sharing with, and praying for each other in a way that is powered by the Holy Spirit. We are motivated by making an eternal impact on God's Kingdom, as you can see in this report. And, as a Christian ministry, we all join in feeling called to the highest levels of stewardship of God's resources, which include keeping medical costs and member Share amounts as affordable as possible so that your impact on the Body of Christ can be as great as possible.

May this report show you the eternal impact each of you has on your brothers and sisters in Christ as active participants in this community and ministry. As CEO and as a staff, we get to witness God's handiwork through each of you every day. Please know that God is at work though you in so many amazing ways. You may never meet another member you have sent a Share to on this side of Heaven, but we hear their gratitude time and time again. We are so excited for what the Lord continues to do through this ministry He has created, and we thank you for partnering with us in redeeming health care.

Mark Zander, CEO

Making a difference The Olsons

In April 2022, Morgan Olson spent his seventh birthday the last place any active boy would want to be: in pain in a hospital bed.

Suffering first-, second-, and third-degree burns over 30 percent of his body from an accident a couple days before at the family's home in North Pole, Alaska, Morgan had to be flown to a Seattle, Washington, hospital. There, family and friends tag-teamed ministering to him through skin grafts and healing.

Then, when it was time to share the bills incurred, Samaritan Ministries families began serving the Olson family by sending encouraging notes, prayers, and Shares.

One family noted to the Olsons that their nephew had also been burned and was in a hospital in Minnesota. Morgan's mom, Julie, reached out to them, offering to support them however she could.

Samaritan sharing resulted in blessings being spread.

Morgan is doing well today, although still pressing through physical therapy and the aftermath of grafting. But Julie and her husband, Scott, are grateful that they had God to lean on as well as their fellow Samaritan Ministries members.

Morgan leaving the hospital with his mom, Julie.

Making a difference The Oeshes

When Tiffany Oesch joined Samaritan Ministries in late 2022, she knew her existing breast cancer diagnosis wouldn't be shared as a regular Need.

She had already been blessed by Samaritan staffers who had given her "professional, concise, and compassionate" answers to her questions. Then she was blessed by her fellow Samaritan members when her breast cancer was shared as a Special Prayer Need — with no guarantee she would receive any help for her nontraditional cancer treatment, which her husband's health insurance had refused to cover.

The day she returned home from a hospital stay following a mastectomy, 60 letters from Samaritan members were waiting for her in their mailbox. "My kids were so excited because they started opening up the letters," Tiffany said.

The messages promised support and prayers and included checks. "The next day, we received 60 more," she said. "I kept calling my husband at work and kept saying, 'Guess how many we got today?'"

They kept trickling in "by the dozens." All told, the Oesches received more than $31,000 in contributions from Samaritan members who were exercising their opportunity to minister to others in both tangible and intangible ways. It has also particularly ministered to the Oesch children, who assembled a map showing where the contributions came from.

"It's been very meaningful to me that my children have seen and felt the love of Christian brothers and sisters that they will never know and never meet outside of Heaven," Tiffany said. "It's such a beautiful picture."

The Oesch children kept track of Shares received.

58,583: Published Needs

506,759: Notes of encouragement

995,073: Shares sent

5,562: Maternity Needs

22,057: Prayer requests printed

$357 million+: Saved by member-driven discounts

$22 million+: Saved by SMI Provider Relations

July 2022 to June 2023

Financial Overview

Expenditures

Member-to-member sharing

89.99% $411,397,900.43

Programs

06.78% $30,991,760.80

Member Care Center: $11,313,916.26

Member Benefit Programs: $1,081,912.26

Technology & Support: $4,821,238.93

Creative & Marketing: $3,642,185.56

Provider Relations: $1,606,943.94

Mail Center: $1,657,867.33

Membership Development: $1,537,447.05

Program Development: $1,333,062.23

Membership Experience: $1,221,933.87

Member Communications: $1,021,270.23

Public Policy: $889,054.01

Project Management: $864,928.43

Administrative

03.23% $14,787,368.24

Total $457,177,029.47

Your extra giving matters.

Did you know our members contributed over $3.2 million for Special Prayer Needs?
Learn about other opportunities to give above and beyond to Samaritan Ministries at samaritanministries.org/donate.

Administrative needs

As Samaritan Ministries continues to navigate this world of remote staff and inflationary costs, it is apparent that upgrades in our programs, processes and technology are crucial as we serve our members around the world. These improvements are expensive and only are paid for out of administrative funds. Since Kingdom-minded stewardship is a core value at Samaritan, we prioritize and plan the administrative spending on the resources the Lord provides. We do not turn to lenders, only to Jehovah Jireh to provide. If you are led to assist us with an extra donation to our administrative fund, this will allow us to confidently plan for future ministry improvements.