For a window into the key activities that defined the past year at Direct Relief, please take moment to read Direct Relief’s annual report on Fiscal Year 2014. During this period—July 1, 2013, through June 30, 2014—Direct Relief responded to more requests for assistance, fulfilled its humanitarian mission more expansively, and provided more assistance to more people in need than ever before in the organization’s 66-year history.

We recognize, with the deepest of gratitude, that Direct Relief was able to help more people and to do so efficiently because of the expanded participation and support of businesses, organizations, and individuals whose names are listed in this report. Participation comes in many sizes and forms, but each reflects a decision that was not required by the person who made it, which adds a special meaning to Direct Relief’s activities.

By the financial indicators on which Direct Relief and all nonprofits are in part measured, and included in annual reports such as this, the FY 2014 results were very positive. Overall, the organization provided over $500 million in assistance for the first time ever in a 12-month period, which represented an increase of more than 40 percent from the previous year. Importantly, Direct Relief’s multi-year investments in technology and systems, which have been critical to how the organization provides assistance, also enabled the expanded efforts to be done with greater efficiency, transparency, and precision than ever before.

However, why Direct Relief exists—the reason it was founded in 1948 and its simple humanitarian purpose—is unchanged and central to both the day-to-day and long-term activities.

Health remains fundamental for every person to realize his or her potential and enjoy the wonders of life. Preventive care and access to care when sickness or injury occurs is essential to  health. Each day, millions of people in the United States and around the world confront severe health risks and high barriers to needed care and medications because they are without the means to pay. And each year, disasters and other emergencies create urgent health risks for millions of people, particularly those of limited means who face severe challenges as a matter of course and were most vulnerable the day before an emergency struck.

Direct Relief’s simple, humanitarian mission is to provide lifesaving medical aid to people in urgent need. And the organization’s approach is to work with those in the communities, helping them
improve and expand their services by providing resources to which they otherwise have no access. This approach is necessary for the long-term goals of improving health in the hardest-pressed
communities, informing emergency response efforts, and making the most at-risk communities more resilient.

Direct Relief has many different partners, and one simple cause. As a privately-funded charitable organization, Direct Relief is continually inspired by the involvement of thousands of individuals, companies, foundations, and organizations whose involvement is essential in ways big and small. Direct Relief’s tradition of adapting new technologies and modern business practices for humanitarian purposes continued over the course of the past year.

During FY 2014, Direct Relief received two honors that reflect the unique span of partners with which Direct Relief is privileged to work. CECP (formerly known as the Committee to Encourage
Corporate Philanthropy), the organization founded by the late actor Paul Newman, honored Direct Relief with its Directors’ Award as the leading example of how a nonprofit organization can work with businesses on a social good. Weeks later, Direct Relief received from the National Association of Community Health Centers—the organization that represents the network of nonprofit facilities in the U.S. that serve 23 million people (1 in 15 persons in the country)—its highest award for the unwavering support that Direct Relief has provided to health centers nationwide.

Both awards are important to share with you and all of Direct Relief’s supporters, since it was your participation that earned them. Moreover, they reflect how Direct Relief is trying to bring
together the critically important perspectives—from the highest level of both public-service, public-health focused health nonprofits as well as from the highest level of business. Together, these
perspectives, and those of individuals who also participate, can create much more significant advances toward the common goal of improved health and opportunity for the least fortunate among us, which is Direct Relief’s longstanding vision.

Please accept our deepest thanks, again, for your involvement in Direct Relief’s important humanitarian work that helps people facing severe challenges live, be healthier, and realize the inherent
wonders of life.