There are over
300 independent Lutheran health and human service organizations that the Lutheran Services in America
coordinates. Considered as a non-profit corporation, the group also works with
other organizations that are affiliated in any way to the Lutheran
Church-Missouri Synod, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and other
human service organizations.
Despite the
name, the organization doesn’t limit their assistance to just members of the
Lutheran church, in fact the majority of those received help are not Lutheran.
They have reached out to roughly 6 million people in the United States and in
the Caribbean. Addressing the needs of the elderly, those who are in prisons,
people with disabilities, children and their families, those with special needs
and providing assistance to communities that are hit by disasters are the main
priority of this institution.
There is more
than a quarter of a million volunteers who are making these outreach projects
possible. Though recently established in 1997, the organization is now
considered as the single largest charitable organization in America by revenue.