Salvation Army Ranks as Top Christian Charity in the UK, No. 4 in the US
The Salvation Army has the largest annual income among British Christian charities, receiving around $280 million last year, but in the United States it's the fourth largest, according to reports.
Of the $280 million, the Salvation Army Trust in the U.K. got around $168 million in fundraising income, according to data submitted to the Charity Commission, a report by Charity Financials says, adding that its international arm, the Salvation Army International Trust, had the eighth largest income among U.K.-based Christian charities, at about $79 million.
The Salvation Army is a Christian church as well as a social service agency.
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Charity Financials, an online tool containing the latest available financial information on 163,000 charities, also shows that the combined annual incomes of the top 10 Christian charities in the U.K. was just over half a billion pounds, or $700 million.
"Their collective success should remind us that although Christmas in the 21st century can feel like a somewhat secular festival, the British public still have a great deal of faith in the power of Christian charities to do good and useful work, in the U.K. and beyond," the report notes.
In the U.S., The Salvation Army remains No. 4, according to the 19th edition of the Forbes top-charities list, determined by the dollar value of private contributions received in the latest fiscal year. It had a revenue of $3.7 billion.
Forbes notes that The Salvation Army's annual red kettle campaign fell slightly from $1.9 billion to $1.88 billion. The 1 percent drop, however, compares favorably with the previous year, when donations declined by 10 percent.
Some activists claim that the Christian charity, which serves 30 million Americans nationwide, is anti-LGBT.
The owners of a doughnut shop in Maine, Holy Donut, had to publicly apologize for asking The Salvation Army to help them find a family in need this Christmas after they were attacked online earlier this month.
In a now-deleted Facebook post, the shop detailed how it was collecting warm clothes for a family with five children and two adults, and asked customers to donate hats, mittens and sweaters in exchange for free doughnuts or T-shirts.
The shop's Facebook page was littered with hundreds of comments, including many that accused The Salvation Army of discrimination, after it posted about the fundraiser.
In response to the backlash, the shop felt inclined to issue a Facebook post to apologize if anyone was offended by its partnership with The Salvation Army.
"We do not support The Salvation Army or consider them our 'partner' for this project, they simply linked us to a needy family," The Blaze quoted the shop's Facebook post as saying. "People have suggested that we 'pretend' not to know of The Salvation Army's reputation. We have nothing to gain here, we just wanted to help a family in need. It seems we have offended people which obviously we regret and that was not our intention in a holiday gift drive."
On the Forbes list this year, there's a new No. 5, St. Jude Children's Research Center, which moved up a notch from No. 6. The Memphis hospital saw contributions rise 16 percent from $1.18 billion to $1.37 billion.
