Mercy Corps Publishes External Investigation Examining Abuse Committed by Late Co-Founder

Portland, Ore -- Mercy Corps today published the report of an independent investigation to determine the extent of the abuse perpetrated by Ellsworth Culver and any other abusers who might be identified, and to review the response of the Mercy Corps Board in 1992 and 1993 when the organization was first made aware of the abuse.

 “We are horrified by the revelations in the Freeh Group investigative report,” says Tjada D’Oyen McKenna, Chief Executive Officer of Mercy Corps. “We were profoundly saddened and troubled to learn of additional victims who suffered from Ellsworth Culver’s abuse as well as the additional abusers and incidents of abuse described in the report. What happened was abhorrent. No child should ever be abused. Our hearts go out to Tania Culver Humphrey and all survivors of sexual abuse and we owe it to them and all of our stakeholders to ensure we always prioritize safety, accountability and transparency.”

The investigation, conducted by Freeh Group International Solutions (recently acquired by AlixPartners LLP), was undertaken as one of Mercy Corps’ commitments to action following a separate independent, external review by Vestry Laight, which was published in February 2020. 

The Freeh Group’s investigative report is available in full on the Mercy Corps’ website. Please note the report contains disturbing details of abuse. The report does not relate to any current Mercy Corps team members, Board Directors, or programming. Mercy Corps’ Board today issued a statement in response to the investigation.

“We will forever be changed by this painful chapter of our history,” says D’Oyen McKenna. “I want to thank Ms. Culver Humphrey for her courage, her persistence to be heard, and her engagement with this investigation, and I am deeply sorry that the failures of Mercy Corps leaders in the past added to her pain. We take responsibility for our past while looking to the future as we continue the ongoing work to strengthen our safeguarding, governance and accountability systems and strive for a culture of integrity and accountability that never wavers in commitment to our mission and our values.” 

"This investigation filled me with mourning for my lost childhood and for the children who were abused alongside me. Today’s public release of the report is a bittersweet milestone in my pursuit of some measure of accountability for these horrific crimes,” says Tania Culver Humphrey. "I'm sad and angry it took this long, despite my continually speaking out over three decades and making many earnest attempts to get help. This should not have been so brutally hard. But today, I am also hopeful. Through their response, the current Mercy Corps leadership is setting a new standard for how organizations should respond to allegations of abuse. Instead of reflexive defensiveness, they showed real courage by facing their unspeakable past and putting solid measures in place to ensure these tragedies never happen again."

Since Mercy Corps published its commitments to action in February 2020 following the Vestry Laight review, the organization has taken a number of steps to strengthen its safeguarding resources, governance structures and accountability mechanisms, detailed in bi-annual progress reports (July 2020 and January 2021) and including: 

• The appointment of Steve Linick as Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer, a newly-created executive role at Mercy Corps to oversee a stand-alone ethics and compliance department.
• Continuing to add to global safeguarding resources, with trained safeguarding prevention roles and co-investigators now active in over 30 countries (and prevention roles in all countries where Mercy Corps operates by June 30, 2021). 
• The development of additional Safeguarding and Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) trainings, updated safeguarding policies and a new Community Accountability Reporting Mechanisms (CARM) policy to ensure community members can provide feedback and voice complaints in a safe, confidential and accessible way.
• The recruitment of new Board Directors, the implementation of Board Director term limits, the initiation of a governance review, and the creation of a new Ethics and Safeguarding Committee of the Board to strengthen oversight of safeguarding issues.
• The release of annual Global Safeguarding Reports (Fiscal Year 2020, Fiscal Year 2019 parts 1 and 2)

More information on how Mercy Corps is responding to details of abuse by co-founder Ellsworth Culver is available at mercycorps.org/response-to-culver-abuse.