A Relief Committee Grown From an Evangelical Alliance's Own Appeals

This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.

Tearfund began in 1968 as the Evangelical Alliance Relief Fund Committee, formed by the Evangelical Alliance after it found itself receiving unsolicited donations from supporters moved by news of famine and disaster overseas. Rather than continuing to forward those gifts to existing relief agencies, the Alliance created a dedicated committee of its own to receive and distribute them, a name later shortened first to TEAR Fund and then to Tearfund. George Hoffman, a former curate, was among the founders and served as the new organization's first director, and the charity was formally registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales in 1973, five years after its informal start.

What began as a channel for spontaneous giving grew into a standing international relief and development agency, working through local churches and partner organizations across dozens of countries on poverty, disaster response and advocacy for justice. Its identity has stayed close to its origin: Tearfund draws its support base substantially from UK evangelical churches and individual Christian donors, and its founding committee's original job, receiving and distributing gifts the Evangelical Alliance had not planned to manage itself, still describes the shape of the funding relationship it depends on today.