Cru (Christian organization)
American Christian parachurch organization

Cru (until 2011 known as Campus Crusade for Christ—informally "Campus Crusade" or simply "Crusade"—or CCC) is an interdenominational Christian parachurch organization. It was founded in 1951 at the University of California, Los Angeles, by Bill Bright and Vonette Zachary Bright as a Christian ministry focused on university students. Since then, Cru has expanded its focus to include a broad range of audiences. In 2020, the organization had 19,000 staff members in 190 countries.
Campus Crusade for Christ relocated its world headquarters from Arrowhead Springs, San Bernardino, California, to Orlando, Florida, in 1991. The president of the organization is David Robbins. In 2011, Campus Crusade for Christ changed its name in the United States to Cru. The name change was intended to avoid association with the word crusade, which can lead to offense, especially to Muslims. A spokesperson for Cru also noted that the organization's work is no longer limited to campuses.
Influenced by Henrietta Mears and evangelist Billy Graham, Bill Bright left his seminary studies to launch the organization, which rapidly expanded across U.S. campuses during the 1950s and 1960s.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Cru (Christian organization)” is american Christian parachurch organization. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Christian, organization and American, not as a finished interpretation.
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The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q578100. VIAF identifies the subject as 131321617. The Library of Congress control number is n50076943. 2 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2011, 1951, 2020 and 1991.
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This entry incorporates text from “Cru (Christian organization)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.