Weekly Review
ECFA Membership Changes, MinistryWatch Database Changes, Helping Tornado Victims
ECFA Changes. The following organizations have had membership status changes in the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. ADDITIONS: None REMOVALS: The Master’s University and Seminary (Santa Clarita, Calif.), New York Adult & Teen Challenge (West Babylon, N.Y.), Jobs for Life (Raleigh, N.C.), Fielder Church (Arlington, Tex.), Christ Health Care Ministry (Goshen, N.Y.), Crossroads Global Initiative (Cypress, Tex.)
On the Podcast: Each week, MinistryWatch brings you news about Christian ministries, as well as the latest in charity and philanthropy, news that we examine from a Christian worldview perspective. On today’s program, financial guru Dave Ramsey gets sued by a former employee. A pastor who sexually abused a teenager gets 45 years in prison. And we’ll tell you about churches and ministries who have stepped up to help in the aftermath of last weekend’s tornadoes in Kentucky and neighboring states. We begin today with the latest in the ongoing story of the Boy Scouts of America. You can hear the podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and other podcast apps, or you can simply click here.
Helping Tornado Victims. We have had a number of requests from our readers for recommendations. Which organizations are most effective in these post-disaster situations? MinistryWatch has published a list of organizations that are doing relief work and which have an “A” Transparency Grade and a 3-, 4-, or 5-star rating for Financial Efficiency. It’s a list of about 30 ministries, and you can find it on the front page of our website. I’ll also include a link in the show notes to this program. Link to list HERE.
MinistryWatch Database Changes. MinistryWatch now has more than 1,000 ministries in its database. These ministries represent more than $35-billion in total revenue, most of that donor revenue from evangelicals. The following ministries have their profiles updated with the most recent year’s financial data. The Financial Efficiency rating of each ministry is in parenthesis. If this rating represents a change from the previous year, that change is noted: Axis (Down 4 to 3 Stars, Transparency Grade: D), Blessings International (Down 3 to 2 Stars, Transparency Grade: A), Eternal Perspective Ministries / Randy Alcorn (Down 5 to 4 Stars, Transparency Grade: D), Shelter For Life International Inc. (Up 3 to 4 Stars, Transparency Grade: C). The following ministry has been added to the MinistryWatch database with the most recent year’s financial data: Mercy Chefs Inc (3 Stars, Transparency Grade: D), Rabbit Room Inc / The Rabbit Room (5 Stars, Transparency Grade: C)
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Salary Data Now In MinistryWatch Database. We now have salary information for nearly 4,000 executives from more than half of the ministries in the MinistryWatch 1000 database. So check out this new addition by clicking on the red button at the top of this page, or here. That takes you to our database. The search engine is right there, and you can type in the name of a ministry you’re interested in and our profile will pop right up – now, with compensation information for the top executives.
Audio Version of Faith-Based Fraud Now Available. Thanks to those of you who made my new book Faith-Based Fraud a best-seller in several Amazon categories this week. It’s now available in paperback and e-book versions. To get your copy, click here. This week, the new audio version released. You can get that from Audible by clicking here.
MinistryWatch Video. In closing, a reminder that we have created a new, short (3.5 minutes) video that explains what we do here at MinistryWatch, and why. If you’re new to MinistryWatch, I hope you’ll check it out. To find it, click here.
MinistryWatch EXTRA Episode: FAQ About MinistryWatch. These mid-week “Extra” episodes are a chance for us to go deep with a particular topic, and today…well…that topic is MinistryWatch. Over the past two years, since the re-boot of MinistryWatch, I have gotten a lot of questions about what we do, how we do it, and why we do it. The purpose of today’s podcast is to answer some of those questions. And I’ve invited into the program Christina Darnell, the Managing Editor of MinistryWatch. Listen here.
On This Date. On this date in 2018 (Dec. 13), MinistryWatch issued a “Donor Alert” on Food For The Poor. A “Donor Alert” is a warning to donors to withhold donations to a ministry until certain reforms are put in place. Read more here.
