EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK: What’s In Store for MinistryWatch in 2025?
We want to answer the question: “Why?”
The mission of MinistryWatch has remained unchanged for 26 years. Our mission is to help Christians become more effective stewards of the resources God has entrusted to them.
To accomplish this mission, we maintain a database of the 1000 largest Christian ministries in the nation. This database, which we call the MinistryWatch 1000 database (and which you can find here) contains financial and other information to help you make wise stewardship decisions. Our database is unique. No other organization – not Guidestar, not Charity Navigator, not any other Christian journalism organization – has anything like the MinistryWatch 1000 database. Indeed, I tend to think that our database is the “secret sauce” of the MinistryWatch brand.
Another way we accomplish our mission is through daily journalism, much of it driven by the data we curate from the MinistryWatch 1000 database. We published about 900 stories in 2024, and our website saw 3.4 million page views, a nearly 15 percent increase over 2023’s total.
So, are we accomplishing our mission? Are donors using MinistryWatch to make wiser, more informed giving decisions? The answer is yes. Twice a year we ask our readers if they use MinistryWatch to help them make giving decisions. More than 60 percent of respondents say “yes.” More than a third of respondents say they have changed their giving decisions based on what they have learned from MinistryWatch.
Financially, MinistryWatch is also growing. I want to be clear that we do not measure success by financial growth. We measure it by faithfulness. We also believe, though, that God’s work done God’s way will not lack God’s resources. God and his people have been faithful to MinistryWatch, and for that we are grateful. Our revenue for 2024 should top $500,000, which will be our best year ever. This number represents a 60 percent growth over 2020, the first year of the MinistryWatch “re-boot.”
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While we have much to celebrate, and to thank God for, I learned a long time ago that in a dynamic media, cultural, and economic environment, it is important not to be complacent. That’s why I wanted to give you a “peek under the hood” at some of the things that I think MinistryWatch could do better in the year ahead.
More “Enterprise” Journalism. I think breaking news has its place, but MinistryWatch doesn’t want to be one of a half-dozen news organizations trying to be the first outlet to bring you an inconsequential news story. We want to cover significant stories, with added value and context. We want to be the place that connects the dots, that gives you not just the “what” but the “why.” Our coverage of Bible translation organizations, “trend stories” such as the growing use of donor-advised funds and the increase in the number of ministries that fail to file Form 990s, are examples of this kind of “enterprise” journalism. Look for more such coverage in the year ahead.
More Data-Driven Journalism. As I’ve already said, our database makes MinistryWatch unique. That’s why we want to curate more stories from our rich data storehouse in the year ahead. We already do monthly lists and “Ministry Spotlights” that highlight important changes in our database, not to mention our “Weekly Review” that highlights all the changes in the database for that week. In the year ahead we hope to highlight these anomalies and changes and help you see their significance.
More Podcast Content. We currently do a weekly roundup of the news, as well as an interview of an interesting newsmaker each week on the MinistryWatch podcast. Beginning no later than the second quarter, we hope to increase to three episodes a week, adding both more interviews and more commentary. Again, our goal will be to context and meaning to what is going on in the news.
For those of you who have been on this journey with us over the past five years: Thank You. For those of you who are just discovering MinistryWatch: Welcome Aboard!
We pray that, in God’s good providence, our best years are still ahead of us.
