(Photo: Pixabay)
Update: Voice of the Martyrs has been removed from the following spreadsheet. The ministry to persecuted Christians does produce a Form 990 which is available on request, but not through the IRS database or ProPublica.
Since 1998, evangelical ministries with combined assets of more than $700 million have stopped filing the Form 990 which discloses critical financial information for donors.
Media ministries are merging with churches or requesting the IRS reclassify themselves as churches or church integrated auxiliaries to avoid disclosing compensation of key leadership, legal expenses, and travel expenses because churches and similar organizations (synagogues and mosques) are exempt from filing.
In 2005, IRS Commissioner Mark Everson sent a letter to Senator Chuck Grassley claiming that because churches were not required to file an informational return, “we have little ability to monitor their operations against diversion of assets.”
The following spreadsheet features a list of 21 non-profits and trade names that are still operational along with the last fiscal year they filed a Form 990.
(Photo: Spreadsheet compiled by Trinity Foundation)
The trend may have begun with Jimmy Swaggart Ministries which merged with Family Worship Center Church in 1997. The ministry’s 990s from the mid-1990s are not available online.
After the merger, Swaggart’s church registered Jimmy Swaggart Ministries as a trade name. This allows the church to perform business and to have a bank account in the name of Jimmy Swaggart Ministries.
More recently, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) filed for a group exemption which was granted in 2014. The BGEA’s final 990 covering 2014 reported $258,677 in compensation for the ministry’s president Franklin Graham. BGEA no longer discloses Graham’s compensation. Also, in 2014 Graham received $629,821 in compensation from Samaritan’s Purse, another non-profit where he serves as president.
For donors concerned about excessive compensation, it is impossible to make informed decisions when compensation information is not available to the public.
Continue reading “Keeping Secrets from Donors: Investigating the Trend of Evangelical Ministries Hiding Financial Data”