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(AnGeL Ministries is not a member of ECFA, Guthrie says, "because ECFA guidelines primarily address fundraising practices, and AnGeL Ministries does no fundraising or solicitation of funds." Until last year , "AnGeL Ministries' budget has historically been far too small to be considered for membership." Guthrie notes, however, that the organization does accept donations, and that Lotz recently served on ECFA's board for two and a half years.)

Likewise, says Mohan Zachariah, administrative director for Tony Campolo's Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education, "Nobody contacted me. I've never even heard of Ministry Watch." He says that everyone who asks for copies of audited financial statements and 990 forms receives them. "We are totally transparent. We offer all of our information out there from everybody. We've got nothing to hide," he says.

There's a chance that a written request may have been misread as junk mail, Zachariah said, but he denies receiving any letters or follow-up messages from MinistryWatch. His organization is also a member of ECFA.

Doug Beckler, the recently appointed executive director of The Trinity Forum, another ECFA member, acknowledges that the leadership training ministry may simply have missed the request. "Being without an executive director for a year, there were probably issues that just didn't make it to the surface that normally we would have addressed," he says. But Beckler takes issue with Transparency Watch's wording. "To take a broad brush and brush everybody in that category, as 'demonstrating little or no transparency in regard to their finances,' when in fact they may not know what the reason was is an unfortunate choice of words, and I think that it's disingenuous," he says.

Several church-based ministries on the list, however, say they don't send financial statements. "The Potter's House is a church and is recognized as such by the IRS," says a written statement from T.D. Jakes's organization. "Consequently, its finances, like those of many other churches in America, are not reported publicly, though we are certainly accountable to our members and our God."

Delanie Trusty, manager of the accounting departments of Life in the Word and Joyce Meyer Ministries, says it is organized as a church and may have sent an annual report to MinistryWatch, but does not make its financial statements public. "We feel our donors are very informed," she says.

Such church-based organizations are likely to stay on the Transparency Watch list. But Hempe says the list will be updated "in real time" as organizations send in financial information or are deemed nonresponsive to future requests. An organization currently receiving an F grade, if it sends in its financial statements now, "in all likelihood would move either to a B or an A depending on the nature of that response," he says.

After all, Hempe says, the point of MinistryWatch is to work with and help ministries, not to hurt them. "The big picture focus of our mission is that instilling greater confidence in donors to Christian ministries will result in greater giving to Christian ministries. The end result is to grow the kingdom of God."

With additional reporting by Todd Hertz

Copyright © 2002 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Another controversial aspect of MinistryWatch's work is its efficiency ratings. Ironically, several of the organizations that received F grades for transparency scored very well on efficiency. See MinistryWatch's pages for the organizations named in this article: Awana Clubs International, The Rutherford Institute, AnGeL Ministries, Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education, The Trinity Forum, The Potter's House, and Joyce Meyer Ministries.

More financial information on nonprofit organizations can be found at sites like Guidestar.org. Like MinistryWatch, Charity Navigator rates ministries.

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November (Web-only) 2002, Vol. 46