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The profits Leonard generated for the foundation went toward the transformation of millions of lives. DeMoss gave grants to crisis pregnancy centers and funded evangelism efforts. "This is the Lord using my skills that he's given me to do good things for the kingdom," Leonard says. "This is great."

But through his own giving, Leonard discovered a major "dysfunction" in what he calls the ministry marketplace. As an investment manager, he says, "You're paid a ridiculous amount of money. As a result, we were giving away a lot of money."

It occurred to Leonard that he should be paying as much attention to the balance sheets of the organizations he supported as to the companies he invested in. Leonard's wife, an accountant, encouraged him to give due diligence to the ministries he gave to—to make sure the money he gave was being used for what the ministry claimed.

"We thought we'd do a little checking," Leonard says. "It was shocking. On the business side, you ask for information, you get it. On the ministry side, you're told, 'What do you want this for? I'm not giving it to you.'

"It became apparent to us," Leonard says, "that in the ministry marketplace, donors were disenfranchised. Whereas in the stock market, there was complete representation."

In 2000, Leonard founded MinistryWatch.com, which has a searchable database of the finances of more than 500 Christian ministries, and financial efficiency ratings on about 430. Ministries receive ratings based on their financial transparency. Two-thirds of its budget comes from Leonard himself.

Leonard says it's not just the major TV ministries or prosperity-gospel teachers who have shady financial practices; many ministries either aren't financially transparent or inappropriately use their donations. Leonard gives the example of a radio ministry that he financially supported. The preacher owned the building that the ministry was housed in, so he personally received money in rent that was paid for by listener donations. The preacher's son-in-law, the CEO of the ministry, owned a for-profit tape duplication company, which the ministry used exclusively for its tape duplication. Neither transaction was necessarily illegal. But both were suspicious.

"Why not go to a regular vendor instead of the CEO who's profiting?" Leonard asks. "There's a private company that's now associated with the ministry. It's got a flow of business from the ministry, and it's an easy way to transfer money to make the ministry look good. But you're sucking money out of the ministry."

Leonard's concern is not only that these kinds of financial practices tend to divert money from ministry use, but that they destroy the confidence of donors as well. "The cost of this dysfunctional ministry marketplace is very high in terms of lower giving or poor giving," Leonard says.

Leonard hopes MinistryWatch will divert 10 percent of donations that would have otherwise gone to unworthy organizations. Of the $14 billion given to the 430 ministries that MinistryWatch has financial information on, Leonard believes that $1 billion goes to financially unaccountable ministries. "If we could move 10 percent of $1 billion from suboptimal ministries to worthy ministries, that's $100 million annually we're transferring to good works. And that's without even increasing the level of giving."

But increasing the level of giving is also part of Leonard's goal. He wants evangelicals to give more by making them wealthier, according to his "biblically responsible investing" model (BRI). Leonard's investment management company, Stewardship Partners, manages about $323 million for 874 clients. And, even if major Christian organizations don't like Leonard's investment principles, many individuals do.

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July 2008, Vol. 52, No. 7