About the organization

MinistryWatch.com profiles Public Charities, churches, and parachurch ministries. It is also a place to learn about how to be a responsible giver.

MinistryWatch.com is an independent donor advocate facilitating the information needs of donors. It provides information on organizations alleging to be charitable and its key leadership in order to identify materially misleading behavior, or wasteful spending practices, as well as identifying those operations that are above board and running efficiently. The objective is to limit the consequences of scams and the prevention of fraudulent activity, promote better allocations of giving, encourage intelligent questions of organizational structure, and financial health, and advance the idea of organizational transparency and best practices.

Value to Reliant Mission 

They list us regardless of our choice. The website appears dated and according to their own website they have had some conflict with the ECFA over how to rate ministries.  Reliant currently has a C rating because we don't file a Form 990.

How MinistryWatch Arrives At A Transparency Grade

MinistryWatch stands for transparency and accountability.  That’s why we think it is important for Christian ministries to be as transparent as possible with donors and with the public.

That’s why MinistryWatch grades every ministry in its database based on transparency.  Our transparency grade evaluates the ease with which donors can see into the finances of a ministry.  We use three indicators:

1. The completion and public availability of Form 990. Form 990 highlights revenue, expenses, fundraising costs, and executive salaries.  Form 990s have a great deal of information of interest to donors, though they are not a “gold standard” because this information is self-reported.
2. The completion of an audited financial statement. Audited financial statements do not list executive salaries, but they have the advantage of being created by an independent accounting firm, thus giving donors and the public greater assurance that the numbers reported by management are accurate.  (Reviewed financial statements are acceptable for ministries with annual revenue of less than $ 1 million.)
3. Membership in the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA). Members of the ECFA publicly commit to living up to the “Seven Standards of Responsible Stewardship.”

The grading system is simple.

• If a ministry complies with all three of the standards above, that ministry will receive a Transparency Grade of “A.”
• If a ministry meets two of the three standards, that ministry will receive a “C.”
• If a ministry meets only one of these standards, it will receive a “D.”
• If it fails to meet any of the three standards, that ministry will receive a Transparency Grade of “F."

If you would like to report an error or a change in ministry status, please email:  wsmith@155.138.219.249     Warren Smith

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