Gospel for Asia settles with donors for $37 million

Gospel for Asia agreed last week to a $37 million settlement with donors over accusations that the nonprofit mission group mismanaged funds. The agreement brings to a close a three-year legal battle, in which donors said the organization misused funds it promised would go directly to mission work in South Asia. In 2015, the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability discovered that Gospel for Asia hoarded as much as $259 million during some months rather than spending the donated funds on church planting, missionary work, or charitable relief for the poor.

In a statement on its website, Gospel for Asia emphasized it did not admit any wrongdoing. “The settlement agreement explicitly states that all donations given to the ministry did indeed make it to field,” the statement read. The agreement dictates that settlement money go to pay court-approved costs and attorneys fees, then be divided evenly among claimants, who can be anyone who donated to Gospel for Asia since Jan. 1, 2009. Unclaimed funds can be distributed evenly to the groups Samaritan’s Purse, Friends of Israel, the Global Training Network, Heaven’s Family, and Christ for All Peoples, but they cannot be retained by Gospel for Asia.