MinistryWatch downgrades Samaritan’s Purse to “Withhold Giving” designation

The Christian humanitarian nonprofit’s ranking in the MinistryWatch financial transparency database fell this week, MinistryWatch said on Friday. Previously listed as a “Give with Caution” charity, Samaritan’s Purse is now marked "Withhold Giving” in the database due to its resignation from the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, or ECFA, and its failure to meet board composition requirements, MinistryWatch said.

 Both Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, which are headed by Franklin Graham, left the ECFA on Oct. 1. The organizations resigned voluntarily, according to an ECFA report. The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association was a founding member of the accountability group. The two ministries withdrew because they disagreed with EFCA’s recent requirement that ministry boards make a plan for their senior leader’s care, MinistryWatch said.

MinistryWatch’s database also downgraded the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association to a 7 out of 100 donor confidence score, due to its ECFA withdrawal, its failure to meet board composition requirements, and the fact that it does not file a Form 990. Form 990 provides the public with information about the nonprofit’s activities, governance, and financial information.

Why did Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association resign from the ECFA? Franklin Graham in July wrote to the EFCA to explain their withdrawal. By dealing with what it called leader care, EFCA was straying from its original focus on financial responsibility and “trying to be the moral police of the evangelical world,” he wrote. It had poorly-defined goals for leader care or accountability, Graham wrote. He added that the leader care standard didn’t address the many fallen leaders who have simply lied to their ministries—and couldn’t prevent others from doing the same.

Dig deeper: Read Christina Grube’s report on Samaritan’s Purse’s new aid flight to Gaza.

— Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include more information about why Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association left the ECFA.