Financial Fanagling
“Just because something isn’t a lie does not mean that it isn’t deceptive. A liar knows that he is a liar, but one who speaks mere proportions of truth in order to deceive is a craftsman of destruction.” - Criss Jami
If you have been telling yourself, “At least Wycliffe Associates is financially responsible,” I have some bad news for you. Wycliffe Associates has engaged in some shady practices and questionable choices. Any one of these alone might be allowable - with a detailed explanation of why it happened - but all of them considered together indicate a clear pattern of un-Christian behavior. They might have occurred because of neglect, incompetence, or devious intent, none of which are a good sign.
1. Resignation from Accountability: The Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA), is a Christian accountability organization, and Members of the ECFA publicly commit to live up to the “Seven Standards of Responsible Stewardship.”
"Wycliffe Associates, one of the charter members of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA), voluntarily resigned on Feb, 21, 2020.”[i] Why would they resign? They were out of compliance with Standards 7.1 and 7.2. Standard 7.1 says: In securing charitable gifts, all representations of fact, descriptions of the financial condition of the organization, or narratives about events must be current, complete, and accurate... Standard 7.2 says: Statements made about the use of gifts by an organization in its charitable gift appeals must be honored.[ii]
ECFA President Emeritus Dan Busby reported more details. “While we looked at various factors in relation to ECFA’s standards, our concluding focus was strictly on the accuracy of WA’s communications with donors and whether those communications established realistic expectations in donor’s minds in terms of what the gifts would accomplish.”[iii]
Instead of fixing their behaviour and using the review time to fix things, they just resigned.
2. Dramatic Growth From False Claims: Ministry Watch wrote in their March 7, 2020 blog, "In 2015, Wycliffe Associates introduced a new system of Bible translation that it claimed could cut the time spent translating the Bible from years or decades down to mere months. Wycliffe Associates called the process MAST, Mobilized Assistance Supporting Translation. But Bible translation experts raised concerns about the new process’s ability to deliver on the promises made by Wycliffe Associates. However, MAST and its purported capabilities have been a key part of the fundraising message of Wycliffe Associates.
"The claims made by Wycliffe Associates regarding the capabilities of MAST caused dramatic growth in the organization, with revenue increasing more than 65 percent from 2016 to 2019, but those claims were also among the reasons the ECFA had placed the organization under review."[iv]
3. Luxury Plane: The Berean Call blog reports. “John Wycliffe, who famously translated the Bible into English, was one of the seminal figures of the Reformation. But he was more than a translator. He was an outspoken critic of clergy opulence. He wrote tracts condemning the luxurious lifestyles of many church leaders. One wonders what John Wycliffe would say about the private airplane owned by Wycliffe Associates, an airplane apparently used by Wycliffe Associate’s President Bruce Smith and other Wycliffe Associates senior executives to court wealthy donors.”[v]
I also heard from a friend that worked there that they had two private airplanes when she served at the board meetings.
Ministry Watch, another accountability organization for Christian ministries, posted an eye-popping article about a luxury plane that Wycliffe Associates owns.
“Wycliffe Associates’ plane is a high-performance turboprop called a TBM 700. The ministry keeps the plane at Orlando Executive Airport. The vast majority of the destinations were not remote locations at all, but major U.S. cities, including Atlanta, San Antonio, Nashville, and St. Louis. Almost all of the smaller destinations – including Wichita, Naples, and Tuscaloosa – had commercial airports. However, the fixed costs of owning a TBM, according to a TBM owners group, are about $6,000 per month. The operating costs are about $2 per nautical mile. Repeated requests for information from Wycliffe Associates went unanswered.”[vi]
In every circle of life including businesses a private plane is a luxury and doesn’t save anyone money. Warren Buffet named his one private plane “Indefensible”. It is also indefensible that WA has a plane.
4. One third of your donation: If you give $100 to WA, $30 of that will go to their fund-raising efforts for more money.
The second row of this chart shows the percentage of the Total Expenses that is dedicated to Fundraising, and the third row shows the percentage if you compare fundraising to the amount of Contributions from donors like you.
|
Fund raising |
2016 WA |
2017 WA |
2018 WA |
2019 WA |
WBT Average[vii] |
Focus on the Family Average[viii] |
Industry Average |
|
% of TE |
16% |
17% |
16% |
15% |
9% |
7.3% |
8% |
|
% of C |
30% |
33% |
27% |
24% |
9% |
9% |
Unknown |
30% for fundraising is far above any other non-profit uses that I could find. The above statistic jumped out at me as I looked over the finances of WA. I saw a suspiciously high percentage of donations going to fundraising.
Wycliffe Associates
2016
Wycliffe Associates
2017
Wycliffe Associates 2018
Wycliffe Associates
2019
5. Paid Board Member: Wycliffe Associates has a portal on their website where their volunteers can ask for support and provides an easy way for individuals to receive donations. Ken Axt is a board member listed on each of the annual reports from 2016-2019.[ix] He also has a portal available on the WA website for him to receive donations.
What is standard practice for nonprofit boards? The Council of Nonprofits says that board members shouldn’t be paid but can be reimbursed for expenses. An obvious conflict of interest arises, when there isn’t a separation between volunteers who can receive donations and volunteers who are board members.
“Even though compensating board members is standard in the corporate world, only a small percentage of nonprofits compensate board members. Those nonprofits that do pay board members are usually large, complex organizations such as health care systems, large foundations, or art institutions because of the complexity of those institutions and the expertise board members may need.”[x]
6. Calling itself a church: In the process of becoming an activist against speedy translations, I am learning a lot. One of those is regarding the Form 990, which is required for all non-profit organizations. To hide this information, non-profits can call themselves a ‘church’. Churches in this legal sense are not required to submit the Form 990.
Ministry Watch says, “It is a system that is rapidly breaking down as more tax-exempt organizations that clearly are not churches are claiming the church exception. These organizations are using this exception to keep not only the government, but also donors, from seeing how their money is being spent.
“This practice is not new. Controversial and sometimes outright fraudulent… the integrity and credibility of Christian non-profits are being questioned as never before, and these concerns pose a clear and present threat to Christian non-profits. Withholding Form 990s from donors and the public is not the right solution to this problem [the problem of donor confidentiality] Ministries are in full compliance with the disclosure rules by releasing Form 990s with the donor section redacted. A ministry can release its 990s and still fully protect the confidentiality of its donors.”[xi]
So, yes, you guessed it. Wycliffe Associates hasn’t filed a Form 990 since 2007.[xii]
Wycliffe Associates is not a church, and to claim they are - especially when it makes them look like they have something to hide - is not just dangerous for the overall perceived integrity of Christian Non-Profits, but is also morally, and Biblically, suspect.
My wise friend Andrew says, “It's true. I've never seen such force behind the removal of church tax exemption, as I have in the past year. I'd say the exemption's days are numbered, especially with the older (more conservative and religious) generation dying off and replaced by much more secular Millennials and Zoomers. Corruption is the main complaint, followed by the "churchification" of cults like the Scientologists.”
7. Lack of transparency: The accountability organization, Ministry Watch gives Wycliffe Associates a score of D for their transparency.[xiii]
To be given an A rating a ministry needs to meet these 3 criteria:
The completion and public availability of a Form 990. The 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.
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.
Membership in the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA).
Titus 2:7-8 says, “In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.”
Despite being called on by Ministry Watch, Wycliffe Bible
Translators, Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, myself and
others, Wycliffe Associates doesn’t make any changes or turn over information
requested related to their finances. They are not transparent and not to be
trusted.
[i] https://ministrywatch.com/ecfa-charter-member-wycliffe-associates-resigns-membership-while-under-review/
[ii] https://ministrywatch.com/ecfa-charter-member-wycliffe-associates-resigns-membership-while-under-review/
[iii] https://ministrywatch.com/ecfa-charter-member-wycliffe-associates-resigns-membership-while-under-review/
[iv] https://ministrywatch.com/ecfa-charter-member-wycliffe-associates-resigns-membership-while-under-review/
[v] https://www.thebereancall.org/content/what-would-wycliffe-fly
[vi] https://ministrywatch.com/what-would-wycliffe-fly/
[vii] https://www.wycliffe.org/Resources/Financial/Financial%20Statement/2018%20Wycliffe%20Consolidated%20Financial%20Statements.pdf
[viii] https://media.focusonthefamily.com/fotf/pdf/about-us/financial-reports/fotf-2018-annual-report.pdf
[x] https://www.thebalancesmb.com/can-nonprofits-pay-board-members-or-appoint-paid-staff-2502271
[xi] https://ministrywatch.com/when-a-church-is-not-a-church/
[xii] 2007https://pdf.guidestar.org/PDF_Images/2008/952/584/2008-952584324-04ce1a8a-9.pdf
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