Last year, Paula White offered her followers seven Easter blessings for a gift of $1,000. This Holy Week, she’s using support for Israel as a motivation to give money to her.
In addition to being a health-and-wealth televangelist — soundly critiqued by most of mainstream Christianity — White leads President Donald Trump’s White House Office of Faith.
This year, she’s drawing on the Trump administration’s unflinching support for the Israeli government by claiming a gift to her ministry is a gift to support Israel. White is a staunch Zionist and recently kicked a conservative evangelical woman off Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission for suggesting Israel was guilty of genocide in Gaza.
In a video message this year, White seamlessly connects giving to her ministry as a means of supporting Israel and humanitarian aid there. She urges her listeners to “honor God with his tithe, that’s the first tenth of your gross income, and an offering that’s free will.”
While nearly all Christian churches teach the principle of tithing, they do so as an offering through a local church, not to a televangelist or even a parachurch ministry.
“It takes money for ministry,” White says in the video. She then claims her ministry is helping single moms and victims of human trafficking, prisoners and the hungry, as well as Israelis suffering from “the horrific attacks of October 7.”
“Thank you for being that person that’s holding up the hands for the gospel to go forth. So go ahead and click on that link right there on the screen or you can give by Cash App or Venmo or PayPal or however you want to.”
The IRS Form 990 filed by Paula White Ministries shows questionable data. For 2024, the group reported only $166,810 in income and $180,836 in expenses — most of which went to White as compensation, $143,693. Other sources report White’s income in the millions of dollars; most of her organization’s finances are obscured by privacy afforded churches.
According to the Trinity Foundation, “Paula White Ministries acts as an integrated auxiliary of a church to avoid filing a Form 990 which would disclose to donors the total revenue, total expenses and compensation of key ministry employees.”