Franklin Graham has quit a financial accountability group his father helped found.
The son of the famed evangelist has pulled both the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse from membership in the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.
That group was revolutionary at its founding in 1977. The ECFA website explains: “They were revolutionary in requiring audited financial statements to be made available to the public upon request. That might not seem extraordinary now, but back in those days, virtually no nonprofits had CPA-audited financial statements. The standards were also truly revolutionary in requiring an active, responsible governing body, a majority of whom had to be independent board members.”
Franklin Graham
This revolution was launched by U.S. Sen. Mark Hatfield, a Baptist, and leaders of World Vision and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. The elder Graham is widely credited with advancing the very accountability his son and successor now eschews.
Franklin Graham cited as reason for his withdrawal new “member care” standards put forward by ECFA. That standard requires all member organizations to develop a care plan for their senior leader, including regular communication with a board-led spiritual team and dedicated time for rest, retreats and physicals.
This summer, the younger Graham wrote a letter to ECFA’s president saying the new standards “puts ECFA into the role of trying to be the moral police of the evangelical world.”
“The Leader Care standard deals with personal spiritual maturity and behavior matters clearly outside the scope of ECFA’s expertise,” he said. “While ECFA has proven to have expertise in matters of financial practices of nonprofit organizations, it does not offer its members expertise in developing ‘care plans’ for leaders.”
Despite its membership in the organization, BGEA and Samaritan’s Purse have been criticized for lack of financial transparency. One frequent bone of contention is the obfuscation of Franklin Graham’s combined compensation from the two organizations, reported to be more than $800,000.
Addition of the ECFA standard on leader care arose in response to multiple high-profile scandals involving leaders of other member ministries. Those scandals intersect issues of financial accountability because of questions about how those leaders funded their escapades and whether donors should trust the leaders and their organizations.
“While we are disappointed that the leaders of BGEA and Samaritan’s Purse have decided to withdraw from ECFA, we honor their legacy,” ECFA President and CEO Michael Martin said. “We wish them well as they continue to pursue their missions.”
Samaritan’s Purse reportedly has net assets of $1.4 billion, and BGEA reportedly has annual revenue exceeding $224 million. Neither organization files public IRS Form 990.
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