Email and ShareWhy is The JESUS Film Project and particularly its parent organization Campus Crusade for Christ not listed by the Better Business Bureau and its charitable giving division, the Wise Giving Alliance, as a recognized charity?
The Better Business Bureau Website, www.bbb.org/charity, states that Campus Crusade for Christ meets all but one of their 20 standards for charitable accountability. Please allow us to address that one issue, ease your concerns and reaffirm your faith in giving to Campus Crusade for Christ and The JESUS Film Project.
The Better Business Bureau’s (BBB) Wise Giving Alliance exists to help donors make informed decisions about giving to organizations that solicit gifts from the general public. The Alliance offers information on a wide variety of organizations including both religious and non-religious charities. Therefore, BBB’s standards are broad and aimed at a diverse group. Campus Crusade for Christ is classified as a religious organization. Due to our uniqueness as a religious charity, one of the BBB’s standards does not neatly apply to us as an organization. The standard in which Campus Crusade does not meet the Alliance requirements is one which addresses the makeup of the governing board, the number of independent directors, and the role of the chairman.
The Campus Crusade for Christ board, although diverse in scope is relatively small. Currently, the board has nine members, seven of whom are independent. The BBB Wise Giving Alliance standard is 90 percent independent directors. With our uniqueness as a religious charity, the Campus Crusade governing board believes it does reflect and appropriately represent the organization’s overall need for leadership in direction-setting, policy formulation and fiduciary oversight. A further Campus Crusade for Christ explanation may be found on the BBB Wise Giving Alliance website. Click here to review the report: http://charityreports.bbb.org/public/Report.aspx?CharityID=744&bureauID=9999 We trust this information is helpful to you. And, upon further inspection, one will find the organization maintains the highest levels of financial accountability and integrity.
The evangelical community also addressed the concern for financial accountability and integrity in 1979 when the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA) was formed. ECFA was chartered to help Christ-centered organizations earn the public’s trust through developing and maintaining standards of accountability that convey God-honoring ethical practices. ECFA membership consists of more than 1,225 organizations with a combined income more than $15 billion, and ECFA provides recommendations and best practices for all of their members. ECFA’s recommendations are in line with the standards being recommended by the Nonprofit Panel Advisory Committee which was convened at the encouragement of U.S. Senate Finance Committee. In fact, the former president of ECFA was asked to sit on this panel due to his expertise and good reputation in the non-profit arena.
Campus Crusade for Christ is a charter member of the ECFA and is in full compliance with its guidelines and best practices. You can visit ECFA’s website, www.ECFA.org, to learn more about ECFA and view a stewardship report on Campus Crusade for Christ. Their assessment of our financial practices should provide one the confidence needed to partner with us.
Be assured that Campus Crusade for Christ and The JESUS Film Project are fully devoted to accountability and good stewardship. The funds that you entrust to this ministry are dedicated to the work of reaching people for Christ worldwide, and we are grateful for the partnership of many tens of thousands who have invested in this work since 1979.