Billy's Bucks

An evangelist's accounting

Billy Graham has always endeavored to be hound's-tooth clean about money. Early in his career he went on straight salary, * spurning the unaudited "love offerings" that used to provide income for traveling evangelists. But the Graham operation is so large and visible that there has always been intense curiosity about its finances. Lately that curiosity has deepened into outright suspicion, and to clear the air Graham's Minneapolis headquarters has issued its first full public report on finances.

The 1977 balance sheet for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (B.G.E.A.) and five affiliates: $38.4 million in income, $41.6 million in expenses. The gap was filled by dipping into reserve funds. The outgo is far more than the national program budget of most Protestant denominations. The totals do not include operating costs of Graham's "crusades," which are handled by local committees.

By Graham's accounting, a very respectable 89% of the budget goes for far-flung evangelism programs and only 11% for administrative overhead and fund-raising costs.

"We have nothing to hide," said Executive Vice President George M. Wilson last week. But the B.G.E.A., like many another religious organization, has been slow to divulge financial data. The reason for B.G.E.A. reluctance, Wilson explained, is fear that the "little guy," whose average $10-to-$12 gift accounts for most of the receipts, might stop giving if he thought about how many millions of dollars were flowing to Minneapolis.

Two articles published a year ago helped prod the organization to a new fiscal openness. Corporate Report, a Midwest business magazine, said that because of inadequate financial data, the Minnesota Commerce Department was looking into a B.G.E.A. gift-annuity plan, which supporters bequeath money to, and draw interest income from until they die. (After protracted negotiations, the data were provided, and the state approved the annuity sales.) The magazine also disclosed that B.G.E.A. had refused financial information requested on a voluntary basis by the state's charities division and by the Better Business Bureau; the bureau's latest report says that the B.G.E.A. does not meet its fund-raising standards because of secrecy. Even now the B.G.E.A. has no plans to cooperate.

Meanwhile, the Charlotte (N.C.) Observer reported that a Graham-related group, the World Evangelism and Christian Education Fund, had $22.9 million in assets and kept them "carefully shielded from public view." Well, yes and no.

Fund officials in Dallas stonewall when asked for details, but federal law requires them to file public financial summaries with the Internal Revenue Service. (The B.G.E.A. does not file, strangely enough, because it contends that it is a church rather than an interdenominational charity.) Graham told two reporters about the fund after it started in 1970, but neither he nor Wilson mentioned it when the Observer inquired about finances.

Despite the air of mystery, the fund merely continues Graham's longstanding practice of helping relief efforts and Evangelical causes around the world.

No money goes to individuals. The major recipient is the new Billy Graham Center in Illinois, which will house the graduate school at Wheaton College (Graham's alma mater), an evangelism library and Graham archives. The fund gave the Graham Center $7.7 million last year, and will eventually provide most of its $15.5 million cost. The B.G.E.A. has been transferring some of its proceeds to the Dallas fund, but refuses to reveal how much.

However, Wilson sees nothing wrong with that practice as long as the contributions the fund receives are not designated by the givers for a specific purpose.

Wilson makes it clear that he is not overjoyed about the new openness. He thinks his organization is under scrutiny mainly because "it is the mood of the day. The critics started in on Washington and the presidency, then Congress and then the FBI. The more visible an organization becomes, the more open it is to criticism." -

* Currently $39.500.

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