The staff and board of Wheat Ridge Ministries works hard to be good stewards of the contributions we receive from our donors. We take this responsibility extremely seriously, and we make every effort to be transparent. We are very proud to carry the Better Business Bureau Seal indicating that we meet all 20 of their charity standards.

As is the case with every charitable organization, Wheat Ridge Ministries has a unique history and circumstances that provide context for our financial information. The Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability has an excellent statement that emphasizes the importance of considering this important information when considering things like fundraising and administrative costs.

Wheat Ridge Ministries annually completes a thorough report of its financial status to the IRS using Form 990. The information reported on Form 990 is used to calculate various ratios and percentages related to program, management, and fundraising costs. There are several unique and important factors that impact these ratios and fundraising costs at Wheat Ridge Ministries:

Fundraising Revenue: Most social service organizations receive a significant portion of their revenue from large grants received from foundations or from government contracts. On Form 990, these are included as fundraising income. Large amounts of revenue from single sources drive overall fundraising costs down significantly. Since Wheat Ridge Ministries is a grant maker, we do not receive large grants or contracts from other grant makers or public agencies. Wheat Ridge Ministries also does not seek government funding and relies solely on the generosity of private donations.

Wheat Ridge Ministries does receive significant earnings from invested funds each year that are used for operations. Unfortunately, IRS regulations do not allow this revenue to be accounted for as fundraising revenue. If this was allowed, our fund raising ratios would be significantly reduced. Likewise, if large grants and contracts were removed from the fundraising revenue of other organizations, their costs for fundraising ratios would be much higher.

Contributed Revenue and Program Expense: Information on Form 990 does not make it possible to report that in a typical year our contributed revenue equals 90% to 100% of our program expenses. The percentage in FY08 was 91%. What this means is that virtually all contributed dollars are used for program purposes. Administrative and fundraising costs are paid for by revenue received from our investments and other revenue sources (events, sales of resources, etc).

Impact of Modest-Sized Gifts: Wheat Ridge Ministries’ primary base of support over the years has come from thousands of faithful donors. The vast majority of these gifts are modest in size. While we praise God for every one of these gifts and those who provide them, the cost of communicating with our donors continues to increase. Wheat Ridge Ministries is moving diligently to increase the impact of its major gifts program. Our success in receiving larger contributions will result in increased fundraising efficiency.

Interpretation of Cost Allocations: There are standard accounting procedures that define what constitutes fundraising, administration, and program expenses. However, organizations vary in how they choose to interpret these definitions. Wheat Ridge Ministries observes a letter-of-the law interpretation of these cost allocations and works very closely with our auditors to ensure that we are correctly assigning expenses.

Please contact our office at 800.762.6748 or by email at wrmail@wheatridge.org for any additional information or if you have any questions. Thank you for your support and encouragement, which is a great blessing as we continue to seed new ministries of health and hope in the name of the healing Christ.