Lack of Disclosure Makes Giving to Televangelists a Risky Business

Large religious TV networks that repeatedly ask you for charitable donations are allowed to hide how they spend your dollars. If you want to know if your donation is used to fund TV broadcasting or charitable aid, a tax-exempt religious broadcaster does not have to tell you.

Thanks to court records from an employee lawsuit, it’s been uncovered that Daystar, one of the largest religious TV broadcasters, spent only about 5 percent of its donations on ministries or charitable aid that was not directly related to Daystar broadcast activities. Hear CharityWatch president Daniel Borochoff’s assessment of the situation on this NPR segment.