Blue Letter Bible

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
472951572
IRS 990 coverage
2016–2024
Official website data refreshed
Sep 2026
Forms available
Form 990 2024
Location
Greenville, SC, USA
Phone
9496006000
Rating
70
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Affiliation
Christianity

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$4,119,787
Expenses
$3,999,291
Assets
$3,592,726
Liabilities
$801,434

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

14 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • JAMES MILLIGAN (PRESIDENT & CEO)

Highest reported compensation

  • ANDREW GUASTAFERRO (CFO/COO/CORP SECRETARY): $239,129 total reported compensation
  • JAMES MILLIGAN (PRESIDENT & CEO): $227,135 total reported compensation
  • JORDON REPLOGLE (IT MANAGER): $215,545 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

This page provides all the public information about our ministry and who we are. It includes what we provide, our mission statement, and a link to share your experience with Blue Letter Bible. If you have any questions that are not answered on this page or in the Help section, please use our contact form. About BLB Statement of Faith. Know that our statement of faith, mission, and resources are grounded in the historical, conservative Christian faith. While this dictates our publication policy, it does not define the extent of our fellowship. How is the BLB funded? Developing free Bible study software requires a lot of prayer, work, and resources. For 15 years our former parent ministry, Sowing Circle, totally funded the operating costs of the BLB—but that has changed. Since 2010, we have been required to raise support from outside sources to provide our users around the world with...

What it reported doing in 2024

Blue letter bible (blb) provides powerful tools for an in depth study of god's word through our free online reference library, with study tools that are grounded in the historical, conservative christian faith. There are approximately 20 million unique visitors per year. The blue letter bible website is an online reference system which provides, free of charge to anyone visiting its website, 19 versions of the holy bible, cross references from the bible to the original hebrew and greek translations of the scriptures, study helps and commentaries from pastors of evangelical christian churches who agree to make their commentaries available free of charge for use with the blue letter bible. The design of the blue letter bible website is intended to be used by pastors, teachers, missionaries and the member of churches all over the world to spread the gospel of jesus christ through their study of the scriptures, and to enable people everywhere to learn to live according to the scriptures. The blue letter bible institute website (study, bible) offers, free of charge, a complete course of study on the belief's and teachings of christianity, which have been provided from pastors and teachers of evangelical christian churches and bible colleges. Each course in the program is designed to be used for either self-study, home bible study, or for the classroom. Fourteen courses are currently offered, and one to two courses will generally be added each year. The blue letter bible blog (blogs.blueletterbible.org) and social media outlets (facebook, twitter, instagram, youtube) will provide, to people all over the world, daily and weekly engagement with the scriptures as well as bible study resources that help people learn more about the scriptures. Blue letter bible study content is also available as applications on smartphones, such as apple ios and android devices. The smartphone applications are currently available in the apple store and google play store at no charge. Blue letter bible will continue to develop and improve the blue letter bible website and related properties, and add additional biblical materials for the study of the scriptures.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 97% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.
  • Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and most voting board members are independent. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and the filing does not identify recipients for some grant dollars.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 73
  • Transparency & Controls: 51
  • Accountability: 93
  • Sustainability: 36
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 78.7%; rating input score 79
  • Program expense ratio: 80.6%; rating input score 81
  • Fundraising efficiency: $5.71 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 20; 20th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Missing
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
    • Written employment contract: Missing
    • Compensation survey or study: Pass
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: Scored; rating input score 0
  • Grant itemization coverage: Scored; rating input score 0
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
  • Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

  • Independent voting board: 87.5%; rating input score 88; 19th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: Pass
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 2.9%; rating input score 44; 44th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.9; rating input score 33; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.22; rating input score 41; 41st percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 34.8%; rating input score 4; 4th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 9.6% per year; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 14.8% per year; rating input score 100; 81st percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 10.3% per year; rating input score 100; 59th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • What they do: 1 operating location identified
  • Where the money goes: 78.7% of revenue deployed · 80.6% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 7 of 8 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $3.2M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $239K · 14 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Highest-paid contractors: 2 contractors listed · $407K reported
  • Consistency: 32 of 32 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 8 filing years from 2016 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 7 filed money-flow records
  • Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
  • People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.
  • Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • High — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight scored 0/100.
  • High — Transparency & Controls: Grant itemization coverage scored 0/100.
  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 20/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 44/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 33/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 4/100.
  • Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 41/100.