Exponential
Legal name: Church Planting Network Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 270028746
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2013–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Carolina Beach, NC, USA
- Phone
- 877.806.8608
- Rating
- 89
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Protestant
- Affiliation
- Christianity
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $2,813,226
- Expenses
- $3,383,005
- Assets
- $3,576,973
- Liabilities
- $47,288
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
8 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Dave Ferguson (CEO)
- Theresa Saliba (Executive Director)
Highest reported compensation
- Theresa Saliba (Executive Director): $114,555 total reported compensation
- Dave Ferguson (CEO): $106,695 total reported compensation
- Noemi Chavez (Director): $3,875 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
_**The 16% Mission**_ : to see a tipping point of 16% of churches in the U.S. becoming reproducing or multiplying churches. Name Exponential means “accelerating multiplication.” That is the core of what we seek to do (our mission). Exponential means “accelerating multiplication.” That is the core of what we seek to do (our mission). Executive Leadership Team Dave. Dave is co-founder of Community Christian Church, NewThing and Exponential. Dave provides vision direction to Exponential in pursuit of our 16% Mission while also serving on the Board of our Exponential Global partners. His enthusiasm for “yes” is contagious. Raj Pillai.
What it reported doing in 2024
Conferences: Church Planting Network, Inc., d/b/a Exponential coordinates church multiplication conferences. The annual (global) conference is the primary way that Exponential educates Christian Churches, Networks and Denominations on best practices and trends in church multiplication. The 2025 global conference included more than 200 national church planting leaders/speakers and was attended by more than 5,000 church planting leaders from all over the world. Sponsorship and registration revenue covers the majority of the cost of presenting the conference including facility rental, speaker fees, marketing, and time and travel devoted to planning.In addition to our annual conference, Exponential hosted two national conferences in the central and west regions of the country. An additional 1,500 people attended those conferences. The national conferences allow for those that cannot travel to Orlando, FL, for our Global conference to also be equipped in best practices for church multiplication.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Other-operating. 88% of the money available for current operations came from other operating revenue.
- 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.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 87
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 100
- Sustainability: 30
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 92.7%; rating input score 93
- Fundraising efficiency: $2.67 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 8 of 8 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: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -20.3%; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.06; rating input score 39; 39th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.01; rating input score 84; 84th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 6.7%; rating input score 43; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 11% per year; rating input score 100; 67th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 7.5% per year; rating input score 100; 57th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 8.5% per year; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: Mission, programs, and operating context captured from the official website.
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 92.7% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 7 of 7 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $3.1M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $115K · 8 people listed
- Consistency: 25 of 25 current checks pass
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 11 filing years from 2013 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 4 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.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 7/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 7/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 39/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 43/100.