Christian Courier
Legal name: Fortify Your Faith Foundation Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 680485922
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2020–2025
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- Jackson, TN, USA
- Phone
- 7312567280
- Rating
- 56
- Verdict
- MIXED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Religious Printing, Publishing
- Affiliation
- Christianity
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $933,957
- Expenses
- $886,353
- Assets
- $1,596,204
- Liabilities
- $465,602
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
6 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- JARED JACKSON (President)
Highest reported compensation
- JARED JACKSON (President): $174,835 total reported compensation
- JASON JACKSON (Vicepresident): $155,408 total reported compensation
- DAVID BOGGS (Secretarytreasurer): $152,434 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
To seek the truth and equip people of God through the publication/distribution of Bible teaching materials (launched as a free Bible-study journal and continuing mission to help Christians become more knowledgeable in God’s Word and fortify faith). Wayne Jackson and members of the East Main Church of Christ in Stockton, California, launched the _Christian Courier_ in May 1965. It began as a small Bible study journal mailed for free to readers each month. As described in the inaugural issue, it was designed to present the teaching of Jesus in a simple, lucid style not characterized by ostentation or inflated language. Its purpose was to help Christians become more knowledgeable in God’s Word, fortify their faith in the Savior, and equip every child of God to defend the truth and live righteously in a sinful world. Here is our mission statement, as adapted from that first issue.
What it reported doing in 2025
Religious counseling directly connected to readership at no charge
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 90% 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
MIXED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and revenue has declined or grown slowly.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 67
- Transparency & Controls: 70
- Accountability: 14
- Sustainability: 42
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 66.1%; rating input score 66
- Program expense ratio: 61.5%; rating input score 62
- Fundraising efficiency: $119.12 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 86; 86th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Missing
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: Limited
- Governance controls: 3 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 33
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Fail
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 5.1%; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.8; rating input score 61; 61st percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.29; rating input score 20; 20th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 66.3%; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 5.6% per year; rating input score 100; 40th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -2.3% per year; rating input score 0; 6th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 3.8% per year; rating input score 100; 30th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: Mission, programs, and operating context captured from the official website.
- Where the money goes: 66.1% of revenue deployed · 61.5% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 3 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $545K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $175K · 6 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 24 of 25 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
- Filing history: 6 filing years from 2020 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 4 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
- 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.
- Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 5 of 8 not reported.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 45/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 1/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 20/100.