Scripture Union USA
Legal name: Scripture Union
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 251228715
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Valley Forge, PA, USA
- Phone
- 1-800-621-5267
- Rating
- 68
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Affiliation
- Christianity
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,747,783
- Expenses
- $1,575,653
- Assets
- $706,209
- Liabilities
- $464,862
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
11 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Gail Martin (President)
Highest reported compensation
- Gail Martin (President): $120,768 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Vision: To see people of all ages coming to faith in Christ, committed to God and His Word and living as salt and light. Mission: Working with churches and partners, Scripture Union seeks to make God’s Good News known to children, young people and families, and encourage people of all ages to meet God daily through the Bible and prayer. Through a range of activities, multimedia resources, and publications, Scripture Union USA provides opportunities for children, young people and adults to explore the Bible, respond to Jesus and grow in faith. We also provide training and partnership opportunities to help churches, organizations and other leaders do the same. Board and staff work together to regularly review SU ministry and materials, to identify future needs and opportunities and to develop strategies and plans. About us.
What it reported doing in 2024
Children's Ministry- Train and resource churches and other ministry partners to conduct evangelism and dicipliship programs for children, youth and families such as beach ministry and open air style outreach, faith-based after school clubs and Bible engagement resources in various locations across the country.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 100% 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.
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: 49
- Accountability: 100
- Sustainability: 41
- Growth: 40
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 74.7%; rating input score 75
- Program expense ratio: 82.9%; rating input score 83
- Fundraising efficiency: $8.57 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 33; 33rd percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 86.7%; rating input score 87; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- 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: 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: 9.8%; rating input score 61; 61st percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.45; rating input score 21; 21st percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.66; rating input score 11; 11th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 7.7%; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 6.2% per year; rating input score 100; 48th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -3.6% per year; rating input score 0; 7th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -2.1% per year; rating input score 0; 12th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 1 programs and campaigns described on the official site
- Where the money goes: 74.7% of revenue deployed · 82.9% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 8 of 8 board members independent · 8 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $1.3M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $121K · 11 people listed
- Consistency: 24 of 25 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and foreign activity
- Filing history: 10 filing years from 2010 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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.
- High — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight scored 0/100.
- High — Transparency & Controls: Grant itemization coverage scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 33/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 21/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 11/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 45/100.