Giving to missions is an act of trust. You send money you will never see spent, to people you may never meet, in places you will likely never visit. That is not a reason to give carelessly. It is a reason to give with your eyes open. Scripture treats stewardship as a serious thing: the servant who buried his master's money was not praised for caution but rebuked for laziness. Careful giving is neither cynical nor cold. It honors both the Lord who supplies the money and the workers who will spend it. Here is a plain checklist you can use before you give to any missions charity, ours included. Read it, then hold us to it.
Does the work predate the funding?
Start here, because this one question filters out most of the noise. Ask whether the ministry existed before it started asking you for money. Real work leaves a trail. Churches were planted, pastors were trained, people were taught, and all of it happened before a donation page went live.
A charity that was built around a fundraising appeal, with the actual field work still hypothetical, is asking you to fund a promise. Sometimes that is honest, and a new work has to begin somewhere. But it should say so plainly rather than dressing up a plan as a track record.
We try to hold ourselves to this. ENDS partners with works that were already running before we came alongside them: SLMIF in Chiang Mai, established in 2019, and Mission Impact India in Andhra Pradesh, established in 2017 and connected to roughly 250 national pastors. Our own curriculum is designed and being developed, not yet delivered at scale, and we say that on purpose. Watch how an organization talks about what it has actually done versus what it hopes to do.
Is there a named, accountable leader?
Ask who is in charge, by name. Not a brand, not a logo, not a vague reference to "our team on the ground." A real person, named, who answers for the work and can be reached.
Anonymity has its place when it protects vulnerable field workers in dangerous regions. That is a legitimate reason to withhold a name. But the organization asking for your money should still have accountable leadership you can identify. The two are different. One protects the sheep; the other hides the shepherd.
On our end, the works we partner with are led by named men: SLMIF under Rev. Dr. Yupho Mathusonsawan, and Mission Impact India under David Livingstone. Scripture assumes this kind of visible responsibility. Paul sends Titus and names him. He greets people by name, thanks them by name, and corrects them by name. Ministry in the New Testament is not faceless, and neither should the ministry you fund be. If no one will put their name to it, ask why.
Is the doctrine clear and stated?
A missions charity is spending your money to spread a message. You have every right to know what that message is. Look for a clear statement of faith, written plainly, that tells you what the organization believes about God, Scripture, sin, and salvation.
Vagueness here is not humility. An organization that will not say what it teaches may be trying to appeal to everyone, and a gospel that offends no one is usually not the gospel at all. You are not looking for a group that agrees with you on every secondary matter. You are looking for one that is willing to be pinned down on the main things.
You can read where we stand on our vision and about pages. Whether you land with us or elsewhere, insist on knowing what you are funding. Money is never neutral, and neither is teaching.
Is the financial reporting honest?
Ask where the money goes. A trustworthy organization will tell you, in numbers, and will not be annoyed that you asked. Look for a breakdown of how gifts are used, what portion reaches the field, and what overhead costs. Every organization has overhead; the honest ones name it instead of pretending it does not exist.
Be wary of appeals built entirely on emotion with no figures attached. Photographs and stories move the heart, and there is nothing wrong with either, but they are not a financial report. If every communication is a tug on your feelings and none is a plain accounting, that imbalance tells you something.
The costs in missions are real and worth understanding. A national pastor may be supported for something on the order of $85 a month in parts of Asia, while sending a Western missionary family to the field often runs $100,000 or more per year. Those figures vary widely by region and circumstance. The point is not that one number is always better, but that you deserve to see the real economics of what you are funding. You can read more about how we handle this on our accountability page.
Does it protect vulnerable people, and avoid claims it cannot back?
Two final checks, and both are about restraint. First, does the organization protect the people it serves? In sensitive regions, publishing names, faces, and locations of national workers can put them in real danger. A careful ministry withholds identifying detail on purpose. If a charity trades the safety of its workers for more compelling marketing, that is a serious warning sign about its priorities.
Second, watch for claims an organization cannot back. The clearest example is tax-deductibility. In the United States, a gift is only tax-deductible if the organization actually holds the proper standing with the IRS. Some groups imply this before it is true. We will name our own situation plainly: our 501(c)(3) status is pending, so we do not tell you your gift is tax-deductible, because right now it is not.
Put the warning signs together and a pattern emerges. Pressure to give immediately. Refusal to name leaders or state beliefs. No numbers, only feelings. Promises that sound too clean. Claims of official status that cannot be verified. None of these alone proves bad faith, but several together should slow you down. For more on what a giver is owed, see what donors deserve to know.
James Bell is Founder and Director of ENDS, Lead Pastor of First Baptist Church of Fenton, Michigan, founder of the Pastors Connection Network, and author and creator of LiveWell by James Bell. He writes on world missions, national-pastor training, and the unfinished work of the Great Commission. More about the team.