Iowa · Nonprofit
ECS Ministries
ECS Ministries (Iowa) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,415,051 to it, the largest being BELIEVERS STEWARDSHIP SERVICES INC ($1,049,624). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 77% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $716k
- Funders on record
- 11
- Grants received
- $1.4M
- Net assets
- $1.3M
What ECS Ministries does
Mission
To glorify God by providing biblically sound resources and structured study material to teach people from every nation to accept Christ as their Savior and Lord, grow in Christ, and share their faith with others.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Worldwide Bible Study Ministry:Emmaus Worldwide develops and distributes Bible studies designed to deepen understanding of God's Word and encourage a faithful walk with Christ. With over 100 courses available in 86 languages and used in more than 110 countries, our studies foster connection and growth through personal mentorship. At the core of our ministry is a network of over 2,400 Emmaus mentors worldwide who correspond with students, offering encouragement and guidance on their journey with Christ. (Continue on Schedule O)In addition to our traditional paper-based correspondence study, our Emmaus Bible and Courses app provides many of these same studies digitally in more than 30 languages, allowing people to study Scripture wherever they are. In calendar year 2024, 1,408,448 paper courses were distributed in 123 countries. In calendar year 2024, 195,311 digital app courses were started in 198 countries.
$280,676 spentof which $34,525 as grants$94,803 earned by the program40% of program spendingU.S. Prison Bible Study Ministry:Emmaus Worldwide develops and distributes Bible studies designed to deepen understanding of God's Word and encourage a faithful walk with Christ. For many, that journey begins behind bars. Over the past two decades, we have distributed an average of 200,000 courses per year to prisons and jails across the U.S. We receive a steady flow of testimonies from inmates who have encountered God's Word personally and have experienced transformation and freedom through faith in Christ, even while still incarcerated. (Continue on Schedule O)In fiscal year 2025, approximately 76,085 printed courses were distributed to inmates in the United States.
$341,573 spent$116,212 earned by the program49% of program spendingTestimony, Encouragement, and Devotional Ministry:Emmaus Worldwide gathers and shares testimonies of lives transformed through the study of God's Word across its global and U.S. prison ministries. Based on this work, we develop and distribute Scripture-based devotional content informed by real-life discipleship experiences, encouraging individuals to reflect on Scripture, engage in prayer, and grow in their walk with Christ. (Continue on Schedule O)Through testimony-based and devotional resources, this ministry shares accounts of God's faithfulness and transforming work, strengthening believers and fostering spiritual growth, gratitude, and unity among participants and the broader Christian community.
$79,196 spent11% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $701,445.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2019 to 2020, from $2.8M to $2.3M (−20%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2021 16% · 2022 30%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
68% of ECS Ministries’s revenue is contributions — more earned-revenue than three-quarters of its peers (100% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 6 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Patrick Clough
Executive Director
Board chair
Ian Taylor
Board Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2020 and FY2021, and between the FY2022 and FY2023 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 5 funders to 6 funders, grant income fell $115k → $73k.
3 of 11 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 77% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of ECS Ministries’s funders (the co-funder graph). Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
ECS Ministries leans on a few funders — its largest provides 74% of grant income and the top three 88%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
80% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund ECS Ministries.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 62% · 2018 98% · 2019 97% · 2020 84% · 2021 46% · 2022 53% · 2023 44% — diversifying over time.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
50% of ECS Ministries's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 82% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
77% of ECS Ministries's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $331k that is directly attributable, 100% of it comes from funders outside Iowa, across 7 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.1M arriving through sponsors registered in 3 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
ECS Ministries receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $1.4M to it.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 7,334 religion nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like ECS Ministries
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Iowa
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
71% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
79%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Charitable Remainder Trust · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ECS Ministries: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds ECS Ministries?
- ECS Ministries (Iowa) receives grants from 11 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,415,051 to it, the largest being BELIEVERS STEWARDSHIP SERVICES INC ($1,049,624). 9 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 77% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does ECS Ministries have?
- IRS filings report 11 organizations giving $1,415,051 in grants to ECS Ministries, 9 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ECS Ministries?
- BELIEVERS STEWARDSHIP SERVICES INC is the largest funder on record, with $1,049,624 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ECS Ministries find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Iowa. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds ECS Ministries →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 11 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing