California · Nonprofit
LIVING WATERS PUBLICATIONS
LIVING WATERS PUBLICATIONS (California) receives grants from 28 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,951,963 to it, the largest being NATL CHRISTIAN CHARITABLE FDN INC ($297,650). 19 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 54% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $6.2M
- Funders on record
- 28
- Grants received
- $2.0M
- Net assets
- $7.4M
What Living Waters Publications does
Mission
To publish, produce, distribute, and sell/donate religious books, tracts, pamphlets, video and audio tapes as well as provide radio, web and t.v. Programming to teach christians how to share their faith effectively.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
The way of the master television series (program expenditures - $579,084.42)the way of the master television program, produces 13 high-quality episodes per season, which we distribute to our network of partner television stations. The show continued to focus on filming out on the streets where the hosts interview people and share their faith. The 2024 season of our television series aired on television networks such as nrb tv, day star, miracle channel, inspiration tv, and a current total of 71 networks, local stations across the globe, and streaming sites. New networks and streaming sites continue to be added as we move forward. Re-runs of our prior four seasons may continue to be broadcast at the discretion of the broadcaster. Living waters continues to release our prior seasons of way of the master free of charge to the public via youtube, and is now being carried on our livingwaters.tv platform in 2024. Pre-production and filming for season 10 began in fall 2023. Our desire is to help as many people as possible to begin taking advantage of the critical biblical evangelism teaching and instruction within those videos.
$579,084 spent$51,455 earned by the program18% of program spendingStreet evangelism (program expenditures - $571,484.40)this weekly program focuses on preaching the biblical principle of man's need for repentance and salvation at outdoor venues such as parks, beaches, higher educational facilities, and anywhere the general public might be found in large numbers. In addition to speaking, the printed resources of the organization are passed out and discussed one-on-one between ministry volunteers and members of the general public. The program also supplies resources, free of charge, to employees as an ongoing encouragement to be engaged in the practice of street and personal evangelism in their everyday surroundings. This program also involves the staff development of new or revised printed resources. For the year ended december 31, 2024, the organization generated and distributed five new gospel tracts. The program is highly effective in that biblical teaching is going out to the public on a regular basis, and in that it provides a consistent real-world opportunity for the training of christians to effectively share their faith. The organization have continued to support local and state volunteers who attended local conferences, book fairs, and…
$571,484 spent18% of program spendingWeb / youtube (program expenditures - $479,609.96)in order to fill the need for the release of daily/weekly instructional and inspiring web content, we continue to aggressively create and upload instructional content to youtube and our other social media accounts, such as facebook. We have seen that this shift is extremely beneficial for both the ministry in capturing measurable results, as well as providing an abundance of free content to the public.
$479,610 spent15% of program spendingBenevolence (program expenditures - $0.00)this simple program seeks to meet urgent, critical needs of individuals and families made know to the organization. Assistance can be in the form of limited financial help, such as the paying of a utility bill, or in providing connection to other organizations that might be able to offer assistance by means beyond the scope of our organization. Each request for assistance is evaluated by the management of the organization to determine whether or not the request falls within our scope to address, as well as by determining the best short-term and long-term solution alternatives. This program saw no activity in 2024.
Living waters espanol formerly spanish language outreach (program expenditures - $209,385.09)this program serves as a means for supporters of the organization to partner with us to have certain evangelistic teaching and resource materials translated into different languages. While we are actively translating some of our simple messages and resources into accessible digital resources, our primary focus remains on translating a wide variety of resources into the spanish language, as it is befitting our current area demographic and the explosion of growth in the christian body in latin america. We continue to build our spanish web and television broadcast presence through continued engagement with various broadcast companies. We also provided conference speakers throughout the year in mexico and various countries in latin america.
$209,385 spentof which $25,685 as grants6% of program spendingInt'l missions project (program expenditures - $61,469.69)this program serves various volunteer representatives in europe, asia, columbia, and australia. These volunteers run private bookstores and web stores through which they provide evangelistic resources to the public in their own country. We provide assistance to these individuals to help them effectively teach the principles of biblical evangelism and make instructional resources available to them in order to aid them in making their evangelistic mission successful.in this program, we also offer technical as well as limited financial support and evangelistic resource materials. For the year ended december 31, 2024, we continued to help our partners in these regions build up their local presence and provide new resources. Additionally, we provided limited monetary support or physical inventory credit support in order to help fulfill our evangelistic mission in those regions of the world.
$61,470 spentof which $33,720 as grants2% of program spendingConferences/speaking engagements (program expenditures - $174,384.17)living waters continues to suspend the majority of our living waters hosted conference outreaches. We will continue to evaluate the economic climate in the coming years, as well as the overall effectiveness of the conference training model. In lieu of this, we have been concentrating on sending living waters staff speakers out to events, both domestic and international, as per invitations received. Our raft of available speakers continues to grow in popularity, and speaking engagements continue to be scheduled year-round. For the year ended december 31, 2024, our speakers were able to engage in 17 in-person events nationwide. These were located in the states of california, texas, minnesota, kentucky, michigan, connecticut, georgia, kansas, mississippi, tennessee, and north carolina. Additionally, our speakers were a part of two international conferences in france and canada. Speakers also participated as remote online speakers for conferences in ireland and new zealand.
$174,384 spentof which $1,500 as grants$43,535 earned by the program5% of program spendingOutreach (school of biblical evangelism/livingwaters.tv formerly lw equip) (program expenditures - $368,228.45)the school of biblical evangelism (sobe) is an online bible college, dedicated to training men and women to proclaim the gospel of jesus christ. The college was established in 2001 by the organization. Through 101 online lessons, including audios, articles, and videos, students are challenged to have a biblical worldview. Each lesson is designed to equip the students to defend the historic christian faith. The course takes approximately six months to complete.livingwaters.tv (formerly lw equip) is a streaming service channel which was launched in fall 2024. The basic format of living waters tv consists of video content including equip apologetics videos, episodes of our television program "way of the master," movies, episodes of our podcast, spanish content, and classic comfort videos. The streaming platform is organized by categories and speakers and offers free content and paid subscription options to our supporters.
$368,229 spent11% of program spendingAmbassadors' academy (program expenditures - $201,434.34this program was originally commissioned at the end of 2007. Its purpose is to bring would-be evangelists to living waters for three days of intense classroom and practical training on how to share one's faith and how to start an evangelism outreach at the participants' local church. The goal is to serve the church and individuals within the church in the area of maintaining an ongoing, effective evangelism outreach. The area of interest is global. For the year ended december 31, 2024, we continued our in-person academy training program in june.
$201,434 spentof which $26,055 as grants6% of program spendingWay of the master podcast outreach (program expenditures - $370,166.47)the living waters podcast is a humorous, chart-topping podcast as hosts ray comfort, emeal ("e.z.") zwayne, mark spence, oscar navarro, and special guests explore the pressing questions of our day with sound theology and apologetics. The podcast is available on livingwaters.com/podcast, apple podcast, spotify, google podcasts, cast box, and other apps.
$370,166 spent11% of program spendingHeart changer projects (program expenditures - $22,945.68)in 2011, living waters produced a "world-changing" pro-life documentary called "180 - changing the heart of a nation. And thus, was born our educational heart changer film series. The goal of this film series is to highlight integral social and spiritual issues and share with people the truth of the biblical worldview necessary to make life-changing decisions regarding these issues. Since 2011, living waters has produced and made available for purchase or free on youtube over nine other projects.to date, many of these titles have been dubbed into spanish or other languages and are freely available on youtube, as well as broadcast on various television stations and streaming platforms. For the year ended december 31, 2024, no new film was released. All films are now freely available on youtube.
$22,946 spent1% of program spendingOther donations and grants (program expenditures - $188,186.87)during the year, living waters will make donations to an unspecified number of qualified, unrelated non-profit organizations that have similar goals and objectives to our organization, or that serve to benefit disease or health related research. These donations are selected at the discretion of executive management and the board of directors. Such donations serve to promote evangelistic efforts and the overall goodwill of the organization.
$188,187 spentof which $188,187 as grants6% of program spending
The 12 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $3,226,379.
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 2020 to 2021, from $5.1M to $7.2M (+42%).
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 6%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
78% of LIVING WATERS PUBLICATIONS’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (90% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 8 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
Raymond Comfort
CEO
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 6 funders to 16 funders, grant income rose $108k → $323k.
12 of 28 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 54% 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 LIVING WATERS PUBLICATIONS’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
LIVING WATERS PUBLICATIONS has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 15% of grant income, and it takes 5 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 5 funders to its left
64% 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 LIVING WATERS PUBLICATIONS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 46% · 2018 42% · 2019 41% · 2020 28% · 2021 24% · 2022 27% · 2023 15% — 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
57% of LIVING WATERS PUBLICATIONS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 68% 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
54% of LIVING WATERS PUBLICATIONS'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 $901k that is directly attributable, 96% of it comes from funders outside California, across 9 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 10 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
LIVING WATERS PUBLICATIONS holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 2,394 religion nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 2,394 religion nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like LIVING WATERS PUBLICATIONS
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 California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
52% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
97%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for LIVING WATERS PUBLICATIONS: 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 LIVING WATERS PUBLICATIONS?
- LIVING WATERS PUBLICATIONS (California) receives grants from 28 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,951,963 to it, the largest being NATL CHRISTIAN CHARITABLE FDN INC ($297,650). 19 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 54% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does LIVING WATERS PUBLICATIONS have?
- IRS filings report 28 organizations giving $1,951,963 in grants to LIVING WATERS PUBLICATIONS, 19 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of LIVING WATERS PUBLICATIONS?
- NATL CHRISTIAN CHARITABLE FDN INC is the largest funder on record, with $297,650 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like LIVING WATERS PUBLICATIONS find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 28 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