Digital Tentmaker

Should we become a nonprofit?

That is not a rhetorical question. We are genuinely asking.

The apostle Paul was the original tentmaker. He worked with his hands so that he would not be a burden to anyone. He provided not only for his own needs, but for the needs of those who were with him. He paid his own way. By every reasonable implication, that means he paid his taxes too.

A lot has been done in the name of nonprofits. Not all of it was wrong. Andrew Carnegie founded the Carnegie Corporation in 1911, two years before the federal income tax even existed. He had already given away $150 million and built 2,509 public libraries. His published philosophy was to give it all away in his lifetime. We will not put him in the same category as what came next.

But then came the Revenue Act of 1935, which imposed a 70% estate tax on fortunes over $50 million. The Ford family held 96.9% of Ford Motor Company stock. In January 1936, they created the Ford Foundation. Not to give their money away, but to keep from losing control of the company when they died. That is documented. It is not disputed.

The Clinton Foundation amended its tax returns after failing to disclose foreign government donations. Whistleblowers testified before Congress in December 2018. The IRS opened a criminal probe in 2019. The Gates Foundation invests in pharmaceutical companies and then makes grants to those same companies. A $200 million library program partnered with Microsoft to donate Microsoft software. These are verifiable facts, not accusations.

Meanwhile, parachurch organizations have spent decades feeding off the church like a leech while never actually being the church. We will not name names here. But we will describe the beast.

There are organizations that tell the federal government they are churches when they know full well they are not. They do this so they can avoid filing Form 990, the public financial disclosure that every other nonprofit must file. They claim the exemption that belongs to actual congregations so that no one can see where the money goes. That is not humility. That is the opposite of transparency. It is the opposite of everything Paul stood for.

Some of these organizations take 15% or more from the missionaries they claim to support. The people on the ground raising their own funds, living by faith, and these organizations skim off the top before a dollar reaches the field. We know this because our founder lived it between 2004 and 2006. Published audits estimate global Christian giving fraud at $62 billion annually. That is not a typo.

So here is what we will do instead. Digital Tentmaker commits to giving 15% of all revenue back to missionaries. Not taking from them. Giving to them. National missionaries in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and wherever the work is being done. The same percentage that was taken from our founder will be returned to the field. They took 15%. We give 15%.

And then there is the tax receipt. After the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act nearly doubled the standard deduction, roughly 90% of American taxpayers stopped itemizing. For 9 out of 10 donors, a 501(c)(3) receipt has zero tax value. The 10th donor, in the 22% bracket, saves $22 on a $100 gift. So the question is simple: is the mission worth $100 to you, or only $78?

So we are asking honestly: should Digital Tentmaker seek 501(c)(3) status? Or should we just build software, pay our taxes, and let the work speak for itself?

This wisdom is not ours. All things were made by him and for him. He said that those who humble themselves will be exalted, and those who exalt themselves will be humbled. We would rather get in the dust than build another foundation that exists to serve itself.