Charity Navigator, “America’s Largest Charity Evaluator,” has several “Top Ten” lists for charities that stand out in particular ways (sometimes good ways, sometimes bad ways). What caught my eye was seeing the Christian Research Institute at the top of the list of 10 Charities in Deep Financial Trouble.

In explaining why these ten charities are considered to be in deep financial trouble, Charity Navigator says,

If an organization owes more than it owns, that’s a bad sign. If the bills it owes by the end of the year are more than it can pay, that’s an even worse sign. These 10 charities are insolvent. Not only do their total liabilities, or what they owe, exceed their total assets, they also maintain negative working capital — that is, the bills they owe in the next year exceed the short-term assets they can use to pay those bills. While these charities may not be facing bankruptcy, their fundamental insolvency puts these charities in a very dangerous position.

They give CRI one star (out of four) overall. Revenue was down significantly for CRI in 2007, leaving them with $-374,464 of net assets and $-2,471,537 of working capital.

Is this just the unfortunate result of the struggling economy, or is something deeper going on here? Are people just not able to give as much, and CRI hasn’t been able to adapt quickly enough; or is there a fundamental flaw behind the reason why giving has dropped off or why CRI is spending more than they are bringing in?

I enjoy listening to the Bible Answer Man radio broadcast. I think Hank Hanegraaff gives good answers to most questions, and I appreciate his knowledge and ability to explain things clearly. I’ve also appreciated some of the articles produced by CRI. (Many articles from their Christian Research Journal are available on the CRI website.)

However, Google “Hank Hanegraaff” and you’ll also find this site detailing some decidedly un-Christlike behavior on the part of CRI’s current president. I’m not going to go through all the dirt on the way Hank Hanegraaff has purportedly run CRI, but it does make me wonder: is their current financial state a reflection of integrity within the leadership of the organization?