We thought about how over the years this must have included
tension points, then remembered a story John Corts, former
BGEA president, had told us. At the Boston campaign in 1950,
Billy wanted a television in his room, but it cost three dollars a
day, a significant amount then. The executive committee said it
would not pay that expense. Billy, knowing he had to keep up
with what was happening in the news and in the world, paid for
it out of his own pocket.
That was then. What about after decades of success?
Although our interviews made clear Billy was the driving
force in generating the revenues, he consistently accepted the
board’s role in making financial decisions. Many CEOs in that
position—enjoying friendships with presidents and top media
coverage—would have leveraged their power for personal privi-
leges. But Billy did not do that. With these high-capacity, soul-
mate trustees, he welcomed genuine partnership and proper
board dynamics. This allowed them to woodshed difficult issues
and to ensure both accountability and effectiveness.
Said George Bennett, who as Harvard’s treasurer as well as trea-
surer of the Graham organization would have an informed per-
spective, “I’ve never known an organization that has better financial
management than the BGEA. How that happened, I don’t really
know, except that Billy had an outstanding ability to pick people.
He picked the right people. They had outstanding financial control.”
Billy’s vision for accountability was not for his own organiza-
tion alone. In 1979 in the wake of financial scandals among some
nonprofit organizations, his business manager, George Wilson,
took the lead in founding the Evangelical Council for Financial
Accountability (ECFA), with Billy’s blessing. The BGEA drew key
organizations together to address the need, and today, earning the
ECFA’s seal of approval has become essential for Christian orga-
nizations to demonstrate their financial integrity. The ECFA reas-
sures donors by holding Christian organizations to many of the
same standards of accountability implemented by Billy with the
BGEA, including financial transparency, board governance, and
fund-raising honesty.
The Leadership Secrets of Billy Graham