Raising the Standard of Care for Leaders.

We are excited to announce this new Leadership Standard inspired by ECFA members and developed with their input over the last few years.

The need for more intentional leader care is clear. In a recent ECFA survey, 94% of respondents indicated that integrity failures are having a negative impact on trust. We’ve also heard increasing concerns regarding leaders who are burning out or dropping out of ministry due to the lack of proactive care and support in their roles.

This new standard will ensure ECFA-accredited church and ministry boards purposefully come alongside their organizations’ senior leaders to establish biblical character expectations and to be proactive in caring for their integrity—with the goal of encouraging healthy, Christ-centered leadership and enhancing trust consistent with ECFA’s mission.

ECFA exists to help Christian ministries and churches maintain a healthy and trusted reputation as they work to effectively reach the world for Christ. For decades, ECFA has been the gold standard for donors to find and evaluate accountable organizations that share their Christian values.

Integrity failures pose one of the greatest financial risks to churches and ministries today. There is a critical connection between leadership integrity and financial accountability. The tone at the top set by the leader matters in creating a ministry culture where ECFA’s financial accountability standards can thrive.

Click here to review the draft Leadership Standard and Commentary.

See the “Policy for Excellence in Supporting Leadership Integrity” in the draft Leadership Standard and Commentary outlining the specific steps for ECFA members to follow to meet the standard.

This includes a requirement that an organization’s board engage with its leader at least annually to discuss holistic care for its leader and the leader’s commitment to upholding biblical principles. The specific steps required under the Leadership Standard may be delegated to a board-approved committee (such as a governance, personnel, or spiritual care committee) consisting of a majority of independent members to proactively care for the leader and support the leader’s integrity.

No. The Leadership Standard is focused on supporting healthy leadership through the board’s proactive care for the integrity of the leader as a whole person based on biblical principles. 

The standard gives members significant latitude to implement a process that’s best suited for their context as they work to meet the spirit of the standard.

The Leadership Standard would strengthen—not eliminate—any of ECFA’s current standards. We are adding this new standard and merging two of our existing standards—Standard 3 (Financial Oversight) and Standard 5 (Transparency)—to maintain seven total standards in keeping with ECFA’s Seven Standards of Responsible Stewardship™.

The Leadership Standard is not currently required for ECFA’s accredited members. We are inviting your feedback on the draft standard through May 31, 2024.

We will carefully review all feedback before the ECFA Board is expected to finalize the draft standard in the fall of 2024.

Once the final standard is approved, we anticipate offering a two-year period (2025-2026) for member education and early adoption to assist ECFA-accredited members in implementing the standard. All members would then be expected to demonstrate standard compliance during the 2027 accreditation renewal cycle.