Trinity Foundation: A General Overview

Trinity Foundation began in November 1972 as a public, nonprofit organization serving the public interest through religious communications. The foundation produced its own concerts and radio and television programs for the first few years of its existence. However, we quickly became disillusioned with religious broadcasting, having determined that the only way to truly communicate the love of God was by deeds, not words. Accordingly, we have been providing food, shelter, and a sense of community to the poor and distressed since 1976.

An early skepticism about the way religious programming is bought and sold prompted Trinity to conduct a controversial research project on the audience demographics and ratings of religious broadcasting. By the time scandals rocked the religious television industry in the 1980s, Trinity was already monitoring religious programming and reporting abuses of the public trust. In the 1990s Trinity Foundation became the leading "watchdog" of religious media, conducting investigations and providing information used to expose fraud and abuses committed in the name of God.

Organization

Trinity Foundation was formally chartered by the State of Texas as a nonprofit public corporation in January 1973 and is deemed to be a public charity for federal tax purposes under sections 501(c)(3) and 509(a)(1) of the Internal Revenue Service Code. The board of directors is elected by the members. All books and financial records are open to the public .

After a year-long self-study of the foundation's governance and structure in 2008, the foundation reorganized to make its Board of Directors more effective. It also improved accountability by its management and staff and brought the whole foundation into better alignment with best practices for non-profits. The new structure is helping the staff and volunteers make an even bigger impact. The foundation also plans to begin producing an Annual Report that will be made publicly available.

The Wittenburg Door

Trinity Foundation has published The Wittenburg Door magazine since 1995. A companion website was launched in 2007. The Door has a 34-year-old history of satirizing spiritual excess. [In 2008, publication of the magazine was put on hold pending a financial reorganization. The plan is to re-emerge in an even better position to tweak its nose at all that is pompous and self-serving in the world of religion].

Investigations

The foundation regularly provides assistance to print and electronic journalists investigating suspected fraud or other abuses of the public trust by members of the religious media. The foundation maintains a private investigative license with the State of Texas and frequently provides undercover operatives and research to news programs like PrimeTime Live, 60 Minutes, Dateline, CNN Special Reports, 20/20, British Broadcasting Corporation, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and Inside Edition, among many others. We have also worked with The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Economist, London Independent, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and The Dallas Morning News.

Foundation representatives have been called on to provide testimony for Congressional hearings examining abuses by America's television evangelists. The foundation has also provided investigative reports to various agencies of state and federal government. Most recently, we've worked closely with Sen. Charles Grassley and his Senate Finance Committee investigation of abuses by televangelists and other ministries.

Victims' Help Line

The foundation sponsors and staffs America's only nationwide toll-free help line (1-800-229-VICTIM) for people who believe they or a loved one have been victimized by a televangelist.

Archive

Trinity Foundation maintains a nationally recognized video archive of televangelism broadcasts, a print-media clip-file and extensive direct-mail files on approximately 300 televangelists. Information requests are met regularly from local, regional, national and worldwide media outlets.

The Dallas Project

The foundation is administrative sponsor of The Dallas Project, which challenges churches, synagogues, private charities and other organizations whose charter calls for the meeting of human need to actually take responsibility for needy and homeless individuals. Its goal is to cause a revolution in the welfare system through groups of 10 to 20 families adopting a welfare recipient or homeless person and doing what is necessary to turn his or her life around.

Ministry

Trinity Foundation sponsors several nondenominational home church groups with the goal of recapturing the first century Christian experience. Recordings of our morning bible studies can be found here. Trinity's membership comes from many states and countries, but primarily from the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. Members are from various denominations and walks of life.

Really Ancient History

In the mid-'70s and early `80s, the foundation sponsored The Samizdat Group. Samizdat is a Russian word meaning hidden or privately published. It has come to describe a wide spectrum of material from repressed people, primarily in the former Soviet Union and eastern block countries, published without government permission. Trinity Foundation received this material and put it in a form usable by the Western media. Publication in the West gave these political and religious dissidents leverage in their countries when other avenues of expression had been cut off.

The foundation produced a radio talk show called One Trinity Place, which aired in Dallas/Fort Worth for about two years. The show presented interviews with many world leaders and Christians who talked about their walk with God in an open format. One Trinity Place was named the "best program of its kind" by the National Religious Broadcasters. Approximately 500 hours of programming were aired. Cross Fire, a book that presented the most interesting interviews from One Trinity Place, was published by Logos International and sold 500,000 copies worldwide.