Financial accountability
Where the money goes
Everything you read about on this site runs on money people gave in trust. This page keeps that trust in plain sight: what we spent, who checked the books, and where you can verify every number for yourself.
Program work took 76 cents of every dollar in 2025 — $1.9 million of a $2.5 million total. Of that, $1.5 million went out as direct grants to ministry on the ground in South Sudan, Sudan, DR Congo, and Ethiopia. The rest of the program share paid for what our US team does to keep those programs running: training, trips, and church-planting support. We have no American programs. Everything points at Northeast Africa.
The other 24 cents covered management and fundraising — the administration that keeps a 501(c)(3) in good order, and the invitations that make next year’s work possible.
A note on salaries
Our US team includes support-raised staff, who invite the friends and churches who believe in this work to fund their role, as well as full-time volunteers who draw no salary at all.
Held to outside standards
Don’t take our word for it
Three independent organizations examine how Empower One is governed, funded, and run. Each one publishes what it finds.
Accreditation by the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability means we submit every year to independent standards for board governance, financial oversight, and truthfulness in fundraising.
View our ECFA profile →
Candid’s Gold Seal of Transparency means our finances, leadership, and results are published openly on the nation’s largest nonprofit database.
View our Candid profile →
Excellence in Giving analysts have vetted our strategy, spending, and outcomes. Their full report is open to anyone.
View our Excellence in Giving profile →The paper trail
Reviewed by an independent firm
Each year HM&M Group, LLC, an independent accounting firm in Dallas, reviews our financial statements and reports its conclusions to our board. The full reports are posted here. No request form, no waiting.
IRS Form 990s are available on request.
Empower One is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Legal name: Cush Empowerment Group · EIN 46-1178004.
The bottom line
Sent to the field
Direct grants to ministry on the ground — the money that left our accounts for Africa — from the same reviewed statements.
If these numbers give you confidence, we’d be glad to have you in the work.
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