Dan Busby
{{short description|American accountant and president of the ECFA (1941–2022)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
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{{Infobox person
| name = Dan Busby
| image = Dan Busby headshot (cropped).jpg
| alt = Head shot of Busby smiling
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth year|1941}}
| birth_place = Kansas, U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|2022|9|28|1941|mf=yes}}
| death_place = Winchester, Virginia, U.S.
| other_names =
| occupation = Accountant
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| education = Emporia State University (MBA)
| spouse = {{marriage|Claudette Busby|1964}}
| children = 2
}}
Dan Busby (1941 – September 28, 2022) was an American accountant. He served as president of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability from 2008 to 2020, the longest-serving president to date. Before he became president, he worked as an accountant for various organizations and founded his own accounting firm in 1975. Busby joined the ECFA in 1989 and became a full time staff member and senior vice president ten years later.
Busby's presidency of the ECFA saw memberships nearly double and a 97% retention rate. However, critics like Julie Roys point out that the ECFA under Busby failed to quickly suspend member organizations with significant financial mismanagement.
Life and career
Busby was born in 1941 to Howard and Bertha Orr Busby. Raised in Lamont, Kansas, his mother worked as a schoolteacher and his father was a pastor of a Wesleyan Church. As a child, he frequently attended camp meetings and committed his life to Christianity at a meeting when he was fourteen years old. Busby also developed an interest in baseball, studying with a Minor League Baseball umpire so he could become a professional umpire himself.{{cite web|url=https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2022/september/dan-busby-died-ecfa-evangelical-ministry-finances.html|title=Died: Dan Busby, Accountant Who Set Standards for Ministry Finances|last=Silliman|first=Daniel|date=September 28, 2022|website=Christianity Today|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240418050731/https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2022/september/dan-busby-died-ecfa-evangelical-ministry-finances.html|archive-date=April 18, 2024}}
Busby studied accounting at Emporia State University and received his Master of Business Administration there.{{cite web|url=https://www.ecfa.org/Content/Long-Time-ECFA-Leader-Dan-Busby-with-the-Lord|title=Long-Time ECFA Leader Dan Busby with the Lord|website=Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability|archive-date=August 10, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240810053550/https://www.ecfa.org/Content/Long-Time-ECFA-Leader-Dan-Busby-with-the-Lord|url-status=live}} In 2014, the university named him a distinguished alumnus.{{cite web|url=https://sites.google.com/g.emporia.edu/distinguished-alumni/home|title=Distinguished Alumni Past Recipients|website=Hornet 365|publisher=Emporia State University|archive-date=August 24, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240824032106/https://sites.google.com/g.emporia.edu/distinguished-alumni/home|url-status=live}} In 1964, Busby became a certified public accountant and married Claudette, with whom he would have two children. In the 1970s, Dan and Claudette produced three albums of gospel music and held over 200 concerts together. After receiving his MBA, Busby worked at the University of Kansas Medical Center as a comptroller and later founded a Kansas City accounting firm now known as Keller and Owens in 1975. The firm's clients were predominantly Christian ministries and Busby became an expert on accounting matters related to fundraising.{{cite web|url=https://religionnews.com/2022/09/29/dan-busby-longest-serving-president-of-evangelical-financial-watchdog-dies-at-81/|title=Dan Busby, longest-serving president of evangelical financial watchdog, dies at 81|last=Banks|first=Adelle M.|date=September 29, 2022|website=Religion News Service|archive-date=August 11, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240811000239/https://religionnews.com/2022/09/29/dan-busby-longest-serving-president-of-evangelical-financial-watchdog-dies-at-81/|url-status=live}} Busby then stepped down from his position at the firm in 1985 to work as the chief financial officer at the Wesleyan Church.{{cite web|url=https://thenonprofittimes.com/npt_articles/influential-evangelical-leader-dan-busby-dies/|title=Influential Evangelical Leader Dan Busby Dies|date=October 6, 2022|website=The NonProfit Times|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221014130347/https://thenonprofittimes.com/npt_articles/influential-evangelical-leader-dan-busby-dies/|archive-date=October 14, 2022}}
In 1989, Busby joined the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability as a volunteer member of their standards committee.{{cite web|url=https://nrb.org/in-memoriam-dan-busby/|title=In Memoriam: Dan Busby|date=September 29, 2022|website=National Religious Broadcasters|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240516185936/https://nrb.org/in-memoriam-dan-busby/|archive-date=May 16, 2024}} Ten years later, he joined the ECFA staff and was elected senior vice president of the organization. In 2008, he became president. He was the first certified public accountant to lead the ECFA and strove to further professionalize the ministry and raise its standards. Under his leadership, the ECFA saw membership levels nearly double and the organization maintained a 97% retention rate.
When Senator Chuck Grassley initiated an investigation into six prosperity gospel ministries for misuse of donations in 2007, Busby convinced him in 2011 that additional financial regulations would infringe religious liberty and that self-regulation was the best response.{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/07/us/07ministers.html|title=Senator Questioning Ministries on Spending|last=Goodstein|first=Laurie|date=November 7, 2007|url-access=limited|website=The New York Times|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240823080023/https://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/07/us/07ministers.html|archive-date=August 23, 2024}} Busby also helped form the Commission on Accountability and Policy for Religious Organizations in response to Grassley's investigation which recommended that ministries give "reasonable" compensation to leaders and that compensation information be available to donors upon request.
Busby grew wary of internet watchdogs and bloggers, believing their criticisms of church ministries to be reckless and unfair. In 2016, Busby was fined $9,000 for the unlicensed use of the CPA title. He had not renewed his Kansas CPA license since 2000 and had moved to Virginia two years earlier. Busby received another CPA license from the Virginia board of Accountancy in December 2016.{{cite web|url=https://julieroys.com/president-evangelical-financial-accountability-group-fined-falsely-claiming-cpa/|title=President of Evangelical Financial Accountability Group Fined for Unlicensed Use of CPA Title|last=Roys|first=Julie|date=March 18, 2019|website=The Roys Report}} Busby also came under fire from reporters like Julie Roys in 2019 for being slow to revoke accreditation to organizations with serious financial mismanagement. In 2020, he retired and became president emeritus, having been longest-serving president {{as of|2025|lc=y}}.
After his retirement, Busby wrote books about Babe Ruth and Jackie Robinson based on memorabilia of the era; his final book was published a month before his death. Throughout his life, he visited every Major League Baseball stadium, including twenty no longer in existence. He was also a longtime member of the Society for American Baseball Research. After battling cancer, Busby died on September 28, 2022, in his house in Winchester, Virginia.
Selected bibliography
- {{cite book|last1=Busby|first1=Dan|last2=Laue|first2=Vonna|last3=Martin|first3=Michael|last4=Van Drunen|first4=John|oclc=25140319|title=Zondervan's minister's tax and financial guide|publisher=Zondervan|date=1992}}
- {{cite book|last=Busby|first=Dan|title=Trust: The Firm Foundation for Kingdom Fruitfulness|publisher=ECFA Press|date=2015|ISBN=9781936233229}}
- {{cite book|last=Busby|first=Dan|title=Before and after Babe Ruth: A story of the New York Yankees told through the lens of Tickets and Passes|publisher=Foundation for Baseball Ticket Research|date=2018|ISBN=9781732469105}}
- {{cite book|last1=Busby|first1=Dan|last2=Pearson|first2=John|title=Lessons from the Church Boardroom: 40 Insights for Exceptional Governance|publisher=EFCA Press|date=2019|ISBN=9781949365153}}
- {{cite book|last=Busby|first=Dan|title=Before and After Jackie Robinson, A Story of the Brooklyn Dodgers Told Through the Lens of Tickets and Passes|publisher=Foundation for Baseball Ticket Research|date=2022|ISBN=9781732469112}}