Wall Watchers - Ministry Personnel.

Howard J. 'Rusty' Leonard, CFA
Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
Founder

Mr. Leonard is the Founder and CEO of Stewardship Partners Investment Counsel, Inc. located in Charlotte, North Carolina. Stewardship Partners is an investment manager dedicated to helping Christian investors align their investing with their biblically-based worldview utilizing a Biblically Responsible Investing (BRI) approach. Stewardship Partners is a recognized leader in the field of Biblically Responsible Investing and serves institutions and individuals using separately managed accounts. Prior to forming Stewardship Partners, Mr. Leonard was Executive Vice President of Templeton Investment Counsel, Inc. During his 10+ years at Templeton Mr. Leonard served on the firm’s Portfolio Management Committee and managed $3.5 billion of mutual fund and separate account assets in both global and international mandates. Mr. Leonard played an important role in the success and rapid growth that Templeton’s institutional business enjoyed during the 1990’s and was regularly ranked by his colleagues at Templeton as one of the firm’s top securities analysts. Prior to joining Templeton in 1989, Mr. Leonard served as the Director of Investment Research for First Pennsylvania Bank and earlier as a securities analyst at Provident National Bank. Mr. Leonard’s career in the investment business actually began at the age of 19 when he became a licensed stock broker. He received his CFA designation in 1984, one of the youngest ever to receive this prestigious designation.

Mr. Leonard also owns and serves as CEO of the Biblically Responsible Investing Institute, Inc. The BRI Institute is the leading organization that compiles information on the actions of public corporations that might be of concern to Christian investors. This information is used by Stewardship Partners as well as other Christian institutions and financial advisors seeking to be good stewards of the wealth the Lord has entrusted them with.

Mr. Leonard has served as Treasurer of the Philadelphia Society of Security Analysts and served as a member of the Board of Regents of the CFA institute’s Financial Analyst Seminar from 1999 until 2003. He has been a frequent speaker at CFA Institute and other investment conferences on the subject of global investing. He also served as a member of the CFA Institute’s Global Financial Reporting Advocacy Committee that seeks to influence the rulings made by the International Accounting Standards Board. Mr. Leonard is also a member of The Gathering, a group of large donors to Christian ministries, and the Council for National Policy. He is a Charter member of Kingdom Advisors, a group headed by prominent Christian financial planner Ron Blue and serves on the leadership team of Kingdom Advisors’ BRI Focus group.

Mr. Leonard and his wife Carol founded a non-profit ministry, Wall Watchers, in 1998. Wall Watchers provides insightful research reports on Christian ministries for use by current and prospective donors to those organizations (www.MininstryWatch.com). Additionally, the ministry provides a website (www.thegoodsteward.com) that is a compendium of thousands of articles on the subject of Christian stewardship. Between 120,000 and 200,000 users access these websites in a typical month. Mr. Leonard is currently CEO and Chairman of the Board for Wall Watchers, which is located in Matthews, North Carolina. Additionally, Mr. Leonard co-authors a column on the subject of charity for World Magazine. The work of MinistryWatch.com has been featured on ABC’s 20/20, The O’Reilly Factor and Good Morning America as well as in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and many other media outlets.

Mr. Leonard also serves on the board of directors of the Strategic Resource Group, a non-profit ministry which seeks to mobilize and direct prayer, people and funds into partnership with churches and key ministries in the 10-40 window. He also serves on the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelism’s Resource Mobilization Working Group.

Mr. Leonard is a graduate of Temple University (BBA with a double major in Finance and Economics, 1981). At Temple, Mr. Leonard served as Vice President of his class, as Ombudsman for the School of Business and won the Financial Executives Institute Award given annually to the Temple’s top finance student.

Rusty and Carol have three children, Derek (21), Amy (19) and Jessina (15) and have been active homeschoolers. The Leonard’s currently reside in Chester Springs, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia, and attend Calvary Fellowship Church.

Rodney L. Pitzer, CFE
Chief Operating Officer (COO)
Managing Director of Research

Mr. Pitzer joined Wall Watchers in February 2000. He is a Certified Fraud Examiner, with experience in due diligence research, audits, investigations and fraud examinations.

As Managing Director of Research he is responsible for advancing the organization’s strategic direction and managing its day-to-day activities and operations. He is a Donor Advocate by facilitating the information needs of donors. The research focuses on analyzing organizations alleging to be charitable and its key leadership in order to identify materially misleading behavior, or wasteful spending practices, as well as identifying those operations that are above board and running efficiently. The objective is to limit consequences of scams and prevention of fraudulent activity, promote better allocations of giving, encourage intelligent questions of organizational structure, financial health, and advance the idea of organizational transparency and best practices.

His previous professional positions include:

Interim Director, Board of Tax Practitioners, Salem, Oregon
Chief Investigator, Board of Tax Practitioners, Salem, Oregon
Charitable Trust Auditor, Oregon Department of Justice, Portland, Oregon
Income Tax Auditor, Oregon Department of Revenue, Salem, Oregon

Having dealt with compliance issues his whole career, he has "become sensitive to the very likely possibility that fraud will exist under every stone that is overturned. You must become observant and see every clue. You must become like that Indian scout who appears in the old Western movies. He usually has a wise, wrinkled face and wears an old top hat with a turkey feather in it. He notices every broken twig and every overturned rock. Considering these indicia (signs), he squints and slowly says, 'Six horses, one limping, passed by here two hours ago'" (Management Accountant’s Guide to Fraud Discovery and Control, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.). As such, he has become skilled at making informed forensic decisions based on all the facts and circumstances, realizing that fraud might be present in the very thing he is looking at, at any given time.

Mr. Pitzer has written or co-authored numerous articles and pamphlets. Topics including:

7 Prudent Steps for Donors
Transparency within Nonprofit Organizations
How to Start a Tax-Exempt Organization
Q & A on IRS "church" Status
What is a Christian Ministry?
How Financially Efficient is your Ministry?
Transparency by the Numbers
Various "Donor Alerts"
Various "Shining Light Ministry" lists
Should Christian Ministries be Open and Transparent?
A Critical Look at the 'Word of Faith' Ministries
Ministry Masquerade or Valid Credentials

Mr. Pitzer is an occasional volunteer to church and parachurch ministries, such as Stephen Ministries, prison ministries, elderly shut-ins, hospital calling, has held a Local Preachers License in the past, spoke on occasion in evangelistic events to give his testimony and has lead Bible studies.

Mr. Pitzer is a graduate of Northwest Nazarene University where he earned a BA in Accounting. He served in an Internal Revenue Service auditor internship as well as College Campus Coordinator for a "Volunteer Income Tax Assistance" program. And while a student was a member of the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) and corresponding activities with a local hospital.

Rodney and his wife Tamie live near Tampa, Florida and have homeschooled their seven children, while their two oldest adult sons now serve in the United States Army. The Pitzer’s are members of Spring Hill Baptist Church.

Samuel Kostreva IV
Website Developer

Samuel Kostreva joined Wall Watchers in July 2008.

He earned a B.A. in Bible and B.S. in Mathematics: Computer Science from Bryan College. He has earned Master of Arts in Apologetics: Concentration in Philosophy from Southern Evangelical Seminary.

His current responsibilities with Wall Watchers span the further development of the database and websites as well as interacting with ministries in order to profile up-to-date information on the Internet.

He has taught high school and middle school level mathematics, science and Bible.

He and his wife Stephanie live near Charlotte, North Carolina and have two children.

Heidi Dorsett
Office Specialist

Mrs. Dorsett joined Wall Watchers in July of 2002. She specializes in transforming source documents into data useful for information retrieval, research and analysis. This usually takes the form of coding audited financial statements and then entering that data, as well as entering IRS form 990s. In addition, she conducts quality checks on financial data and the existing MinistryWatch.com profiles. She is the office expert in the categorization of source documents, managing the filing system of Wall Watchers. In addition, she also provides support to various projects and research activities.

Mrs. Dorsett was previously with Matthews Foot Care where she was responsible for coordinating accounts and reconciling all balances. Prior to that Heidi worked for Proverbs 31 Ministry where she maintained and updated the ministry’s database.

Heidi and her husband, Mark, have two boys, Walker and Jake, and attend Carmel Baptist Church.

Michael Barrick
External Consultant

Mr. Barrick has served Wall Watchers in a number of different editorial and writing capacities since June, 1999.

Mr. Barrick is a writer and educator, having served in both policy-making and classroom positions as a teacher in public and Christian schools. He has taught at the community college level as well. He has been published in numerous magazines and newspapers, serving as columnist, reporter and editor with various publications; he is author of the books, "The Hillbilly Highway," and "Seven Days in Haiti."

He has been involved in political campaigns and activities, having been elected to the Caldwell County School Board and serving as the Republican candidate for North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction in 2000.

He has been active in his community, service as Chairman of the Caldwell County Human Relations Council, Chairman of the Pregnancy Care Center of Catawba Valley, Executive Direct of Christian Community Outreach Ministries, and executive board member of Hope House. He has served as a church youth leader and coached recreational league basketball and baseball for a decade.

Mr. Barrick has spoken to various audiences across North Carolina, including college students, political activists, community activists, and educators. He is Fellow of the North Carolina Institute of Political Leadership (IOPL), and served as an instructor on media relations at the IOPL.

He and his wife, Sarah, married in April, 1980. They have two adult children, Lindsay and Allyn. They are members of Day3 Community Church in Granite Falls, N.C., where they reside.

Research Fellows

Wall Watchers accomplishes research with the use of sub-contract relationships. Wall Watchers has labeled this the "Research Fellows Program." This is a long-term program that will adapt and change depending on funding.

Multiple independent individuals conduct extensive database, Internet and in the field research to gather information, examine organizational structures, belief structures, prominent individuals, key contractors, business relationships, evaluating regulatory compliance, and potential financial irregularities. The result is a definable product making the connection to the heart of donor's information needs.

Information analysis generally includes seven tasks:

Determine and identify the issues of the subject matter of the research analysis
Determine what is already known
List what is unknown (needs to be researched)
Identify possible sources of information about what is unknown
Outline a course of action to gather the information
Gather information
Organize and present research results

Information analysis is best understood as a series of equally important steps. In other words, none of the steps is primary while the others are secondary. A breakdown of "effort" necessary for each step shows that "Analyst Comments" is not the overwhelming majority of effort. The initial one-third of the effort consists of identifying criteria, formulating the subject of the research analysis, understanding what is already known and what is unknown and mapping out a plan of fact gathering. The next one-third is the work of talking to people and gathering physical data. The final one-third of the process is to transmit the information gathered in a useful manner.

There are two types of Research Fellows:

The Specialist
Focused on certain aspects of nonprofit organizations, such as: financial, statistical, sector specialist, relational, theological, etc.
The Generalist
Uses all tools available in differing degrees, depending on the facts and circumstances, to understand and communicate the research results.

The strength of the Research Fellow Program is not in an individual member, but in a body of researchers with multiple talents and connections. It is a network of information providers. Other fields may call them Information Brokers/ Information Workers/ Information Operatives/ Knowledge Stewards/ Knowledge Brokers/ Knowledge Researchers/ Knowledge Content Specialists.