What’s Ahead For Enduring Word In 2026?
Q: What will Enduring Word focus on in 2026?
A: Thanks to all our kind donors in 2025 and throughout our year-end giving campaign. Sometimes people ask about Enduring Word, “How is all of this funded?” We have a website, an app, and podcasts – those reach multiple millions of people every month. We put out hundreds of YouTube videos every year with millions of views, and we almost doubled our subscribers in 2025 (80% growth). We have a new YouTube channel for my daily devotionals and other archived content (David Guzik Devotionals).
In order to do all of these things, we have a staff and a studio. Additionally, we spent more than $350,000 in 2025 on translation and foreign language work. How is all of this paid for? First, let me tell you how it is NOT paid for.
- We don’t have paid ads on our website, our app, or any podcast. The amount of traffic we receive on those platforms could mean a fair amount of money from paid advertising, but we like not doing it that way. We like giving our users the cleanest, fastest, easiest experience ever.
- We don’t track or sell the data of anyone who uses our website or our app. If we were to collect such information, that data would have value we could sell – but we don’t. We don’t require any kind of registration or email address to use any of our resources.
- We don’t sell advertising for our YouTube videos – other than the “regular” monetization that’s done through YouTube itself. When we started, I was naïve. I said, “We’re not going to monetize our channel, because it’s better if people don’t have to sit through ads.” Then I found out that YouTube is running those ads whether you monetize your videos or not! Furthermore, it’s commonly understood that if your videos are monetized, YouTube may recommend them more. So, we do the bare minimum, but we don’t pay for “advertisers” on our videos.
So, how is any of this paid for? It’s pretty simple: we have a donate button on our website and on our app. That’s it. We offer people the chance to donate, and enough of them do to make this possible.
We don’t have a sophisticated donor development program or strategy. Our main strategy (if you could call it that) is to say “thank you” to our donors, and to thank them without asking them for another donation. We’re just grateful.
Now, don’t get me wrong. We’re not trying to discourage anyone from donating. We’re grateful for those who do! We’re super grateful for the “widow’s mite” and we’re grateful for those who can give more. One of our prayers comes from 2 Corinthians 9:8: …that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work. That’s what we pray for: “Lord, through many generous partners in our work, please continue to provide an abundance for every good work.”
We have some ambitious tasks set before us in 2026:
- The launch of a completely renovated website, on a whole new server architecture.
- A significant expansion of the languages available on the Enduring Word app.
- Exploring the use of customized AI for our translation projects.
- Exploring the use of customized AI to effectively search our resources on the new website and on our app.
We say, “Thank You” to all our partners, to those who pray and those who generously donate – your partnership is bearing good fruit, and we are grateful for it!
In Philippians 4:17, Paul wrote a specific word to the generous believers in Philippi who helped support his work. Paul spoke of the fruit that abounds to your account. I like that idea. Enduring Word is bearing a lot of fruit, and it abounds to the account of those who partner with our work.