Televangelist's Gulfstream Jet Then A $19.5M Appeal To Followers For Upgrades, A Hangar And A Runway
The televangelist's ministry closed on the used jet in late 2017; the price was not disclosed, but comparable Gulfstream Vs were listed from about $5.9 million.
By the Rich vs Reality desk January 2018 11 sources

Could have saved
1,073
lives.
Kenneth Copeland Ministries bought filmmaker Tyler Perry's Gulfstream V, closing in late 2017 and finalizing in January 2018. The price was not disclosed; comparable used Gulfstream Vs were listed at the time from about $5.9 million.
The ministry then sought $19.5 million from supporters for the jet: about $2.5 million in upgrades and $17 million for maintenance, a new hangar and runway improvements, the Christian Post reported. In a 2019 interview Copeland called himself “a very wealthy man.”
Even the $5.9 million listing price could have saved an estimated 1,073 lives through malaria prevention.
Purchase price not disclosed. We use the low end of reported comparable listings (about $5.9 million). The $19.5 million appeal is reported separately and not added to the total.
$5.9 million could have changed these lives
Instead, it went on this.
1,073
lives saved from malaria, most of them children under five
GiveWell estimates its top charities save a life for $3,000 to $5,500. We use the higher figure: $5,500, the cost through Against Malaria Foundation bed nets. Source
53,881
hungry kids fed three meals a day for a whole year
No Kid Hungry: $1 can help provide 10 meals for kids. Three meals a day for 365 days is 1,095 meals, about $110 per child per year. Source
331
years of rent for a homeless veteran
At the U.S. median rent of $1,487 a month (Census, 2024), about $17,844 a year. Source
Or: 147,500 people given clean drinking water; 165 families escaping domestic violence given a safe home for two years. Every rate and source.
Kenneth Copeland
About $5.9 million
For everyone else, that's
Could have saved 1,073 lives.
Drag the seam between the two worlds.
Measured against a typical American household: $87,460 a year, $192,900 net worth.
The receipts
- Christian Post, 2018
- Christian Today, 2018
- HuffPost, 2019 (his 'very wealthy man' interview)
- Net worth: No published estimate used
- U.S. Census Bureau, Income in the United States: 2025 (Sept 2026)
- Federal Reserve, Survey of Consumer Finances 2022
- No Kid Hungry, What your dollars can do
- GiveWell, How much does it cost to save a life?
- charity: water, How much clean water will my donation provide
- U.S. DOJ Office on Violence Against Women, Transitional housing
- U.S. Census Bureau median gross rent, via USAFacts
See something wrong? Send a source to hello@richvsreality.com and we will correct it.
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