100 billion dollar rant

[carbon dioxide]

The people who complain the most are those who really don't care about the Church anyway.  So  even if the Church was to give 50 billion away tomorrow,  these people might take a week off criticizing the Church but they will find something new to attack it on shortly.  I don't now how much the Church has or what is plans to do with the money BUT it should ignore these people and their wish lists.

[Calm]

10 minutes ago, Glenn101 said:

Why cannot we, as individuals, look and see what we can do more to help others?

I have a nephew who is doing very well, who is not only helping all the family (bought my daughter a new phone and IPad out of the blue, offered to pay for some medical expenses for me, many extended family have left other jobs and gone to work for him or better pay, etc), but is building schools and other stuff in Africa (cannabis in me and I can’t remember the country).  My sister-in-law and her husband set up a charity in Russia when they had a business there (unfortunately the head of the orphanage took the donations, sold them and pocketed most of the money).  If in a well to do neighborhood, ask around and see if anyone has a friend or family member with a project that interests you.  Just Serve by the Church is another way.

[Rain]

8 minutes ago, Tacenda said:

I saw this after responding to Calm, and my answer to her, would hopefully suffice for you too. 

The amount of money the church has compared to the money it donates is my beef I guess, in wanting the church to do more.

 

The problem is you don't actually know those numbers.  You know some estimates made with a few numbers.  And yep, I know that the problem with finding out the numbers here is that the church doesn't have an open financial book.

But even if it did you would have a hard time getting all the numbers you need to get correct totals.  For example, on the books of the church if the RS does a service project and the money comes from the ward budget does that show on the church books as ward budget, RS budget, RS activity or does it actually say "charity"?  I can tell you that 90-95% of my wolf den budget each year went for something we did for a charity, but the receipt I turned in said something like "Walmart $50 den activity".

Did the JustServe, IWasAStranger and Provident Living websites go in the books as charity or "websites"?

Is Deseret Industries a business like Deseret Book or is it a charitible cause under the church?  If a business does money for the charitible services they give come from the church?  If under the church is it listed as humanitarian or another charitble designation?

Are all charitable funds designated as "humanitarian" or are there other charitible funds designated under different names?

Are administrative funds counted in church humanitarian aid? Are they counted in the other organizations the church is compared against?

So it's not as simple as the church takes in "this much money in tithing and sends that much out in humanitarian aid".

8 minutes ago, Tacenda said:

I'm sorry if I disagree with most here.

If we knew actual info then I would be fine with you disagreeing.  Estimates made by outside organizations or people don't cut it for me.

8 minutes ago, Tacenda said:

Maybe the church is more privy to things that the rest of the world are unaware of, since some corps etc. and churches do more monetarily. I do know the church is amazing on many levels. I guess I'm one of those that see it one way and the rest around me see it another way, maybe explains a lot about why I butt heads silently with the people in my life.

It isn't that you think so differently about how much the church gives.  When you pull this stuff in it is showing that others think those things too.  

It is the assumption that those sources are right and/or have all the info they need to make the conclusions they do.

8 minutes ago, Tacenda said:

Thanks for being patient Rain. 

I'm not sure that fits me right now, but I appreciate the good faith of me.

[Calm]

1 hour ago, Tacenda said:

But aren't there many missionaries of other faiths that go in and do things,

And many get killed or abducted for ransom.

https://www.indcatholicnews.com/news/38838

Edited March 8, 2021 by Calm

[webbles]

5 hours ago, Tacenda said:

Don't know how accurate since it's from a "critic". 

Thanks for posting this.  It gave me a chance to read a bunch of financials from different organizations

It looks like the comparison of money is extremely inaccurate.  The "Annual Tithes & Offerings" and "Annual Charitable Contributions" for the LDS side is all to and from the church itself.  This is what the church is receiving and this is what the church is donating.  But the SDA side is different.  The "Annual Tithes & Offerings" is how much the church is receiving while the "Annual Charitable Contributions" is the amount that a completely separate organization is contributing.

This separate organization is called "Adventist Development and Relief Agency" (or ARDA) and it accepts donations independent of the SDA church.  These donations come from individuals, governments, and other organizations.  And the LDS church is a donator to the ARDA (see https://www.latterdaysaintcharities.org/about-us?lang=eng), so some of the $40,000,000 that is on the LDS side is in fact part of the $291,556,608 on the SDA side.

Per the ARDA 2018 annual report (https://adra.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Annual-Report-2018.pdf), the SDA donated $5,980,331 to the ARDA (see page 23).  That means that the "Annual Charitable Contributions" for the SDA side should say "$5,980,331" instead of "$291,556,608".  I'm not exactly sure how the "$291,556,608" is calculated.  Looking at the 2015 church statistics (page 59 in https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Statistics/ASR/ASR2015.pdf), it lists that number but in the corresponding ARDA report (2013 at https://adra.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/2013-ADRA-Annual-Report.pdf), I don't see that number anywhere.  And I looked at the 2014, 2015, 2018, and 2019 report as well.  Sometimes, they will give a big number like the $291,556,608 but it looks like it is different from the actual amount donated because in all of the financials, the ARDA only has revenue around $60,000,000.

So, if we do an apples-to-apples comparison, the "Annual Charitable Contributions" of the SDA is $5,980,331.  That is 0.18% of their "Annual Tithes & Offerings".  LDS donates 0.5%, more than double the percentage.  The SDA is definitely NOT donating more than the LDS.

 

Edited to add: InCognitus pointed out that the ARDA faq shows that the big number ($291,556,608) is really the sum total of all the aid that ARDA managed.  So, it would be the money that ARDA itself received (around $60,000,000) as well as other money that comes from governments, UN, and other aid organizations.

Edited March 8, 2021 by webbles

[Rain]

1 hour ago, Glenn101 said:

Why cannot we, as individuals, look and see what we can do more to help others? If all of the "haves" would do voluntarily do "more" to help the "have nots," we would not need any organization to do more, except to organize the efforts. Each of us as individuals have obligations etc. that we have to meet which constrain, limits, and directs how we allocate our resources. The church (and other churches) also have that problem, i.e. how to best allocate their resources to take care of their obligations. In this case, the church can do more if we as individuals maybe increase the amount we may donate for humanitarian aid. So, I am going to put my money where my mouth is and do just that. Just as an afterthought, I am wondering just what may be the percentage of people who do donate to humanitarian aid? If I remember correctly, (if anyone has different, more correct information, please inform me) only about a third of the members are full tithe payers. Just think what the church could do if say two thirds of the members were full tithe payers!

 

Glenn

Ooo. Now you have me going with more questions - not questions I am expecting you to answer Glenn.  Just questions on my mind.

I think I have given once, maybe twice to the "humanitarian" aid budget.  Generally I do tithing and fast offerings and give humanitarian causes outside the church money.

That would be an interesting thing to look at - is the humanitarian aid total that everyone quotes only covered by the funds that go in as "humanitarian" or is some of the aid covered by tithing?

Because if it is only covered by the humanitarian funds and most members are like me then that could be a very small percentage of the charitible giving the church does.

Which brings to mind an experience I just had. I stored some food for a sister in another ward who needed to move.  Most of it came from the church.  She changed her phone number so I had to work with her bishop and the food was getting close to expiration.  Long story short that food went to refugees and a food bank.

So did that humanitarian aid go in the humanitarian budget or a fast offering budget?  What about bishop's storehouse food that goes directly to charities/people in need from the storehouses?

Edited March 8, 2021 by Rain

[InCognitus]

9 minutes ago, webbles said:

Thanks for posting this.  It gave me a chance to read a bunch of financials from different organizations

It looks like the comparison of money is extremely inaccurate.  The "Annual Tithes & Offerings" and "Annual Charitable Contributions" for the LDS side is all to and from the church itself.  This is what the church is receiving and this is what the church is donating.  But the SDA side is different.  The "Annual Tithes & Offerings" is how much the church is receiving while the "Annual Charitable Contributions" is the amount that a completely separate organization is contributing.

This separate organization is called "Adventist Development and Relief Agency" (or ARDA) and it accepts donations independent of the SDA church.  These donations come from individuals, governments, and other organizations.  And the LDS church is a donator to the ARDA (see https://www.latterdaysaintcharities.org/about-us?lang=eng), so some of the $40,000,000 that the is on the LDS side is in fact part of the $291,556,608 on the SDA side.

Per the ARDA 2018 annual report (https://adra.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Annual-Report-2018.pdf), the SDA donated $5,980,331 to the ARDA (see page 23).  That means that the "Annual Charitable Contributions" for the SDA side should say "$5,980,331" instead of "$291,556,608".  I'm not exactly sure how the "$291,556,608" is calculated.  Looking at the 2015 church statistics (page 59 in https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Statistics/ASR/ASR2015.pdf), it lists that number but in the corresponding ARDA report (2013 at https://adra.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/2013-ADRA-Annual-Report.pdf), I don't see that number anywhere.  And I looked at the 2014, 2015, 2018, and 2019 report as well.  Sometimes, they will give a big number like the $291,556,608 but it looks like it is different from the actual amount donated because in all of the financials, the ARDA only has revenue around $60,000,000.

So, if we do an apples-to-apples comparison, the "Annual Charitable Contributions" of the SDA is $5,980,331.  That is 0.18% of their "Annual Tithes & Offerings".  LDS donates 0.5%, more than double the percentage.  The SDA is definitely NOT donating more than the LDS.

 

Edited to add: InCognitus pointed out that the ARDA faq shows that the big number ($291,556,608) is really the sum total of all the aid that ARDA managed.  So, it would be the money that ARDA itself received (around $60,000,000) as well as other money that comes from governments, UN, and other aid organizations.

   I was going the same direction with this and reading the same financial statements.  I was trying to figure out how they came up to the $291,556,608 number from their financial statements too, because nothing on their statements came close to that.  And I also saw that the SDA only donated the $5,980331 amount, which is less than the LDS amount.  Thanks for putting this together.

 

[The Nehor]

4 hours ago, Robert F. Smith said:

One indication of the difficulties in delivering charitable care to people in need is the actual killing of selfless doctors and nurses of Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières/MSF).  Some foreign govts cannot imagine that anyone would help someone else without an ulterior motive.

You are being too charitable. Many literally would reject help without an ulterior motive as things like food and water being more easily available threaten existing power structures.

To try to be fair the West has made some incredibly knuckleheaded decisions that have made parts of the world wary about accepting help. The one that comes to mind right away was that harebrained CIA fake hepatitis vaccination drive to attempt to find people with Bin Laden family DNA. There is still a chance that may have cost us eradicating polio. A small one but it is there. Killing of aid workers went up afterwards. Note that that does mean that they were being killed before as well. The world is a mess.

It is also not the first time the CIA has used NGOs as front organizations to gather intelligence since they can go places no one else can.

 

[The Nehor]

I am going to assume that either the CIA or the North Koreans duplicated my post.

Trust no one.

 

Edited March 8, 2021 by The Nehor

[Kenngo1969]

7 hours ago, The Nehor said:

I am going to assume that either the CIA or the North Koreans duplicated my post.

Trust no one.

 

Oh, you don't know a fraction of it.  You see, actually, the conspiracy goes much wider and much deeper even than that.  I cannot discuss specifics, you understand, but in addition to involvement by the Central Intelligence Agency, the North Koreans, and the Russians, the Rothschilds, the Rockefellers, the Trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations, the National Security Agency, the U.S. Department of State, and the Illuminati all are involved.  (Oh, and if I were you, I would delete any email accounts you have, change your phone number [and don't list it], delete any social media accounts, and hire a firm that specializes in such things to scrub every trace possible of you from the Internet.)

Good luck, "Jim."

This message will self-destruct in five, four, three ...

Edited March 8, 2021 by Kenngo1969

[Tacenda]

My problem as well is that the church gets donations from it's members for the humanitarian needs, but what about the corporation side of the church? Why don't they donate? Every report seems to say that the donations come from it's members. What about the church's businesses? Just asking, please don't clobber me for that, or go ahead, "make my day"!  ETA: The church asks 10% tithing plus fast offerings from it's members but what about the corporate side, or the 120 billion in an account that has built up or all the other wealth the church has. What about payment of tithing from that? If we do the numbers, 12 billion is 10% of that 120 billion mark, for example. But the church has supposedly only given 1.2 billion (last reported) since 1985. But I understand the church does more but not nearly 12 billion, or maybe someone knows more than me, haha. (Oops, the members gave 1.2 billion, clearly not the corporate side.) So why do they not have to give at the least, 10 percent?

“The annual report is part of our accountability back to the Latter-day Saints who have donated to the humanitarian fund on the tithing slip,” Sister Eubank said. “This is part of our reporting back to the people who have given so much, so that they can see what their donations do. ”https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/latter-day-saint-charities-2019-annual-report

I read this the other day, and it seems to apply to this post:

 

Edited March 8, 2021 by Tacenda

[Robert F. Smith]

7 hours ago, The Nehor said:

You are being too charitable. Many literally would reject help without an ulterior motive as things like food and water being more easily available threaten existing power structures.

To try to be fair the West has made some incredibly knuckleheaded decisions that have made parts of the world wary about accepting help. The one that comes to mind right away was that harebrained CIA fake hepatitis vaccination drive to attempt to find people with Bin Laden family DNA. There is still a chance that may have cost us eradicating polio. A small one but it is there. Killing of aid workers went up afterwards. Note that that does mean that they were being killed before as well. The world is a mess.

It is also not the first time the CIA has used NGOs as front organizations to gather intelligence since they can go places no one else can.

Of course, but I am thinking along the lines of the very impossibility of people being selfless and kind.  To Andre Schwartz-Bart that meant that Jesus taught an "impossible love," and to a well-known authoritarian figure in American politics that means that everything (yes everything) is transactional.  There can be no pure motives, even if there had never been a CIA.  An absolutely cynical mind set which knows no bounds.  There is only power which is wielded by the  masters, and which must be accepted by the dominated.

Those who don't comprehend need to be reminded with a knuckle-sandwich. 

[Robert F. Smith]

8 minutes ago, Tacenda said:

My problem as well is that the church gets donations from it's members for the humanitarian needs, but what about the corporation side of the church? Why don't they donate? Every report seems to say that the donations come from it's members. But about the church's businesses? Just asking, please don't clobber me for that, or go ahead, "make my day"!  ETA: The church asks 10% plus fast offerings from it's members but what about the corporate side, or the 120 billion in an account that has built up or all the other wealth the church has. What about payment of tithing from that. If we do the numbers, 12 billion is 10% of that 120 billion mark, for example. But the church has supposedly only given 1.2 billion (last reported) since 1985. But I understand the church does more but not nearly 12 billion, or maybe someone knows more than me, haha.

Fast offerings are controlled by your bishop as he sees fit.  Tithing and other contributions are used by the Brethren to pay for vast real estate holdings (chapels, temples, storehouses, food packing facilities, ranches, investment property, etc.), all of which require constant maintenance and security, and some of which actually turn a profit -- which is plowed back into the Church's funds.  The "corporate side" covers profit-making investments which grow the original contributions into much larger sums, which obeys the Parable of the Talents, and gives the Church an excellent rainy-day fund.  Every dollar you donate can become much more, if invested and managed wisely.  That means more bang for each buck contributed.  Unlike other corporations, the LDS Church does not reward the bosses with bonuses or huge salaries.

8 minutes ago, Tacenda said:

“The annual report is part of our accountability back to the Latter-day Saints who have donated to the humanitarian fund on the tithing slip,” Sister Eubank said. “This is part of our reporting back to the people who have given so much, so that they can see what their donations do. ”https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/latter-day-saint-charities-2019-annual-report

Much of LDS philanthropy is handled by other organizations, such as Catholic Charities, which means that we often don't get credit for it, and it makes it much easier for the LDS not to have their donations rejected by those hostile to the Gospel.  Most of the huge efforts to help the homeless in downtown SLC, for example, are backed by cash from the LDS Church, but the cash goes to the non-LDS organizations delivering that help, without any LDS signage.  The LDS Church operates behind the scenes in those and similar instances.

[Rain]

12 hours ago, The Nehor said:

You are being too charitable. Many literally would reject help without an ulterior motive as things like food and water being more easily available threaten existing power structures.

And it's not just that.  35 or so years ago I was in key club in high school.  Our adviser was the son of an apostle and he arranged it so we could meet with him to hear what the church was doing with Ethiopia. 

One of the biggest problems they had was not getting the supplies or getting them there.  It was that once the supplies got there the governments/people in control were taking the supplies for themselves rather than it going to those in need.  And that situation is not unique.

Quote

To try to be fair the West has made some incredibly knuckleheaded decisions that have made parts of the world wary about accepting help. The one that comes to mind right away was that harebrained CIA fake hepatitis vaccination drive to attempt to find people with Bin Laden family DNA. There is still a chance that may have cost us eradicating polio. A small one but it is there. Killing of aid workers went up afterwards. Note that that does mean that they were being killed before as well. The world is a mess.

It is also not the first time the CIA has used NGOs as front organizations to gather intelligence since they can go places no one else can.

 

 

Edited March 8, 2021 by Rain

[Robert F. Smith]

30 minutes ago, Tacenda said:

...................................

 

Don Freeman is a liar.  He knows very well that kindess and generosity are major tenets of the religions that he hates.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a religion, and his church is an organization designed to preach kindness and to perform charitable acts.  Freeman conveniently forgets that humans are savages who  couldn't care less about high moral and ethical standards.  The Judeo-Christian religion that Freeman hates teaches repentance, a turning away from evil.  Freeman is a secularist who imagines that everyone just naturally wants to do good and to feed the poor.  Without organization, feeding the poor is impossible.

[Tacenda]

17 minutes ago, Robert F. Smith said:

Don Freeman is a liar.  He knows very well that kindess and generosity are major tenets of the religions that he hates.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a religion, and his church is an organization designed to preach kindness and to perform charitable acts.  Freeman conveniently forgets that humans are savages who  couldn't care less about high moral and ethical standards.  The Judeo-Christian religion that Freeman hates teaches repentance, a turning away from evil.  Freeman is a secularist who imagines that everyone just naturally wants to do good and to feed the poor.  Without organization, feeding the poor is impossible.

I hadn't known who Freeman was. My son, who has become a little bitter about the church, he went through a lot during his youth with pressure to serve a mission and then discovered things (not from me) the warts of the church. He posted it on FB recently, every time he posts something I brace myself. I at first didn't "like" it, and then my sister "love"d it and said, how true, she's not religious. So it made me look at it a different way. The only way this quote tied in with my post is that the member's donations did the helping, not the corporation side. 

[Rain]

1 hour ago, Tacenda said:

My problem as well is that the church gets donations from it's members for the humanitarian needs, but what about the corporation side of the church?

Good question.

Quote

Why don't they donate?

This is making a negative assumption.  You could change it to:

Do they donate?

The answer: yes, they do.  I was able to go to a research thing for Deseret Book several years ago. I also got to go to a book sellers meeting with my mom who worked at a bookstore. They were both interesting and informative.

One of the things I learned was DB basically has 2 purposes.  One was to make good reading material available to people keeping our standards and beliefs in mind.  The other was to help in charitable ways.  

I would be surprised if other church businesses did not have similar goals.

Quote

Every report seems to say that the donations come from it's members.

Every report is missing a lot of info so I don't think we can make conclusions on church giving as a whole.

Quote

What about the church's businesses? Just asking, please don't clobber me for that, or go ahead, "make my day"!  ETA: The church asks 10% tithing plus fast offerings from it's members but what about the corporate side, or the 120 billion in an account that has built up or all the other wealth the church has.

 

What about it?

Quote

What about payment of tithing from that?

 

Why would the church pay tithing on that? If it is considered the Lord's money anyway?

Or are you asking why it doesn't cover things tithing covers?  If that is the case how do you know it doesn't?

Quote

 If we do the numbers, 12 billion is 10% of that 120 billion mark, for example. But the church has supposedly only given 1.2 billion (last reported) since 1985. But I understand the church does more but not nearly 12 billion, or maybe someone knows more than me, haha.

 

Yes.  Someone knows better than you.  Someone who has all the numbers and not just estimates and guesses.  

Quote

(Oops, the members gave 1.2 billion, clearly not the corporate side.) So why do they not have to give at the least, 10 percent?

 

 

Why would the Lord need to pay tithing to himself? 

Quote

“The annual report is part of our accountability back to the Latter-day Saints who have donated to the humanitarian fund on the tithing slip,” Sister Eubank said.

Thank you!  This one answers one of my questions!

Note: it says nothing about charitable giving or lack of giving done with other funds.  

Quote

“This is part of our reporting back to the people who have given so much, so that they can see what their donations do. ”https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/latter-day-saint-charities-2019-annual-report

I read this the other day, and it seems to apply to this post:

 

Replace "religion" with "charity" and see how that fits.  There is really no difference.

Edited March 8, 2021 by Rain

[Robert F. Smith]

13 hours ago, Tacenda said:

I will never win the argument that the church can do more, because I always get comments that steer away from it. From the past I've heard plenty of things that shut me down.

And I understand how difficult it is to get the help to these countries. But is there any way to get through somehow, if there's a will there's a way? I don't want people killed over trying to help, never, such as Robert mentioned. But aren't there many missionaries of other faiths that go in and do things, as well as from our church? And corporations etc. So if it's helping then we can always do more, IMO.

We LDS do use other churches and NGOs to do charity for us.  The experts know how to do it without too much risk.  However, a lot of aid ends up on the hands of rich folk in those countries.  They often don't care at all about the poor in their own countries.  You have to bribe the rich just to allow a trickle of help to get to the poor.  It's a dog eat dog world out there, Tacenda.

[webbles]

1 hour ago, Tacenda said:

or the 120 billion in an account that has built up or all the other wealth the church has. What about payment of tithing from that?

Say you bought a house for $100,000 in 1980.  Now the house is worth $800,000 (just making up numbers).  Should you pay tithing on the $700,000 increase in the house valuation?  Do you pay it when you sell the house or do you pay it every year the value went up?

Say you retire and have a total value of $1,000,000 that you saved over all your years of working.  Do you owe 10% of that as tithing?

I ask these questions because they are roughly equivalent to the 120 billion account.  It is not a yearly amount.  It is a sum total, so it is like having $1,000,000 at retirement after saving everything.  It has also increased in value just like the house did.  I would not expect to pay 10% on the $1 million because I've been paying tithing on all of the income that was then partially saved.

[Robert F. Smith]

47 minutes ago, Tacenda said:

I hadn't known who Freeman was. My son, who has become a little bitter about the church, he went through a lot during his youth with pressure to serve a mission and then discovered things (not from me) the warts of the church. He posted it on FB recently, every time he posts something I brace myself. I at first didn't "like" it, and then my sister "love"d it and said, how true, she's not religious. So it made me look at it a different way. The only way this quote tied in with my post is that the member's donations did the helping, not the corporation side. 

All organizations have problems, warts as you call them.  However, help cannot be directed where needed without organization.  Without organized efforts, those member donations would go down a rabbit hole and help no one -- except the rich savages who would steal it.  In an organization, we can watch each other and keep each other honest.

[Robert F. Smith]

3 minutes ago, webbles said:

Say you bought a house for $100,000 in 1980.  Now the house is worth $800,000 (just making up numbers).  Should you pay tithing on the $700,000 increase in the house valuation?  Do you pay it when you sell the house or do you pay it every year the value went up?

Say you retire and have a total value of $1,000,000 that you saved over all your years of working.  Do you owe 10% of that as tithing?

I ask these questions because they are roughly equivalent to the 120 billion account.  It is not a yearly amount.  It is a sum total, so it is like having $1,000,000 at retirement after saving everything.  It has also increased in value just like the house did.  I would not expect to pay 10% on the $1 million because I've been paying tithing on all of the income that was then partially saved.

In many cases, the Feds would want a certain percent of that increase as capital gains taxes.  The LDS Church requests 10% of your increase.  The Feds require payment, whereas the Church makes it entirely voluntary.

[webbles]

1 hour ago, Tacenda said:

My problem as well is that the church gets donations from it's members for the humanitarian needs, but what about the corporation side of the church? Why don't they donate? Every report seems to say that the donations come from it's members. What about the church's businesses? Just asking, please don't clobber me for that, or go ahead, "make my day"!

Deseret Management Corporation (wiki page, http://www.deseretmanagement.com/) is the holding company for all of the for-profit companies that the church owns.  On their site, they have a page that talks about what charity foundations they donate to: http://www.deseretmanagement.com/our-companies/foundations/.

[Robert F. Smith]

26 minutes ago, Rain said:

.............................

Every report is missing a lot of info so I don't think we can make conclusions on church giving as a whole.....................

Yes.  While it is true that IRS figures make it clear that LDS members give more charity per capita than any other religious group, we really don't know how much the LDS Church actually donates to charity, in cash and in kind.  A great deal of that comes in the form of free food (bishop's food orders, for example).  However, the investments operated by the Church may have so much extra money available that it can and has been used for vast charitable donations -- over and above what the general membership could do.  Welfare Square is legendary in its ability to respond to emergencies anywhere in the world.

Also, missionaries from poor families can be fully supported by Church funds.

[CA Steve]

This thread seems to be a tacit acknowledgement of the need by some to explain why Jesus Christ's church has 100B+ in reserves. I wish I had so much money that people would criticize how I spent it.

[Robert F. Smith]

13 minutes ago, webbles said:

Deseret Management Corporation (wiki page, http://www.deseretmanagement.com/) is the holding company for all of the for-profit companies that the church owns.  On their site, they have a page that talks about what charity foundations they donate to: http://www.deseretmanagement.com/our-companies/foundations/.

Which includes subsidiaries such as Beneficial Financial Group, Bonneville International Corp., Deseret News, Deseret Book, Hawaii Reserves, Temple Square Hospitality, etc.