I posted this the other day, but I think it got buried in the threads. It's important, and my thanks go out to whomever compiled it for "All Things Mormon" back in September. (I saw this information somewhere else, too, some time ago.)
Here's an excerpt:
The Tsunami Timeline:
2004 – Annual financial statement sent to the Charities Commission shows that members of the Church in the UK donate £252,000 to the Humanitarian Aid fund. Church spends £52,000, all of it on projects within the UK .
Donations to the Fast Offering Fund totaled £1,319,000. This was added to the existing balance of £1,186,000 already in the fund. £500,000 of this was transferred to the Church’s ‘sister’ charity, LDS (Welfare) “which will apply these funds to the relief of the poor and needy not only in the UK and Ireland but to other countries in Europe and Africa.”
26th December 2004 – at 07.58 local time an earthquake occurred off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia , measuring 9.3 on the Richter scale. The resultant Tsunami devastated thousands of communities around the Indian Ocean, and the death toll was measured in the hundreds of thousands.
29th December 2004 – First Presidency of the church issues a statement which was read from the pulpit at Sacrament Meeting the following Sunday.
“In association with other relief agencies, the Church is extending substantial humanitarian aid to the stricken people of southern Asia. We have representatives on the ground who are assessing needs and who are administering help.
This coming Sunday, 2 January 2005, will be our regular fast day. In the present circumstances, we urge our people to remember in their prayers those in the devastated areas and to contribute most generously in fast offerings, which will make it possible for the Church to increase its aid to those whose suffering is so great.”
1st January 2005 – Humanitarian Aid Fund begins the year with a balance of £200,000. Fast Offering Fund begins the year with a balance of £2,005,000.
2005 – Annual Financial Statement submitted to the Charities Commission show that members of the Church in the UK donate £509,000 to the Humanitarian Aid Fund. Church spends £34,000, all of it on projects within the UK .
Donations to the Fast Offering Fund totaled £1,597,000. This was added to the existing balance of £2,005,000 already in the fund. £500,000 of this was transferred to the Church’s ‘sister’ charity, LDS (Welfare). This money was spent on ‘Direct Charitable Expenditure’ which is defined as “expenditure directly relating to the objects of the charity”. In theory this could mean the building of chapels, or paying staff (which accounted for £1,094,000 over 2005).
In Summary – Humanitarian Aid Fund (2004 & 2005)
Income – £761,000
Expenditure – £86,000 (11%)
On Tsunami – zero
Balance sitting in the bank – £675,000
Fast Offering Fund (2004 & 2005)
Income (plus previous balance) – £4,102,000
Expenditure – £1,000,000 (24%)
On Tsunami – Impossible to quantify*
Balance sitting in the bank – £3,102,000
TBMs hate this kind of info, and swear that it is wrong. It is difficult to see evidence of this when you live in he free-for-all state of the USA. But other countries demand oversight, even by organizations that call themselves "charities." If you can analyze the LDS financial activity as it happens in the UK and Canada, you can get a view of what is happening elsewhere.
This pulls part of it into perspective, too:
In the United Kingdom, Canada and some other countries the LDS Church is required by law to show how it uses its finances.
The figures for the UK are particularly interesting when it comes to how much the LDS Church spent in humanitarian aid for last year (2012):
That year members donated £33,159,000, but gave £1,000 in humanitarian aid.
That is 0.003% of their income spent helping others in the world!
(They did a little better helping their own – spending 5.35% on that)
However, the LDS Church is the biggest welfare recipient in England, due to the land it owns and receives subsidies on for not growing food!
£1,000,000 according this BBC article (They say that money goes to charity – we know that was only 0.1%, so were did the other 99.9% go?)
After the 2005 tsunami the church asked UK members to donate money to help the tsunami victims. Guess how much of the UK members donations went to tsunami victims? Nothing went to the tsunami victims.*
Interestingly out of the $115,126,701 the LDS church received in Canada:
$102,900,000 (89.38%) went to the charity called Brigham Young University!
Over 25 years the LDS church gave $327.6 million dollars to humanitarian aid, thats just over $13 million dollars a year, thats out of about $6 billion in income per year. Thats 0.21% of its income per year. The LDS church spent 10x that on building a shopping mall! By comparison, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, which is about the same size – but has a fraction of the income – spent over 10% on charity. The United Methodist church donates 29% of its income, almost twice as much per years as the LDS Church has donated in 25 years! That easily makes the LDS church one of the least charitable Churches (or even Corporations) in the world.
These were the top 10 charities in the U.S. in 1998:
1. Salvation Army* ° – $ 1,171,801,000
2. YMCA of the USA (Chic.)* – 493,874,000
3. American Red Cross* – 490,158,993
4. American Cancer Society* – 488,512,000
5. Fidelity Invest. Charitable – 456,176,185
6. Harvard Universtiy – 427,603,792
7. Catholic Charities* – 425,262,180
8. Second Harvestª – 400,598,748
9. Boys & Girls Clubs of Am.* – 382,767,534
10. Stanford Universtiy – 312,284,937
Taken from
http://www.allthingsmormon.com/lds-finances/For you Canadians: Just how did everyone feel knowing that the lion's share of "charitable donations" were diverted to BYU? Just wondering how this plays out there.