Really is Babylonian... Travis Kelce (football player and Taylor Swift’s artless boyfriend) did an ad for Light the World.
Having worked at the stake level to bring greater awareness to the Giving Machines and also a former New Yorker it’s been interesting to watch the media hype the church is trying to generate with their “Light th World” campaign. This hype comes at a pretty hefty price tag $$ Sure, many of the sights for the giving machines are donated to the church during the campaign but some aren’t. Here in Denver the Kroenke foundation (owner of the Nuggets, Avalanche, LA Rams- no he’s not LDS) donated the spot where they had the machines but they’ve moved locations this year because of safety concerns, concerns that we would bring up in years past but were scoffed at, but I digress. After last yrs campaign the Denver area alone was told we needed to bring in over $1 million in donations, they got under $300k. The lesson learned from this is safety concerns won’t cause them to move locations but like Satan so eloquently said, “you can buy anything with $” or in this case you can move spots to generate more $ - again I digress.
Let’s look at the cost for 15 seconds on a Time Square billboard: ~$40. That’s honestly really cheap. They had virtually every billboard lit up:
https://x.com/the_churchnews/status/1729536324859023371?s=61&t=81qFwzOwY49zYTpZF5N52AThen I received this from a friend:
The church flew out the Utah influencers to Times Square to promote the giving machines the influencers have put this on their stories the church also paid for their food and lodging as well
While my hope is that the $ generated through this giving campaign really does help those in need throughout the world, I can’t help but think the church uses it as a huge marketing campaign to sell more memberships, so-to-speak. It’s developing a foul taste in my mouth. The money keeps going to corrupt globalist corps. Just add it to their already interesting “investments”: SLC malls, Maui resorts, UK Amazon warehouses, Nebraska, Washington farmland, Pfizer, Lockheed Martin stock, “influencer” flights & hotels…
But make sure those members are grateful for their dilapidated, stinky church buildings and clean them every Saturday!
Finally, it’d be interesting to know: How much does the church pay for the Light the World campaign vs how much do they bring in?? they are barely breaking even with the amount of money they spend on it as oppose to raising.I don't recall exact numbers but I heard a few years ago, from someone that worked for the Church, that it was pretty much break-even, that they spent something like $5 Million on marketing and brought in about the same through the giving machines. It varies, but it is not unusual for non-profits to have up to 90% of their donations go to supporting the organization (salaries, building space, operating expenses, etc) Many non profits are set up as wealth transfers among the ruling elite. They use volunteers for much of the work and salaries are only for the top officials. Now try that business model with a "for-profit" business. Funny how a simple change in business registration can make what would be an illegal and highly criticized activity legal and applauded. Yet this is what the billionare Jimmy Wales does with his Wikimedia group and the ridiculous Wikipedia that some people seem to think is the font of all knowledge. Duolingo does it too. Editors provide and upload most of the material. Few Wikipedians are paid. And the inevitable begging ad at the top of the page
Here’s a link to an influencers instagram post for those who may not believe that the church is paying them to market this campaign.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C0N88aFs85o/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==The Church isn’t in the business of using their own money for charity, they would rather use us to provide it for them. They just like to pay their corporate sponsors really well, so they can bring in more revenue in the form of tithing payers.
The virtue signal vending machines are mostly fake. They are deceptive. When someone buys a chicken or whatever, they're really not buying a chicken. A few chickens might get purchased. Maybe. But according to the church, the money laundering charity that says it's going to buy a chicken can actually do whatever it wants with the money. Does anyone audit these organizations? Does the church audit them?
"Where does my donation go?
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints covers all operational costs for the Light the World Giving Machine initiative. Individual credit card transaction fees are covered by the donor or the Church. As such, participating nonprofit organizations receive 100% of every donation to purchase and deliver your selected item(s).
Occasionally, it becomes necessary to make an item substitution to meet unexpected needs. When this occurs, replacement products or services remain in the same category as the original."
(I think that wording changed recently. Need to research that)
Yes, it changed. This is what it read in October:
"Where does my donation go?
One hundred percent of your donations made at a Light the World Giving Machine will be used for the purchased item, similar items, or services of greater need as determined by the applicable charitable organization. To ensure this, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints generously covers all Giving Machine operational costs."
Which begs the question why I would go out of my way to find a “Light the World” machine to donate to a charity when I could give the money directly. My town is too small to merit such a machine, but the local women’s care center is easy to find. You don't need to give it to a wing of the United Nations government or similar.
I wonder why the church decided to "Light the World" by cozying up to Big Charity where they know most of the money will either be wasted, used to fund things that are evil, or will end up in the pockets of the executives and corrupt governments these charities are in collusion with.
They could have easily had the same message but encouraged people to give locally or to find a neighbor in need.
This is the main issue I have with the Church's JustServe app. It is a good thing to encourage people to volunteer their time helping others, but almost all of the opportunities seem to be with Big Charity or with local groups that peddle agendas.
Per the church news article, “Since 2017, the Giving Machines worldwide have generated $22 million in donations." Around $3.6M per year. Seems like this campaign is more about positive PR for the LDS church than about helping people. They should’ve just donated the $ instead of splashing their image all over time square in a ridiculously expensive PR move. Maybe they’re after new wealthy tithing payers & see it as an investment.
There's something gross about paying to advertise asking other people to donate $ instead of just donating $ yourself. If the church really cares, let them donate their own dragon hoard first. It’s a blatant attempt to take the credit for others kindness. That’s millions of dollars in advertising wasted to solicit donations that might not even meet the amount spent on the advertising. Of course all of the time & money donated will be counted towards their charitable contribution per the annual report that they used to give.
If the church says that they spent $5 million to collect for charity and they only collected $5 million, they could say that they donated $5 million to charity. Although not a penny actually came from the church. They could also claim $5 million in expenses. The effort was probably as effective as a $5 million dollar ad for name recognition. Some people would be convinced that the church actually makes charitable contributions. After all of the administrators of the Red Cross or whatever organization the church gave the money to was paid, there was enough money left over to purchase three tricycles and a skateboard. I bet they will count it toward their "charitable giving" numbers. Anything to try to make it look more than the measly 1% of $100B+.