Whistleblower - Ensign Peak Advisors

[Jeff Lebowski]

The Church does great work, no doubt, and in hindsight I should have kept my opinions to myself. In the past I was much better at holding my tongue in this forum, because I was an outsider and didn't have a dog in fight. Now, I'm married to a TRH and have been dragged back into the culture to a degree and out of courtesy do not air my grievances with my wife. Even though my now hour a week obligation gains me a little standing to kvetch, I'll try harder to hold my tongue.

Hey, you are welcome to come here and vent. We want you to have a happy marriage!

[Pelado]

The Church does great work, no doubt, and in hindsight I should have kept my opinions to myself. In the past I was much better at holding my tongue in this forum, because I was an outsider and didn't have a dog in fight. Now, I'm married to a TRH and have been dragged back into the culture to a degree and out of courtesy do not air my grievances with her. Even though my now hour a week obligation gains me a little standing to kvetch, I'll try harder to hold my tongue.

There's no need to hold your tongue.

$100 billion is certainly a lot of money. It's not a particularly surprising phenomenon considering the Church's history, tendencies, and counsel:

Live within your means. Get out of debt. Keep out of debt. Lay by for a rainy day which has always come and will come again. Practice and increase your habits of thrift, industry, economy, and frugality.

https://abn.churchofjesuschrist.org/...stion?lang=eng

A sizeable portfolio is the natural result of following their own advice (as AA mentioned earlier). And the greater the portfolio, the greater the income from that portfolio which should allow them to increase their spending on charitable purposes.

That said, it's fair to ask whether the portfolio needs to be as big as it is. Maybe they could have relieved some human suffering earlier rather than later by using some of that money instead of using it to build the portfolio. On the other hand, maybe the reserve fund is too small. If the Church did not receive any donations, how long could it sustain its activities using just the reserves?

[Non Sequitur]

I wonder if there is a way to discover whether there is "a lot of charity going on"?

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/...g.pdf?lang=eng

^ that's the 2020 annual report for LDS charities. It's publicly available to anyone with a computer. There is even a mobile version of the report available for download. You can find it here:

https://www.latterdaysaintcharities..../2020?lang=eng

Oh, and the church just dropped $20 million to secure 2 billion vaccines to be distributed by Unicef. "Latter-day Saint Charities becomes the single largest private sector donor to date to support UNICEF’s ACT-Accelerator and COVAX work":

https://www.unicef.org/press-release...lobal-covid-19

The Church does great work, no doubt, and in hindsight I should have kept my opinions to myself. In the past I was much better at holding my tongue in this forum, because I was an outsider and didn't have a dog in fight. Now, I'm married to a TRH and have been dragged back into the culture to a degree and out of courtesy do not air my grievances with my wife. Even though my now hour a week obligation gains me a little standing to kvetch, I'll try harder to hold my tongue.

[Bo Diddley]

It's a reservoir of funds, just as any person or organization needs to be financially solvent. All their expenditures are charitable, but you can't expect them to execute those funds all at once. Again, a world-wide church. It's all about being conservative, and scale of operations.

[Moliere]

I'm not an accountant and am not privy to the Church's finances, but I'm honestly curious how much of that $100 Billion was tax exempt and how much wasn't. And if the Church is sitting on and investing all that money, why are members able to claim their donations on their taxes as charitable contributions? If you're simply sitting on and investing all those billions of dollars, it doesn't look like a lot of charity is going on? How about we look at the percentage of the Church's wealth that actually goes toward charitable causes and apply that percentage to the amount of your 10% that you are able to deduct from your taxes each year. The line between charitable contributions and dues is not that fine.

I don’t disagree that having that much money doesn’t look great for a church or charity, but the church is clearly in compliance with all tax laws pertaining to its holdings. It’s no different than Harvard having a $40 billion endowment. Why is Harvard holding into that much money when they could use it for charitable causes? Why are donations to Harvard tax deductible.


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[tooblue]

I'm not an accountant and am not privy to the Church's finances, but I'm honestly curious how much of that $100 Billion was tax exempt and how much wasn't. And if the Church is sitting on and investing all that money, why are members able to claim their donations on their taxes as charitable contributions? If you're simply sitting on and investing all those billions of dollars, it doesn't look like a lot of charity is going on? How about we look at the percentage of the Church's wealth that actually goes toward charitable causes and apply that percentage to the amount of your 10% that you are able to deduct from your taxes each year. The line between charitable contributions and dues is not that fine.

I wonder if there is a way to discover whether there is "a lot of charity going on"?

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/...g.pdf?lang=eng

^ that's the 2020 annual report for LDS charities. It's publicly available to anyone with a computer. There is even a mobile version of the report available for download. You can find it here:

https://www.latterdaysaintcharities..../2020?lang=eng

Oh, and the church just dropped $20 million to secure 2 billion vaccines to be distributed by Unicef. "Latter-day Saint Charities becomes the single largest private sector donor to date to support UNICEF’s ACT-Accelerator and COVAX work":

https://www.unicef.org/press-release...lobal-covid-19

[Non Sequitur]

1. The church asks its millions of members to contribute 10 percent of their income, and many do.

2. The church is financially conservative, operates within its means, and wisely manages the rest.

Wake me up when somebody has a news story that is not the natural if not inevitable consequence of 1 and 2.

I'm not an accountant and am not privy to the Church's finances, but I'm honestly curious how much of that $100 Billion was tax exempt and how much wasn't. And if the Church is sitting on and investing all that money, why are members able to claim their donations on their taxes as charitable contributions? If you're simply sitting on and investing all those billions of dollars, it doesn't look like a lot of charity is going on? How about we look at the percentage of the Church's wealth that actually goes toward charitable causes and apply that percentage to the amount of your 10% that you are able to deduct from your taxes each year. The line between charitable contributions and dues is not that fine.

[clackamascoug]

$100 billion isn't that much anymore. There are at least 5 individuals walking around that are worth more than the church. And I bet the wealthiest 100 members of the 16 million member church - are worth a combined $100 billion.

[Bo Diddley]

I imagine the Church has a wish list of things they'd like to be able to do with their money, but the reality of a world-wide church limits what they can do. Anyone who wrings their hands over the amount of money the Church is sitting on simply doesn't understand the scale of church operations.

[All-American]

Smells fine to me.

1. The church asks its millions of members to contribute 10 percent of their income, and many do.

2. The church is financially conservative, operates within its means, and wisely manages the rest.

Wake me up when somebody has a news story that is not the natural if not inevitable consequence of 1 and 2.

[Shaka]

It's not about the 0.001%. The thing that doesn't smell right is the size of the part that isn't the 0.001%. I'm not a New Testament scholar, so refresh me on which of the disciples was tasked with managing the early church's holdings?

Smells fine to me.

[Northwestcoug]

Here church, here’s some free PR. You know what 100 billion gets you for 16 million members? About 6000 bucks per. That ain’t much.

You’re welcome.

[BigFatMeanie]

If they're required to disclose their holdings then how "secretive" and "mysterious" can it really be? Yawn.

[All-American]

It's not about the 0.001%. The thing that doesn't smell right is the size of the part that isn't the 0.001%. I'm not a New Testament scholar, so refresh me on which of the disciples was tasked with managing the early church's holdings?

This just in. Church has money. Lots of it.

How you’ll feel about that is up to you I guess. Goodness knows we’ve seen nothing in the last year to suggest the need for a rainy day fund.

[Non Sequitur]

Lol. That game stop buy represents 0.001% of their holdings. But sure, let's write an article about it.

It's not about the 0.001%. The thing that doesn't smell right is the size of the part that isn't the 0.001%. I'm not a New Testament scholar, so refresh me on which of the disciples was tasked with managing the early church's holdings?