Tithing donations

We received a sealed donation envelop containing a donation slip filled out with date, ward and amount, nothing else. The donation was cash. The envelope had no information and the donation slip was handwritten but not recognized by anyone in the Bishopric. We have asked several times over the pulpit at sacrament meeting for the donor to come forward but no response. So far in tithing settlement, this has not been resolved. How should this cash be handled?

We always had one "Donor" in the system called "Anonymous" for situations like this. When the donor is unknown, we used this donor. When the donation category is unknown (like, if there hadn't been a donation slip in the envelope but only cash) then the whole amount is put into tithing. As far as I know, the policy in the past said to handle it this way (someone can correct me if I'm wrong and/or not current). If you can find out who the real donor is then you can correct it but, otherwise, the money needs to go into the system rather than sit in a drawer waiting for clarification. Maybe you'll find out during tithing settlement when a donor thinks there's an error on his paperwork. Maybe you simply won't find out who really made the donation. (For a while, in our ward, we had a donor who wanted to remain anonymous. Although I knew who he really was, he still wanted to be anonymous on the records, so I let it be that way.)

The finance training discourages the use of "Anonymous" donations. Rather, it encourages the use of "Unknown." It's a subtle, but important difference. Unknown implies we are still seeking to identify the donor.

MrRad is correct that the donation should be deposited immediately even if you don't know who it came from. It's very easy to adjust the original donation if the donor is discovered.