Online Ward Missionary contributions to specific Missionarie

I like the ease of the new online donations, However I am wondering what happens to the Ward Missionary funds and have questions on how Ward Missionary funds are used.

If I send money to my nephew on a mission using the online system to help my sister fund his mission, will my nephew and sister know that I have contributed and that they can pay less to offset my contribution?

Likewise, if I contribute money to specific missionaries in my ward, will they ever know I contributed and will the donation directly help the missionaries family by allowing them to pay less money? Not that it matters in the grand scheme of things, but It would be a way to let the missionary know that I am proud of them and want to help support their mission costs?

Also, if there's a family in the Ward (or another Ward) that is struggling financially, is there a way for me to contribute specifically some towards their specific son or daughters mission anonymously, so they can pay less?

kurjens wrote:If I send money to my nephew on a mission using the online system to help my sister fund his mission, will my nephew and sister know that I have contributed and that they can pay less to offset my contribution?

No. They have no way to see the donations made by anyone else.

kurjens wrote:Likewise, if I contribute money to specific missionaries in my ward, will they ever know I contributed and will the donation directly help the missionaries family by allowing them to pay less money? Not that it matters in the grand scheme of things, but It would be a way to let the missionary know that I am proud of them and want to help support their mission costs?

Again, the answer is no.

kurjens wrote:Also, if there's a family in the Ward (or another Ward) that is struggling financially, is there a way for me to contribute specifically some towards their specific son or daughters mission anonymously, so they can pay less?

Although the clerk can see the donations, the supported missionary or the family cannot see the donations, so by default, all donations are anonymous from the perspective of the supported missionary or his/her family.

All the above answers depend, of course, on how the clerk under the direction of the bishop handles the confidentiality of missionary donations. The clerk is capable of generating a report of the detailed donations credited to a particular missionary; that report shows exactly who donated how much on which dates. He should never give that directly to the family of the missionary (unless that family were the only donors), because that would violate privacy rules. But I would see nothing wrong with a clerk reporting to the family the current balance. That would allow the family to know how to adjust their contributions up or down as needed.

kurjens wrote:will my nephew and sister know that I have contributed and that they can pay less to offset my contribution?

As aebrown points out, the answer is "only if the clerk tells them". That applies to both parts of the question. So you're dependent on the clerk telling the family to adjust their donation.

There is a possibility that due to lack of communication, the missionary will end up with a surplus in their account (perhaps because of other donors) and the excess will be used to help finance another missionary. I don't believe there's any way for a potential donor to see the balance of a particular missionary. So the possibility of a surplus is there.

kurjens wrote: Also, if there's a family in the Ward (or another Ward) that is struggling financially, is there a way for me to contribute specifically some towards their specific son or daughters mission anonymously, so they can pay less?

The best way to do it anonymously would be to work with the bishop or ward clerk and they can let the family know that someone is contributing.

Bishops and Clerks, however, do not have much direction in this area, I see this as potentially having an issue where a family in need might not get the correct help because of lack of communication.

The other comments are correct. Let me just add that, too often, clerks don't watch the Ward Missionary account closely enough. The other charitable donation categories like Tithing and Fast Offering are pretty-much maintenance-free. You never have to worry about how much comes in or goes out (yes, even with Fast Offering expenses). But the Ward Missionary account is different. At the end of a mission there can be a deficit or surplus to clean up.

If you intend that your donations for support of a missionary are handled a certain way then, yes, please talk to the ward clerk and/or Bishop of that ward about it. When I used to consistently input a $300 donation from a family and a $100 donation from a grandparent each month then I assumed that all parties knew what the others were doing. But I really didn't know. In that case, the donations were regular and there was no need for me to address any problems with deficits or surpluses. But it might have been nice to know, for certain, who did and didn't want their support to be anonymous, just so I didn't slip and violate anyone's privacy.

I think it would be entirely appropriate for a Bishop to say something like, "We have someone donating to your son's missionary support so that you won't need to donate the full $400 each month. That person wants to remain anonymous but you're welcomed to ask the clerk for a summary report of the account balance each month."

If a family is in need of assistance, the Bishop can determine how that help is given/solicited. We have a moderate surplus in our general Ward Missionary fund that we can use for that purpose or to help support future missionaries from our ward.

I have also seen situations where a bishop may just make a request over the pulpit for contributions to the ward fund. I have also had bishops ask me at tithing settlement before if our family could make a specific commitment to ward contributions. Bottom line is, people are almost always willing to contribute, especially if they know there is a need, and even if they don't know who that need is for.

If a family is in need of assistance, the Bishop can determine how that help is given/solicited. We have a moderate surplus in our general Ward Missionary fund that we can use for that purpose or to help support future missionaries from our ward.

This is where I always saw the problem. The family in need will often not be identified quickly enough. I've seen OFTEN that 6 months of no contributions go by without anyone noticing, but ME the stake clerk. The Bishop had no clue the family was already behind 25% of the $$... When a family is in financial trouble, that is NOT something they can come back from. Often it is also treated as something 'owed' so the $$ stays 'assigned' to the family and they keep paying and paying and paying... If this was the first of several missionaries, the family can feel totally financially guilty for YEARS if a Bishop does not intercede and relieve them of the burden (or whatever he is inspired to do). I can't tell you the number of families that I saw it real trouble that a Bishop knew nothing about that could've been seen much quicker by noticing the Missionary account was not being contributed to..

#Bishophack

johnshaw wrote:

If a family is in need of assistance, the Bishop can determine how that help is given/solicited. We have a moderate surplus in our general Ward Missionary fund that we can use for that purpose or to help support future missionaries from our ward.

This is where I always saw the problem. The family in need will often not be identified quickly enough. I've seen OFTEN that 6 months of no contributions go by without anyone noticing, but ME the stake clerk. The Bishop had no clue the family was already behind 25% of the $$... When a family is in financial trouble, that is NOT something they can come back from. Often it is also treated as something 'owed' so the $$ stays 'assigned' to the family and they keep paying and paying and paying... If this was the first of several missionaries, the family can feel totally financially guilty for YEARS if a Bishop does not intercede and relieve them of the burden (or whatever he is inspired to do). I can't tell you the number of families that I saw it real trouble that a Bishop knew nothing about that could've been seen much quicker by noticing the Missionary account was not being contributed to..

#Bishophack

As a bishop, I have had the pleasure of serving under a stake president who does a brief financial review each month during my PPI -- usually no more than 5-10 minutes. One thing he would do is review the missionary funds in our ward. If someone had a negative balance, he would instruct me to talk to the family and see if there was a reason and either encourage them to get it caught up or cover it from the ward missionary fund if needed. It only took me a couple of months to realize this was going to be reviewed each month, and I now try to be proactive. I usually review those balances the last week of the month and either have the family catch them up, or make sure the transfer occurs.

If you are noticing this as the stake clerk, even when one falls just a month or two behind, you could gently point this out to the Stake President, or even the ward clerk of the ward so that they can point it out to the bishop if needed, and then it gets taken care of sooner rather than later.

bballrob - I don't currently have this issue. We fixed it in our stake also, the thread exists historically in case other stumble on it there are some helpful hints about what can be going on under the radar. I have to wonder... what if you're SP didn't have this review with you. Would you ever have discovered this as something that was helpful... and I say this for the world to read, 'you' in this case is ALL Bishops.

We need something better than 'hoping that someone in the stake knows to remind me about this' because Stake Presidents are only typically former Bishops who may or may not know these things. I was a stake clerk with 10-15 years ward clerk/exec sec experience - I've seen stake clerks called with absolutely 0 experience with church finances and mls.

johnshaw wrote:bballrob - I don't currently have this issue. We fixed it in our stake also, the thread exists historically in case other stumble on it there are some helpful hints about what can be going on under the radar. I have to wonder... what if you're SP didn't have this review with you. Would you ever have discovered this as something that was helpful... and I say this for the world to read, 'you' in this case is ALL Bishops.

I'd like to think that I'd most likely catch it anyhow. Professionally I'm an accountant, so it's in my nature to pay pretty close attention to the financial side of things I'm involved in.

I think one thing that all Bishop's need to do when first called is become familiar with the various financial responsibilities they have. In the missionary funds, they need to be familiar with each missionary's financial support, especially if the ward happens to be helping with all or part of a particular missionary. That way they can followup and make sure the appropriate transfers are made.

One thing I have always done as well is let my clerks know that I APPRECIATE and RELY ON their expertise in their assigned callings. I let them know that if there's something they think I should be doing differently, to let me know. I'm open to suggestions, and unless there's a specific reason why I'm doing it the way I'm doing it, and what they suggest will make all of our lives easier, I'm willing to make the change if that's what's needed.

One of the Bishops that ran into this problem was in financial management as a profession, so I include every Bishop everywhere in my list of needing a bit better instructions on how this works. There are just some things that deserve some explicit training from experts.

Bishops are very busy people. They may prioritize their administrative attention to things with consequences. So it may be necessary to spell out some consequences to get their attention. (I was a clerk to a bishop like that.)

I asked my clerk to monitor the ward missionary fund and tell me anytime one of the accounts was going to go or went underwater. I asked him to recommend to me any time he thought I ought to "remind" one of the missionary families their contributions were needed. I asked him to track the overall ward missionary fund and let me know any time he thought I ought to "mention" that the ward would be grateful for contributions.

I also told him I would let him know whether or not I was going to visit with the family or if he should just transfer some money from the ward fund to a specific missionary. We did all this manually on a ledger before MLS came along and when FIS only tracked a top-level ward missionary fund.

My wonderful clerk provided the information and recommendations. I provided the decisions. On occasion, just for fun, I would ask him, "What do you think you would do if you were the bishop?" And I would explain why I did what I did (without violating any confidences).

A side benefit was that when he became a bishop, he was already well trained.

I have a member who wants to donate to a specific Missionary in a different Ward. How is that done?

Jeraymond wrote:I have a member who wants to donate to a specific Missionary in a different Ward. How is that done?

They have to know the unit number of the ward the missionary is in. Then under ward missionary there is an option to put in that number and the missionaries in that ward will show up.

Jeraymond wrote:I have a member who wants to donate to a specific Missionary in a different Ward. How is that done?

Hopefully this ward is in the same country as her. If the ward is in another country, that doesn't seem to work.

russellhltn wrote:

Jeraymond wrote:I have a member who wants to donate to a specific Missionary in a different Ward. How is that done?

Hopefully this ward is in the same country as her. If the ward is in another country, that doesn't seem to work.

Well, you have to be in the U.S. (or more correctly, using a U.S. checking or savings account) to use Online Donations, and you can only donate to missionaries whose ward missionary accounts are in U.S. wards and branches.

I would like to monthly donate to my Nephews mission fund. I don't know how to do this. His mother is single and just moved to Ogden her address is [personal information removed - this is a public forum] I don't know how to do this can you help me?

Julie,

If you go online to the donations area and click on help, scroll down to the FAQ it has the answer after you click the link. I've provided it below. You will need to contact your sister to get that information. If you are trying to do it without letting her know, you can put her address into the lds maps program and it will give you the Bishop's phone number and they can help you. - OR - you can work with your own ward clerk or someone in the bishopric that can help you find that address.

Q2. Can I make a donation to the missionary fund of another ward?

A2. Yes, you can make a donation to another ward or branch’s ward missionary fund, but you will need to know the unit number of that ward or branch. Go to Make a Donation, click Select a missionary, and then click Missionary in Other Ward/Branch. (Note: Currently you can only contribute the missionary funds of wards and branches in the country where you make the donation.)

Enter the ward or branch number, and click Continue. For help in getting a ward or branch number, click How do I get a ward or branch number?

From the drop-down list, select the name of the missionary, and enter the amount you want to donate.

juliejohnson wrote:I would like to monthly donate to my Nephews mission fund. I don't know how to do this. His mother is single and just moved to Ogden her address is [personal information removed - this is a public forum] I don't know how to do this can you help me?

With your nephew's home address, you can look up their ward using the Meetinghouse Locator tool. The Bishop's contact information will also be listed. You should be able to use their ward information to make online donations to your nephew's missionary fund as long as you are in the US and are using a US bank.

What are your options if you are not currently living in the US but you do have a US bank account that would be used to make a donation? In my lds.org account, I do not see any buttons for functions to create a new donation entry.

Thanks.

mkynaston wrote:What are your options if you are not currently living in the US but you do have a US bank account that would be used to make a donation? In my lds.org account, I do not see any buttons for functions to create a new donation entry.

Since you've tacked your question onto the end of a thread on supporting missionaries, what kind of donations are you wanting to make? If it's tithing and fast offering, then email donations@ldschurch.org and explain the situation. But that's not going to help if you want to donate to a missionary in your current country.

russellhltn wrote:

mkynaston wrote:What are your options if you are not currently living in the US but you do have a US bank account that would be used to make a donation? In my lds.org account, I do not see any buttons for functions to create a new donation entry.

Since you've tacked your question onto the end of a thread on supporting missionaries, what kind of donations are you wanting to make? If it's tithing and fast offering, then email donations@ldschurch.org and explain the situation. But that's not going to help if you want to donate to a missionary in your current country.

I have 2 nieces currently serving missions in U.S. based missions that I want to send donations to each month. I temporarily live overseas, but we still have a U.S. bank account. I can email the donations address you gave me if that's the best way to help get this set up. Thanks.

mkynaston wrote:I have 2 nieces currently serving missions in U.S. based missions that I want to send donations to each month. I temporarily live overseas, but we still have a U.S. bank account. I can email the donations address you gave me if that's the best way to help get this set up.

What ward is going to be financially responsible? If it's not located in the US, then it won't work.

Note that it doesn't matter where the missionaries serve, it's what ward is financially responsible. So far, the on-line donations doesn't cross country borders (or at least currency). And not all countries are set up with on-line donations.

russellhltn wrote:

mkynaston wrote:I have 2 nieces currently serving missions in U.S. based missions that I want to send donations to each month. I temporarily live overseas, but we still have a U.S. bank account. I can email the donations address you gave me if that's the best way to help get this set up.

What ward is going to be financially responsible? If it's not located in the US, then it won't work.

Note that it doesn't matter where the missionaries serve, it's what ward is financially responsible. So far, the on-line donations doesn't cross country borders (or at least currency). And not all countries are set up with on-line donations.

One niece's home ward is in Idaho, the other is in Utah (my home bank is in Idaho). I just want to set up a donation through their home wards but in my view of the "Donations" page, I don't have any buttons to add a new online donation transaction or bank account as I see in the instructions for making On-line donations from the lds.org "help" sections. I don't know if it's because my current "home" branch is not in the US. Can I contact someone to setup the transactions for me, or can I/should I just do bill pay from my US bank account sent to their home wards? I would love to set this up myself, but I don't have any functionality on the "Donations" page other than seeing my own online tithing and fast offering reports.

mkynaston wrote:One niece's home ward is in Idaho, the other is in Utah (my home bank is in Idaho). I just want to set up a donation through their home wards but in my view of the "Donations" page, I don't have any buttons to add a new online donation transaction or bank account as I see in the instructions for making On-line donations from the lds.org "help" sections. I don't know if it's because my current "home" branch is not in the US.

Send an email to "donations" listed above, and they can enable US donations on your donations page.

russellhltn wrote:Send an email to "donations" listed above, and they can enable US donations on your donations page.

Once that is set up, you should be able to select each of the missionaries for donation. You will need to know their unit numbers. Your ward clerk can help you obtain them.

so...if the family member you are trying to help on the mission has a father who is in the bishopric, there's no way for the donation to be anonymous? Because the counselor can see who has donated.

jeremywmeredith wrote:so...if the family member you are trying to help on the mission has a father who is in the bishopric, there's no way for the donation to be anonymous? Because the counselor can see who has donated.

If you are paying online, the counselor won't likely see the donation. He probably could if he was looking at the mission account for his child, though. We had a situation (before the online donations were available) where a family member wanted to be anonymous to the bishopric member father of the missionary. They pre-arranged with the bishop to mail the check to him (it came without a slip that we had to fill out each month) and he would make sure it was only processed when that counselor was not assisting with the donation deposit. The family member truly wanted to be anonymous so we entered as an anonymous donation and they understood there would be no charitable donation tax record for them on these donations.

Do counselors have rights to see finances?

Even if not, there's always a possibility he'd see a print-out left lying around.

Good question. Counselors can review and approve expenses, and can probably initiate EFTs and checks, but I don't know how much else they can see on LCRF.

Counselors can see donation information. If a counselor wanted to look and see who donated to the ward missionary fund, they could.

I occasionally had situations where someone wanted to know who had donated so that they could contact them. I always offered to contact them on behalf of the family to express their appreciation.

who does the ward missionary fund go to ?

SitaM wrote:who does the ward missionary fund go to ?

In most cases it goes to the equalized mission fund which in turn pays for food, rent and other expenses of the full-time missionaries.

I have a missionary out, and missionary grandparents that wish to donate also although the funds aren't always the same amount. I find this very frustrating that a family cannot see the "balance" of the missionary account. I know my clerk is more than willing to give me the amounts due, but with the challenges of Covid I don't see him very often. Constantly sending e-mail or txt messages every couple of weeks for a balance seems a bit ridiculous. This thread is over 5 years old I just felt that it needed new attention. Having worked as a ward clerk, financial clerk, and bishopric counselor this is something that is not looked at very often but would really benefit the typical family ward logistics (Enhancement Request). I don't need to see the donors just the outstanding balance for my missionary account. As a software analyst and QA tester, I would volunteer to beta test this feature if needed so long as I still have an active missionary.

justinpinkham wrote:I have a missionary out, and missionary grandparents that wish to donate also although the funds aren't always the same amount. I find this very frustrating that a family cannot see the "balance" of the missionary account. I know my clerk is more than willing to give me the amounts due, but with the challenges of Covid I don't see him very often. Constantly sending e-mail or txt messages every couple of weeks for a balance seems a bit ridiculous. This thread is over 5 years old I just felt that it needed new attention. Having worked as a ward clerk, financial clerk, and bishopric counselor this is something that is not looked at very often but would really benefit the typical family ward logistics (Enhancement Request). I don't need to see the donors just the outstanding balance for my missionary account. As a software analyst and QA tester, I would volunteer to beta test this feature if needed so long as I still have an active missionary.

An enhancement request made here isn't going to be seen by anyone in a position to decide whether this feature should be added. For the most part, this is a user-to-user support forum and Church product managers don't typically hang out here.

Some things to consider:

The missionary account isn't "your" missionary account; it is a sub-account of the ward missionary account which is used to manage equalized support payments for a missionary serving from the ward. Although you have committed to the bishop to make donations during the time your child is serving, those donations are applied at the discretion of the Church. You can ask for information about the balance of a missionary's account and the bishop or clerk can give you that information at their discretion, but it isn't your account.

The Church is careful to ensure that these accounts are handled correctly so that the tax status of the donations is not affected in the United States and other countries. Giving members the ability to directly monitor the balance of "their" account may be a concern. There may also be other concerns that the Finance and Legal departments have identified that would affect the feature you are asking for.

Sending email or text messages every couple of weeks is ridiculous. This isn't like a bank account where someone is going to get an overdraft charge if the account balance goes negative. Your son or daughter isn't going to be repossessed if the account is negative on the 10th day of the month. For most families who are contributing to support a child serving a mission, checking in with the clerk once a quarter is probably sufficient to adjust their donations in light of donations being made by other members. Ideally, the finance clerk is also paying attention to accounts and working with those who have committed to contribute to the account if the balance is getting unusually high or low.

During the last few months of a mission, it may be wise to check more frequently or even delay a final donation until after the missionary has returned home and the dust has settled. Outside of that time frame, every couple of weeks seems like overkill for an account whose balance might change, at most, a few times a month.

scgallafent wrote:for an account whose balance might change, at most, a few times a month.

Specifically, the withdrawal is only once a month.

I spoke with Headquartes recently and they indicated that the church prorates (( ibelieve djust during the COVID issue) the required amount for the final month of the mission (I am in Canada) I was told the if the misssinary returned on the 2nd of the month, the bill would 2/30ths (or number of days in the month in question). Thus it is important not to overpay or pay to far in advance. As a ward clerk, I tryto keep each missionary family apprised of the balance status to make sure they do not over pay. My Bishop has asked me to do this on aregualr basis.

Having said that, I have at least one missionary that has comleted their mission and the funds have not yet been prorated, so it may be an after the fact thing.