Cash Tithing Donation - Unknown Donor

One of the wards in our stake received a cash tithing donation, but there was no name on the tithing slip. Does anyone know what should be done in this situation?

I can't find any authoritative answer but the common practice is to record it under a donor with the name "Unknown" with a note on the donor slip indicating what happened signed by both people. Then an announcement can be made in sacrament meeting or in priesthood and Relief Society indicating what happened to see if anyone comes forward. If you do find out the correct donor you can go back and adjust the donation.

What you shouldn't do is keep the cash lying around until you find who donated it.

Here are a couple threads where this has come up before: https://tech.lds.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=20749, https://tech.lds.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=16376

Thank you eblood66, that was quite helpful.

I have seen situations where donors truly wanted no earthly record of their donation so it may be an accident, but it may be on purpose. And eblood66's proposed practice is what we would do. Personally, I would shy away from announcing it in Sacrament Meeting and would use the Relief Society and the Priesthood. The Bishop has the final say on what to do.

I'm not sure as any announcement would do much good, since most people wouldn't be aware that they didn't have a slip. And you can't say the amount, since then anyone could claim it. I think just a broad announcement to include a slip and why, and leave it at that.

Out of curiosity, was the envelope kept? They might have written their name on the outside. I'd imagine that most members would think that's "good enough".

russellhltn wrote:I'm not sure as any announcement would do much good, since most people wouldn't be aware that they didn't have a slip. And you can't say the amount, since then anyone could claim it. I think just a broad announcement to include a slip and why, and leave it at that.

At least in our ward on any given Sunday we don't usually have more than a 2 or 3 cash donations. I think that an announcement that we received a donation without a slip (or without a name) could very well get a response. I think you could also give a range for the amount without violating anybody's privacy and then if someone knows the exact amount you can verify it was theirs.

If there's only 2 or 3 donations, no need to even give a range. Just ask everyone who donated that in paper last week to talk to the clerk after the meeting (if you announce it at the end of the meeting they're more likely to remember).
It's true it may not violate anyone's privacy, but it may cause someone in the ward who only makes a small amount of money to feel bad, if it's a large amount.