How to see donations for my daughter missionary?

Is there any way I can see online the donations to my daughters missionary account? I have the Ward finance clerk look it up regularly so I can see how much I need to donate, but it would be easier if I could look it up myself.

zootal wrote:Is there any way I can see online the donations to my daughters missionary account?

No. Due to privacy issues only unit leaders with finance permissions can view unit missionary accounts.

Furthermore, the clerk should not be showing you donations (other than your own) - just the balance.

Does that mean I have the right to see the balance in the account, but I can't see who donated how much to her account?

zootal wrote:Does that mean I have the right to see the balance in the account, but I can't see who donated how much to her account?

"Right" would be an overly strong word, but I'd think you should be aware of the balance since that would affect how much you need to donate. And yes, for privacy reasons, you wouldn't know who and how much.

zootal wrote:Does that mean I have the right to see the balance in the account, but I can't see who donated how much to her account?

To put it more bluntly, all donations are property of the church and you don't have "the right" to know anything about donations made by other people nor what, exactly, happens to the donations you made either. However, your ward clerk over finances (with whom you already have a dialog about this) can keep you informed about the overall balance of the account under your daughter's name in the ward computer… so that you may donate an appropriate amount on a regular basis. That's his responsibility and there is not any other way for you to know this information (unless you have a calling which also grants permission to view ward finances on the ward's computer).

I realize that you probably want to know this balance at the least convenient times for the clerk… like late in the evening when you're doing your personal finances and you feel like making a donation online but you want to know the missionary balance first. Perhaps the best approach would be to make an arrangement with the finance clerk. Like… every Sunday at the end of processing the ward finances he could quickly check the balance on that account and send you an email. He isn't going to know the updated balance any more often than once a week anyway.

zootal wrote:Is there any way I can see online the donations to my daughters missionary account? I have the Ward finance clerk look it up regularly so I can see how much I need to donate, but it would be easier if I could look it up myself.

This has been a fairly popular request by users of Online Donations. I cannot say when/if this will be addressed, but please know that we are aware of the desire to have some way of being able to monitor the balance of your missionary child's account.

I have the exact same issue with my son on his mission. it doesnt seem too hard to just have a subtotal for all the donations when we run the history for my missionary account. The subtotal would include all donations from all other wards or stakes.

just a thought.

texasranger225 wrote:I have the exact same issue with my son on his mission. it doesnt seem too hard to just have a subtotal for all the donations when we run the history for my missionary account. The subtotal would include all donations from all other wards or stakes.

just a thought.

Thanks for expressing your desire for this functionality. I will make sure the team is aware of the request.

This would be a wonderful addition. I recently asked for my daughter's mission fund balance and was given the amount we would have paid without a single donation. I then asked if there had been any donations in her name and I was told there were several so I asked them why that was not reflected in the balance and I was told they would have to go back in their records and that would take them some time. If there have been donations in her name wouldn't her balance reflect this? I wish I could just see for myself what the balance is.

I am having the same issue. I have several family member that would like to donate to my daughters missionary fund, but i don't know exactly how much they will donate or when... so I don't know how much I will owe on a monthly basis. Wish there was a way to see what was donated to her fund.

For now, your best bet is to check regularly with the finance clerk to see what the balance is.

Financial donations are confidential. But the information you request really is important if you are to know how much remains to be donated each month. During the 13 and a half years we had missionaries serving from our family, I worked out a solution with my ward clerk where he would tell me how much had been donated by others in the previous month, just the amount, not the who. He had to manually look it up, but he was willing.

Perhaps there is a way that could be simplified, or even automated, with the addition of a "Donated by others" line to the report.

I pay the full amount monthly, then adjust every few months based on outside donations shown for our missionaries. I once found the breakdown, but couldn't find it a second time. Now I realize I must have found it while using my husband's phone/account since he has leadership access.

SparkyMartin wrote:For now, your best bet is to check regularly with the finance clerk to see what the balance is.

This is easier than ever now for the clerk as he can access the info from any web browser on the LCR website.

My husband was a ward clerk for years and he never minded helping members get this information. But it is such an ongoing need that it seems reasonable to see if we can make the balance available to those with stewardship over the missionary... especially their parents. I'm not sure where the appropriate place to voice a desire for that functionality, but I'm voicing it here. Please let whomever needs to know that this is a FAQ for good reason. Thank you for YOUR service.

sarahbuma wrote:My husband was a ward clerk for years and he never minded helping members get this information. But it is such an ongoing need that it seems reasonable to see if we can make the balance available to those with stewardship over the missionary... especially their parents. I'm not sure where the appropriate place to voice a desire for that functionality, but I'm voicing it here. Please let whomever needs to know that this is a FAQ for good reason. Thank you for YOUR service.

There is no problem discussing the suggestion here but in order to get it to the people who actually make decisions about this kind of thing, you'll need to use the Feedback link on lds.org.

I know of no authoritative answer on why this isn't available. I could just be a matter of resources and priorities. However, personally, I guess that there are privacy and possibly legal issues involved and that they church would just rather make sure that the bishop and clerks act as gatekeepers to avoid revealing sensitive financial information. For example, if two people had both committed to help fund a missionary, making the current balance available to both could inappropriate reveal that the other hasn't been paying. This kind of situation isn't common but it's the kind of thing the church has to consider.

eblood66 wrote:The church would just rather make sure that the bishop and clerks act as gatekeepers to avoid revealing sensitive financial information. For example, if two people had both committed to help fund a missionary, making the current balance available to both could inappropriate reveal that the other hasn't been paying. This kind of situation isn't common but it's the kind of thing the church has to consider.

Absolutely right. Add to that privacy issue the need to treat these funds as donations for tax purposes, rather than a support payment for your child. The IRS frowns when you send money to your child, and then claim it is a charitable donation. And if, for any reason, the family stops making payments, the Church will not terminate the mission due to lack of payment. On a related note, it may cost the Church much more or much less to support your child's mission than the amount you were assessed.

Bottom line: The Church doesn't send you a bill or a periodic account statement because these are free will donations, not support payments.

drepouille wrote:And if, for any reason, the family stops making payments, the Church will not terminate the mission due to lack of payment.

It's the unit's account that goes into the red. So, they need to be the ones that monitor it and take appropriate action. They already have that ability.

russellhltn wrote:It's the unit's account that goes into the red. So, they need to be the ones that monitor it and take appropriate action. They already have that ability.

And if you think about it, the "unit" is actually the stake, and the stake is supposed to manage and rebalance missionary funds among its local units. While I can't speak for all stakes, I can tell you that my stake ran a surplus the entire time I was stake clerk, and we sent surplus funds to HQ a couple times.

The missionary "accounts" within each local unit are really for the convenience of the Church, not the families of the missionaries. Just as there is really only one budget fund, there is really only one missionary fund in each unit.

This is an old thread, so throwing my wish in here as well. At the beginning of my daughter’s mission, most of it was paid for up front. People had expressed a desire to do monthly contributions, so it wasn’t all paid initially. Now that she has been out for over a year, we need to track how much to contribute monthly to make up the difference before the end of her missionary service. I don’t need to know who, but I do need to see a trend for how much was contributed monthly to help me budget monthly what is lacking.

We made the mistake with my son that we over-contributed so there was a fair surplus in his account at the end. This was fine with us as we could shift that surplus to another ward missionary. But, some family were unhappy and felt we had shifted what they had contributed.

It would be wonderful if we could see the amount contributed to my daughter on a regular monthly basis so we could put a more accurate amount in her account and then personally contribute our own surplus to other ward missionaries. Seems like it would be an easy report to have provided. And, it would be easiest if it could be provided through the online donation tool. No names need be given in the report, just monthly amounts through the service time of that missionary, and only to the heads of household.

j0merrill wrote:This is an old thread, so throwing my wish in here as well. At the beginning of my daughter’s mission, most of it was paid for up front. People had expressed a desire to do monthly contributions, so it wasn’t all paid initially. Now that she has been out for over a year, we need to track how much to contribute monthly to make up the difference before the end of her missionary service. I don’t need to know who, but I do need to see a trend for how much was contributed monthly to help me budget monthly what is lacking.

We made the mistake with my son that we over-contributed so there was a fair surplus in his account at the end. This was fine with us as we could shift that surplus to another ward missionary. But, some family were unhappy and felt we had shifted what they had contributed.

It would be wonderful if we could see the amount contributed to my daughter on a regular monthly basis so we could put a more accurate amount in her account and then personally contribute our own surplus to other ward missionaries. Seems like it would be an easy report to have provided. And, it would be easiest if it could be provided through the online donation tool. No names need be given in the report, just monthly amounts through the service time of that missionary, and only to the heads of household.

Your ward clerk or assistant ward clerk-finance can provide you with the current balance. Since the same amount should be deducted each month, it would not be too difficult to figure out what percentage of the deductions were covered (on average) for each month which should give you an idea of the rate for your budgeting purposes.

after reading the previous comments I guess finding out who made donations so that you could thank them is out of the question. I don't know if people know that they are donating anonymously. I feel bad that I'm not thanking the people who donate to his account.

nanetteamis wrote:after reading the previous comments I guess finding out who made donations so that you could thank them is out of the question. I don't know if people know that they are donating anonymously. I feel bad that I'm not thanking the people who donate to his account.

I suppose you could ask a clerk to pass on your thanks or ask the clerk to check with other donors about whether they mind if you know who they are.

nanetteamis wrote:after reading the previous comments I guess finding out who made donations so that you could thank them is out of the question. I don't know if people know that they are donating anonymously. I feel bad that I'm not thanking the people who donate to his account.

Don't feel bad. Those who donate do not expect your personal thanks. They do it for the love of the Lord and His work.

I too would like this functionality. I don't need to know who has donated toward my son/daughter's mission but knowing what the current balance is for their individual mission fund would be extremely helpful. I have to bug the ward clerks every few months. I've heard from a couple of different sources of times where they overpaid for their child's mission fund because extra donations were made that they were unaware of and didn't discover this until their child had finished their mission. Now the extra money that they donated is non-refundable and non-transferable to other funds. It has greatly upset some people I know. I believe it would be a good thing to allow parents/guardians and/or the self-funded missionary to have access to their mission balance to avoid this problem in the future.

Totally agree. We are a self funding couple and couples pay a lot every month to serve, far more by many factors than the youth. Serving overseas having electronic capability to add to our mission fund balance is crucial. I guess the easy way is let it zero out and I'm sure someone will let us know. We think we know about how much comes out but can't see how much and when. It's bad business but looks like we'll let it dry up and be notified we are in foreclosure

There is a separate thread that has been discussing this issue. I posted a reply there with some thoughts related to this.

https://tech.churchofjesuschrist.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=156&t=22586&p=217051#p217051

Yes I agree, would appreciate this ability to see our missionary's balance. Thank you so much.

Please make a son or daughter's missionary balance available to the parents. Showing this level of detail will reduce the work a finance clerk has to perform to zero out the balance once the son or daughter returns.

jwindso, in the link referenced two comments above yours, you would find the following quote by scgallafent:

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.

As regular church members like yourself, we are also unaware of specifics behind the decision-making for why things are the way they are. I imagine it does have something to do with the fact that the mission fund really doesn't belong to either the missionary or his family, although of course they are the primary ones who commit to paying the required funds. And hence, they are the ones most-interested in knowing what the running balance is, to ensure they're not over-shooting the mark!