Donating Online to a Custom Other Account

Our ward is collecting donations for an RS service project. In the past, we've just told our ward members to write "RS service project" in the Other section of the tithing slip and then we'd deposit those donations into a custom Other account for the project in MLS. With most of our members now paying tithing online, is there a way that they can donate to a custom Other account (RS service project in this case)? Based on what I've seen on the electronic tithing slip, I'm thinking our ward members would just have to donate to this project the old fashion way, but I'd just thought I'd ask if they could do it online.

No. The system doesn't allow donation to "Other" or any of it's sub-sections.

russellhltn wrote:No. The system doesn't allow donation to "Other" or any of it's sub-sections.

. . . set up by the local unit. The only online donations that can be made to Other are for the Church-wide Book of Mormon, Temple Construction, Perpetual Education, and Temple Patron Assistance funds.

Needs to be fixed. Should be the option for "Ward Donaionn" and a text entry box for a purpose. Seems like an easy fix? What gives?

jerrymatson wrote:Needs to be fixed. Should be the option for "Ward Donaionn" and a text entry box for a purpose. Seems like an easy fix? What gives?

I believe there are two concerns. One is that the Church at the general level does not have insight into what sub-categories a local unit has set up in MLS for contributions. Donations at the ward level to the Other account still need to match an approved category that has been set up by the local unit with the permission of the bishop and according to Church policy and procedures.

The other is that donations to categories in the Other account set up by local units are not considered charitable contributions under U.S. tax law. Only contributions to the general Church accounts, such as Humanitarian Services, are considered charitable contributions. Each type of contribution needs to be tracked separately for accounting purposes.

There may be other reasons that the Church does not share with us at the local level.

If you feel strongly about this need, the best way to get information to those who make these decisions at Church headquarters is through the Feedback system, or through a message to your bishop or stake president that they would relay through their priesthood leaders to the decision-making level.

Thank you for the insight.
Do those same concerns apply to the paper donations as well? What is the difference?

jerrymatson wrote:Thank you for the insight.
Do those same concerns apply to the paper donations as well? What is the difference?

I suppose the biggest difference is that your ward clerk can see the local sub-accounts and can make sure the donation goes to the proper place. Other than that, the local accounts are still non-charitable and contributions stay at the local level. The Church-wide accounts, such as Humanitarian Services, are still charitable and are automatically transferred by the Church each week to headquarters.

Hilohi wrote:Our ward is collecting donations for an RS service project. In the past, we've just told our ward members to write "RS service project" in the Other section of the tithing slip and then we'd deposit those donations into a custom Other account for the project in MLS. With most of our members now paying tithing online, is there a way that they can donate to a custom Other account (RS service project in this case)? Based on what I've seen on the electronic tithing slip, I'm thinking our ward members would just have to donate to this project the old fashion way, but I'd just thought I'd ask if they could do it online.

We need to use words such as "donation" carefully. Technically, funds contributed to an "Other:AMFA" subcategory are not tax-deductible donations. As others have said, such funds are collected locally, spent locally, and are not swept into general Church funds. So that may be one reason why you cannot contribute to "Other:AMFA" subcategories online.

On a related topic, one may wonder why we don't simply pass a basket around to take up a collection for local fundraisers. And the answer would be accountability, proper control of funds, and the avoidance of situations that would contribute to malfeasance or theft.

Any update or expected update. Especially with COVID, online donations, including local Other accounts, would be very helpful.

Understand the need for local clerk review. Seems like implanting a digital approval process (possibly a workflow before fund transfer request is sent to the bank)?
Task for the backlog. Cheers.

jgillesp@gmail.com wrote:Any update or expected update.

We rarely know about any developments in the works. However, I think it's safe to say that if the church leadership wanted it, it would be done.

I can only speculate as to the reason. Perhaps, it's not desirable to "advertise" the accounts. If it was available, some members would randomly donate who were not expected to donate, or donate at odd times creating additional issues.

russellhltn wrote:

jgillesp@gmail.com wrote:Any update or expected update.

We rarely know about any developments in the works. However, I think it's safe to say that if the church leadership wanted it, it would be done.

We did get an insiders perspective from scgallafent's post in the thread custom OTHER accounts for online tithing slip. He stated:

scgallafent wrote:The current policy is that the Church will not allow individual units to create "other" categories and add them to the online donation tool.

One theory that I have (and I don't have any inside info on this) is that they deliberately kept it to just the tax deductible accounts that are allowed on the online version.