Tithing Directly to Church HQ

Is there a way to pay tithing directly to church headquarters? A friend of mine just had his employee called as his bishop and one of the clerks is also an employee. He feels it would be less awkward if he were able to pay directly to the church. Is it possible to set the online payment settings to handle this?

Yes, it's possible to donate using the on-line donation system. However, the ward still sees the amounts.

Call the Finance department at the church (Just call the operator and they'll transfer you), they will help you with options - It is possible to have those values kept from being transferred to the ward.

I live in a very economically depressed area, and have feared that my higher than average income could be a "stumbling block" for certain members. I would never want that to happen. My wife and I have sent our tithing directly to Salt Lake HQ for the last 17 years. The local unit and leaders do not see anything, but occasionally raises a few eyebrows as we declare our yearly tithe status. http://tech.lds.org/wiki/Donations_to_C ... adquarters

About 6 months ago, I set up automatice draw from my banking account. What happened. Where is history and record. Please help, thanks. Dave Bartholomew

daveblainebartholomew wrote:About 6 months ago, I set up automatice draw from my banking account. What happened. Where is history and record. Please help, thanks. Dave Bartholomew

That depends on what you mean by "automatic draw". Some of the possibilities allow for recurring payments, and others don't.

• If you used the standard Donations section of LDS.org, then in that part of LDS.org you'll see options for Donation History and Donor Statements. Note that there is no capability for recurring donations here -- you have to go to the Donations section of LDS.org each time you want to make a donation.
• If you used your bank's Bill Pay to set up donations (which would have required some interaction with the Donations Department of the Church), then you will get monthly statements (and a couple of annual statements) via email. If your bank supports recurring payments (which most do), then it's up to you to either make manual payments whenever you want, or to set up recurring payments.
• There are other options (such as the direct payment option discussed in this topic), but they are far less commonly used than the two I listed above.

We can give you more detailed help if you would explain how you set up your donations.

daveblainebartholomew wrote:About 6 months ago, I set up automatice draw from my banking account. What happened. Where is history and record.

If you communicated with the Donations Department as you were setting up bank bill pay, you should be receiving monthly email statements, as aebrown said. And your contributions will be listed at LDS.org Donations under the Donation History tab as "Bill Pay". Set up properly, your bank will be sending a separate draw for each category of contribution, i.e., one for Tithing, another for Fast Offering, etc.

If you set up bank bill pay without the assistance of the Church Donations Department, your contributions are probably sitting at Church headquarters where they have no idea to whom they should be credited. Or worse, they are in a pile of checks that show up each day and need manual processing.

So, ... thanks for that? By the way. I have less than 2 years as a member. Per your suggention. I went to log in. I could not find ... the donations Department, or the Bank Automatic Pay. LDS.org does not show up on my back statement. Background to be considered. I am sadly disabled, living from my car. From a $300 draw each month, I have a $220 income for gas and expenses, which averages approximately minus $40 to $90 each month, on average. BUT still, I need to set up a 10% tithing draw of $23. Plus the Fast Offering; .45 or just 45 cents. As seperate transaction, as you describe above. I need physical help from your honored staff to help me walk throught this process, to set up the account accurate, to be taken out of my account on the 6th day of the month. $23.45 (2 draws) 6th day. Can you help me to do this, or connect me with a honored and trusted staff who can do this for me. Thanks. Dave Bartholomew [phone number removed]

Please be aware that by in large, this forum is just church members like yourself. We're not church employees. Church employees can be identified with a white nametag icon. Please re-read aebrown's message. It contains clues of what might have gone wrong.

If you've been using the on-line donation webpage, you may need to talk to your ward clerk and have them call on your behalf. If you've been using bill pay, then you probably need to email them using the information that was used to establish the billpay.

If you do not mind going to LDS.org Donations each month, that would be the best way to do it. If you would rather set up a repeating bill pay request through your bank, I believe that can also be arranged.

If you go to LDS.org and click on My Account and Ward near the top right, Donations will be in the middle column of the drop down menu.

I would suggest you ask your home teacher or another trusted member of your ward or branch to help you set up your contributions. Also, your ward or branch clerk will know how to do it and will be able to help you. The Forum here is intended to answer your questions as one user to another and users are willing to help in that manner, but it sounds as if you will have better success with someone there to help you work through the process. That person will also be able to help you track down the bank draws that seem to already have take place.

I have deleted your phone number, since this is a public forum where everyone can see everything posted.

2017 when I first set up my online donations settings there was a box to check that said " the ward clerk does not need to know " , I checked it and it worked great.
2018, the same box is checked under settings and the ward financial clerk handed me a paper in Priesthood Meeting with my annual donations
plainly in sight of many people and his eyes & eyebrows perked up in body language...It seems very awkward to get these looks from people
who know nothing of my personal financial situation....Can my personal financial donations be sent to church headquarters in the same
way via ACH credit from my bank account, or how does it work ?

I've been paying directly to headquarters since 2013. I had to change bank accounts because of a fraud issue with my old account. I'm having difficulty finding instructions to set up my new account to pay at headquarters. Can you help me?

dgrow wrote:I had to change bank accounts

You will probably need to send your new account information to onlinedonationsupport@ldschurch.org but I would email them first for instructions.

If you are using the regular online Donations site, you will be able to make the change yourself in Settings.

Is there a phone number I can contact to pay my tithing directly to church headquarters
Carol

carolhunter777 wrote:Is there a phone number I can contact to pay my tithing directly to church headquarters
Carol

The only contact information we have for that is the email address onlinedonationsupport@ldschurch.org. I don't know if the domain has changed yet to the new domain.

I have a problem which is very concerning. Someone has set up an account in the same bank as me, who is taking money out regularly from my account using The name “Church of Jesus”. I have been to the bank and they say that is the Church that is deducting the funds because the Church has set it up that way so they can take out the funds to meet tithing correct payment.
1. Is that true and if so can you check it out for me.

[personal information removed]

orankohe wrote:I have a problem which is very concerning. Someone has set up an account in the same bank as me, who is taking money out regularly from my account using The name “Church of Jesus”. I have been to the bank and they say that is the Church that is deducting the funds because the Church has set it up that way so they can take out the funds to meet tithing correct payment.
1. Is that true and if so can you check it out for me.

As someone who has experienced fraud in the past, I find the bank's position puzzling. I'd tell the bank that those transactions are not authorized. It's possible that you'll have to close that account and open a different one. If you read the fine print on your bank statement, you may find the process to dispute the transactions.

orankohe wrote:I have a problem which is very concerning. Someone has set up an account in the same bank as me, who is taking money out regularly from my account using The name “Church of Jesus”. I have been to the bank and they say that is the Church that is deducting the funds because the Church has set it up that way so they can take out the funds to meet tithing correct payment.

The Church does not, at least in the United States, have a way to set up automatic recurring payments for tithing. When a person wants to pay tithing, they have to manually log into their Church Account and initiate it as a one-time payment. It's never initiated on the Church's side. This leads me to believe that either 1) Somehow someone else has set up your bank account as their own and is making tithing payments periodically (I would expect this to be hard to do accidentally, and I don't know what benefit someone would get out of doing it on purpose – not to mention the hoops they'd have to jump through to figure out your account number, etc.), or 2) Some sort of fraud is going on, where someone is using the name "Church of Jesus" in an attempt to either pass under the radar, or to cause trouble for the Church (or, who knows, maybe they're trying to imitate any number of general Christian churches in the area whose name starts with "Church of Jesus").

I am using my bank's Bill Pay system to make my monthly tithing, fast offerings, and other payments to my ward bishop. I have been doing this for many years.

In a Tech/Forum/Church Technology for Members string from 2016, it says I can contact Church Donations to set up Bill Pay directly to the Church for my donations.

Is that still possible? I am nearly 86 and may forget to make my monthly donations, and I want to avoid sending several checks to the bishop by Bill Pay each month.

Thanks!

Orion Wood

And I see that as of 2019 someone was still doing this at this string (which is where I added my question just above).

viewtopic.php?f=46&t=25720&p=227014#p227014

I appreciate the help.

Orion Wood
orionw@pacbell.net

This might get corrected by somebody else on the Forum who knows better, but I'll share my understanding. There are two different aspects in play here: Method of making the donation, and recurring nature of the donation.

Donation Method
The Church FAQ on donations states that while making a donation via "Bill Pay" is allowed, "Online donations are the preferred electronic method for donating to the Church". This means that if you want to make an electronic donation, the Church would prefer that you use their online system available via your Church account, as opposed to using the Bank's system to initiate the donation payment.

Recurring Donations
The Church FAQ states that "Recurring donations are not allowed online". I am not certain if "online" here refers specifically to the online donations versus Bill Pay donations, or if it covers all electronic donations. I understand that there may be members who still have recurring donations being made, so I don't know if that's a legacy issue the Church is trying to slowly eliminate, or if members using Bill Pay are still able to take advantage of this feature.

I'd suggest talking with your Ward Clerk, and having him contact the Global Service Center with this specific question. They should know what current policy is, anyone here on the Forum might be out-of-date in what we suggest is or isn't possible.

BrianEdwards wrote:The Church FAQ states that "Recurring donations are not allowed online". I am not certain if "online" here refers specifically to the online donations versus Bill Pay donations, or if it covers all electronic donations.

It refers to using the Donations page at the Church website. That page does not allow you to set up recurring contributions.

If you are using your bank Bill Pay system, the Church will accept contributions you send through that system as often as you send them. You can set up your bank Bill Pay for recurring donations if your bank system allows it.

The Church encourages the use of the online webpage. As far as I know, the Church has allowed those using their bank Bill Pay system to continue to do so.

I do not know if they will set up Bill Pay for a new contributor. Although you do most of the work with your bank, the Church still has to manually set up their system to receive the donations from the bank. If your clerk is not able to help you, you might send an email to onlinedonationsupport@churchofjesuschrist.org and let them know you wish to use your bank Bill Pay system.

I am trying to set up recurrent payments. I know I can’t do it through the lds.org page, but is there another way of doing that? I used to be able to do this a couple of years ago and then it was discontinued.
I want to be diligent paying my family’s tithes, but it’s easy to forget when We get our paycheck through direct deposits.

You'll need to talk to your ward clerk about it. They can ask the service centre what the current process is.

gabs1182 wrote: Fri Sep 02, 2022 2:59 am I am trying to set up recurrent payments. I know I can’t do it through the lds.org page, but is there another way of doing that?

I would suggest that you look at my post immediately before yours. Although that post is nearly a year old, I do not believe anything has changed.

I have set a recurring reminder on my calendar. The online Donations page also allows you to use a previous donation again if there have not been any changes in the amount you wish to donate.

orankohe wrote: Thu Apr 22, 2021 1:37 am I have a problem which is very concerning. Someone has set up an account in the same bank as me, who is taking money out regularly from my account using The name “Church of Jesus”. I have been to the bank and they say that is the Church that is deducting the funds because the Church has set it up that way so they can take out the funds to meet tithing correct payment.
1. Is that true and if so can you check it out for me.

[personal information removed]

I'm not sure what exactly has happened however I would like to add some information.
There is no way for the "church" to set up any form of payment out of your account without your personal information so this is quit a weird issue. However,
-your bank didn't hear ur concerns about the money being taken out of your account, it is IMHO that it's worth having a conversation again. Like someone else mentioned the bank should have your back and block any further withdraws from your account through the church account
-one thing your bank is supposed to do when having your back is to get your money back from whoever has been taken it out that shouldn't be doing it. There is a statement made by the church on the donatios page on the church website to the jist of if I there is a mistake with payments that they will fix the problem right away so letting the bank do its job and get ur money back especially since the church is so willing and wants your tithing donations to be collected correctly.
One more idea, you could talk to your ward clerk about your tithing record, he should be able to show you the contributions record for the ward. If the payments aren't on your ward record have him help you look up your church records
Good luck

This seems to be the most current webpage with information on this topic. I use to use the tech wiki posted previously but that page appears to have been taken down, which is too bad because it had pertinent addresses and helpful instructions.

New church webpage:
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/too ... s?lang=eng

samueltaylor88 wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 1:24 pm This seems to be the most current webpage with information on this topic. I use to use the tech wiki posted previously but that page appears to have been taken down, which is too bad because it had pertinent addresses and helpful instructions.

New church webpage:
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/too ... s?lang=eng

Interesting, this has a good overview. It looks like some of the information is repeated on the page, though.
A couple of questions I had while reading the article, that I wish would be added, are whether the Church accepts cryptocurrency donations, and whether the person who donated can see donations directly to Church headquarters on the online donations tool.

sbradshaw wrote: Tue Apr 11, 2023 4:23 pm A couple of questions I had while reading the article, that I wish would be added, are whether the Church accepts cryptocurrency donations, and whether the person who donated can see donations directly to Church headquarters on the online donations tool.

I do not believe the Church accepts cryptocurrency, but I do not know for certain.

Donations that I make directly from my Individual Retirement Account (IRA) to Church headquarters (Qualified Charitable Distributions) do show up at the online donation tool under a link entitled Third-Party Donations. That link did not appear until my first QCD was recorded.

I do not know if a similar link appears after a member makes an in-kind donation, but I would not be surprised if it did.

lajackson wrote: Tue Apr 11, 2023 8:03 pm I do not know if a similar link appears after a member makes an in-kind donation, but I would not be surprised if it did.

It does for the stock donations I made a couple of years ago.