Where do Fast Offering donations go?

I have contacted the donations department, but curious if anyone knows where my "Fast Offering" donations made online will go? Will it go to the Italian ward I am attending or just to a General FO fund in Salt Lake City? If I understand correctly, Fast Offerings donated locally, usually stay locally for the most part.

dougryoung wrote:I have contacted the donations department, but curious if anyone knows where my "Fast Offering" donations made online will go? Will it go to the Italian ward I am attending or just to a General FO fund in Salt Lake City? If I understand correctly, Fast Offerings donated locally, usually stay locally for the most part.

I'm not aware of Italy being part of the on-line donations. So, I'm assuming you are using US funds drawn on a US bank. In that case, I'd expect your donations to go to the general fund in SLC.

Normally, I'd expect FO donations to stay in the area - perhaps in the same currency. But I would not expect them to stay local to the unit.

As far as I'm aware all FO go to the General FO fund. There is no such thing, using the Church donations system, as a local FO fund.

Updated response. I hadn't thought about the currency differences, but I still believe that the funds collected end up in the General fund.

dougryoung wrote:I have contacted the donations department, but curious if anyone knows where my "Fast Offering" donations made online will go? Will it go to the Italian ward I am attending or just to a General FO fund in Salt Lake City? If I understand correctly, Fast Offerings donated locally, usually stay locally for the most part.

What do you mean by "Italian Ward"? Is it an Italian-speaking ward in the US, or a ward located in Italy?

For all wards located in the US, every fast offering donation is swept to Church headquarters, regardless of what ward it is donated to. Every check written for assistance is automatically reimbursed by Church headquarters.

I don't know what happens in other countries. I would guess that there is some efficiency in keeping funds within the country, but that's just a banking detail. The principle is still the same: a ward or stake is free to compare donations with expenditures, but Church leaders have made it clear that there is no requirement for those to be in balance. So it really shouldn't matter to you exactly where the funds are transferred -- there is no connection between the amount of donations made in a ward and a ward's ability to help those in need within the ward's boundaries.