New Member
A sister wants to donate to the missionary fund even though there are currently no missionaries serving from the ward. Can she donate to a general missionary fund to be used by future missionaries?
Missionary fund donation
Church Employee
Are you talking about the general missionary fund or the ward missionary fund?
Senior Member
She can donate to either the general missionary fund or the ward missionary fund - without specifying any missionary account. General missionary fund donations are swept from the ward/branch immediately and used for the general church missionary efforts. Ward missionary fund donations remain in the ward, mostly: If the ward missionary fund grows too large, the Stake President will usually ask the ward to transfer their excess funds to the stake for use in other wards that don't have enough funds to support their missionaries (our ward has been both the provider and recipient of such transfers in past years). If the stake has excess funds, they will transfer the excess to the general church missionary fund (as I understand).
Community Administrator
If she donates to the General Missionary fund, the funds will be swept to SLC. The ward will not be able to tap into those funds for future missionaries.
If she donates to the Ward Missionary fund, the funds will just sit there and can be applied to future missionaries. However, by policy, any excess amounts should be sent off to the stake or SLC. See Handbook 1: 14.4.3.
If she donates to the Ward Missionary fund, the funds will just sit there and can be applied to future missionaries. However, by policy, any excess amounts should be sent off to the stake or SLC. See Handbook 1: 14.4.3.
Have you searched the Help Center? Try doing a Google search and adding "site:churchofjesuschrist.org/help" to the search criteria.
So we can better help you, please edit your Profile to include your general location.
So we can better help you, please edit your Profile to include your general location.
Community Moderators
Also, unless there has been a change, the Ward Missionary Fund is used by the ward, but the General Missionary Fund is used by the Church to assist missionaries outside of the U.S. and Canada.
It all goes to a worthy cause, of course.
It all goes to a worthy cause, of course.