custom OTHER accounts for online tithing slip

Hi. I am a Bishop. We need to be able to let members provide a donation online for a specific "other" category.... but don't know how to make one so that it appears in the drop down menu on the tithing slip. Is there a way to add custom categories to that drop down area? Thank you.

There is no way to make donations to any "Other" category except Book of Mormon and Temple Construction. Payments to any other "Other" category must be made via check or cash given (or mailed) to a bishopric member. There is no way for a ward to change that.

You can provide feedback via any feedback link on the church's website or you can ask your stake president to talk to his area authority about it if you feel there should be a change. But note that we don't really know the specific reason why this isn't supported. The Donation FAQ says it is because payments to the Authorized Member Financed Activities categories are not donations. So there may be legal reasons why the church doesn't do it.

Thanks so much. I appreciate the quick reply. Yeah, MLS used to let us customize other categories for localized needs. Wish we could. Thanks!!

You can definitely still customize the Other categories in MLS (and maybe in LCR now--I'm not sure about that). But payments to those accounts have to be made directly to the ward and not via the online system.

eblood66 wrote:You can definitely still customize the Other categories in MLS (and maybe in LCR now--I'm not sure about that). But payments to those accounts have to be made directly to the ward and not via the online system.

Other > Authorized Member-Financed Activities subcategories can be managed in LCR > Finance > Budget > Manage Categories. But, alas, contributions cannot be made to them from within online Donations.

I personally believe online Donations to Authorized Member-Financed Activities categories will come. It is just a matter of time and programming priorities.

Why is it that this is such a challenge? I'm a computer programmer, and it doesn't take an act of Congress to put in the changes! It's a really simple fix, Folks.
I just don't see what the issue is. Unless, of course, the Church does not want to accept donations to any other categories besides "Book of Mormon" and "Temple Construction". Aren't the categories of "Perpetual Education" and "General Temple Patron Assistance" still vital?

coderlen wrote:I just don't see what the issue is. Unless, of course, the Church does not want to accept donations to any other categories besides "Book of Mormon" and "Temple Construction". Aren't the categories of "Perpetual Education" and "General Temple Patron Assistance" still vital?

Actually, they don't. Contributions to those two funds have been so generous that there is no longer a need for members to contribute to them.

coderlen wrote:Why is it that this is such a challenge? I'm a computer programmer, and it doesn't take an act of Congress to put in the changes! It's a really simple fix, Folks.
I just don't see what the issue is. Unless, of course, the Church does not want to accept donations to any other categories besides "Book of Mormon" and "Temple Construction". Aren't the categories of "Perpetual Education" and "General Temple Patron Assistance" still vital?

lajackson has already pointed out that the Perpetual Education Fund and Temple Patron Assistance Fund were removed two years ago. See https://philanthropies.churchofjesuschr ... ation-fund and https://philanthropies.churchofjesuschrist.org/temple.

It isn't a challenge -- it is a business requirement. The two funds you mentioned have been removed by design. The current policy is that the Church will not allow individual units to create "other" categories and add them to the online donation tool.

I am not recommending this, but it does appear that I can use Adjust Donation in LCR to reassign an online donation from a standard category to one of our local Other:AMFA subcategories. Now, that is wildly improper to do, but it appears to be possible. Anyway, that pretty much proves that it is a policy decision by the stakeholders to not allow online donations to Other:AMFA. And I do not question or disagree with that decision.

It's hard enough to get units to limit the use of the Other category to "proper" purposes. But at least if those handling donations get a donation slip with a new subcategory, they can check with local Priesthood leaders to talk about it. I'm also wondering how often "donations" are made to subcategories. Because there are very limited situations when money should be added to Other subcategories, how valuable is the online donation capability?

waltbristow wrote:Because there are very limited situations when money should be added to Other subcategories, how valuable is the online donation capability?

We certainly get by without it but I've had cases where a member forgets to bring their camp payment week after week because they hardly ever use checks anymore and forget to take care of it. In most cases, if they could do it online they'd do it right when they find out what they're supposed to pay.

But I'm sure the church has good reasons for not allowing it. But we can hope that some solution to allow it does eventually happen.

waltbristow wrote:I'm also wondering how often "donations" are made to subcategories.

As a quick base estimate, I'd say it's the same as the number as youth that attend an annual camp. However, factoring fund raisers for the camps, it could be higher.

With the new program, thank heavens for not having to get hundreds of dollars to BSA months before the camp.

Just adding my voice to this topic. I'm here because we recently sent an announcement out to the Ward that we will start accepting donations to our traditional Sub for Santa campaign. Now, more than ever (COVID world), members who otherwise would have used a paper donation slip and write "Sub for Santa" in the Other section, find that they do not have that flexibility when making an online contribution. It's too rigid.

bschroader wrote:Just adding my voice to this topic. I'm here because we recently sent an announcement out to the Ward that we will start accepting donations to our traditional Sub for Santa campaign. Now, more than ever (COVID world), members who otherwise would have used a paper donation slip and write "Sub for Santa" in the Other section, find that they do not have that flexibility when making an online contribution. It's too rigid.

Apparently the Priesthood department does not feel it is too rigid - they would have had it coded to allow custom contributions if they wanted to. The problem I see is there are potentially thousands of different custom options in a worldwide church and someone will always feel their special project needs to be included in the online tool. You can ask your stake president to bring up your concern in the coordinating council he attends or you can provide feedback from any church web page. The decision makers do not visit this user-to-user mutual help forum (as I understand).

davesudweeks wrote:

bschroader wrote:Just adding my voice to this topic. I'm here because we recently sent an announcement out to the Ward that we will start accepting donations to our traditional Sub for Santa campaign. Now, more than ever (COVID world), members who otherwise would have used a paper donation slip and write "Sub for Santa" in the Other section, find that they do not have that flexibility when making an online contribution. It's too rigid.

Apparently the Priesthood department does not feel it is too rigid - they would have had it coded to allow custom contributions if they wanted to. The problem I see is there are potentially thousands of different custom options in a worldwide church and someone will always feel their special project needs to be included in the online tool. You can ask your stake president to bring up your concern in the coordinating council he attends or you can provide feedback from any church web page. The decision makers do not visit this user-to-user mutual help forum (as I understand).

Very well then. I have gone with the Feedback route.

Thank you for your response.

Normally, Authorized Member-Funded Activities only gets donations from certain members. Making the category visible to the whole ward could create problems with well-meaning members making donations that end up needing to be refunded or dealt with as excess. Not to mention complicating efforts to close out at category.

To perfectly replicate the paper method, the members would have to enter the category in a free-form text box and the clerk routes it to the proper listing. Or, possibly even reject the donation as the intended purpose is closed.

russellhltn wrote:To perfectly replicate the paper method, the members would have to enter the category in a free-form text box and the clerk routes it to the proper listing. Or, possibly even reject the donation as the intended purpose is closed.

That is what I was actually hoping members of our ward would be able to do when this issue was first brought to my attention. To my dismay, they appear to be pigeonholed in this regard. I had to let this donor know that they would have to donate using a paper tithing slip.

After reading through this again, what came to mind is that, if you will notice, all the 'options' on the online contributions are for "donations" i.e. contributions to a 501c3 organization. That way no one can 'raise any eyebrows' at the functioning of the Churches finances. I am sure that that is part of the thought process at CHQ to keep everything kosher.

I agree that there's a wild variety of custom situations that any Bishop could determine justifies a separate "Other" category, but the intent and use of those funds is very different between cases. And donations are freely given without any fixed requirements on how they are used (at least that's my understanding and the online donation form states the same).

Online donations remove the Bishop from the process as everything is automated, whereas the processing of paper forms allows for the Bishop to use his discretion as to how donation funds are actually assigned. Perhaps this also factors in to the decision to not make "Other" customizable online.