Tithing paid through United Way

There is a member in my unit who wishes to route their tithing payments through the United Way. The situation is the member's employer will match 50% of whatever they donate to the United Way.

So the member will donate money to the United Way, and the United Way will then send that money on to the Church.

My questions are:

1. The member needs the Church's 501(c)(3) number to pass on to the United Way.
2. Should United Way forward the tithing payments on to the local ward address or to some other address?

Thanks!

You should probably take this up directly with the church's finance department and/or tax department. I don't have a direct number, but you could always start with 801-240-1000.

Ok, see this post for the tax administration contact info and this one for more on 501(c)(3).

I tried to count the number of ways this is going to cause problems, but ran out of fingers.

What mlh78 said. I don't understand how this is supposed to work. If it's a donation to the United Way then why would the United Way turn around and give it to the church? Furthermore, the "paper trail" wouldn't show the ward member as a tithing donor but only as someone who donated to the United Way. Plus, this makes it sound like the employer is being tricked into donating to the church when they really only offered to donate to the United Way. I wouldn't expect the church to be happy about being a part of this deception.

It seems like the donor only wants to give to UW so that his employer will match the donation. Then, after the employer has matched, he wants to take his donation back and give it to the Church, leaving UW with the employer's donation. It sounds suspiciously like defrauding his employer. Also, as this forum has mentioned many times, if you can control your donation after you've made the donation, it isn't a true charitable donation.

This is such a bad idea.

The United Way will allow a donor to specify a recipient. In this case, it appears that the member would like to designate the Church. After the UW gives money to the specified donors, it gives the rest of the unspecified donations to the other agencies based on a schedule of its own design. (A common misconception is that giving a specified donation keeps other agencies from receiving funds, but this is not true. The unspecified agencies just get more of the unspecified funds to make up for it.)

So the donation, in and of itself, is legit.

As for the practical matter, my company knows what a normal donation is, and they would not match more than about one of my tithing payments if I were to try and do this.

And as for another practical matter, the United Way intends to benefit local agencies. Paying tithing through the United Way, whether the member gives the local bishop's address (which could change) or the Salt Lake Address, either way tithing money does not stay local. (Yes, I know, technically some comes back through budget allocation.)

A number of years ago, our local United Way stopped allowing designation of contributions. There were too many of these types of contributions to make it worth the effort.

But to answer the question, Church headquarters can provide the number and the address. That way they will also provide the receipts and accounting and the local bishop will not have to deal with all of that after the contribution is made.

mrrad wrote:... Furthermore, the "paper trail" wouldn't show the ward member as a tithing donor but only as someone who donated to the United Way...

This reminds me of a story about a bishop noticing during tithing settlement that a member's tithing contribution was suspiciously low. When asked if it represented 10% of his income, the member responded that it was only a portion of the 10% he donated. The rest he donated to a different charitable organization. The bishop's response was, "you're being very generous with the Lord's funds."

Okay, I'm being a little slow-witted here but let me just understand the original premise. Let's say the ward member wants to pay $100 tithing. They give that to the United Way and the United Way passes it directly to the church in that donor's name. Then the employer "matches" $50 as a donation to the United Way. The United Way is okay with the arrangement because, at least, they get to keep $50. And I'm led to believe that, somehow, there is paperwork to show that the donor gave $100 in tithing to the church. (Did I understand it correctly this time?)

But there's still a major problem. The employer's participation seems to be based on his understanding that the United Way would keep all of the $150. If the employer is not fully informed about what's going on then I can't endorse this plan.

My company does this same thing. The company is not being tricked or deceived in any way. They are simply encouraging their employees to be charitable and donate to any non-profit/charitable organization of their own choice. In fact, the lady in charge of the campaign specifically said that some people use this to pay their tithing or donations to their church (yes, she specifically said "tithing", and this is California, not Utah).

The company will only match if you do it through United Way because United Way will verify to them that it is a non-profit/charitable organization. The company then puts their match to a general United Way Fund trusting that United Way will spread it to a number of non-profits based on specific community needs. United Way will pass on 100% of your donation to the organization you request because in return they get the match from the company.

The only question is whether the LDS Church is OK with this method. I don't see why not...I just searched through the database of organizations and I see several specific wards listed throughout the country (of where other donors have given), so the best would probably be to direct it to the ward rather than the Church in general...but this last part is just my opinion.

jhashton wrote:...so the best would probably be to direct it to the ward rather than the Church in general...but this last part is just my opinion.

Please don't send it to the local ward. Your ward finance clerk will thank you. The folks at headquarters know how to set you up if you email them or give them a call. The contact info is in the wiki.

I work for a company that does 100% matching funds AND pays all administrative overhead for United Way. The matching funds go to the same place you designate with your money.

So I was wondering about donating Tithing to the Church through the United Way.

The advantages are:

The Church gets a matching donation from my company (more money for the church).

My company get to claim my money as being given to United way which makes them a better corporate citizen. (they don't care WHERE it's donated to)

People at my company smile because their employee is donating to United way (end recipeint the Church - but again, they don't care where it goes).

United Way increases their pie of donations received (yes it goes to the church but they get to count it in their total received and dispursed which makes them look better).


The disadvantages are:

Any donations do not show up in my local unit (Which may be an advantage depending on how you think of it).
You will get a tax receipt from the United Way, not the church.
Depending on your bishop, you may get a quizzical look when you go in for tithing settlement and declare you're a full tithe payer when there is nothing recorded at the local level. - This is not a big deal, most bishops see this a couple times a year, no recorded donations, yet the member says "I'm a full tithe payer". The bishop says "thank you" shakes your hand and doesn't question why. It is common, I was a bishop.

After talking to some nice people in the donations department at the Church they said, Yes you can do that but it's discouraged because Tithing is viewed as an obligation. I didn't really understand this. Sure it's a commandment, but it's my privelage to pay 10% of my increase. But he said, they don't say you can't, but beause it's an obligation, it's viewed differently than other charitable giving like fast offerings, humanitarian aid, missionary funds, etc.

HOWEVER, the guy at the donations dept said, it doesn't matter where you designate matching funds - the money that comes from you goes to tithing, the matching funds from corporations always goes to humanitarian aid. Because the Church doesn't feel comfortable using donations from corporations for operations of the church as Tithing funds are. Tithing from members pays for lights, water bills, support of local units (i.e. youth conferences), building of temples, upkeep of temples, etc. Because United way corporate matching funds shouldnt' really be used for daily maintenance of the church, they earmark all matching funds for Humanitarian aid. Good for them!

I dont' know, I still feel a little funny about it. So I probably won't, but there are a number of people around my work that do, they seem happy about it, my company seems fine with it, United Way seems fine with it, The Church seems OK with donations, but again, discourages tithing through the United Way.

mikpits wrote:I work for a company that does 100% matching funds AND pays all administrative overhead for United Way. The matching funds go to the same place you designate with your money.

So I was wondering about donating Tithing to the Church through the United Way.

I don't know, I still feel a little funny about it.

You didn't really ask for a response, and this is a very old thread, but . . . [grin]

I feel about the same way you do. In the past, I have contributed to the Humanitarian Aid Fund through United Way and let my employer double the contribution. But I usually just give my tithing to the bishop.

My only added personal thought is that I do not feel comfortable asking my employer to donate a tenth of my income to the Church on top of what he already pays me. At the place where I am employed, that large of a "contribution" to any source would be far and above the amount they would expect any other employee to donate.

Now, if I worked for an employer where many employees were donating very large sums of money to their churches and the company was happily matching it, I might reconsider.

I saw United Way materials, we'd hold a drive each year, and their materials stipulate explicitly that you cannot name a house of worship to receive your donation. That would mean any church, unless the church had an organization it was sponsoring that handled humanitarian needs which is what United Way is about, and the donation would go directly to that sub-organization, not the parent church.

My company matches 100% but company policy (I don't believe United Way has a policy but they may) states they don't match to religious orgs. In my case, the contribution and the match go to the designated organization (with the firm paying a fee to United Way, and the firm getting great PR that employees are generous).

So I pay tithing the normal way.

I was able to get a company match for my FOS contribution.

This is an old thread, but I thought it would be beneficial to respond for anyone else searching on the topic.

My employer matches donations to the United Way as well. In fact, they strongly encourage us to do so. They WANT to donate the matching funds.

I've made it clear to my employer and to the United Way that I'm donating 10% of my income to the United Way to be forwarded to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to pay tithing. My employer matches it and so the church gets another 10% of my income for Humanitarian Aid. I donate a bit more to the United Way for them to keep (again matched by my employer) so that they also get a benefit from this.

So, I pay 10% of my income in tithing satisfying the commandment.
I pay in a way that the church gets another 10% for Humanitarian Aid (the parable of the 10 talents comes to mind here).
The United Way approves of this.
My employer enthusiastically approves of this.
My Stake President approves of this.
My Bishop approves of this.

What is the downside? I am still willingly paying my full tithing.