"I don't know why no one has ever talked about the ward finances if they were ever a financial clerk for the ward or not. I wanted to know what ward budgets are like. How much funds are raised in a year for a ward and how much is spent in the ward. I'm assuming wards only spend like 10% of their income and they send the rest back to headquarters. But i was never a clerk so does anyone know?" ~ Phil
Salt Lake City Ward: Tithing donations averaged just a touch over $500,000.00 for a year. Again, on average, the various missionary, education and temple project funds garnered about $17,000.00 to 20,000.00 and Fast offering ran $25,000.00 to 30,000.00.
California: Our ward was relatively affluent in So Cal. We took in about $950,000 in total contributions. Our Ward allotment from the stake was around $8000. All the utilities are paid by the stake. The 8000 was basically to run ward programs and activities. The 950,000 included all tithing, fast offering, missionary,.. etc... [The majority of the $950,000 stayed in the Salt Lake City corporate headquarters. The Mormon church does not publish or release how these vast sums of money are spent.]
A less affluent Ward: I was in a ward that was mostly retired and blue collar members... I was involved in tithing settlement total donations were nearly 200,000. The following years tapered off a little due to economy and move outs. We would send as much as 5,000 in tithes to Salt Lake in a good week... then watch the bishop agonize over giving someone a $100 in groceries.
California affluent: I was in one of the most affluent wards in California. We took in $25-50,000 a week in tithes alone. Our annual ward budget from Salt Lake was a measly $7-8,000 a year!
Student Ward in Utah: I was the clerk of a STUDENT ward in Logan Utah during the mid 1990's. I don't remember specific numbers but we took in something like $250k in tithing in a year. I remember thinking something along the lines of: "Wow, there are six student wards in just this one building. That's significantly more than $1M per year just from this one building."
A lower income ward: We are in a lower income area and send in around 400K/year and our ward budget is around 4K/year. Nearly every week the bishop comes in to the clerk's office, anxious to find out what the fast offering total is...But it churns my gut every time, as we deposit around $10,000 every Sunday, to see how it kills the bishop to consent to pay someone's electric bill.
Another example: Seven years ago, we brought in about $15,000 per week [$750,000/yr] and our allotment back from SLC was about $7,000 for the year.
This is just an estimate as the Mormon church does not publish its finances. It appears in the US, the Mormon church takes in $5-8 billion a year in tithing alone. It gives out less than $65 million ( less than 1.3% of tithing income) in humanitarian aid. It gives back to local congregations (wards) less than 1.5% for their activities. This does not include income from the many business ventures the Mormon church owns which may well more than double what it receives in tithing.
Culled from http://www.exmormon.org/
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