Financial Statements for the Church(UK) 2005

Post by **_Phaedrus Ut** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 8:23 pm

As a legal requirement of the 1993 Charities Act the church is required to file public financial statements with the government in Great Britain. For those curious about the inner financial workings or ff you have a financial statement analysis or accounting background these should be quite interesting to you.

For Fiscal year 2005 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Great Britain)

The part I found most interesting is how the church treated "restricted" funds. If you look on page 12 of the report you'll see the RESTRICTED INCOME section. This includes line items for receipts for the Fast offering Fund, Book of Mormon Fund, and Humanitarian Aide Fund. They are "restricted" because the donations were made to support that specific cause. For example donations to the Humanitarian Aide Fund increased to 509 thousand pounds from 252 the year before. Presumably due to the active fund raising for the tsunami relief in 2005.

On the same page under DIRECT CHARITABLE EXPENDITURE you'll see the outgoing spending from donations. For example 852k£ paid out in Missionary support compared to 950k£ taken in. 34k£ paid in humanitarian aide....etc...

Happy reading,

Phaedrus

//also posted on MAD

Post by **_Doctor Steuss** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 8:34 pm

Are these only donations/expenditures from the UK entity?

I.e: If a donation and/or expenditure is made outside of the UK entity (as in from or to the “parent company"), is it included in these figure?

Post by **_Phaedrus Ut** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 8:55 pm

Yes only for the UK.

If you don't have a financial background these aren't probably too interesting. However it's interesting to see how little is sent out from collections for charitable offerings.

Phaedrus

Post by **_Phaedrus Ut** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 10:39 pm

In 2005 they had 3 employees with compensation between $140k and $160k US dollars per year, 7 between $120k and $140k, and 17 between $100k and $120k per year. (pg.13)

The church takes in a lot of donations for fast offerings, missionaries, Book of Mormon, and humanitarian aide but likes to keep $ behind. These are called "Restricted Funds" .(pg.12 &14 fin. note 8 ) For example:

* The Fast Offering Fund had 2,005k£($4 million us dollars) as a balance entering the year. They collected 1,597k£($3.19mil usd) but only spent 500k£ and did that by sending the money back to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (welfare). That left them will a retained balance on the books of 3,102k£($6.2mil usd)

*Missionary Fund: Starting balance 1,903k£($3.8 million usd), incoming 950k£, expenditures 852k£, ending balance 2,001k£($4 million usd)

*Book of Mormon fund: 44k balance, 44k donated, 44k spent, 44k£ ending balance

* Humanitarian Aide Fund: This is the interesting one for those who made donations. Some people in the UK expressed to me they made donations for tsunami relief. 200k£($400,00 usd) starting balance, 509k£ ($1.18 million usd) in donations, and only 34k£($68 thousand usd) sent out. That gave them a ending balance in the Hum. Aide fund of 675k£ ($1.35 million usd)

It's strange to see in a year they took in $1.1 million for Humanitarian Aide they only sent out 68 grand. Maybe they're saving the $ for a rainy day.

Phaedrus

//note: I used 1 British Pound = 2.01 US dollars. The present exchange rate

Post by **_The Nehor** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 2:06 am

Well, I'm not surprised about Humanitarian Aid not being spent there. Britain hasn't had any real need lately. Does the statement show how much of their charitable donations and Humanitarian Aid went to HQ? I know that receipts exceed expenditures in these funds (and Fast Offerings) for most of the developed world and a lot flows to poorer nations.

Post by **_Mercury** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 2:40 pm

The Nehor wrote:...and a lot flows to poorer nations.

Yep, the GA Lexus fund, the Prophets penthouse condo and the innumerable cash flow humanitarian fund for the GA's relatives.

Not to mention the no limit expense fund the GA's and their families get (confirmed by steve benson).

Post by **_Ren** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 2:44 pm

The Nehor wrote:Britain hasn't had any real need lately.

The midlands had a lot of flooding this year actually. Worst that been seen in decades - it was a relatively big deal...

Depends what you call 'need' though I guess...

Phaedrus Ut wrote:Maybe they're saving the $ for a rainy day.

Heh.

Post by **_Mercury** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 2:49 pm

RenegadeOfPhunk wrote:
The Nehor wrote:Britain hasn't had any real need lately.

The midlands had a lot of flooding this year actually. Worst that been seen in decades - it was a big deal, at least over here...

Depends what you call 'need' though I guess...

Phaedrus Ut wrote:Maybe they're saving the $ for a rainy day.

Heh.

Humanitarian aide == missionaries in "we are Mormon and were here to improve PR while appearing to help" mode.

Post by **_Ren** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 2:54 pm

Just noticed that the records are for 2005... Don't mind me...

Post by **_Who Knows** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 4:20 pm

Interesting stuff. Though not nearly as interesting as a similar report would be for the entire church. The UK church has no income producing assets. In fact, the majority of their assets (86%) are financed with a no interest/no payments loan from the main LDS church. In fact, it's safe to say, that the UK branch of the church would not survive on it's own, without being heavily leveraged.