How the Church Uses Donations and Financial Reserves

Providing and maintaining places of worship

The Church spends hundreds of millions of dollars every year on the acquisition, design, construction, maintenance, and operation of meetinghouses. This includes other expenses supporting local Church congregations, such as annual budgets for Church units.

The Church supports over 30,000 congregations in more than 19,000 locations in over 190 countries and territories throughout the world. Many of the regions of the world that are seeing significant growth (for example, the Philippines and Africa are rapidly approaching 1 million members each) are still developing economically but require spaces of worship for their expanding membership.

Meetinghouses help members fulfill the commandment to “meet together oft, to fast and to pray, and to speak one with another concerning the welfare of their souls” (Moroni 6:5). Members also gather to partake of the sacrament “in remembrance of the Lord Jesus” (Moroni 6:6). Some meetinghouses are also used for education.

Translating and publishing scriptures and other resources

The Church translates and publishes the scriptures in over 115 languages. It also creates materials and study tools that help people of all ages learn the gospel of Jesus Christ. Primary among these resources is the Book of Mormon, whose principal purpose is to be another witness of Jesus Christ. Elder Ronald A. Rasband has invited us “to follow our beloved prophet, President Nelson, in flooding the earth with the Book of Mormon” (“This Day,” Liahona, Nov. 2022, 27). Since 1830, the Church has printed over 200 million copies of the Book of Mormon, with 8 million alone between 2020 and 2024.

Providing education

The Lord has declared, “The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth” (Doctrine and Covenants 93:36). The Church commits over $1 billion every year to the operations of formal and informal education for Church members and members of the communities where they live. The higher educational institutions and programs serve approximately 140,000 students each year and include three universities, one college, and various degree-granting online educational programs. Volunteer-led early educational support is provided throughout the world in-person and in an online setting. Additionally, the Church supports approximately 800,000 youth and adults in seminaries and institutes of religion globally.

Supporting the work of the Lord through the administration of His Church

The day-to-day operations of the Church are essential to the mission of bringing the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world. Managing and maintaining aspects of the global Church, which include communications, information technologies, records, and Church materials as well as localized publishing and distribution of Church content, requires significant resources. This includes costs associated with the employment of thousands of global employees as well as other expenses associated with leader and member support on an international scale.

Administering welfare and humanitarian aid programs

Jesus Christ has commanded Church leaders to “look to the poor and the needy, and administer to their relief that they shall not suffer” (Doctrine and Covenants 38:35). In recent years the Church has provided over a billion dollars annually to humanitarian and welfare efforts around the world. This includes funds for disaster relief, medical care, clean water, immunization, refugee aid, and food security.

The Church also promotes self-reliance among its own members and manages programs designed to help individuals and families rise out of poverty. Learn more in the Caring for Those in Need report.

Sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ

A significant portion of tithing donations is used to support over 90,000 full-time teaching missionaries, senior service missionaries, and young service missionaries serving in over 400 missions throughout the world. These missionaries help the Church fulfill Jesus Christ’s great commission, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 28:19). They invite all to come unto Christ. They also provide service in the communities where they reside.

This global effort requires an extraordinary amount of funds, in addition to the significant contributions from missionaries and their families, for travel, housing, food, vehicles, teaching materials, and the construction and maintenance of missionary training centers around the world.

Building and operating temples

The Church teaches that families can be together forever. In sacred temples, priesthood authority is used to unite families eternally and help members draw closer to the Savior by making commitments to follow His example and teachings. Jesus Christ promised, “I will hasten my work in its time” (Doctrine and Covenants 88:73).

This hastening is clearly seen in the pace at which the Church is now building temples. Over 360 temples are in operation, under construction, or announced. The cost of such temples reflects an unprecedented and monumental dedication of financial resources by the Church. Church members’ faithfulness in living God’s law of tithing, along with the Church’s wise financial management, help the Church fully participate in this hastening.

Supporting family history work

Jesus Christ taught, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). The Church dedicates substantial resources to help individuals gather family history information from throughout the world, enabling Church members to search out their ancestors and perform proxy baptisms and other sacred ordinances for them (see Topics and Questions, “Baptisms for the Dead”).

The Church also helps millions of people throughout the world discover their heritage and connect with family members through a website (FamilySearch.org), mobile apps, and over 6,500 family history centers. All of these efforts are intended to help fulfill the biblical prophecy that Jesus Christ would send “Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: … [to] turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers” (Malachi 4:5–6).

Engagement in God’s work of salvation and exaltation by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints strengthens faith in Jesus Christ; brings purpose, joy, and peace; and helps prepare the world for the Second Coming of the Lord. Church members believe the Church is the kingdom of God on the earth and the Lord has directed that we “be prepared for the days to come, in the which the Son of Man shall come down in heaven, clothed in the brightness of his glory, to meet the kingdom of God which is set up on the earth” (Doctrine and Covenants 65:5).

This preparation will require many more missionaries, meetinghouses, and temples as well as greatly expanded family history resources. These activities tend to be resource consuming, not resource producing. Under the Lord’s direction, Church leaders have prepared and continue to prepare the Church not only to address current Church needs around the globe but also for its prophesied future, including preparation for the declared calamities that are sure to come. They do this by:

• Observing God’s law of tithing
• Striving for self-reliance and avoidance of debt
• Preparing for the future
• Conducting the Church’s affairs in the Lord’s way

The Church’s financial reserves, often referred to as simply “reserves,” are direct evidence of the application of these principles and practices and the faith Church leaders and members have in the prophesied future of this Church. Like the wise steward who turned his five talents into ten while waiting for the return of his master (see Matthew 25:20–21), the Church has regularly set aside a portion of its income as financial reserves to meet current and future needs, including during periods of economic difficulty. The reserves are invested to make them more productive. Tithing donations to the Church and the earnings on invested reserves belong to the Lord and will be used for the Lord’s purposes to accomplish the mission of the Church.