1. Invests in farms which it rents out to its subsidiary companies; any profits are returned to the charity under covenant.
2. Acquires land and builds purpose built meeting houses in which members can worship and receive instruction.
3. Assists individuals suffering through hardship, sickness and distress as needed.
4. Provides advice and guidance to church members on the church's worldwide welfare and humanitarian aid programmes.

• The Group (Welfare plus subsidiary companies) had a surplus of £147,000. Helped by a donation from it's sister charity LDS (Great Britain). This money went into the reserves, which now total £9,207,000.



• 'Direct Charitable Expenditure' for the year was £7,243,000. This is all well and good until you learn what counts as 'charity'; £5,279,000 was 'construction' costs' (remember, one of the purposes of this charity is to build meeting houses for the church) £37k was depreciation, £663k was on 'physical facilities', £322k on 'operating costs' and £50k on 'professional fees' (probably the auditors from PwC) which left £892,000 for 'charitable contributions'.



• 2004 was a tough year down on the farm. The trustees report that due to a wet harvest that prolonged the season there was a drop in both yield and quality, which hit profits. They indicate a 12% drop from the previous year. Yet in the accounts 'profits covenanted from farm activities' was £472,000 this year, compared with £855,000 last year. So profits might have fallen by 12% but what was passed on to the charity fell by nearly half.



• Staff costs were high, accounting for £1,142,000 over the year. There is 1 employee earning between £60-70k and 2 earning between £50-60k.



• As with LDS (Great Britain) there is an outstanding loan to the boys in Salt Lake, the amount outstanding on this one is £52,077,000. It appears on the accounts but there is no interest charge and no fixed repayment conditions.



• The last 2 pages of the submission don't seem to have been posted on the charity commission's website, i have emailed them requesting them as this generally provides a neat summary of the year.

Taking into account all of the income and expenditure of the church in the UK i have managed to make the following calculations;

• The church (GB) received £23,488,000 in 'unrestricted funds' (tithing) and £2,663,000 in 'restricted funds' (Fast, Humanitarian Aid, Missionary Support etc etc). Together with interest, profits from selling assets their total income was £27,077,000. LDS (Welfare) received £7,433,000 (£500k of which was from LDS (GB). Taking that into account the total amount of money, from all sources, coming in to the church in this country was £34,010,000. (NB The £5m from SLC i mentioned in the previous post wasn't a donation as such, but rather a cancelled loan re-payment. No actual money changed hands)



• Money that was made available to those in need by way of 'grants', 'humanitatian aid' and 'charitable contributions' by both organisations was £1,077,000. (NB I have not included the £500k transfer from one to the other, even though LDS (GB) counted this as a charitable donation, as i included it in the above calculation).




• The cost of staff, travel, admin, supplies, equipment, auditing, money lost exchanging currencies, physical facilities and operating costs came to £15,507,000. That doesn't include building new meeting houses, depreciation etc.



• In other words the church spent 14 times more money administering itself than it spent on the 'needy'; or calculated another way the church spent a little over 3% of it's incoming money on the needy.



• Fast Offering and Humanitarian Aid Fund contributions came to £1,571,000, so even if we calculate that money church members donated specifically for the needy, the church only spent 70% of that on what the members had in mind when they donated it.

This is interesting because every now and then there is talk in church of maybe supporting a charity involved in the developing world, or that specifically helps the homeless or whoever. There is always someone who sticks their hand up and cautions that alot of these charities spend money on their overheads, but you know that if you donate through the church that every single penny will find it's way through to those in need.

The Mormon church is in discussions with Marriott International Inc. to operate a 220-room hotel it plans to replace the aging Laie Inn on Oahu's North Shore.

Hawaii Reserves Inc., which manages property in Laie affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is seeking permits to tear down the 48-room Laie Inn and build a new hotel adjacent to the Polynesian Cultural Center.

Eric Beaver, a spokesman for Hawaii Reserves, said the church hopes to break ground on the new 220-room facility during the first quarter of 2008. Completion is targeted for 2009.

In addition to the redevelopment of Laie Inn, HRI is also working on the creation of Malaekahana Mauka, a 650-unit affordable housing community, Beaver said.

“Edelman specializes in helping industries with image problems; another important client is the American Petroleum Institutes, a Washington lobbying group that seeks to convince Americans that oil companies care about the environment and that their profits are reasonable. Edelman does its work by cultivating contacts among the country’s opinion elites, with whom it emphasizes the good news and spins the bad; by such tactics as establishing “Astroturf” groups, seemingly grass-roots organizations that are actually fronts for industry…”

Amid heightened scrutiny because of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney's White House bid, the Mormon church is raising its public relations profile, making moves that reflect deep concerns over widely held myths about the faith and internal anxiety over the need to convince outsiders that it will remain neutral as a Mormon runs in the 2008 contest.

In line with its recent restructuring, the church has ended a decade-long relationship with Edelman, the world's largest independent public relations firm, with 2,500 employees in 46 offices worldwide. Edelman won some distinction in 2002 when it helped the church navigate the Winter Olympics bidding scandal in Salt Lake City.

Otterson, in a phone interview from the church's Salt Lake City headquarters, said the church is interviewing other firms but declined to name them. Several Edelman staffers who would not talk on the record said the church sought to have increased autonomy in its media relations.

“We have a few business interests. Not many. Most of these were begun in very early days when the Church was the only organization that could provide the capital that was needed to start certain business interests designed to serve the people in this remote area. We have divested ourselves long since of some of these where it was felt there was no longer a need. Included in these divestitures, for instance, was the old Consolidated Wagon and Machine Company, which did well in the days of wagons and horse-drawn farm machinery. The company outlived its usefulness.

“The Church sold the banks which it once held. As good banking services developed in the community, there was no longer any need for Church-owned banks.”

Supreme Court - The LDS church loses a round in a fight to keep its finances secret on religious grounds.

Oregon's top court has rejected the Mormon church's bid to shield detailed financial information about its net worth -- a closely held secret for nearly half a century.

Despite the legal defeat, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints did not immediately release the financial information to lawyers for a Portland-area man who claims he was molested by a church "home teacher" in the late 1980s.

"The church is considering its position," said Stephen F. English, the LDS church's lead Portland attorney. "The church respects the rule of law but has profound constitutional concerns based on its constitutional right to protect the free expression of its religion."

The acquisition of 227 acres of agricultural land adjacent to Laie will help an affiliate of the Mormon church develop affordable housing on Oahu's North Shore.

Hawaii Reserves Inc., the land management company of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, yesterday bought the land for about $4 million from KRC Golf LLC, an affiliate of Turtle Bay Resort owner Oaktree Capital Management LP.

It plans to build up to 650 homes on the parcel and adjacent land.

An affiliate of the Mormon church has purchased 227 acres of agricultural land adjacent to Laie as part of a larger plan to develop up to 650 affordable homes on Oahu's North Shore.

Hawaii Reserves Inc., the land management company of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, yesterday bought the parcel for about $4 million from KRC Golf LLC, an affiliate of Turtle Bay Resort owner Oaktree Capital Management L.P.

Officials from Marriott International Inc. say the company is close to signing an agreement to operate a new 220-room hotel planned for La'ie.

The new hotel, which is expected to be completed sometime in 2010, would replace the 48-room Lai'e Inn, which is controlled by Hawaii Reserves Inc., the land management arm of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The original $30 million cost estimate given when the hotel plan was first proposed in 2004 is outdated.