shepshep wrote:I'm a relatively new ward clerk in a stake where leaders called for each ward to start a local Book of Mormon project a few years ago. I realize this is against church policy, and so does the current bishop, who was not in the bishopric at the time. Nevertheless, we have an Other:Book of Mormon subcategory with a significant balance. All donations were made at least two years ago.
During an attempt to repair some old budget discrepancies, someone at church HQ told us that we must send the Book of Mormon money to HQ as excess funds. I agree that we need to clear that subcategory. However, my reading of the training on the Other category indicates that if the payers can be contacted, excess funds in Other subcategories can be A) refunded to the payer, or B) changed to a charitable donation (i.e. tithing, fast offering, etc.) with the payer's permission.
Conveniently enough for us, we have a large deficit in a different Other subcategory for past years' Scout camps. The bishop and I were wondering about whether it is within Church policy for us to either 1) ask payers' permission to change their local Book of Mormon payments to Scout camp funds, or 2) refund their Book of Mormon payments. If we refund the payments, the bishop would like to approach some of the members to ask if they would be willing to use some of that money to help fill our Scout camp deficit.
Can anyone explain what Church policy indicates in this case? I need answers based on policy more than those based on opinions--the bishop and I have plenty of opinions ourselves.
I need to know if there is a way within Church policy for us to keep that local Book of Mormon money to fill our other deficit. Thank you in advance for your help!
You're right about the options to return funds given to the Other account to donors when the purpose and donors of the funds are identified. You can see that documented in the training lesson
Understanding and Using the Other Category, which says on slide 25:
If the purpose of the excess funds is identified, and the funds were not used for the intended purpose, you can either:
- Return the leftover funds to the member by printing a check payable to the member from the applicable “Other” subcategory.
- Or obtain permission from the member to change the category of the donation from “Other” to a charitable category such as fast offering or humanitarian aid.
However, note that the option to change the category extends only to a
charitable category. This would not include your Other:Scout Camp category.
And as you mentioned, the lesson also says (on slide 24): "If you cannot identify the purpose, clear the funds by printing a check from the “Other” subcategory, payable to Corporation of the President." So that's your only real option for funds where you can't identify or contact the donor.
I would also advise you to read the Church Handbook of Instructions, p. 159-161, where you will see that:
- All activities are to be funded from the Budget Allowance
- Members may not make donations to fund activities
- If Budget funds are not available for a single annual youth camp, the youth may earn part or all of the cost, or there may be approved fund-raising activities.
So donations to the Scout Camp fund are not appropriate. It doesn't matter whether those would be new donations, or changing the category of old donations -- the result is the same.
You have to treat the separate subcategories within Other as if they were separate accounts, since the funds were accepted for a specific purpose and may only be spent for that specific purpose (or refunded as mentioned above). There is no way within policy to transfer funds from one purpose to an entirely different purpose.
So the best way to make up the deficit in Other:Scout Camp is to use Budget funds. After all, the deficit in that fund means you were artificially avoiding spending Budget funds back then, so it is appropriate that you now use Budget funds to make up the difference. I'm a bit surprised the Other account deficit hasn't been a significant audit issue twice a year for the time you've been running that deficit.
I suppose you could also consider the possibility of having the scouts earn the funds or do a fund-raiser after the fact, but that seems a bit odd. See the wiki articles
Funding youth camps and
Fundraising for some possible guidance.
