Tech Forum

waltbristow wrote:Because there are very limited situations when money should be added to Other subcategories, how valuable is the online donation capability?

We certainly get by without it but I've had cases where a member forgets to bring their camp payment week after week because they hardly ever use checks anymore and forget to take care of it. In most cases, if they could do it online they'd do it right when they find out what they're supposed to pay.

But I'm sure the church has good reasons for not allowing it. But we can hope that some solution to allow it does eventually happen.

waltbristow wrote:I'm also wondering how often "donations" are made to subcategories.

As a quick base estimate, I'd say it's the same as the number as youth that attend an annual camp. However, factoring fund raisers for the camps, it could be higher.

With the new program, thank heavens for not having to get hundreds of dollars to BSA months before the camp.

Just adding my voice to this topic. I'm here because we recently sent an announcement out to the Ward that we will start accepting donations to our traditional Sub for Santa campaign. Now, more than ever (COVID world), members who otherwise would have used a paper donation slip and write "Sub for Santa" in the Other section, find that they do not have that flexibility when making an online contribution. It's too rigid.

bschroader wrote:Just adding my voice to this topic. I'm here because we recently sent an announcement out to the Ward that we will start accepting donations to our traditional Sub for Santa campaign. Now, more than ever (COVID world), members who otherwise would have used a paper donation slip and write "Sub for Santa" in the Other section, find that they do not have that flexibility when making an online contribution. It's too rigid.

Apparently the Priesthood department does not feel it is too rigid - they would have had it coded to allow custom contributions if they wanted to. The problem I see is there are potentially thousands of different custom options in a worldwide church and someone will always feel their special project needs to be included in the online tool. You can ask your stake president to bring up your concern in the coordinating council he attends or you can provide feedback from any church web page. The decision makers do not visit this user-to-user mutual help forum (as I understand).

davesudweeks wrote:

bschroader wrote:Just adding my voice to this topic. I'm here because we recently sent an announcement out to the Ward that we will start accepting donations to our traditional Sub for Santa campaign. Now, more than ever (COVID world), members who otherwise would have used a paper donation slip and write "Sub for Santa" in the Other section, find that they do not have that flexibility when making an online contribution. It's too rigid.

Apparently the Priesthood department does not feel it is too rigid - they would have had it coded to allow custom contributions if they wanted to. The problem I see is there are potentially thousands of different custom options in a worldwide church and someone will always feel their special project needs to be included in the online tool. You can ask your stake president to bring up your concern in the coordinating council he attends or you can provide feedback from any church web page. The decision makers do not visit this user-to-user mutual help forum (as I understand).

Very well then. I have gone with the Feedback route.

Thank you for your response.

Normally, Authorized Member-Funded Activities only gets donations from certain members. Making the category visible to the whole ward could create problems with well-meaning members making donations that end up needing to be refunded or dealt with as excess. Not to mention complicating efforts to close out at category.

To perfectly replicate the paper method, the members would have to enter the category in a free-form text box and the clerk routes it to the proper listing. Or, possibly even reject the donation as the intended purpose is closed.

russellhltn wrote:To perfectly replicate the paper method, the members would have to enter the category in a free-form text box and the clerk routes it to the proper listing. Or, possibly even reject the donation as the intended purpose is closed.

That is what I was actually hoping members of our ward would be able to do when this issue was first brought to my attention. To my dismay, they appear to be pigeonholed in this regard. I had to let this donor know that they would have to donate using a paper tithing slip.

After reading through this again, what came to mind is that, if you will notice, all the 'options' on the online contributions are for "donations" i.e. contributions to a 501c3 organization. That way no one can 'raise any eyebrows' at the functioning of the Churches finances. I am sure that that is part of the thought process at CHQ to keep everything kosher.

I agree that there's a wild variety of custom situations that any Bishop could determine justifies a separate "Other" category, but the intent and use of those funds is very different between cases. And donations are freely given without any fixed requirements on how they are used (at least that's my understanding and the online donation form states the same).

Online donations remove the Bishop from the process as everything is automated, whereas the processing of paper forms allows for the Bishop to use his discretion as to how donation funds are actually assigned. Perhaps this also factors in to the decision to not make "Other" customizable online.