How to transfer temple excursion fund donations

[rmdec2004]

Wards in our stake are occasionally receiving online donations into the "Other - Temple Excursion" sub-category. Unlike some of the other donation categories, such as "Temple Construction" or "Book of Mormon", the funds in Temple Excursion do not get remitted by church Headquarters, but remain in the ward's "Other" category. As our stake has a temple nearby, the wards generally do not need to arrange any temple excursions for the members. Knowing that it is not appropriate to transfer donated funds into the ward budget, which is already funded from the faithful tithes of the members (see Handbook section 34.7.2 and section 34.7.2.2), I figure we are going to have to transfer these donations to Headquarters.

I understand that only stakes can transfer money to Headquarters, but as a stake clerk, I have no idea how to do this. Once I get the wards to transfer these donations into the stake "Other" category, what do I do with it? I can't see any option in the Transfer tool in LCR to send money to Headquarters.

Has anyone had this problem before? I haven't received a reply from the Global Service Centre so hoping someone in this Forum might be able to help.

[drepouille]

Each ward has the option of sending those donations back to the members who donated them. Wards have access to the past three years of donation records, so it would be easy enough to find those donations and the donors. Any amounts that were donated to that Other subcategory before 2019 could be transferred to another ward Other subcategory, or transferred to the stake's top-level Other category, where it becomes the stake's problem.
I like the idea of returning those funds to the donors, because it alerts those donors that such donations are no longer needed.

[eblood66]

drepouille's suggestion is definitely one to consider and is probably the best option. However, if you have funds that can't readily be refunded then you'll probably have to wait for a response from CHQ. If you were transferring funds from the Ward Missionary Fund then when you make the transfer you first select 'Transfer Out of Unit...' and then 'Headquarters'. But Headquarters isn't an option if you are transferring from an Other account so that method doesn't work in this case.

[russellhltn]

Wards in our stake are occasionally receiving online donations into the "Other - Temple Excursion" sub-category.

I'd be curious to know how they are getting donated. I see no such option when I donate online. It's would be nice to fix that to prevent the problem in the first place.

[lajackson]

I can't see any option in the Transfer tool in LCR to send money to Headquarters.

The old procedure was to write a check using that category and send it to headquarters. Back in the day where there were several Other accounts like this one that did not automatically sweep, the check writing was supposed to happen monthly.

As others have mentioned, it would probably be a good idea to contact the donors and let them know that contributions to this category are no longer needed.

[rmdec2004]

I just realised I forgot to post the outcome on this thread. I am no longer the stake clerk, but as I recall, we got the wards to transfer these donations to the equivalent stake Other account (now called "Local"). We then contacted the finance officer in the Area Office, who arranged a sweep of this sub-category, so that the donations could be sent to the relevant budget where they could be used. Looking at the online tithing slip that I have access to (in Australia), Temple Excursion is still a valid option under Local. I'm guessing that there must be some in our Area that still benefit from these donations.