Working with charities

[sevfrance]

Our ward YM leaders want to raise money for an infant food bank. My understanding is we cannot do this since fundraising is restricted to raising money for youth camps and equipment only. The leader feels they can do this since they are not raising funds for the church but rather for the charity. I feel if you are acting in a church capacity and running a church event then you are representing the church and it is not approved. Does anyone have further insights on this? I feel that the church does not raise funds for other charities - As a church it will donate to other charities but at a ward level this is not something we should be doing. Am I correct in this position? I would appreciate some references to clarify with leaders. I am the stake clerk.

[BrianEdwards]

Our ward YM leaders want to raise money for an infant food bank. My understanding is we cannot do this since fundraising is restricted to raising money for youth camps and equipment only. The leader feels they can do this since they are not raising funds for the church but rather for the charity. I feel if you are acting in a church capacity and running a church event then you are representing the church and it is not approved. Does anyone have further insights on this? I feel that the church does not raise funds for other charities - As a church it will donate to other charities but at a ward level this is not something we should be doing. Am I correct in this position? I would appreciate some references to clarify with leaders. I am the stake clerk.

As a follow-on, what would be the possibility of the YM leaders organizing donations, and then giving those donations to the local food bank? Kind of like a Toys-for-Tots program, where instead of raising money and having the money given to an organization who then buys the toys, the gifts themselves are donated and then provided to the organization.

Even if it's not applicable in your specific situation, this type of question has come up locally, where leaders asked if it was possible for a ward to donate excess food items to a local food bank, and were told it wasn't something the Church supported at a local level. I'm not an expert by any means in this, so I don't know if there's specific instructions about this type of thing.