A little example of how severely the contributions for the Society are drying up

by sir82 86 Replies latest jw friends

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  dozy

  Your congregation is incredibly stingy. A congregation that donates $300 per month with 120 publishers is very low indeed. A similar sized congregation in the UK that I did the accounts for used to regularly send over 1K GBP (= approx 1500 USD) per month. And it was much poorer than you guys - no Mercs.

  " Does anyone else who still attends have any idea how their congregation is doing regarding contributions? "

  The only published information I can find that gives an overall picture are the UK accounts - I would have thought these are broadly representative of the USA. World Wide Work contributions have pretty much flatlined over the last 5 years , but aren't in decline. IBSA actually reports a small increase in 2009 / 10. The average contribution per publisher is about 100USD annually.

  http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/Showcharity/RegisterOfCharities/CharityWithPartB.aspx?RegisteredCharityNumber=1077961&SubsidiaryNumber=0

  http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/Showcharity/RegisterOfCharities/CharityWithPartB.aspx?RegisteredCharityNumber=216647&SubsidiaryNumber=0

  Bearing in mind that the WTBTS has made cutbacks in literature , I would have thought that they will be OK. Most big charities rely on their trading operations to run at a small but sustainable loss , more than making up the difference with legacies and property transactions. I knew a couple of the JW NY accountants & they were quite open that the WTBTS financing model is to keep on building Bethels , assembly halls etc at a very low cost (ie most of the labour is free & a lot of the investment is tax free) , running them for a while , then flipping them and starting the process all over again as their prime means of financing the whole organisation.
• 

  designs

  My dad would personally write a check for any amount owed on the congregation's monthly account, he was like that generous to a fault and then he died because of the blood issue.
• 

  NewChapter

  STARVE THE BEAST!
• 

  N.drew

  100 publishers divided into 1000 is $10.00. I know someone who spends $10.00 a day sometimes on take-out coffee. She's not rich. (It's not me). 1000 dollar donation sounds like a lot, but it's not. Most of the reports I heard were more like 300-400 hundred dollars to the society in a month. Sometimes I estimated one or two dollars from each publisher. I still don't understand it. I was never in a poor congregation, not in a rich one either, but really? The donations I have witnessed for almost twenty years are skimpy. All of the reports I heard reflected little monetary charity to the society. Never once did I hear a hefty sum donated. And I was regular at meetings. I don't want to get into tithing, but if I tithed the ten percent would be about $200.00 of my household spending money. And I'm average, I'm sure.
• 

  designs

  I think the Society has created its own detached and antiseptic Club. Tell people to hate enough things and eventually they turn and hate you.
• 

  trueblue

  I donated a 100 dollar check one time and heard about it through the grape vine and thought that should be between me and God, so I never did it again...

  I heard one time that the percentage of a persons wages was added to the bible to trick people into giving money because it was easier to get money out of the people that way instead of using force.

  I think the WTS doesn't want you to be meterialistic and have a lot of nice things especially be in debt so that you will have more money for them, especially if they get your estate when you die (Iknow of one person that was worth 3/4 million when he died and went to the society, my brother should have been a millionare several times over before he died but there was nothing) and bring your own lunch to conventions and such... There some kind of scam going on besides donations I beleive.
• 

  ozbrad

  This is where the Mormons got it right by getting 10% of your wage and rapid breeding brings the numbers ups.
• 

  breakfast of champions

  Yeah, keep bashing college and then wonder where all the money went.
• 

  wha happened?

  BOC that is the point. Basically converting a group of income earners to poverty levels and no amount of "holy spirit" is going to make up the gap. Follow that up with expanding the work to other countries where the population has figured out what a cult this is, likley poor, and now they have other expenditures not offset with donations. It's a house of cards and eventually the old crazy guys in NY won't have a financial cushion.
• 

  DesirousOfChange

  BOC that is the point. Basically converting a group of income earners to poverty levels and no amount of "holy spirit" is going to make up the gap. Follow that up with expanding the work to other countries where the population has figured out what a cult this is, likley poor, and now they have other expenditures not offset with donations. It's a house of cards and eventually the old crazy guys in NY won't have a financial cushion.

  Maybe that is what is happening.

  As long as 10 years ago, I heard friends questioning the fees being charged by WT owned assembly halls. Recently it seems that has close to doubled everywhere. The religion that originally advertised "no collection" or tithing did not face financial concern like this in the past. Chas Russell published in the WT that when the funds dried up it would be an indication that they no longer had God's blessing.

  GB: Take note.

  DOC