I’ve given this new arrangement a lot of detailed thought and how greatly it benefits the WT and how much it puts a “strain” on each congregation.
First, let me explain how the old arrangement worked.
You had 3 donation boxes in each Kingdom Hall. One for Worldwide Work, one for Kingdom Hall Construction and one for Congregation Contributions.
The Congregation Contribution box accounted for about 60-75% of all donations. The World Wide Work box probably accounted for 20-30% and the Kingdom Hall Construction for about 5% of the contributions. Do you see where the problem for the WT is? The largest portion of the contribution does not go to the WT but for the Congregations benefit. The big fat piece of meat goes to the congregation, while the WT is getting two of the smaller contributions.
Now, the Congregation Contribution box goes towards paying hall expenses, TOA (Traveling overseer arrangement) KHAA (Kingdom hall construction worldwide), loan payment (If the hall has one) and FOD (Funds on Deposit). TOA is usually around $70-$100 per month depending on the publisher count and the KKA is around $40-$70 per month, again depending on the publisher count. This comes out of the Congregation Contributions though and not the other two boxes
Let’s look into the FOD a little further, this is a thorn in the WT side. The FOD is where the congregation sends its extra cash (The Kingdom Hall keeps a small buffer in their checking to cover all bills). The FOD is held by the WT and the Congregation puts all its extra cash it had for the month into the FOD, which the WT uses. The problem is, it’s technically not the WT money. Think of it like a savings account, they can use it but when the hall wants the money back they can withdrawal a portion or all of the money and the branch has to send it. That money is never a firm, reliable use of funds since the WT has to send the money back to the congregation when they need it.
The WT needs to do something, there is all this money from the Congregation Contribution, around 75% of the hall contribution, and they have no access to it. How can they have complete access to it without the Congregation having a say of when it needs the money back?
I give you, the new donation arrangement!
Let’s look at this new arrangement more in depth and see how it completely benefits the WT while keeping the congregation in an endless loop of sending them money.
FOD, that is now going to be kept at a pretty low balance now vs how all the money used to be stored there. The congregation will only keep a small amount there for “repairs and a buffer” while the rest of FOD balance will be forwarded to the WT and the congregation will never have control or access to that money again. The FOD will still be allowed to be used by the WT but the congregation will have access to their very small buffer for needed repairs. After May, the WT will receive a pay day from all the various FOD being sent to them for 100% control and use without ever having to pay a dime back to the congregations.
All the congregation will now be sending a huge chunk to the branch out of the Congregation Contributions, that 75% they now have access to a large portion of it without ever having to give some back to the congregation. The largest part of the Kingdom Hall donation, a big chunk of it now goes to the branch. They have a reliable, large steady income from each congregation on top of the World Wide Work, Kingdom Hall Construction, KHAA, and TOAA. They have successfully tapped into that 75% of the income that they could not have before, risk free.
Each congregation is now “strapped” to meet a certain quota each month, both for their bills and for the WT chunk. The only benefit I see that the Congregation gets is an updated hall every 10 years or so without a loan payment. That should be the case though since they are tech paying a loan payment for the rest of that halls existence.
The thing the WT was looking for was a way to tap into that 75% of income without the ties that the FOD had. It looks to me like they have achieved that goal.
...OUTLAW