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The most important part of the annual “Caring For Those in Need” report issued Tuesday by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints isn’t the $1.45 billion it provided in 2024 to help feed the hungry, house and clothe the poor, provide emergency disaster relief and more.
It’s the stories of the real people who both received and gave the needed help, Presiding Bishop Gérald Caussé said. In that way, the report shows the church’s contributions in action.
“For me, the most important part is all of the stories in the report, because they show how much (church) members do, because most of the work that is done is the members,” he told the Deseret News.
Relief Society General President Camille N. Johnson has a unique, insider’s view of how the church receives donations and then uses them to help others.
Prior to August 2022, President Johnson was like other Latter-day Saints who follow the scriptural command to pay tithing and make fast offering and other donations to care for those in need. She learned about how those funds were used from the annual caring report and statements by church leaders.
Then she was called to be the church’s General Primary President in 2021 and Relief Society president in 2022. Now she sits in one of the rooms where recommendations are given on caring for others.
By scriptural direction, the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles act as the council on the disposition of the tithes. Bishop Caussé has said the council’s annual meeting traditionally happens on the first Friday in December.
President Johnson and her counselors sit on the church’s international Welfare and Self-Reliance Executive Committee with Bishop Caussé, the rest of the Presiding Bishopric and others. The committee makes recommendations on how to direct the money allocated for humanitarian aid by the council on the disposition of the tithes. The committee then takes those recommendations to the First Presidency.
“I feel like it’s such a privilege to have an inside seat to see how it works and to see the attention to detail that’s paid when a project is selected or an organization is selected for the church’s resources,” President Johnson told the Deseret News on Tuesday.
She said the committee seeks projects that will make a real difference for those in need.
“There’s care and attention to, how are we going to measure this after the fact, to make sure that that money was spent in a judicious fashion, in an efficient fashion? We’re not just spending money. We have a responsibility to care for those in need. So this isn’t just about divvying up funds. It’s about identifying the most vulnerable and figuring out how we can best, most efficiently, most quickly, address their most acute needs.”
President Johnson said she has been impressed by the care taken in the use of tithing funds and other donations, which are sacred both in scripture and in the minds of church members and leaders.
“The church has been so careful about that, and to have an inside look at the attention that’s paid to those details is really gratifying, fulfilling. I want to tell the world, it’s a beautiful thing,” she said.
The church does not disclose how much members donate annually. Bishop Caussé has said the church uses tithing funds to operate the church’s 194 temples and its 31,490 congregations around the world and their meetinghouses. The church also funds five universities and colleges and a worldwide program of seminaries and institutes. Then there are the efforts to translate, produce and distribute church publications and more.
Humanitarian and welfare spending is a significant portion of the church’s use of annual tithing and other donations.
“We have a responsibility to care for those in need,” President Johnson said. “It’s both a covenant blessing and a covenant responsibility that we care for the most vulnerable. It’s a privilege to serve on the Welfare and Self-Reliance Committee to review these proposed projects, to take proposals in to the First Presidency and, with the mantle that comes with that prophetic voice, hear their direction about where the resources ought to be directed and focused.”
Her role also affords her a unique view of the project the church selects for funding in action helping people throughout the world.
For example, she visited Africa in 2023 to see how UNICEF was using church funds. She went to the drought-stricken Karamoja region of Uganda to visit families who live in remote mud and manure huts, not even gathered in a village.
“We held a health fair under a tree for women and children who walked long distances,” President Johnson said. “Nobody had a car, nobody had a donkey. Women were screened for anemia and received prenatal screenings and counsel, and children were provided with iron supplementation and vaccinations.”
UNICEF appointed some of the women to become health teachers and provided them training to screen children for malnutrition using a middle-upper-arm circumference tape. The relief team also had ready-to-use therapeutic foods for the severely malnourished.
“Then we prepared a big pot of what I can describe as sorghum stew over an open flame,” President Johnson said.
The team also connected parents with community resources they could draw on to feed their children nutritious meals.
“We were in a most remote part of the world,” President Johnson said, “and it was so gratifying to say, ‘We found Heavenly Father’s most vulnerable children, and we’re here and we’re making a difference.‘”
My recent stories
Church submits application for a smaller temple in Fairview, Texas (March 25)
Church’s annual humanitarian aid increased again in 2024 (March 25)
About the church
President Jeffrey R. Holland rededicated the Toronto Ontario Temple. Read his dedicatory prayer.
Elder Ulisses Soares ministered in Australia and Papua New Guinea where he taught that, “Nothing is more important than strengthening our foundations on Jesus Christ and closing the gaps of faith and spiritual erosion in our lives.”
The church published new updates to the General Handbook.
The church released a new documentary that followed students who traveled to study in Ghana on a joint Latter-day Saint and NAACP fellowship.
The church has received an award for its recent preservation work on the Joseph and Emma Smith Home in Kirtland, Ohio.
The First Presidency announced May and June groundbreaking dates for new temples in Brazil, Hungary and Nigeria.
Church leaders held the ceremonial groundbreaking for the Birmingham England Temple. It was the first temple groundbreaking on the European continent since 2015.
Elder Richard D. Allred, who served as a general authority, temple president, mission leader and MTC president, died at age 92.
What I’m reading
My friend and colleague Lois Collins wrote a beautiful story about legendary Utah homeless advocate Pamela Atkinson. It includes an interesting note that the church hosts an annual steak dinner at Christmas for the homeless that this winter provided food for 1,800.
A really sweet story about how the slumping Minnesota Timberwolves NBA team got a lift when its coach decided to start a bench player and dad whose son was going to see him play for the first time.
A radio producer for the New York Mets credits his position to a Latter-day Saint self-reliance class on how to find a better job.
Sen. John Curtis asks Mike Huckabee to clarify feelings about the Church of Jesus Christ in Senate hearing.
Behind the scenes
