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The Church gives less than 1% of its wealth to charity

The Church gives less than 1% of its wealth to charity

by | Aug 10, 2025 | Church Finances, Humanitarian

Bottom Line

The 1% claim is mathematically shallow and spiritually blind. The Church gives — consistently and globally. It just doesn’t liquidate sacred assets to impress online critics.

Podcast YouTube – Mormon Stories
Episode “How the Mormon Church Secretly Built a $293 Billion Fortune”
Category Charitable Spending & Financial Ethics
Quote “Can you imagine paying 10% of your paycheck to an organization that you know has $300 billion?… Unfortunately though, less than 1% of that figure goes toward actual charities every year.” — Narrator, 00:07:04–00:07:34
Core Claim The LDS Church gives an insignificant fraction of its enormous wealth to charity, revealing greed or hypocrisy.
Conclusion Partial Truth / Misleading Metric with Context Omitted
Logical Questions
  • What is the source of the “less than 1%” figure?
  • What does the Church count as charitable giving?
  • How is total asset value different from annual budget or spending?

🔍 Core Finding

The Church gave more than $1 billion to humanitarian causes in 2022. But the narrator compares that to a speculative $300 billion net worth — a number that includes temples, schools, farms, and global infrastructure. That’s not a valid comparison. No church “donates” its assets — they’re used to serve.

📊 Strategic Stewardship ≠ Greed

  • The Church invests to support long-term growth, not short-term applause.
  • Humanitarian work includes direct aid, disaster relief, education, and food production.
  • Spending is based on needs — not PR ratios.

📖 What the Church Has Said

“We affirm our commitment to manage resources wisely… and to bless lives worldwide.”
— First Presidency, 2019

📚 Sources