Donations Received via Bill Payer Service

[mevans]

That's interesting, but doesn't apply to very many people, since very few people should be making such donations to CHQ at this point.

In reading through this thread I saw something where it looked like the donations department took down the instructions on how to do this. When I see your comment, I wonder what's up. They don't want people to pay directly to CHQ through bill pay anymore? I have an LDS Accountant do my taxes and he sent me the electronic donation info several years ago. I love it, and have passed the info on to others (I don't know if they signed up). The great thing is that when it's electronic, my end-of-year statements are correct...no human error (unless my donations to the local unit categories get messed up).

I agree that very few people are aware of it. I was going to be telling a few more people about how to set it up. This is discouraged by the church now?

[aebrown]

In reading through this thread I saw something where it looked like the donations department took down the instructions on how to do this. When I see your comment, I wonder what's up. They don't want people to pay directly to CHQ through bill pay anymore? I have an LDS Accountant do my taxes and he sent me the electronic donation info several years ago. I love it, and have passed the info on to others (I don't know if they signed up). The great thing is that when it's electronic, my end-of-year statements are correct...no human error (unless my donations to the local unit categories get messed up).

I agree that very few people are aware of it. I was going to be telling a few more people about how to set it up. This is discouraged by the church now?

It has been discouraged by the Church for several years. Because of my role initially with the LDSClerks wiki and then with the LDSTech wiki, I was contacted by a manager in the Donations Department and specifically asked to remove all the forms from the wiki, as well as any instructions.

If it were encouraged by the Church, don't you think there would be a straightforward way to get the forms and instructions? But there is not. That alone should be a big clue. I also have the benefit of direct communication that makes it clear that the current system the Church uses requires so much manual processing that the Donations Department could not possibly handle the load if people freely signed up for their own convenience. Thus the counsel is that this service should only be used by those who can't reasonably pay other ways (one example would be military personnel stationed overseas).

[russellhltn]

(one example would be military personnel stationed overseas).

I don't think just overseas, but in a area such as a battle zone where the church simply isn't sufficiently organized to deal with donations.

[mevans]

It hadn't crossed my mind that there would be manual processing involved in this other than the initial enrollment (which was clearly a manual step). From a user perspective, after the initial enrollment, it all appears automated to me. I use bill pay for so many things and for many recipients it's all automated. Many people are unaware of the technology resources the church has provided and I assumed this was just another one that people were unaware of. Given the insights you've provided, I'll stop telling people about this one.