Over many years, a portion is methodically safeguarded through wise financial management and the building of a prudent reserve for the future.” “The vast majority of these funds are used immediately to meet the needs of the growing Church including more meetinghouses, temples, education, humanitarian work and missionary efforts throughout the world.
“We take seriously the responsibility to care for the tithes and donations received from members,” the church statement said. After the stories broke in 2019, the LDS Church published a statement and posted three short videos to YouTube. The LDS Church press office also declined to comment.
#LDS FINANCIAL CALCULATORS UPDATE#
They also did not respond to a request to comment this week for this update story. Leaders of EPA declined to comment in the original stories at ReligionUnplugged and The Post. More than 150 other stories followed in other media outlets. The whistleblower complaint and related YouTube videos were also hot topics by Mormon and ex-Mormon communities on social media.įor the original stories in December of 2019, Religion Unplugged received awards from Religion News Association, The Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing and was a finalist for an EPPY Award for best business reporting from Editor & Publisher. Although the stories broke in 2019, the continued coverage and fallout was included among the top 25 religion stories of 2020 by the Religion News Association.
The stories in and The Washington Post rocked both the investment world and the religion world, gaining hundreds of thousands of page views as readers were intrigued by the revelation of previously hidden LDS finances. Its holdings dwarf those of endowments at any university such as Stanford, Harvard or Yale. The financial acumen of the LDS Church and its members, often referred to as “Mormon,” is a significant attribute of a distinctly American religious minority that celebrated its bicentennial, a 200-year history that includes persecution, resilience and ambition. If EPA were a hedge fund, it would rank among the top five hedge funds for Assets Under Management. The complaint alleges that EPA, a non-profit registered as a 501c3 and a 509a3 supporting organization, did not make charitable distributions but that it did send $2 billion to help two for-profit companies.
#LDS FINANCIAL CALCULATORS SERIES#
The series of stories in December of 2019 revealed a whistleblower complaint filed with the Internal Revenue Service that alleged the LDS Church funneled member tithes into EPA, a non-profit supporting organization controlled by the church, and amassed more than $100 billion in owned assets under management over 23 years.
One year after broke stories about a secretive investment firm connected to the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter-Day Saints, the firm – Ensign Peak Advisors (EPA) – now operates with slightly more transparency about its financial holdings even as scrutiny from Washington may not be complete.
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