Tithing and other donations to the LDS Church will soon be available to pay online, says church officials. This new method hits the United States this year and will be gradually available to the whole nation throughout 2015. The church will notify local leaders when the program becomes available to their congregations. The Church Online Donations website will be available through lds.org. Any person with an LDS account, church member or non-member, will have access to use this electronic method of donating. BYUH Computer and Information Sciences Professor Aaron Curtis talked about how online bill pay has always been available but was a complicated system to set up. Curtis explained how handling cash always leads to complexities. “That’s one of the reasons that we put information systems together, not only to make things convenient, but also to increase the amount of control that we have in the organization. So, I see this as a step forward.”Lds.org asserts a few perks of this new program, stating, “Website users will be able to track the date, amount and status of donations made during a desired date range and print either an official U.S. tax statement or general statement for personal records.” This new system won’t just benefit church members. Curtis said he believes the new system will benefit more than member. He said, “I assume that there’s a large number of units where there’s part-member families and getting envelopes to the bishop hasbeen tricky.” Curtis said this system should also help with fund raisers and for other local church activities. Traditional tithing slips and envelopes will continue to be available for members who prefer to use them. The online option is an alternative for contributions, not a replacement. While traditional payment options will still be available, online payment will strongly reduce the workload and time bishops and clerks use handling tithes and donations, according to Bishop Stuart Wolthuis. Wolthuis is the Computer and Information Sciences Department chair. He added, “It should be a big time saver. Anytime you take a system and automate it, the reason for doing it is to save time and money because it helps you be more efficient. It helps you become better at handling the data and managing the data.” Wolthuis continued, “This has been hinted for a long time that’d it’d be rolled out. The reason things get changed, launched or delayed is because the people aren’t ready or the system’s not ready. You’ve got to make sure both things are ready. I like to think that people are ready to receive it and that they have all the user requirements figured out and most importantly the privacy is secure.”BYUH student Mariah Walsh, a sophomore English major from Minnesota, said, “I think that it will be very convenient and easier for people who are busy and on the go, but I also feel like it takes away the satisfaction of giving your tithing to the bishop on Sundays. Overall I think it will save on cost of printing for the church and it will be more convenient, but I still like paper tithing slips.”Uploaded May 22, 2015
Writer: Zoe Safeer
