Help: project to gather statistics on JW congregation finances.

by Anders Andersen 20 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Anders Andersen

  Hi there,

  Many countries demand that charities publish a yearly summary of their finances.

  Where I live (Netherlands), charities must publish these statements themselves, and JW do this at JW-anbi.nl. (I'm quite certain almost no JW knows about that site btw.)

  Anyway I've been working on automatically harvesting data from all the congregation finance statements to gain more insight in how the Borg is doing over time.

  Now it occured to me that I could do this analysis for more countries and get an even bigger picture. A big issue though is that it's not easy to find where these statements are published.

  So please help me out by answering these questions:

  • Does your country require charities to publish yearly financial statements
  • If so, do you know where these are published for JW?

  Please don't forget to include what country you're answering for :-)

  What I got so far (I'll update once more information comes in):

  • The Netherlands: http://JW-anbi.nl
  • United Kingdom: http://apps.charitycommission.gov.uk/Showcharity/RegisterOfCharities/registerhomepage.aspx
• 

  slimboyfat

  This is a good idea. I seem to recall someone is already doing this for UK congregations, but I can’t find the thread right now.
• 

  slimboyfat

  Found it:

  https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5074251394580480/uk-jw-charity-analysis-project

  https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5202406642024448/almost-half-uk-congregations-financially-red
  
  
• 

  Anders Andersen

  Australia is added to the list now.

  https://www.acnc.gov.au/charity?name_abn%5B0%5D=Jehovah
  
• 

  Anders Andersen

  Slim, thanks a lot for that information! Really helpful!
• 

  blondie

  In the US religious non-profts are exempt of file a report as a charity.

  https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/annual-exempt-organization-return-who-must-file

  Most tax-exempt organizations and nonexempt charitable trusts have to file some type of Form 990 informational return. However, there are three general exceptions: Some religious institutions. Some religious institutions, such as churches, aren'trequired to file Form 990.

  Nonprofits and the Revised IRS Form 990 | Nolo

  
  

  https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/nonprofits-revised-irs-form-990-30274.html
• 

  Anders Andersen

  Canada: https://apps.cra-arc.gc.ca/ebci/haip/srch/advancedsearch-eng.action (search for both Jehovah's Witnessesand Temoins de Jéhovah)
  
• 

  Anders Andersen

  @blondie,

  Thanks for the info. I understand that as a result there is no publicly available information about the finances of JW congregations in the USA.
• 

  blondie

  Anders, and since even the congregations info is only sent to the WTS, even having access to one congregations info is not comprehensive. If the WTS every gets caught by the IRS violating the laws regarding qualifying as a religious non-profit, the IRS could do an audit and the WTS could lose that status. Except for Scientology, I'm not aware of any other religions in the US being audited. There has been some talk about the political activities of some religions/churches, that could become something the IRS might pursue.
• 

  Corney

  Anders, after all the scandals, did donations in the Netherlands in 2018 increase or decrease?

  P.S. Add New Zealand to your list: https://www.register.charities.govt.nz/CharitiesRegister/Search