Posts by slimboyfat

36

Three graphs in connection with the Watch Tower's current financial situation

by slimboyfat in

a number of public statements by the governing body indicate that they are experiencing financial difficulty and they have appealed to jws to donate more money.

public information on the financial situation of the watchtower society is limited.

but what does the information they do publish indicate about their situation?

slimboyfat

The $236 million figure is only the money spent on special pioneers, missionaries and travelling overseers "in their field service assignments". It doesn't include other costs such as workers at branches, literature and other production costs, legal fees and whatever other expenses. Yet the $236 million figure alone works out at $2000 per congregation. If other costs have been increasing at a similar rate then it's easy to see how costs may have spiralled out of control in recent years. On top of this donations may have suffered because of the recession, less literature being handed out, and legal settlements in the news involving millions of dollars. It's a perfect storm.

So the burden on congregations just to keep the Watchtower afloat must be considerably more than the $2000 figure. Maybe $5000, upwards? This is not including congregation expenses.

36

Three graphs in connection with the Watch Tower's current financial situation

by slimboyfat in

a number of public statements by the governing body indicate that they are experiencing financial difficulty and they have appealed to jws to donate more money.

public information on the financial situation of the watchtower society is limited.

but what does the information they do publish indicate about their situation?

slimboyfat

bohm the full phrase is "special pioneers, missionaries and travelling overseers in their field service assignments". This would seem to exclude workers at bethel, but who can be sure?

As I mentioned, what began as a very precise figure, down to the last cent, when it was first published in 1985, has become progressively more vague, until now it's a figure is given as "over" a certain number of million.

36

Three graphs in connection with the Watch Tower's current financial situation

by slimboyfat in

a number of public statements by the governing body indicate that they are experiencing financial difficulty and they have appealed to jws to donate more money.

public information on the financial situation of the watchtower society is limited.

but what does the information they do publish indicate about their situation?

slimboyfat

The figure for the amount spent on "special pioneers, missionaries and travelling overseers" goes back to 1985. But for such a long period of time inflation becomes an important factor. Does anyone know how to correct such a graph for US$ inflation over the relevant period?

In 1985, when there was a total of 3,024,131 publishers and 49,716 congregations, they spent a total of $20,827,314.57 on "special pioneers, missionaries and travelling overseers".

In 2015, when there was a total of 8,220,105 publishers and 118,016 congregation, they spent "over $236 million in caring for special pioneers, missionaries and travelling overseers".

So over that period publishers increased 172%, congregations increased 137% and the amount spent increased 1034%

That's up from spending $418 per congregation to spending $2000 per congregation.

An online inflation calculator says that $418 in 1985 is equivalent to $920 in 2015. So Watch Tower spend on "special pioneers, missionaries and travelling overseers" has increased 117% per congregation in real terms taking inflation into account.

36

Three graphs in connection with the Watch Tower's current financial situation

by slimboyfat in

a number of public statements by the governing body indicate that they are experiencing financial difficulty and they have appealed to jws to donate more money.

public information on the financial situation of the watchtower society is limited.

but what does the information they do publish indicate about their situation?

slimboyfat

As far as I can tell, the Watchtower only started to publish the "number of branches" in 1991, which I found surprising. The number of branches increased until the financial crisis of 2008 and has declined since. I think this is a historic graph in terms of JW growth because it is the very first measure by which JWs have published a significant decline over more than a couple of years. If other measures also start to show sustained decline, such as congregation numbers, memorial attendance, publisher numbers, baptisms, and so on, the branch figure decline will have shown the way. The beginning of JW decline in terms of branches in 2009 could be truly a historic turning point.

36

Three graphs in connection with the Watch Tower's current financial situation

by slimboyfat in

a number of public statements by the governing body indicate that they are experiencing financial difficulty and they have appealed to jws to donate more money.

public information on the financial situation of the watchtower society is limited.

but what does the information they do publish indicate about their situation?

slimboyfat

Yes millions of $s.

The reason I put the decimal after millions is because that was the practice between 1999 and 2002.

36

Three graphs in connection with the Watch Tower's current financial situation

by slimboyfat in

a number of public statements by the governing body indicate that they are experiencing financial difficulty and they have appealed to jws to donate more money.

public information on the financial situation of the watchtower society is limited.

but what does the information they do publish indicate about their situation?

slimboyfat

shepherdless please note however that the financial figure and the branch staff number, strictly speaking, have nothing to do with one another. The Watch Tower neither gives the total number of "special pioneers, missionaries and travelling overseers" nor does it give the amount of money spent on branch staff. These are two different things. They give the personnel number for one and the money spent for the other, so we can't correlate per capita spend for either, unfortunately.

Another thing I find interesting is that they have become progressively more vague on the amount spent on "special pioneers, missionaries and travelling overseers".

Until 1996 they gave the figure down to cent: $60,932,324.26.

Then until 1999 they gave it to the nearest dollar: $64,475,225.

Then until 2002 they gave it to the nearest millions dollars and one decimal point: $74.2.

Since 2002 they have simply said they spent "over" a certain amount, the latest for 2015 being "over $236 million".

I wouldn't be surprised if the figure has become a rough estimate in recent years.

And I wouldn't be surprised if they stop publishing the figure altogether.

This graph shows the figure for the last 30 years. What's interesting is that it has been increasing at a time when JW growth has slowed, cutbacks have been announced, and general inflation has been low. The only year when there was a reduction in the amount spent was 2008 to 2009, and branches started to close shortly after that. Maybe the financial crisis caused them to tighten their belt. But not for long because expenditure began to rise again sharply the next year. If they are facing another financial crisis, the personnel and financial figures for the coming years will be interesting: if they are published and published accurately

36

Three graphs in connection with the Watch Tower's current financial situation

by slimboyfat in

a number of public statements by the governing body indicate that they are experiencing financial difficulty and they have appealed to jws to donate more money.

public information on the financial situation of the watchtower society is limited.

but what does the information they do publish indicate about their situation?

slimboyfat

Well if the GB count themselves as "travelling overseers", and their business class air fares are included in the figure, that might explain some of the increase. If they are spending more on themselves now that they did ten years ago, that is.

36

Three graphs in connection with the Watch Tower's current financial situation

by slimboyfat in

a number of public statements by the governing body indicate that they are experiencing financial difficulty and they have appealed to jws to donate more money.

public information on the financial situation of the watchtower society is limited.

but what does the information they do publish indicate about their situation?

slimboyfat

Okay I tried taking pictures but that didn't seem to work either.

In terms of the figures, in the ten years to 2015:

The number of branches declined 22% from 114 to 89.

The number of staff at branches increased 35% from 19,328 to 26,011

The amount spent on special pioneers, missionaries and travelling overseers increased 113% from $111m to $236m

Why did the number of staff go up so much while branches were being closed and people sent home?

Why did the cost of supporting special pioneers, missionaries and travelling overseers more than double in ten years?

36

Three graphs in connection with the Watch Tower's current financial situation

by slimboyfat in

a number of public statements by the governing body indicate that they are experiencing financial difficulty and they have appealed to jws to donate more money.

public information on the financial situation of the watchtower society is limited.

but what does the information they do publish indicate about their situation?

slimboyfat

36

Three graphs in connection with the Watch Tower's current financial situation

by slimboyfat in

a number of public statements by the governing body indicate that they are experiencing financial difficulty and they have appealed to jws to donate more money.

public information on the financial situation of the watchtower society is limited.

but what does the information they do publish indicate about their situation?

slimboyfat

A number of public statements by the Governing Body indicate that they are experiencing financial difficulty and they have appealed to JWs to donate more money. Public information on the financial situation of the Watchtower Society is limited. But what does the information they do publish indicate about their situation? No information is available about worldwide donations, but some limited information is available about worldwide expenditure in the Yearbooks. In particular since 2006 they have started publishing the total number of staff worldwide in branches.

Graph number 1 shows the decline in the number of branches over the last 10 years

Graph number 2 shows the increase in the number of staff at branches over the last 10 years

Graph number 3 shows the increase in money spent on special pioneers, missionaries, and travelling overseers over the last 10 years

The graphs show a number of things and also raise a number of questions. Firstly the number of branches started to decline in 2009. At the same time the number of staff at branches began to increase substantially. Why did the number of staff increase at the same time as branches were being closed? And which branches expanded the number of staff? Why has the number of staff increased so much at the same time as they have announced dramatic reductions? What's really going on here?

The amount of money spent on special pioneers, missionaries and travelling overseers has doubled in the past ten years. This is despite a number of changes that might have indicated reductions in this area: downgrading of Gilead, abolition of District Overseers, reduction in special pioneers. So why is so much more money being spent? Unfortunately no figure is given for the overall number of JWs who are supported in this way so it is not possible to tell if the numbers of JWs in these categories is increasing or if more money is being spent per special pioneer, missionary and travelling overseer.