How much money does the Mormon Church have?

​​According to David Nielsen, a former employee of Ensign Peak, the Mormon Church has amassed more than $100 billion in a tax-exempt investment fund. Mormon church tithing is used in many ways, including being invested in commercial enterprises. According to U.S. laws, churches, like any other individual or corporation, are allowed to invest their funds. The purpose of all investments is to receive a profit. The Mormon Church believes in using its funds wisely, and that includes investing money in the future. It pays taxes on the income it makes from any revenue-producing activities that are not significantly related to its tax-exempt purposes. 

With regard to having a large, possibly $100 billion investment fund, it might be helpful to compare that to a similar tax-exempt investment fund. One tax-exempt fund that operates in a similar fashion to the LDS Church’s investment fund is Harvard’s endowment, which is 50.7 billion dollars as of 2023. If this fund were liquidated and distributed to each of Harvard’s 25,226 students, each student would receive about 2 million dollars. 

If the Mormon Church liquidated its estimated 100 billion dollar fund and distributed the funds to each of its 17 million members, each member would receive about 6 thousand dollars. In addition to being significantly less money per person, it would also defeat the purpose of investing money for a “rainy day,” and using the dividends of the investment fund to help the church and its members. It is a sound policy to assume that LDS finances will be needed during times of economic and other insecurities.