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Hi Cheyenne,

The question of wealth of Jehovah's Witnesses as a religious organization in some contexts is easy to answer and in others very murky. At the local level it can be easy. Simply attend the meeting where the local accounts report is read. For some time when I was a ministerial servant in Quesnel BC I served as the account servant. Generally the amount we took in for local donations covered our expenses. The cash on hand bank balance was around $1000 to $2000. When a local congregation is saving for a renovation or building a new Kingdom Hall, funds in special accounts can rise rather dramatically. These funds can be in an interest bearing bank account or held-in-trust by the JW branch office. In the latter case no interest is accrued.

The next level up is the circuit where again it is rather easy to see the numbers. Donations are made at circuit assemblies that are used to rent buildings and pay for other expenses. An account report is read during the program. Elders who attend these events have a special meeting where one of the items on the agenda is dispersal of excess funds. The elders invariably hold back a small amount of funds to "start up" the next assembly and send excess funds to WTBTS as a donation. Expenses at this level usually include items for the circuit overseer and his wife. In Canada individual circuits usually bought a "circuit car", however this arrangement has now been centralized wherein HQs has a fleet lease arrangement wherein individual congregations donate a fixed amount to cover the expense.

The district level is just a scaled up version of the circuit.

What though happens at the higher levels? Ah, that is where it gets murky! Unless the state has a reporting requirement for non-profits a full disclosure of income and expenses is not revealed. The year book prints one number of about $60 million (going by memory here) it spends on expenses.

The question of who owns the fixed assets like Kingdom Halls and other buildings is something I wish I had paid closer attention to. Frankly in all my years I did not know who had the deed to the Kingdom Hall. Clearly though real estate has proved to be a good investment both to individuals and organization. You can bet Kingdom Halls and the land under them in places like California have grown in value over the years. This is of course very true for New York Brooklyn area where land and buildings have been owned since the early 1900s. Selling these properties in recent years has no doubt funded the development in upstate NY.

At the local level donations are almost always in the form of cash. Occasionally someone might donate land at the local level. But as PunkOfNice points out cash and other items are donated to HQs. This includes items like stocks and bonds that really have found the society holding some rather "interesting" items. One should note this problem could be easily solved by the society simply asking that stocks and bonds be converted to cash before they are donated. But that is not what they do.

I don't believe individual JWs, including leaders, are, as a result of all this, living in the lap of luxury. Forum members such as AndreasFree lived and worked at Bethel and report just we've always heard. They get a small monthly stipend and live in modest rooms. However, these is no question the leaders do not have to worry about some things normal rank & file members do. When their clothes are washed or their meals are provided there is a disconnect between that and the real costs involved.

Finally to state the obvious, there is no question running a religious organization of this size costs money, but the only "charity" of the organization is their efforts to recruit new members.

Cheers,
-Randy