New Donations Slip Lists Fund for Book of Mormon

A new donations slip used by Church members in the United States and Canada now offers the option of contributing to a new Book of Mormon fund to help provide books for use by missionaries throughout the world.

The slip offers the option of specifying contributions either for the Church’s general missionary fund or for the ward missionary fund.

In a 19 December 1990 letter, the First Presidency said, “We are grateful for the past response from Church members in contributing to the Family-to-Family Book of Mormon program. In order to make our efforts more effective, members who wish to provide copies of the Book of Mormon for missionary use should now make their contributions to the General Book of Mormon Fund. Copies of the Book of Mormon for use by full-time missionaries will be provided from this fund as needed.”

The new fund replaces distribution of books through the Family-to-Family Book of Mormon program.

“Those members who desire to use pictures and testimonies may place them in copies of the Book of Mormon they share personally with their own friends and acquaintances,” the First Presidency letter said. “Pictures and testimonies should no longer be sent to Church headquarters or directly to missions. With the volume of books being donated, the Church can no longer supply the service of placing pictures and testimonies in the books.”

It is hoped that the new General Book of Mormon Fund will improve distribution of the books. More than three million copies were donated by members in 1990.

The new donations form to be used in the U.S. and Canada has three boxes in the “Missionary” category: “Book of Mormon,” “General fund,” and “Ward fund.” Donations to the general fund go toward the monthly support of missionaries throughout the world. Donations to the ward fund go to help missionaries from the contributor’s own local Church unit.