In December, 2009, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose members are sometimes called Mormons, announced that 40,000 people had so far been helped by a unique program known as the Perpetual Education Fund. The program began in 2001, the brainchild of former Mormon president Gordon B. Hinckley.

President Hinckley noticed that young people from developing nations grew tremendously during their missions. Young men who are at least nineteen and young women who are at least twenty-one can choose to serve missions for the church. Men serve for two years, and women serve for eighteen months. They are sent to a place far from home that the church selects. These young people often learn a new language. They are given training in a variety of skills that can translate into job skills, including leadership and motivational skills. They learn proper grooming and learn to look and act professionally. However, when they returned home to their villages, they were unable to put those new skills to work because they lacked education.

President Hinckley recalled an early church program from the pioneer days, when Brigham Young was the president of the Church. President Young arranged for the Church to pay the costs of moving to Utah for some Church members. Those people repaid the loan when they were settled and that repayment was used to help others moved. It was known as the Perpetual Emigration Fund, because each person helped restocked the fund for the next person. President Hinckley realized the same process could be used to provide educations for those in the poorest countries, where normal avenues of help, such as scholarships and loans from traditional sources, are not available. The program helps young people, most often returned missionaries, receive training in a job skill while remaining at home, helping to ensure they will use those skills in their own communities. Currently, the program focuses on technical schools, in order to help them begin supporting their families quickly, but may later be expanded to include education in professions.

Candidates for the program are interviewed for their worthiness and ability to benefit from the program. The recommendations are sent to Salt Lake City, where a volunteer, an Emeritus General Authority (a somewhat retired high level church leader) runs the program. The money is sent directly to the school. Unlike most charities, the program required no new large division, since the only staff is a secretary and an administrator. Costs are minimal, since future money comes from repayment, which is very high, and donations from Church members eager to assist others.

“It is affordable. We have enough money, already contributed, to fund the initial operation. It will work because it will follow priesthood lines and because it will function on a local basis. It will deal with down-to-earth skills and needed fields of expertise. Participation in the program will carry with it no stigma of any kind, but rather a sense of pride in what is happening. It will not be a welfare effort, commendable as those efforts are, but rather an education opportunity. The beneficiaries will repay the money, and when they do so, they will enjoy a wonderful sense of freedom because they have improved their lives not through a grant or gift, but through borrowing and then repaying. They can hold their heads high in a spirit of independence. The likelihood of their remaining faithful and active throughout their lives will be very high” (Gordon B. Hinckley, “The Perpetual Education Fund,” Liahona, Jul 2001, 60–62, 67.)

The Church has long provided employment assistance to Church members in other forms. Each ecclesiastical unit has an employment specialist who is available to train people in how to write resumes, search for work, and successfully interview for positions. They maintain lists of jobs available and Church members who become aware of positions in their own companies report them to these specialists. The Church’s official website offers free online advice to anyone of any faith in job search skills. There is a professional placement program for those who have worked as managers and professionals. There are also workshops for people at any career level.

In Salt Lake City, Utah, where there are high concentrations of members, Deseret Industries provides work experience and training for those who might otherwise have a great deal of difficulty finding work, including women who suddenly find themselves the head of household, those with special challenges, and people who don’t speak English. English language training is a component of the program for those who need it, as is literacy training.

The Church counsels members to become self-reliant as far as possible. This allows them to care for themselves and their families without assistance and to be prepared for emergencies. By providing the necessary skills and training, the Church follows the old adage, “Give a man a fish and he eats for a day; teach him to fish and he eats for a lifetime.” Rather than perpetuating a need for charity, the Church believes in providing temporary assistance that sustains life while the skills needed to become self-reliant are taught. Those who take advantage of all the programs the church has to offer soon find themselves prepared to hold their heads high in pride as they earn what they need and live a life they might once have believed possible. The Church offers assistance in employment, literacy, English language, parenting, and basic homemaking skills. Many of the volunteer positions church members hold teach leadership, people, and organizational skills that are later used in employment.

A visitor to a Mormon Church might be surprised to learn the collection plate is never passed. Young men do go aisle to aisle, but they are bringing the Sacrament (communion) to the members. Mormons are commanded to pay tithing, but it is done privately.

“Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it” (Malachi 3:10).

Tithing is defined as one tenth of a person’s income. The specifics of what defines income is left to the member’s own conscious and specific guidelines are not given. Instead, members are encouraged to counsel with God in order to what to pay tithing on.

The tithing is paid privately by the member. Near the office of the bishop-the local ecclesiastical leader-there is usually a small shelf with envelopes and tithing slips. The member takes these and privately fills out the slip and places it with the tithing into the envelope. Then, on Sunday, before or after church, the member quietly hands it to a member of the bishopric. The bishopric consists of the bishop and his two counselors. At least two leaders are present when the tithing is counted and recorded. It is sent to Salt Lake City, to church headquarters. There, church leaders prayerfully decide how to use the funds. Each ward (congregation) receives a portion of the funds, based on church attendance. The ward and each organization in the ward plan and submit budgets, which are approved or altered, and the money is allocated accordingly.

The money is used to pay for the administration of the church, missionary work, and meeting special needs of church members and others. God has promised blessings to those who pay a full tithing. These blessings are not always financial, although they can be. However, members are encouraged to pay tithing not to receive a reward, but out of love for their Heavenly Father. Of course, they also take pride in participating in the furthering of God’s work.

In addition to tithing, members of the church pay a monthly fast offering. The first Sunday of each month, members

go without food or drink for twenty-four hours. This requires them to miss two meals, since they begin after lunch and end their fast just prior to a later lunch the next day. They use this time to contemplate the gospel, build their testimonies, and offer special prayers for their needs or the needs of others. They follow up by donating at least the amount of money they saved to a special fast offering fund, which is used exclusively to care for the poor. This allows members to care for the poor, as commanded by the Savior, without further sacrificing their own income, unless they choose to donate beyond what they saved, but also gives them a very small glimpse into the challenges of hunger. By sacrificing to make this offering, their hearts are softened and their character strengthened.

There are other offerings members may give if they choose. There are specific programs listed on the tithing slip and the member can choose to make additional donations to the programs they especially care about. These include missionary work, temple building and printing copies of the Book of Mormon to give to those who are interested in learning about it.

Another program paid for through donations is the perpetual education fund. In some countries with great poverty, the church offers two year loans to help church members, particularly those who have sacrificed to serve a two year mission for the church, to attend a technical school and prepare for a career. The recipient begins to make small payments to repay the loan soon after starting school, and larger ones after graduation, and that money is used to pay for another person’s scholarship. Donations from members increase the number of people who can receive educations and all money donated goes into the loans. The church pays administrative costs out of other funds.

Many who are not members of the church benefit from another program, in which members donate to a humanitarian aid program. This program pays for donations during disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina. It also provides assistance to developing nations. Recent programs have included donations of wheelchairs, clean water programs, and training for neonatal care. Again, the donations to this program are given directly to the actual programs, with administrative costs absorbed by the church’s other funds. The program is paid for by donations from church members, and even from those who are not church members, but who approve of the work being done without regard to religion, or who may have received help from the program. No missionary work is done through this humanitarian effort.

Members are encouraged to pay their tithes and offerings cheerfully:

Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. (2 Corinthians 9:6-7)

God has promised rich rewards for the payment of tithes and offerings. He promises we won’t lack for the necessities, and he also promises spiritual blessings, as our testimonies grow and our love for Heavenly Father increases. We can learn of some of the promised blessings of tithing, as well as the penalties for not paying it, from Malachi in the Bible:

7 Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return?

8 Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.

9 Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.

10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

11 And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts. (Malachi 3)