LDS members are expected to make contributions (called "tithing" or "fast offerings") to their bishops. Many people wonder where the money goes to.

I may be wrong, but here's my understanding.

I think that all donations go through (not "to") church headquarters in Salt Lake City. Tithing donations go mainly for maintaining buildings (and constructing new ones), and are paid directly by the church. I think this is done by the office of the "Presiding Bishopric", rather than the President of the Church.

Fast offering donations (for use in helping the needy) are sent back to the stakes (groups of about 10 congregations), where they are allocated for use by the stake president to the wards and branches (congregations). Within a ward, the bishop has nearly complete control over who receives this money (if anyone), and this information (i.e., who is receiving assistance) is not available to the general congregation. In fact, I think in our stake, the bishop can basically write as many/much assistance checks as he deems appropriate, although if the check is larger than a certain amount ($1000?) he must first consult with the stake president. If the stake has left over fast offering money, they ship it to the "area headquarters" (a level in between Church headquarters and the stake presidency), and if the stake needs additional money they can request it from the area. Presumably if the area has additional money, they ship it back to Salt Lake who then disburses it on a global level.

So basically, as far as buildings go, the local level has very little control over the money, but as far as everything else goes, the local level has nearly complete control.

There are also other types of donations people can make, for example humanitarian relief donations, and donations to the church missionary fund. I think both of those are controlled on a central church level.

Upon further thought, each ward has a budget as well (a few thousand dollars per year in our ward's case), for things like activities, xeroxing fees, library materials, choir music, etc. This I think also comes from the tithing funds. This money is given in a lump sum to the stake, then distributed to the wards by the stake presidency, as some sort of function of number of members in the ward. (Our stake president uses a formula which takes about 1/3 of all this money, and gives it equally to all the wards in the stake. Then of the remaining 2/3 of the money, it is given in a strict proportion to the sacrament meeting attendence figures. Kind of like a "senate and house of representatives-type large ward/small ward compromise"...)