Watchtower's Asking JW Children For Money, Again

Watchtower is asking Jehovah's Witnesses to give regularly, by subscription if possible. Once again, even your kids' allowance money is part of the pitch. Watchtower is a very wealthy institution, so it is hard to argue it needs a child's ice cream money, and a recent video posted to JW.org makes the request in an especially egregious way.

I read all 36 articles in the series that video points viewers to, "How Your Donations Are Used." What they show is where the money goes: literature, history exhibits, films, buildings, and more. Feeding the hungry, treating the sick, and housing the poor are almost entirely absent.

How the Donation Video Opens

The video opens like this:

Brothers and sisters, the governing body would like to thank you for your kind and generous contributions. Your donations not only bring joy to Jehovah's heart, but also bring praise to his name. When you make a donation, do you ever wonder which projects and initiatives could my donations be supporting? Well, in this video, we'll travel across the globe to see examples of the wonderful things that are being accomplished with your donations. We'll also learn how some of our young ones feel about the contributions they make. Our first stop is Costa Rica.

I'm not against giving to a cause you believe in, whether it's religious or otherwise. There's nothing wrong with that. Countless nonprofits that do good work are supported in large part by the people who believe in them, and content creators like me are supported by people who believe in our work. I have no problem with that.

But as you go through the video, notice what Jehovah's Witnesses' donations actually fund and what they don't. Then ask yourself whether it follows the biblical model they claim to follow. Make no mistake: Jehovah's Witnesses believe they are the only true Christians on earth today. If that's true, they must be following the gospel example very closely.

Mozambique: Bibles in Local Languages

The first stop features a Witness describing an appreciation letter:

When I read the appreciation letter of October 2025, I felt so grateful and so encouraged to know that so many brothers and sisters can now have God's word in their languages. It was then that I realized that donations like mine help brothers and sisters like those in Mozambique and they were able to have Jehovah's Word in their own languages.

It helped me see that something as simple as a donation can be used by Jehovah to reach every corner of the earth. And that makes me feel so happy because I support the interest of the kingdom.

Right away, the video shows you where donations go: the preaching work. By preaching work, of course, I mean translating Watchtower publications so more people can be converted into the religion. That matters in places like Africa, where the organization is experiencing growth. It has flatlined in many Western countries, and in many more it is losing ground relative to general population growth.

Think about what real humanitarian nonprofits, including religious ones, show first in their video coverage. Children being fed. Families receiving housing, clothes, or medicine. The things people in poor countries really need. Mozambique ranks among the poorest and least developed countries in the world, and about 80% of people there live in poverty. Yet the video says nothing about Watchtower feeding, clothing, or caring for the people there. It talks about its literature being available in local languages.

I'm not going to tell you that having a good Bible in your own language is a bad thing. As a believer myself, I don't think it is. But look at the example in Mark 6. Jesus and his apostles went off to find a solitary place because they wanted some time to themselves. That didn't work, because people recognized them and ran ahead. Jesus had compassion on them and taught them. But they were in a remote place with no food, so Jesus told his disciples to feed the crowd, and when they couldn't, he did it miraculously.

Now compare that to Mozambique. If Jehovah's Witnesses really have the truth, as they call it, fine: teach people the truth. But those people are poor and in need as well, so you care for those needs, just as Jesus and the apostles did. They even kept a money box to give to the poor. The Gospels tell us that. In Watch Tower's video, you will not see a single act of physical support for any Jehovah's Witness or anyone in the surrounding community. That is not how Watchtower spends its money.

Cameroon: A Child's Allowance and a Museum

The narrator then explains how donors receive appreciation letters:

Just like our sister, you may have noticed that each month you make a contribution electronically, you receive a letter of appreciation. Many find these letters very encouraging and even enjoy reviewing them as part of their family worship. These letters help the recipients see how their donations are directly linked to the work praising Jehovah worldwide. Next, we'll visit Cameroon.

"Praising Jehovah worldwide." There it is again. That refers to proselytizing, not humanitarian aid. Cameroon isn't as badly off as Mozambique, but about 40% of its population lives below the national poverty line. Here is what a child there says:

I want to support Jehovah's organization with my allowance because I really love Jehovah and his organization. Even though I'm still young, I want to support the work being done. When my parents give me my allowance, I set a portion aside to contribute to the worldwide work in the contribution box at the Kingdom Hall and sometimes at assemblies. When we visited the branch and I saw the new exhibitions, I was so excited. I understood that these exhibitions exist thanks to donations like mine. It taught me to see that my contributions serve a purpose. Seeing in this new museum all these well-preserved objects that retrace the history of the work in our territory strengthens my faith.

Two things stand out. First, Watchtower is again soliciting money from children, which is just gross. But you have to understand why it happens with such regularity. It trains children who grow up to be Jehovah's Witness adults to give their money to Watchtower. It is part of an indoctrination that includes financial giving and volunteering, because Watchtower doesn't pay Jehovah's Witnesses for the work they do in preaching, construction, or anything else it does at its many properties around the world.

Second, in a country where about 40% of the population lives in poverty, where did the money go? To historic exhibits about the organization. Not food, not clothing, not housing, not medicine. A history lesson about the Watchtower Corporation. Let that sink in.

That's Watchtower, though. It almost never gives physical support to Jehovah's Witnesses or to the community at large. The only time it might is disaster relief. As I've covered many times on the channel, at least in the United States, Witness homeowners who get help from Watchtower are asked for the insurance money. The labor is all free, but Watchtower gets the whole check, so that could very well be a profitable operation. Because Watchtower has zero financial transparency, we have no way of knowing for sure. Does it make sense to trust an organization that refuses to be transparent about how much it has and where exactly it goes, especially a nonprofit? You know the answer.

Thailand: Spending on a Movie About Jesus

The video continues:

No matter your age, you can feel a similar joy when you visit or hear about the wonderful work being carried out at your local branch. Do you stop to recognize that your donations help to make that work possible? Our final stop is Thailand.

So far, that's literature and history exhibits. Now a Witness in Thailand speaks about the filming of The Good News According to Jesus:

When I read the article about how our donations are used in filming the good news according to Jesus, it really impressed me to see that there is careful planning and everything is prepared in an orderly way so that all the brothers and sisters can work happily even though this is a large project requiring time, effort and a great deal of money. I feel happy and grateful to Jehovah for providing this good news drama because it helps us understand that Jehovah and Jesus have such a wonderful relationship with each other.

To be fair, Thailand is an upper-middle-income developing economy. It's nowhere near as badly off as Cameroon or Mozambique. It has universal public health care, extensive infrastructure, and a life expectancy of about 79 years, which is higher than some Western nations. So it probably doesn't need as much physical assistance as other countries. Still, about 14% of the rural population lives in poverty, so there is plenty of good work that could be done if Watchtower cared about the financial circumstances of Jehovah's Witnesses and the community at large.

What got praised instead was a movie series about Jesus. Watchtower is using Witness donations to fund a film series showing Jesus healing the sick and feeding the hungry, rather than spending that money to imitate Jesus by helping the sick and feeding the hungry.

That makes us zero for three. The money is going to printing literature, creating historical exhibits at branches, and making videos. There is still no sign of the acts Jesus and the first-century Christians performed to care for each other physically because they loved their neighbor as themselves.

Calling Donations a "Spiritual Act"

Craig Johnson closes the video this way:

Are you looking forward to watching the new episodes of The Good News According to Jesus? Donations like yours make these faith strengthening videos possible. That's in addition to our branch exhibits, Bible translation work, and so much more. Would you like to find out more about these projects and other initiatives? You can do so by visiting jw.org. From the library, click on article series, then click on how your donations are used. Then you'll find a variety of articles explaining how donations are being used around the world. Isn't it a privilege to support these initiatives that bring honor to Jehovah's name? King David felt a similar way when contributing to the temple's construction. Note his words found at 1 Chronicles 29:14.

And yet, who am I? And who are my people that we should be in a position to make voluntary offerings like this? For everything is from you and we have given to you what comes from your own hand.

Yes, even though all of the riches belong to Jehovah, he gives us the privilege of contributing to the work being accomplished around the world. Our voluntary donations are precious to him as they are more than just financial transactions. They are spiritual acts. As such, they become part of our worship and bring praise to our heavenly father. Once again, the governing body thanks you for your generous spirit. And we all thank Jehovah God for the privilege we have to give to the one who has given us everything.

According to Johnson, then, the money you give Watchtower for printing literature, creating historical exhibits, and making movies, rather than helping the poor, the sick, and the hungry, is all part of your worship to God as a Jehovah's Witness. It's a spiritual act, he says.

What the 36-Article Series Actually Shows

That was a short video, only about six minutes, and Watchtower couldn't cover everything it does with the money in that time. So I read the article series Johnson pointed to, to be fair to them. Maybe something got left out of the video. The series is called "How Your Donations Are Used," and as of this writing it has 36 articles.

Literature and media

Fourteen of the articles are about producing and distributing literature and media around the globe.

• More than 1.5 billion pieces of literature were printed in the 2025 service year, at a cost of more than $35 million, plus about $10 million on new printing and binding equipment.
• More than $20 million in 2019 went just to the materials used to make their Bibles.
• $2.3 million went on materials in the first five months of printing the Enjoy Life Forever book. They say they picked a paper that cost 16% more and a laminate that costs up to five times more so the book would look dignified. That book, in case you don't know, is what they use to study with people to try to convert them into the religion.
• Streaming and downloads from JW.org or the JW Library app cost over $1.5 million in a single year.
• A satellite TV channel in Africa cost more than $12,000 a month.
• More than $16 million went to their literature carts.
• Their translation offices cost $13 million in one year.

Braille, sign language, original songs, and their newsroom are all mentioned too.

Videos and conventions

Five of the articles are about videos and conventions. The article on The Good News According to Jesus says they bought a $2.5 million video wall to film it. Another says the sets for one convention drama cost nearly a hundred thousand dollars. The US branch spends over $200,000 a year, it says, just shipping its convention audio and video equipment around.

Construction

Six of the articles are about construction. In the 2023 service year alone, they say they spent more than $500 million to purchase, construct, renovate, and maintain Kingdom Halls and assembly halls. That is on top of what congregations spent on their own halls out of their own money, and we don't know how much that adds up to. Almost half of all their branch offices were under construction that year. School facilities for their pioneer school cost several million dollars each. Even solar panels at branch offices make the list.

Everything else

The rest covers missionaries and their schools, a legal case defending their members' right to worship, money shifting around between branches, and Zoom accounts for congregations during COVID.

One detail surprised me. Those Zoom accounts were purchased with funds budgeted for disaster relief. They spent that money on Zoom instead of helping people in natural disaster areas. That's Watchtower for you.

Disaster Relief: Fifty Dollars on Buildings for Every Dollar on Relief

Six of the 36 articles are about disaster relief. I've covered before why that doesn't change the picture in my opinion, but two points from the series are worth adding.

First, every one of those relief articles is about helping "our brothers and sisters." That means only Jehovah's Witnesses, not the general Christian community and certainly not the community at large. That is quite different from what most charities do, including religious ones.

Second, look at the size of the relief. In the 2023 service year, Watchtower says it spent more than $500 million on Kingdom Halls and assembly halls. Its disaster relief for the entire world that year was, in its words, "over $10 million." That is about $50 on buildings for every dollar spent on relief for Jehovah's Witnesses. How generous and Christlike.

Venezuela: The One Example of Feeding Witnesses

The most concrete example in the whole series of Watchtower feeding hungry Jehovah's Witnesses is Venezuela during that country's economic collapse. They did purchase food for the Witnesses there, which is unusual for Watchtower. The relief report for 2021 says over $1.5 million was spent on purchasing and transporting food and soap to needy households.

That sounds generous until you break it down.

• What's in the number. It covers purchasing and transporting food and soap, so the cost of the trucks and the soap is included. The article never says how much of the $1.5 million was actually food.
• How many people it was spread across. Watchtower's own service year report shows 134,000 Jehovah's Witnesses in Venezuela that year. Divide the whole $1.5 million by that number, food, trucks, soap and all, and it comes to about $11 per Witness for the year, or about 93 cents a month.
• How much food that was. The branch says it moved 130 tons of food a month, spread across all the Venezuelan Witnesses. That is about two pounds of food per Witness per month, in a country the article itself describes as suffering food shortages.
• Who got it. According to the article, it only went to needy households. The article never says how many households, how much each received, or who decided who qualified as needy.

That is the only dollar figure the series ever gives for feeding Venezuela's Witnesses, and it never mentions them again. It comes to about 93 cents a month per Witness, from an organization that spent about the same amount, over a million and a half dollars, in a single year on streaming and downloads for its app. That is what Watchtower's generosity looks like when its own members are going hungry.

The most recent relief report in the series is from January 2024. Every article since then has been about Kingdom Hall maintenance, convention equipment, The Good News According to Jesus film series (which they talk about a lot), solar panels, printing, and a sign language Bible. It's obvious where Watchtower's priorities lie, and it isn't with helping Jehovah's Witnesses or anybody else with their real-world daily needs.

What Elders Are Told To Do After a Disaster

Even when disaster does hit, look at what Watchtower tells its elders to do. The 2025 edition of the elders' manual, Shepherd the Flock of God, addresses this in chapter 11, under "Security Incidents and Disasters," in the section on providing ongoing practical support. Elders are told to help publishers determine whether they qualify for material assistance through government or social programs, personal insurance, or some other source. It even clears Witnesses to accept aid from a religious charity, as long as it is government-funded and they don't join the church.

The organization's own help comes next, and only for those who qualify. Elders are to help the relief committee determine which publishers qualify for reconstruction assistance from the organization.

So when a Witness loses everything, the first stop isn't the organization they've donated to their entire life. It's the government, their insurance company, or somebody else's charity, including charities run by churches.

And if a Witness elsewhere wants to help, the same chapter says it is not appropriate to collect money privately or use social media to solicit funds to assist congregations affected by disasters. In effect, Watchtower says: don't give to the local congregation that needs it in a disaster; give to the worldwide work, to make more Jesus movies and do more construction on its properties. The same organization that sends its own members to other charities in a disaster also makes sure help from other Witnesses is cut off for those congregations. They receive only what Watchtower wants them to have, and as you've seen, that isn't much.

The Scoreboard

After reading all 36 articles, here is the scoreboard: literature, translation, media, films, buildings, schools, missionaries, and lawyers. Outside of what it files under disaster relief, nothing in the entire series describes helping the poor, the sick, or the hungry simply because they are poor, sick, or hungry. Not their neighbors, and not even their own members. And when a disaster does hit, the elders' manual points Witnesses to their government, their insurance, and other people's charities first.

That is what the boy in Cameroon is giving his allowance to. And it is what Craig Johnson calls a spiritual act and part of our worship.