As part of the Media and Communications Services report for the February Council meetings, Council members received a chart of "Donation and Income Analysis by Source." This is a report first developed three years ago, and it covered donations by source from 1996 to Feb. 6, 2006.

It's interesting to note that over the past eight years nonmembers provided around 11 percent of the Church's income.

The donations were grouped by which promotional piece the person first responded to. After discounting the "unknown" and "miscellaneous" categories, most donations came from those who were first added to the file from a gift subscription, followed by the Internet (up from third place last year) and then insert cards. Interestingly, those people who first came onto our file from a gift subscription also give the highest average donation.

Subscribers who donate to the Church who first came onto our file from the Internet are also very strong contributors in both average donation and overall amount.

Some interesting additional information: For 2005, nonmember subscribers gave 1.4 percent more individual donations that totaled 10.1 percent more dollars than for 2004. The average donation was up from $95 (the average for the past five years has been $96) to $103, which is an encouraging trend.