What I want to do:
Donate it to some non-religious charity.

What I ultimately would do:
Give it to that church and explain where it was found.

As is my feeling with “what if” questions like this, I’m honestly not sure what I’d do in this situation. I’d like to think I’d do the best “right thing,” which for me would be to first contact the church and ask the pastor or whomever to try to find out who in the congregation had lost the envelope so that I could put it directly into the tither’s hands.

If no one could be found, I think I’d donate the money went directly to people whom I knew needed it, or to a worthy cause, rather than just dump it at the church.

That the envelope has the name of a church on it does not prove that the money inside was intended to go to the church. I found a bunch of old tithing envelopes in my grandmother’s house after she died, and I decided to use them rather than let them go to waste. But I’m certainly not using them to tithe.

In any case, I would treat the envelope and its contents the same way I would treat any other sort of lost money: I would hold onto it for a few weeks while attempting to find the original owner, then consider it mine if I was unable to do so. I would not hand it over to the police because I suspect they would just pocket it without even trying to find the original owner.

How would I try to find the original owner, then? By checking Craigslist, looking for “lost” posters, and so forth. In this case, however, I would go a little further thanks to the extra clue provided by the church address on the envelope. I would go to the church, find someone who worked there, tell them what I had found, and leave my phone number. If the original owner could convince me that the envelope was theirs, I would give it back.

JUst like the jewelry I found a month ago on the road, I give it to the cops to figure out.

“The name of the church it is intended to go to is on the envelope but not the name of the person who intended to give it. What would you do with the envelope?”

I’d thank the lord for losing my readers before finding that envelope.

I’d take it to the church named and explain I found it but there’s no name to indicate who it belongs to. I’m sure the church community could investigate who lost the money. The person may be connected to the church. If they aren’t identified, the money could go to the church.

What @ARE_you_kidding_me said.

The donor’s name may not be on the envelope, but there likely will be a donor number on it. It’s kind of like an account number. The church could use this number to trace the owner of the envelope.

If the name of the church is written on it I would go to the actual church and hand it directly to the Pastor. only the pastor not just someone working in the church office.

Keep that shit.

Fuck the church.

I’d like to mention that I’ve found three wallets over the years and managed to return two of them to their owners, with the third being dropped at my local police station.

I would give it to the church.

Take it to the church named, as is, and tell them I found it and where. The pastor can thank the now anonymous donor from the pulpit next Sunday.

Thanks for the donation, church would probably invest in child grooming anyway & I don’t mean combing their hair.

@FutureMemory Keep that shit. Fuck the church. @ucme Thanks for the donation, church would probably invest in child grooming anyway & I don’t mean combing their hair.
So taking no account for the alleged church it is going to, or who lost the envelope, you would ferret it away assuming someone with bad timing is going to line your pockets? What if after ripping the envelope open it was not money, but receipts for tithe they gave or some other records, what would you do then, toss it to cover up the fact you attempted to keep the tithe?

Aren’t these normally coded with an identifying number so that the church can issue credit at the end of the year for tax purposes.

Any of them I’ve ever seen use a system like that specifically for tithe envelopes. Each person (family) receives a pack of 52 for the year each bearing the same code number.

For churches who don’t use this system, they just usually pass the basket.

The entire purpose of the tithe envelopes is to keep track of the total so that a yearly receipt can be issued. I’ve never been to any church using tithe envelopes absent tracking numbers. They simply don’t use envelopes then.