Surprising Examples of Religious Institutions Worth Billions

Did you know there are religious institutions worth $10B-$100B?

• making more revenue than 70% of startups
• owning a million dollars worth of lands/stocks
• contributing $1.2T of economic value in the US alone (as of 2016)

Here are a few examples that will surprise you:

— Aleksandr Volodarsky (@volodarik) March 23, 2023

1/ The Mormon Church (credit to @thesamparr @ShaanVP)

Established in 1830, it has ~17M global members, donating 10% of their annual income.

Plus:
• It has a $100B+ hedge fund, which owns $40B+ of US stocks & 2% of all the land in Florida
• It made $8M+ on the GameStop squeeze

— Aleksandr Volodarsky (@volodarik) March 23, 2023

2/ The Venkateswara temple

It's the richest Indian temple with a net worth of $30B (only 18/6000 listed Indian companies are worth more)

Here's the distribution:
• 10Kg+ gold deposits in banks
• 2.5 Kg of gold jewelry
• $2B in bank deposits
• 960+ properties

— Aleksandr Volodarsky (@volodarik) March 23, 2023

3/ The Roman Catholic Church

It has assets worth $30B-$70B+ & makes $500M-$1B+ in revenue.

Here's how:
• Donations
• Through the tours of the Vatican City
• Investment in stocks & land properties (it owns 277K square miles, roughly the size of Texas)
• ancient artworks

— Aleksandr Volodarsky (@volodarik) March 23, 2023

4/ Sree Padmanabha Swamy temple

In 2011, the Indian Supreme Court ordered a search of vaults beneath this temple.

The searchers found gold, jewels, & statues worth $10B, collected over 1000 years by the then royal family.

Today, it makes $100M+ just via donations.

— Aleksandr Volodarsky (@volodarik) March 23, 2023

5/ The Trinity Church

In 2019, the NYT reported the church has a real estate portfolio worth $6B.

It has 1000s of acres of land, which it leases to families & companies.

This earns it $300M+/yr.

It also distributes $10M+/yr to societal contributions.

— Aleksandr Volodarsky (@volodarik) March 23, 2023

Here are a few startups that operate in "religion economy,"

a) @MinistryBrands
It provides communication, payment, accounting, & site/app development services to 100K+ churches.

In 2016, Insight Partners acquired it for $1.4B.

— Aleksandr Volodarsky (@volodarik) March 23, 2023

b) @lifechurch

• It educates Christians about Christianity through its blog, YouTube, podcast, online sessions, & app.
• Its app - Bible - is downloaded on 500M+ devices
• It has built 44 churches in 12 locations
• In 2022, it had assets worth $468M

— Aleksandr Volodarsky (@volodarik) March 23, 2023

c) Sri Mandir App

• It's an app that allows Hindus to offer e-puja
• It has 10M+ downloads
• It makes $1M+/yr in revenue

— Aleksandr Volodarsky (@volodarik) March 23, 2023