RobRoy Platt

Trusts Lawyer. Business owner. Family man. Lover of history, Prog. Metal & Cool Jazz, #BYUSports, dogs, Rocky Mountains, and #ChurchofJesusChrist.

[RobRoy Platt @RobRoyPlatt]

@HolocaustMuseum My family shared many meals with her in our home when she served as a guest lecturer with my father, Dr. Jeff Platt, who taught a Holocaust Class at NAU for years. She is all the good things that have ever been reported of her. A truly wonderful woman!

[RobRoy Platt @RobRoyPlatt]

@SenMikeLee Nice strawman, Senator. Why are you so disingenuous?

[Clint Teeples @TeeplesCY]

When The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced it spent $1.58 billion on humanitarian aid in 2025, critics quickly compared the figure to the Church's total assets.

The implication: measured against that wealth, $1.58 billion is unimpressive.

But this critique overlooks a fundamental reality of global development. Giving money away effectively is often harder than earning it.

In development economics, the primary constraint on aid is rarely a lack of cash. It is absorptive capacity. There is a persistent myth that the solution to global suffering is simply to write the check. In reality, flooding a fragile region with capital without the necessary infrastructure often does more harm than good, fueling corruption, destabilizing regional markets, or creating permanent dependency.

Effective humanitarian work requires logistical networks capable of moving 37 million pounds of food across 196 countries, trusted local partners to ensure aid reaches the last mile, and oversight systems that prevent funds from disappearing to administrative graft. These structures take decades to build. The church's steady climb from $906 million in 2021 to $1.58 billion in 2025 reflects an institution scaling its infrastructure, not just its generosity.

Most global NGOs face a structural dilemma: to distribute billions, they must hire thousands. The Gates Foundation, one of the world's most sophisticated philanthropic organizations, once spent roughly $1 billion on operations to distribute $3.7 billion in aid.

The Latter-day Saint model attempts something different. In 2025, members contributed 7.4 million volunteer hours, the equivalent of 20,000 hours of service every single day. By leveraging a global lay ministry and local volunteers, the system multiplies the impact of every dollar without the corresponding bureaucratic overhead.

The most persuasive argument for a measured approach is the focus on long-term independence. Short-term aid stabilizes families. Long-term skills create independence.

The outcomes from free self-reliance courses offered in more than 100 countries make the case concretely. Within six months of completing a course, 41% of participants improved their ability to provide for their families, 47% found new or better employment, and 61% started or expanded a business. Whether it is a woman in the Philippines launching an enterprise that now employs her neighbors, or a refugee in Croatia learning English to enter the tourism industry, the goal is the same: moving people from the humanitarian column to the self-sufficient one.

Critics frame the church's financial reserves as a hoard. But the institution manages them through the logic of perpetual stewardship, the same logic that governs Harvard's $50 billion endowment or the Gates Foundation's long-term capital strategy. Institutions designed to endure for centuries do not manage resources the way a five-year project does.

For a global religious institution, reserves serve two essential functions: crisis readiness, the ability to respond immediately to unpredictable disasters without waiting for a fundraising drive, and institutional durability, ensuring the safety net does not vanish during the next global economic depression.

If $1.58 billion is dismissed as unimpressive, the critique has stopped being analytical and become ideological. What number would satisfy it?

The more relevant question is whether a system built on steady expansion, volunteer labor, and a deliberate focus on independence actually helps more people over time than a one-time liquidation of reserves ever could.

Measured against the standard of deliberate, sustainable impact, a billion-dollar trendline is not a failure of generosity. It is evidence of a system built to last.

[RobRoy Platt @RobRoyPlatt]

@BYUMBB @jimmerfredette It was a privilege to watch Jimmer play at BYU. This honor is so well deserved. You do us all proud in the BYU community, @jimmerfredette. 32 Forever!

[RobRoy Platt @RobRoyPlatt]

@davidjsmith1232 @Ch_JesusChrist Congrautlations, David!

[RobRoy Platt @RobRoyPlatt]

Facts.

[Big 12 Conference @Big12Conference]

Read ‘em and weep.

#Big12FB | @BYUfootball

[RobRoy Platt @RobRoyPlatt]

@JustSomeGuySLC @GovCox LOL, nothing effeminate about these tights, high heels, wigs, and lace on our founding fathers, is there? https://t.co/x2ZRCuvLsp

[RobRoy Platt @RobRoyPlatt]

@Samsworth_TV @kslsports Good thing AD Harlan showed us what "professionalism" actually looks like—unlike the mean, nasty officiating crew that (checks notes) . . . correctly called the penalty in question. A true Karen, indeed. 🤣

[RobRoy Platt @RobRoyPlatt]

This is the way . . .

[Derek Andersen @DerekjAndersen]

This morning with our burned down church still smoldering and four saints murdered, members of the Church of Jesus Christ raised $60k for...checks notes...the shooter's wife and children. Most donations are anonymous. Each Christian comment will make you cry more than the last.

[RobRoy Platt @RobRoyPlatt]

@NewsHour @NewsHour editors, just FYI, paying attention to style guides like this can help elevate the public's respect for your journalism (it's no secret that PBS is weathering a fair share of criticism for both its perceived and real biases). https://t.co/9moolRMrLG

[RobRoy Platt @RobRoyPlatt]

@Reuters This is an incorrect image @Reuters. This is the front of Utah County Jail, NOT the courthouse. Although the suspect is most likely being held there and will appear from there. It's just not the court building.

[RobRoy Platt @RobRoyPlatt]

Regardless of ideological origins, violence cannot persist in politics if we want to survive as a nation. We must do better! 💔

Let's start by dramatically scaling back the "existential threat" rhetoric against our political and ideological opponents. We are all humans, first.

[RobRoy Platt @RobRoyPlatt]

@edgaricarreon The gentleman on that horse is my neighbor and friend. Also a wonderful mentor to my sons. Lehi, UT is a fantastic community in so many ways!

[RobRoy Platt @RobRoyPlatt]

@BasedMikeLee And that speaks volumes about you, sadly.

[RobRoy Platt @RobRoyPlatt]

@SenMikeLee I get it, Sen. Lee. You'd like them to prostrate themselves before the executive branch as obsequiously as you do. Only then will you be satisfied. You're just mad that some judges haven't forgotten their role as a check & balance on executive powers the way much of Congress has.

[RobRoy Platt @RobRoyPlatt]

@AZATHLETICS @SpencerJCox I graduated from law school at Arizona. Unfortunately, this kind of religious bigotry comes not just from the student body. I experienced surprising prejudice from some professors and staff at this university because of my faith. It is real and it persists.

[RobRoy Platt @RobRoyPlatt]

@realDonaldTrump Wrong. So very wrong. And so sad that this kind of nonsense is being shared by the sitting POTUS.

[RobRoy Platt @RobRoyPlatt]

@SenMikeLee @SenMikeLee Maybe you could ask your dear leader what you should be saying? In the meantime, keep clutching those pearls. You're great at that.

[RobRoy Platt @RobRoyPlatt]

@NRO @jrhuddles The grifter-in-chief certainly knows one when he sees one. 😏

[RobRoy Platt @RobRoyPlatt]

@SenMikeLee @TulsiGabbard Great! A looney conspiracist and Putin apologist as Dir. of Natn’l Intelligence. Par for the course with Sen. Lee, I guess. Let the clown show commence.