Why I ask is because an old friend of mine (who is today considered a good Mormon) had it explained to him that the tithe was like an insurance policy, and if you kept up on it and paid it, and something happened, you'd get it all back ~ and you could even borrow money to do that.
Sounded like a deal, but doesn't that make tithes something different than "charity"? ~ at least when the donation is to the LDS?
One could ask the same question of donations to Catholic charities.