“Together, religious organizations and PVOs [private and voluntary organizations], including volunteers to international development causes, gave more in aid to developing countries than the U.S. government did in 2007,” said Carol Adelman, director of the CGP. “Religious congregations … are becoming major players in the world of international development, bringing new ideas, dollars and people to the table to help the world’s poor.”
So where exactly did all this money go? The CGP found the greatest areas benefiting from American goodwill were Latin America and the Caribbean (36 percent); Asia and the Pacific (29 percent); sub-Saharan Africa (21 percent); Europe and Central Asia (9 percent); and North Africa and the Middle East (5 percent). At least 34 percent of congregational giving went toward education, while 26 percent was allotted for health and medical projects.