Private charity outpaces, outperforms foreign aid

For more than 10 years, Pastor Kirkland Walton of St. Peter’s Baptist Church in Glen Allen, Va., has passed a separate collection plate for Africa on Sundays.

That offering is then passed on to Africare, a charity that was just awarded four stars, Charity Navigator’s top ranking, for delivering more than 90 percent of each dollar it receives to Africans in need.

“The African-American community has always been in the trenches in our own community, and we understand that there is a tremendous need to remember our brothers and sisters in Africa,” Mr. Walton said.

In the past five years, Africare has given more than $300,000 in donations from black churches throughout the United States.

“People know that when they give to Africare, they’re investing directly in programs that reach the people of Africa,” said Africare President Julius E. Coles.

According to Africare and certified by Charity Navigator, more than 93 cents of every dollar spent by Africare during the 2006 fiscal year went to program-related expenses — about $37 million spent on development work and humanitarian aid.

Charity Navigator lists more than 100 charities dealing with some aspect of Africa — food, water, sanitation, HIV, persecuted Christians, saving wildlife — and 44 earned four-star ratings.

Africare — which is funded in part by U.S. government money, dozens of other Africa charities and parishes such as Mr. Walton’s — is just one example to illustrate that Americans are hands-down the most generous people on the planet.

In 2005, Americans donated more than $95 billion to the developing world. That is almost four times what the U.S. government gives in foreign aid and many times more than what Europeans give in public and private donations, according to a study by the Hudson Institute, to be released next month.

“There is a whole new world of philanthropy out there, and it is being led by the United States,” said Carol Adelman, director of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Global Prosperity.

The U.S. government is often criticized for being stingy. Despite spending more than $2.3 trillion in development aid since the early 1960s, it ranks just 23rd among the top 25 developed nations in terms of government aid as a percentage of national income.

Private donors step in

But since 1990, private philanthropy has far exceeded government funding. U.S. private donors coughed up an estimated $95.2 billion in 2005 — nearly four times the $27.6 billion spent in official foreign aid — for schools, orphanages, medical clinics, supplies and other development programs in Africa, Latin America, Russia, Eastern Europe and Asia.

Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett got the headlines for private pledges of billions of dollars in health and education programs abroad, but much more comes from ordinary, churchgoing American families.

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