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(Greg Whitesell/Examiner)
People line up to receive free food at Community Ministry Inc. in Seat Pleasant, Md., on Friday. Rev. Terrence Collins explains that faith-based organizations are able to help feed people as well as show people’s faith and intent to care for others. Secular organizations such as Collins’s pick up the slack in the county.

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Filed under: WASHINGTON , Leah Fabel , Nonprofits

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - In Prince George’s County, churches and faith-based groups are playing an expanding role in taking care of local needs as secular nonprofit organizations come up short.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy has listed the county’s residents in the top five in the nation for percentage of income going to charity, but the bulk of the bounty goes to churches, according to a recent report by the Maryland Association of Nonprofit Organizations.

The report found per-capita contributions for the county’s secular nonprofits to be the lowest in the Washington region, at $8,124. Neighboring Montgomery County organizations enjoyed per capita revenue of $25,973; The Maryland average is $18,859.

But Prince George’s residents give fervently to religious efforts.

The county is home to 12 “megachurches” of more than 2,000 members, out of only 32 such congregations in the state of Maryland. The report suggested megachurch growth has coincided with a dramatic growth of black Protestant congregations in the county.

And with membership comes money — The Chronicle of Philanthropy study found blacks donate 25 percent more of their discretionary income than whites, and a higher percentage of that money goes to churches — money not accounted for in the nonprofit report.

“It’s cultural. The African-American church has always been the local institution that has provided support for the community,” said the Rev. Terrence Collins, executive director of the Community Ministries of Prince George’s County, representing more than 400 area congregations.

Collins’ organization provides 32,000 free meals each year at its shelters, as well as emergency services like rent and utility assistance and holiday food baskets. Church contributions supply nearly $90,000 of his annual budget, and individual donations contribute nearly $40,000 more. Even so, Collins stresses a need for more collaboration between secular and faith-based organizations.

“Now that 30 percent of Prince George’s residents have no church affiliation at all, there’s so much need,” he said.

The Rev. Diane Johnson directs Prince George’s Collective Banking Group, a coalition of churches and financial institutions helping the area’s black community. The church’s foray into its members’ finances is new, she said, and necessary because of poor financial literacy.

“I wonder if people have not taken advantage of the formalized not-for-profits because the church has always done it,” she said. “Just not in a formalized structure.”

lfabel@dcexaminer.com