New Wealth Fuels Giving in Developing World
July 8, 2010 | Read Time: 1 minute
Fast-growing economies in the developing world are swelling the ranks of wealthy givers, according to The Christian Science Monitor.
The trend is particularly acute in India, where the number of millionaires has grown 11 percent annually since 2000 and charitable giving has risen to 0.6 percent of gross domestic product. That’s well behind the rates in the United States and Britain but ahead of those in China and Brazil, which have also seen rapid wealth creation.
Atul Tandon, executive director of the international network of United Way Worldwide, said the charity received about $700-million in 2008 from donors in the developing world, about half of its non-U.S. giving.
In Taiwan publicity over one woman’s giving has set off a surge of charity among residents of modest means, the news service Agence France-Presse reports.
Chen Shu-chu, a vegetable vendor in her late 50s, has donated about $310,000, much of it to benefit orphans. Earlier this year Time magazine named her one of the world’s 100 most influential people, triggering a wave of media attention that Taiwanese charities credit for elevating interest in giving.
