The Duke Endowment in Durham, North Carolina, has announced grants totaling more than $39.5 million to local nonprofit organizations, including $3.1 million for building and operating rural churches.

Eighty-five grants were awarded to support rural religious institutions, including $658,000 for child-care programs at United Methodist churches, $445,000 for leadership programs, $351,000 for ethnic minority ministries, $289,000 for community services, $125,500 for spirituality and health programs, and $15,000 to help Page Memorial United Methodist Church in Biscoe expand a food pantry ministry for the hungry. An additional thirty grants totaling $1.1 million were awarded to churches and other organizations of the United Methodist Church for building construction or renovation.

The endowment also awarded $20.4 million for nonprofit hospitals and other healthcare organizations and $11.1 million for private colleges and universities, as well as almost $4.3 million for nonprofit children's homes and other programs that support adoption or the prevention of child abuse and neglect.

"We are pleased that this year we are able to provide more funds than we typically award in our June grant cycle," said endowment president Eugene W. Cochrane Jr. "But what is more important and more impressive is the large number of high-quality projects that involve community outreach. To us, that is a powerful indicator of the willingness of our schools, hospitals, children's homes, and churches to play significant roles in the life of their home communities across the Carolinas."