This is a misnomer. I looked in the education section and the 4th item down was a educational charity sponsored by a religion.

https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summar...

That 31% is donations to churches (from what I'm reading). Not donations to charities organized separately from the churches.

So if there is a catholic charity which focuses on Haiti, then that would be excluded from the 31%.

Interesting, religious peoples in the US account for 77% of the country[1] - I wonder if a lot of religious folks just end up supporting secular charities or if the general understanding that religious donations support the majority of charities is incorrect.

1. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/...

And a lot of that 31% is churches members paying their own dues -- as though me paying for a gym membership were a charitable donation.

It would be if you gym membership funded a food bank and orphanages.

Studies performed by religious organizations themselves (who if anything are likely to skew the numbers more positively), across the board, "Local and national benevolence receives 1 percent of the typical church budget", and an additional 5% goes to "church run programs" (be it after school care, social or group activities).