During the conference, the delegates voted to finalize the induction of the Methodist Church of the Ivory Coast and its 700,000 members into the denomination. Given current trends in the UMC—with overseas churches growing, especially in Africa, and US churches collectively losing about 1,000 members a week—it has been estimated that Africans will make up at least 30 percent of the delegates at the 2012 General Conference, and it is also possible that 40 percent of the delegates will be from outside the US. One Congolese bishop has estimated that typical Sunday attendance of the UMC is higher in his country than in the entire United States. In 2018, outside of the United States, it would have 6,464,127 members and 12,866 churches. In 2020, it would have 6,268,310 members and 30,543 churches in the United States. Churchwide giving Contributions to the local church not only benefit the local congregation, but also have regional, national, and international impact through the United Methodist Church's connectional giving system. The power of this collective giving enables the church to educate clergy, encourage cooperation with other faith communions, fund General Conference, nurture historically black colleges and Africa University, and support bishops. Individuals may also choose to give to the church by naming the Permanent Fund for the United Methodist Church as beneficiary in their estate plans. The Permanent Fund provides a permanent source of funding for the ministries of the United Methodist Church. See also List of the largest Protestant bodies Conferences of the United Methodist Church Confessing Movement Holiness Movement Reconciling Ministries Network List of local Methodist churches Christianity in the United States :Category:Methodism :Category:Methodist church buildings :Category:Methodist organizations :Category:Universities and colleges affiliated with the United Methodist Church References Further reading Cameron, Richard M. ed. Methodism and Society in Historical Perspective, (4 vol., New York: Abingdon Press, 1961) Hatch, Nathan O. The Democratization of American Christianity (1989) credits the Methodists and Baptists for making Americans more equalitarian Hallam, David J.A. Eliza Asbury:her cottage and her son, Studley, England, 2003 Tells the human story behind Asbury's decision to come to America Lyerly, Cynthia Lynn Methodism and the Southern Mind, 1770–1810, (1998) Mathews, Donald G. Slavery and Methodism: A Chapter in American Morality, 1780–1845 (1965) Mathews-Gardner, A. Lanethea. "From Ladies Aid to NGO: Transformations in Methodist Women's Organizing in Postwar America," in Laughlin, Kathleen A., and Jacqueline L. Castledine, eds., Breaking the Wave: Women, Their Organizations,