Updated May 15, 2012  

The number of organizations engaged in religious lobbying or religion-related advocacy in Washington, D.C., has increased roughly fivefold in the past four decades, from fewer than 40 in 1970 to more than 200 today. These groups collectively employ at least 1,000 people in the greater Washington area and spend at least $350 million a year on efforts to influence national public policy. As a whole, religious advocacy organizations work on about 300 policy issues. For most of the past century, religious advocacy groups in Washington focused mainly on domestic affairs. Today, however, roughly as many groups work only on international issues as work only on domestic issues, and nearly two-thirds of the groups work on both. These are among the key findings of a new study by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life that examines a total of 216 religion-related advocacy groups operating in the nation’s capital.

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Quick Links:

Full Report 

Blank Questionnaire PDF 

All Expenditures Data PDF 

Searchable Directory:

Searchable directory: Profiles of 216 religious and religion-related organizations in the Washington D.C.-area engaged in activities that seek to influence public policy.

Go to the organization profiles or view as a sortable directory.

Photo credit: Pete Turner