"Education is the key to opportunity," said President Gordon B. Hinckley on March 31, 2001, as he announced a bold new scholarship program to benefit church members in developing countries. The Perpetual Education Fund caught the imagination of Latter-day Saints immediately, and the program quickly grew far beyond expectations.

"It was an inspired announcement full of prophetic promise," said Elder John Carmack, an emeritus general authority who was called home from an assignment in central Europe to head the program at its inception. "It may turn out to be one of the most important decisions made relative to the future of the church."

In April 2007, the fund was estimated to have made 27,000 loans at an average of $860 each to disadvantaged Latter-day Saints, using only the interest earnings from the fund. The program was offering scholarships to worthy LDS members in 39 nations, having started in September 2001 in just three countries.

By 2007, programs were active in 39 countries, including Mexico, Central and South America, the Philippines, the Caribbean, Cambodia, Mongolia and India, with plans to expand into west Africa, central Europe, Russia, Tonga, Samoa and Fiji. Many receiving aid live in nations that don't offer loans and grants to students as in the United States. Most recipients have filled church missions. All are expected to repay their loans as they enter employment.

The assistance helps recipients attend local training institutions to prepare themselves primarily in vocational fields such as health care, computers, refrigeration, auto mechanics, "anything that leads to a job," said Elder Carmack. "A good percentage of them are placed."

Many countries have good vocational training opportunities, and the church has cultivated relationships with these institutions.

In describing the PEF concept to priesthood holders in 2001, President Hinckley called on church members to donate to a fund that would provide scholarships to help those less fortunate "step out of the cycle of poverty which they and those before them have known for so long. ... They will become leaders in this great work in their native lands. They will pay their tithes and offerings, which will make it possible for the church to expand its work across the world."

The prospect of contributing for a specific need appealed to many church members. "The response was wide and generous," said Elder Carmack. "It has given our members the opportunity to sacrifice for fellow members of the church."