How Faith-based Organizations Work

Nine days after former President George W. Bush took office in January 2001, he signed an executive order establishing the Office of Faith-Based & Community Initiatives to give federal grants to religious organizations for providing social services.

Historically, federal and state agencies have been prohibited from contracting with faith-based organizations to provide these services because the U.S. Constitution mandates a separation between church and state. Over the years, however, a series of laws have included provisions allowing government agencies to contract with religious organizations to provide social services needed to carry out the goals of that law.

In 1996, Congress passed a welfare reform law that instituted a major overhaul of the system that shifted the focus from providing cash assistance to helping poor people find jobs. A provision of that law allowed states to use their Temporary Assistance to Needy Children (TANF) block grants from the federal government to contract with faith-based organizations to provide services such as job training to welfare recipients [source: De Vita].

A similar provision was also in the Substances Abuse & Prevention & Treatment Block Grant created in 1992, which allowed treatment centers run by faith-based organizations to receive public funding. As a result of these provisions, faith-based organizations receive millions in federal funding each year. Catholic Services, for one, gets 65 percent of its funding from the government [source: Salmon].

To address the potential violations of the separation of church and state doctrine, these laws prohibit faith-based organizations from using public money to support "inherently religious activities," such as worship or evangelism. The organizations also have to offer clients who don't want religious counsel the alternative of switching to a secular program [source: De Vita].

Read on to find out how you can help.

Helping faith-based organizations includes everything from donating clothes and furniture to the Salvation Army to volunteering at Theodora House, a halfway house in Indianapolis for women transitioning from prison back into the community [source: Volunteers of America].

Most faith-based charitable organizations are nonprofits that rely on donations and volunteers, in addition to public funding, to survive. Choosing which faith-based organization to help typically depends on what your religious beliefs. However, you can provide assistance to a faith-based organization that isn't of your same faith but that supports social issues that interest you.

Shalom Denver, a division of Jewish Family Service of Colorado, helps welfare recipients reenter the workforce through job training and counseling [source: Kirsh]. Christian Service Mission provides case management for noncustodial parents in child support cases and runs shelters for battered women and children as well as the homeless [source: Christian Service Mission].

Volunteers of America, which serves 2 million people in 44 states, operates adult residential treatment programs as well as programs for troubled youth, people with disabilities and senior citizens [source: Volunteers of America]. Lutheran Social Services, founded in 1881, runs foster care programs and provides adoption services [source: Lutheran Social Services].

Most of these organizations have training programs for volunteers. You can find details of how to get involved on their Web sites. How evangelical they are while administering social services vary from charity to charity. One faith-based after-school program for kids uses Bible stories in its reading comprehension tutoring. Another requires its substance abuse patients to attend chapel.

Others, however, have a historical basis in religion but don't necessarily preach the gospel while providing food, shelter and other services to the disadvantaged.

For more on volunteering and faith-based organizations, see the links on the next page.