The 1996 National Survey of Homeless Assistance Providers and Clients: A Comparison of Faith-Based and Secular Non-Profit Programs. Appendix B: Ways That Government Financially Supports Faith-Based Social Services

Luis Lugo, Director of the Religion Program at the Pew Charitable Trusts, has developed a nine-point scale in describing the variety of ways that the government can support faith-based agencies in organizations in their delivery of social welfare services.  The nine types of government support — ordered from high to low in terms of general public approval — are:⁽²⁴⁾

1. The president and other leaders trumpet the success of innovative and effective faith-based programs, encouraging citizens, corporations and foundations to increase their support for these efforts.
2. Citizens and corporations directly support their favorite charities, including religiously affiliated nonprofits (i.e., 501(c)(3)s) and congregations, and receive a tax deduction.  A new study by Price-WaterhouseCoopers estimates that President Bush’s proposal to extend the charitable deduction to the 85 million taxpayers who do not itemize their taxes could stimulate an additional $14.6 billion a year in charitable giving, with the lion’s share going to religious organizations.
3. Citizens and corporations directly support their favorite charities, including religious nonprofits and congregations, and receive a tax credit.  For example, President Bush is encouraging states to provide a tax credit (up to 50 percent of the first $500 for individuals and $1,000 for married couples) against state income or other taxes for donations to charities — whether secular or religious — that are battling poverty and its effects.  (Note: This proposal could become quite controversial if federal welfare dollars were to be used to offset the cost of these credits.)
4. State and local government job training and juvenile delinquency programs have recruited volunteers from churches as mentors.  Conversely, a federal volunteer program, AmeriCorps, placed nearly 6,000 of the total 40,000 positions in 2000 in religious nonprofits such as the Catholic Network for Volunteer Service and the National Jewish Coalition for Literacy.
5. Religiously affiliated nonprofits such as Lutheran Social Services and Catholic Charities USA have received billions of public dollars to run a variety of social service programs, including Head Start, emergency shelters, adoption services and refugee resettlement.
6. Government provides both in-kind, non-cash assistance and formula grant support to religiously affiliated nonprofits.  In-kind assistance often is provided informally, for example, by allowing a welfare-to-work program to use a desk in the county welfare office and copying program brochures.  Formula grants designate money for specific resources, for instance, computers for qualified low-income housing projects, according to objective, non-discretionary criteria (usually, the number of clients served).  While these grants are made to 501(c)(3)s), both religious and secular, these organizations often redistribute funds to on-the-ground programs, including church-based social services.
7. A large secular nonprofit such as Goodwill Industries with the administrative capacity and experience to work with the government signs a contract to provide social services, and in turn subcontracts some of the services to other organizations, including church-based ministries.
8. Government provides clients with certificates or vouchers, and they in turn select the provider of their choice, including church-based social service ministries.  Vouchers are a restricted subsidy that falls between cash and direct government provision of services, and are currently used in higher education, child care, job training, housing and health care.
9. The newest, and most controversial, option is made possible by the charitable choice provision of the 1996 Welfare Reform Act.  Charitable choice permits churches, synagogues and mosques as well as other pervasively religious organizations to compete for government contracts on the same basis as secular, non-governmental service providers, but prohibits the use of public funds for religious worship or proselytizing as well as discrimination among clients on the basis of religious belief.  However, congregations may continue to use religion as a criterion for personnel decisions, as under current law.

Endnotes

24.  This list is drawn directly from a recent publication by the Pew Charitable Trusts (Lugo 2001).