Posted: 11/05/04
Most community foundations fund
faith-based social services, study shows
By Adelle Banks
Religion News Service
WASHINGTON (RNS)–Most U.S. community foundations fund faith-based social services but don't permit their grants to support explicit religious activities, a new study shows.
Sixty-eight percent of 215 foundations responding to a survey from the Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy said they had awarded at least one grant to a faith-based organization in their last fiscal year.
Researchers found, on average, each foundation had awarded three grants in a year, with an average grant amount of $40,314.
More than half of the grants to faith-based organizations–54 percent–were awarded to local nonprofits, while congregations and nationally affiliated faith-based organizations each received 23 percent of the grants.
Foundations are organizations that give grants to nonprofits. Community foundations often are supported by tax-deductible contributions from the general public, while private foundations tend to be funded largely by trusts or individual or family contributions.
About 64 percent of the community foundations said they did not fund sectarian or explicitly religious activity.
“Our research suggests that community foundations appear to be hesitant to fund activities that are inherently religious,” concluded Jason Scott and Christopher Kidder, authors of a report on the survey.
Foundation policies that prohibit such funding reflect a concern about the wishes of donors, a desire to stay neutral about religion and an aim to be open to all members of the community, regardless of their religious ties, they said.
The researchers found that grants to faith-based organizations were most frequently used to aid services related to children, youth and families, including mentoring, summer camps and after-school activities. Grants for emergency services and outreach, such as those providing food assistance or supporting the homeless, also were common.
The survey results are based on responses from 215 community foundations via mail or the Internet. The survey, originally sent to 694 community foundations, had a 31 percent response rate.
The roundtable, based in Albany, N.Y., is a project of the Rockefeller Institute of Government at the State University of New York.
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