For Faith Groups

New Technical Assistance Website launched: http://www.fastennetwork.org/ -- Faith-Based Organizations have an important new resource with the FASTEN network. FASTEN's mission is to strengthen and support faith-based social services, especially in distressed urban communities throughout the United States. The Faith and Service Technical Education Network (FASTEN) is a collaborative initiative of the Pew Charitable Trusts working in partnership with: Baylor University's School of Social Work (more info here and here), Harvard University's Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations, Hudson Institute's Faith in Communities Initiative (more info), and The National Crime Prevention Council's Center for Faith and Service.

New religious freedom coalition launched. The Coalition to Preserve Religious Freedom is a multi-faith alliance of faith-based organizations devoted to preserving the freedom and autonomy of religious organizations that partner with government or are affected by government regulation. Key concerns include preserving and extending the freedom of faith-based organizations to use religious criteria in hiring staff members (whether or not the organizations accept government
funds) and ensuring that federal laws and statutes respect both the religious character of faith-based organizations and the religious liberty of the people they serve. Members of the coalition represent diverse religious traditions and diverse organizations that serve the public good. Coalition organizations meet monthly on the third Tuesday of each month in Washington, DC. The Coalition works with citizens, government leaders, and the media to advocate public policies that protect the religious freedom of all citizens and religious organizations. Instead of supporting the idea of a "naked public square" or an incorrect interpretation of "separation of church and state" in which an ideology of secularism is permitted to marginalize and privatize all religious ways of life that should legitimately flourish in the public square, the Coalition advocates true government neutrality to promote full religious freedom for people of all faiths consistent with the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. For further information, please contact Stanley Carlson-Thies or Stephen Lazarus at the Center for Public Justice, 410-571-6300.

The U.S. Dept. of HHS has launched its National On-line Resource Center for the Compassion Capital Fund at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ccf/index.html

Charitable Choice Handbook for Ministry Leaders by Amy Sherman

What Difference Does Charitable Choice Make?

Charitable Choice is not a special state or federal program to fund churches and religious organizations to help the poor and needy. There is no "Charitable Choice money." Charitable Choice, instead, is new language in federal law to remove legal barriers that kept many faith-based organizations from being able to compete for government funds to provide services to the poor and needy.

By removing the barriers, Charitable Choice creates the opportunity for religious groups to apply to government for contracts and grants, or to be eligible to accept vouchers to provide certain services. But first, government welfare and other agencies have to decide what services they should purchase. After officials have decided what to buy and how much money to allocate, then a public notice is published, announcing that the government is looking for suppliers of those services. Charitable Choice makes it possible for all kinds of religious organizations, along with other groups, to compete to become a chosen supplier.

Sometimes officials will announce what needs they seek to meet, leaving it up to nonprofit organizations and others to propose how they would respond to the problems if they won the funding. In any case, it is up to the government officials to decide what funds are available and what services should be purchased. Charitable Choice opens the door to allow formerly excluded groups to compete; it does not create a special fund just for religious groups and it does not create any right for faith-based organizations to get government funding.

Even before Charitable Choice was put into the first federal law, different government programs--to fund homeless shelters, or job training, or work with at-risk juveniles--have had different rules about which organizations are eligible for funding and under what conditions. Sometimes those rules have been flexible, or have been applied flexibly, so that organizations with a clear religious character have been able to take part along with secular nonprofits. In other cases the rules are extremely restrictive. Sometimes the price of government funds has been the requirement that religious organizations must remove all religious symbols from their facilities or agree no longer to insist that employees must agree to the organization's faith statement and standards.

Charitable Choice clears up confusion, forbids government from discriminating against religious groups when it makes funding decisions, and puts into the law specific protections for the religious character of groups that accept government money. This is a very significant advance in religious liberty and carries the promise of new opportunities for faith-based organizations to serve as allies with government.

For introductory material on Charitable Choice that can be printed as handouts, go to Charitable Choice Handouts.

In deciding how to respond to the new opportunities created by Charitable Choice, faith-based organizations need to be aware of the following:

1. Limited Scope. Charitable Choice applies only to a few federal funding programs (welfare services funded by TANF funds; contracted services offered by Community Action Agencies and funded by Community Services Block Grants; Welfare-to-Work services; drug treatment programs funded by SAMHSA). Many programs still have very restrictive rules. In many cases where Charitable Choice does not apply, officials are required to exclude organizations with a clear religious character (for example, groups that have religious qualifications for staff) or are required to compel contractors to eliminate religious language, symbols, and influence from their programs.

2. Equal Access. Charitable Choice levels the playing field so that faith-based organizations have an opportunity to compete for government funding. It does not create a separate source of funding designated for religious programs. Rather, for those funds that are now governed by the new Charitable Choice rules, faith-based organizations have the right to compete against all other organizations to provide any of the services that government is seeking. Where Charitable Choice applies, it opens the door wide for competition. It does not create a right for faith-based programs to get government funds. It is not a separate government program to fund religion.

3. Implementation Required. Although Charitable Choice is a nonoptional federal requirement attached to several federal funding programs, to make a difference for faith-based groups, state and local governments have to put it into practice. That is, they have to bring their own procurement rules into compliance with Charitable Choice. If they have never allowed explicitly religious organizations to compete to provide welfare services, for example, then they must now change that exclusionary rule, because welfare services are funded by money now governed by Charitable Choice. Similarly, in programs not governed by Charitable Choice, officials may be required by law to force contractors to promise they will hire staff without reference to religion; if the money is governed by Charitable Choice, officials are required to create an exception that permits faith-based contractors to maintain religious standards in hiring. Until such changes are made in what state and local officials actually do in the procurement process, Charitable Choice remains only a promise and not a reality in those jurisdictions.

4. Slow Implementation. Sadly, most state and local governments have been very slow to evaluate their procurement practices by Charitable Choice and to introduce the necessary reforms. Despite the federal law, in many places government officials still make their procurement decisions according to restrictive rules, as if Congress had never adopted Charitable Choice. In these places, faith-based groups that were excluded in the past likely will still be excluded. For information on state compliance with Charitable Choice, see Charitable Choice Compliance - A National Report Card. For suggestions about how to proceed, see What to Do If Officials Ignore Charitable Choice. One way to encourage officials to come into compliance with Charitable Choice is to download, sign, and circulate a Charitable Choice Petition asking that the law be put into practice.

5. Responsibilities as Well as Freedoms. Charitable Choice ensures faith-based organizations the right to compete certain government funds and it protects in law the religious character of the organizations. (For a brief introduction, see Charitable Choice 101 - An Introduction. For details, see A Guide to Charitable Choice.) Charitable Choice also specifies particular responsibilities for groups that accept government funding. Groups must keep careful track of government funds and may be subject to an audit. All eligible recipients must be served without discrimination. Contract funds may not be used to pay for inherently religious activities like prayer, scripture instruction, or evangelization. Although groups may use religious criteria when they hire and fire, they may not discriminate against employees on the basis of race, national origin, sex, handicaps, age, etc.

6. Faith Cannot Be Compelled. Charitable Choice protects the religious character of groups that accept government funds to provide specific social services. It allows the groups to offer inherently religious activities such as prayer and discipleship training. But such inherently religious activities must be voluntary, separate, and paid for with private funds, not government money. A person who arrives to receive job training must receive job training. If a prayer time is offered, it must be offered outside the class time. People can be invited to come early or stay late for prayer and spiritual counseling. They may be invited to a worship service. But these must be voluntary activities, with no implication that getting the best help depends on participation. If a class participant seeks spiritual guidance, it should not be withheld. Just be sure that it is voluntary and offered outside the time for the government-funded services.

7. Getting into the Loop. Some states have appointed or hired Faith Liaisons or "faith community liaisons"--officials to act as contact persons for newcomers. This is the person to call if you don't know exactly who to call about Charitable Choice, funding opportunities, bureaucratic opposition, good models for service, etc. (For a list of faith liaisons, click here: Faith Liaisons.) If there is no designated liaison and you are searching for information about funding or more generally about how to collaborate with government, you'll have to be creative. Try calling your local welfare office and ask to speak to the volunteer coordinator, the community outreach person, or whoever is in charge of contracts and grants. You might have to locate such a person at the state level, instead. Or check around for other religious organizations that already have experience with government and ask them to advise you.

8. Nonprofit Structure. Despite Charitable Choice, government officials may legally require a faith-based organization such as a church, temple, synagogue, or mosque, to establish a separate nonprofit organization to receive and expend the government funds and to provide the social services. What officials may not require under Charitable Choice is that the separate nonprofit be secular. Rather, the separate organization has all the rights (and responsibilities) under Charitable Choice: to use religious criteria in hiring, to maintain a religious environment, to choose its board without interference from government direction, etc. Establishing a separate nonprofit structure helps to insulate the house of worship from government regulations and oversight that otherwise would come attached to the government funds. In addition, the separate structure helps everyone keep clear about the nature of the services offered, to whom accountability must be rendered, what rules must govern how the program is run, and whom is being served. Providing faith-based counseling or incidental help with groceries as a sideline of your house of worship's main activities is very different from contracting with the government to use particular funds to provide specified services to people who are not part of your congregation. Furthermore, the process of setting up a separate 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization gives you a great opportunity to think through basic matters such as how the program will be organized and staffed, how accountability will be maintained, just what the mission is, and how funds will be gathered and spent.

9. Keeping the Faith. Charitable Choice requires government to respect, rather than encroach upon, the religious character of faith-based organizations that accept certain government funds. It ends government pressure to secularize the program and organization. But Charitable Choice cannot preserve the faith basis of your organization or keep you faithful to your original vision and mission. Those are your tasks. You have to work out a way to keep employees and volunteers fired with the vision to serve faithfully. You have to plan carefully what to do if government funds you were depending upon dry up and you are tempted to promise you can do something entirely different, just because that's where the money now is. You have to work constantly to cultivate a positive and deep faith dimension among the staff.

For examples of new relationships that faith-based organizations in nine states have developed with government due to the more hospitable climate created by Charitable Choice, see The Growing Impact of Charitable Choice: A Catalogue of New Collaborations Between Government and Faith-Based Organizations in Nine States, by Amy Sherman. Click here for the Executive Summary. To order go to Charitable Choice Resources -- Publications.

For reports on what various faith-based organizations think about Charitable Choice and the difference it has made to their program of service, see

Payne Memorial Outreach and Charitable Choice, by Stephen Lazarus and Molly Marsh

Cookman United Methodist Church and the Transitional Journey Program, by Jill Witmer Sinha

Project Heritage and Charitable Choice, by Randall L. Frame

The Anxious Samaritan: Charitable Choice and the Mission of Catholic Charities, by Joe Loconte

Soup, Soap, and Salvation: The Impact of Charitable Choice on the Salvation Army, by Diane Winston

To order these profiles, go to Charitable Choice Resources -- Publications.

PUBLICATION The Charitable Choice Handbook for Ministry Leaders by Amy Sherman. User-friendly and vital information. Includes voluntary Code of Conduct when using government funds. Learn whether Charitable Choice is right for your ministry, and how to get started. See Charitable Choice Resources -- Publications to order.

Charitable Choice: Top 10 Tips for Faith-Based Organizations

Charitable Choice Compliance - A National Report Card

What to Do If Officials Ignore Charitable Choice

Charitable Choice Petition

What Difference Does Charitable Choice Make?

Charitable Choice 101 - An Introduction