What are FBOs? CBOs?

There is no official government definition of “faith-based organizations” (FBOs), although courts use various characteristics to identify religious organizations that are subject to specific duties or due specific freedoms. Government officials are reluctant to provide a formal definition and to require applicants for government funds to identify themselves as being faith-based or not for fear that such labels will be used to bias decisions about awarding money.

A faith-based organization is an organization that takes faith seriously not only as the motivation of some or many of its staff but in how it defines what it is and does. Faith-based organizations often have religious references in their mission statement and other governing documents, religious symbols on their premises, and religious terms in their name (but sometimes the name gives no hint). Some insist that all employees must share the organization’s religious convictions; some have a board of directors that includes clergy and other religious leaders, although many faith-based organizations recruit more broadly. Many faith-based organizations integrate religious activities into their services in one way or another, for example, using religious activities to help addicts kick their habit or reminding people facing difficult choices about God’s love for them. Others provide religious counsel and training when requested, but offer many kinds of help without religious references because religion is not intrinsic to the service or because they wish to serve people of diverse, and no, faith.

Faith-based organizations include churches and other houses of worship (temples, synagogues, mosques, etc.) and also specialized religious organizations—from social-service providers and schools to disaster-relief agencies and community-development corporations.

For helpful discussions of how faith can shape social services, see Heidi Unruh and Ron Sider, Saving Souls, Serving Society: Understanding the Faith Factor in Church-Based Social Ministry (Oxford Univ. Press, 2005); and Stephen V. Monsma, Putting Faith in Partnerships: Welfare-to-Work in Four Cities (Univ. of Michigan Press, 2004); and Stephen V. Monsma and J. Christopher Soper, Faith, Hope, and Jobs: Welfare to Work in Los Angeles (Georgetown University Press, 2006).

There is an equal lack of consensus about how to define “community-based organizations” (CBOs), which are often named at the same time as FBOs. FBOs and CBOs are named together (note: the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives) to emphasize that the government, and government reform efforts, serve all organizations, both religious (FBOs) and non-religious (CBOs). In this usage, a CBO is a nonprofit organization that is not religious. However, laws, regulations, and notices about grant and contract competitions often refer to “community-based organizations” simply to draw a distinction between such nonprofit organizations and government agencies and businesses (for-profit organizations). Here “CBO” refers to faith-based as well as secular nonprofit organizations.

Sometimes CBO is used to refer to organizations closely tied to specific neighborhoods, in distinction from larger organizations that serve whole cities or states and in distinction from the local branches or offices of a large organization. Here, CBO means “smaller” rather than larger, and locally focused rather than having a broad orientation. Some suggest that for in a true CBO the staff and board members will live in the same zip code as the people being assisted. For the zip code criterion, see Robert Woodson, Sr., The Triumphs of Joseph: How Today’s Community Healers Are Reviving Our Streets and Neighborhoods (Free Press, 1998).

When speaking of FBOs, attention is being drawn to this question: is the organization under discussion religious or is it secular? With reference to government grants and contracts, the issue is a church-state or constitutional one: is an organization that is religious or that has some certain set of religious characteristics, eligible to compete for government funds and, if so, with which restrictions? When speaking of CBOs, attention is being drawn to this question: how large is this organization in terms of its budget and the number of employees? With reference to government grants and contracts, the issue is a process or programmatic one: can and should the way the government runs its programs be simplified so that organizations with small staffs and budgets and without extensive government experience have a good chance of winning an award?