What is Success for the Initiative?

 What Is Success for the Initiative?

 
There is no “faith-based money.” The White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives does not control which applicants for federal funding win the awards. Although the bias against faith-based organizations that in the past often operated in government award decisions apparently has been replaced on a few stray occasions by a bias for some faith-based applicants, the rules of the faith-based initiative are very clear: officials are to select the best providers without being biased either for or against an applicant merely because of the applicant’s religious or secular philosophy.

The federal government does not keep official records about whether applicants are religious or secular. Nor does it need to: the goal is equal opportunity for all applicants so that officials can select the organizations that can provide the best services, the best outcomes, the most cost-effective help. There is no ideal or expected percentage of faith-based providers that should be awarded government funds. Note, too, that many faith-based (and secular) organizations have their own reasons not to seek government funding—they may want to preserve their independence or to avoid the extensive reporting requirements of most government programs, they might want to help people in a way not authorized by lawmakers.

Thus, the common focus on how much government money is flowing to faith-based organizations, and whether that amount is increasing or not, is misleading and mistaken. Instead, what is vital is the removal of barriers that have sometimes excluded certain faith-based providers from even competing, the reform of program rules so that faith-based organizations can take part without needing to suppress their religious character, and the creation of guidelines that honor the religious freedom of people seeking help from government-funded secular and religious providers.

The success of the initiative is best measured not in increased government money for faith-based providers, but by how level the playing field has been made.

The initiative achieves its aims when:

• effective faith-based providers can receive government money without sidelining their religious commitments;

• small organizations and those new to government find a welcoming environment;

• smaller and religious organizations, as well as larger and secular organizations, can coordinate their efforts with government in areas such as disaster preparation and response;

• citizens, foundations, and corporate donors see the important work accomplished by grassroots and faith-based organizations and include them when they give funds and other support; and

• faith-based organizations have the courage to reject government money when the requirements would harm the organizations or those they serve.