Charitable Choice: Top 10 Tips for Public Officials

1. Inform Recipients. When a provider is faith-based,
make sure recipients know about its religious character,
their freedom not to engage in religious activities, and
their right to receive services from an alternative provider.

2. Alternatives. Be prepared to offer an accessible,
high quality alternative service to any recipient who objects
to a faith-based provider. Make advance arrangements with
a different provider in the same location, plan access and
transportation to a nearby provider, or maintain a residual
government capacity to provide services.

3. Religion is Not Toxic. Ensure the religious liberty
of recipients without presuming that faith is toxic. A recipient
troubled by a faith-based provider may want another religious
provider, not a secular service. Many of the needy are people
of faith and desire assistance that acknowledges their convictions.

4. Allies. Collaboration means working together
to achieve the common aim of assisting the needy while also
respecting the differences between government and faith-based
organizations. Allied providers are more than vendors; they
retain their freedom, their right to advocate on behalf
of clients, and their responsibility to speak to policy.

5. Employment Rights. The biggest barrier to greater
cooperation between the faith community and public welfare
is not allowing faith-based providers to hire and fire on
the basis of religion. Some religious organizations choose
to hire without regard to faith, but many insist on religious
criteria in order to retain their distinctive missions.
Contract language forbidding them to use religion in hiring
is illegal under Charitable Choice and must be eliminated.

6. Vouchers. Voucher arrangements are better than
contracting for preserving the independence of faith-based
organizations and giving recipients choice. Where possible,
redesign services and procurement policies so that a range
of organizations can provide services and each recipient
has the chance to select the most effective and compatible
provider.

7. Structures for Cooperation. Many congregations
and faith-based nonprofits are too small to handle the service
volume of a typical contract. To utilize their strengths
and allow them to participate, alternatives are needed:
voucherized services, contracting with a nonprofit intermediary
that links congregations, a lead agency that subcontracts
with smaller groups.

8. Training and Assistance. Government can help
prepare faith-based organizations to provide authorized
services by offering training in contracting, record-keeping,
and regulations, and by assisting them in planning and presenting
service proposals. Such assistance should be offered to
all small-scale nonprofits and community organizations.

9. Affirmative Outreach. Many faith-based organizations
have not been part of the human services system. They don't
know the system and their names are unlikely to appear on
vendor lists, mailing lists of activist organizations, or
in multi-denominational or multi-faith directories. Work
through every accessible network to begin to build bridges
to them.

10. Bill of Rights. Past practices and assumptions
about appropriate church-state relations have left a legacy
of distrust between government and faith communities. Government
should acknowledge its mistakes and make amends with a statement
of the rights of faith-based providers. This would confirm
the government's intention to treat them as allies and it
would be a valuable guide to both sides if there is dispute
about what actions are permissible.

© Stanley W. Carlson-Thies, 1999