Putting Faith in Partnerships by Monsma Stephen V.;

Author:Monsma, Stephen V.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Michigan Press

Current Research Findings: Government Funding

This section considers what previous research has found in regard to government funding of nongovernmental social service programs. In the case of nonprofit providers, both secular and faith-based, there is a long tradition of government funding. Observers are in unanimous agreement on this point. Carol De Vita has written:

Government, at every level provides very few human service programs directly. Instead, government provides funding for an array of services and programs, such as employment and training, health care, child care, foster care, food and nutrition, senior citizen centers, social services, and many more. The actual delivery of services is generally achieved through the use of nonprofit, and sometimes for-profit, service providers.1

Similarly, Mark Carl Rom has noted: “since the 1960s, more federally funded employment and training services have been contracted out than not. The contracts have been for a wide range of services, including intake and eligibility determination, training, and job placement, among others. Most of the contractors for these programs have been nonprofit or public organizations.”2

Lester Salamon found that approximately 36 percent of the income of nonprofits as a whole comes from government sources.3 In the social services field, he found that 37 percent of the income of nonprofit agencies comes from government sources.4 Countless other studies could be cited, but the point is clear: nonprofit social service agencies depend on the government for much of their funding.

A key question is whether this funding relationship extends to faith-based nonprofits or is limited to secular nonprofits. Research shows that very frequently it extends to faith-based nonprofits. Ana Greenberg, for example, reports that such large faith-based organizations as Catholic Charities and the Salvation Army “receive a substantial amount of their revenue from government sources, mainly contracts for service.” She specifies, “For instance, in 1996, Catholics Charities USA received $1.3 billion or 64 percent its total income, the Salvation Army received $245 million or 16 percent of its total income and the YMCA received $203 million or 16 percent of its total income from government sources.”5 An earlier national study of mine showed that of the faith-based child and family care agencies, 82 percent reported receiving government funds, as did 70 percent of the faith-based international aid and relief agencies and 97 percent of the faith-based colleges and universities.6

Although some claim that government funding only goes to faith-based programs that separate out their religious elements and offer purely secularized social services, there is limited, but clear and persuasive, evidence that government funds often extend to faith-based organizations that integrate religious elements into the services they are providing. In fact, the Child Care and Development Block Grant of 1990 (amended in 1996) explicitly allows government vouchers to be used to pay for child care in programs that integrate religion into their child care services: a voucher “may be used for child care services provided by a sectarian organization or agency, including those that engage in religious activities, if those services are chosen by the parent; it may be used by providers

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