The Roundtable on Religion & Social Welfare Policy: Q&A ON BUILDING THE CAPACITY OF FAITH-BASED ORGANIZATIONS

Question to JVA president Janine Vanderburg

Posted: November 04, 2008

Question: Should the federal government provide capacity-building grants to faith-based organizations that want to provide secular services, if it is possible that the organization’s improved facilities and capabilities will also enhance their religious programming?

Answer: Our view on this question is shaped by the last seven years as an intermediary providing capacity-building services to faith-based and community organizations.

In 2002, JVA Consulting was one of 21 organizations across the country selected by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as intermediaries for the initial demonstration of the Compassion Capital Fund (CCF).

The only social-purpose, for-profit business selected as an intermediary in that round, we used our business background and 15 years of work with faith-based and community organizations of all sizes to design a capacity-building program that was focused on results. Defining capacity building as strengthening the capacity of an organization to achieve its mission in an effective manner, we conducted a literature review of best practices in strengthening organizations, convened groups of our expert staff with outside experts in fundraising, board and leadership development, planning and other management topics, and developed a program that included:

A comprehensive organizational assessment based on best practices to identify areas of strength and areas of need for technical assistance, and to serve as a pre- and post-test to determine organizational gains;
Customized work plans for each participating organization;
In-depth workshops on governance, fundraising, collaboration, program development and evaluation, and other nonprofit management topics;
Individual technical assistance and consulting, and linkage to resources;
Opportunities for peer networking and learning; and
Sub-awards to help create or expand programs based on best practices.

To ensure compliance with the terms of the federal grant and separation of church and state, we provided workshops for applicants on the rules of separation, reviewed their applications and collateral materials, conducted site visits and monitored the selected grantees over the course of the grant.

Examples of groups that we worked with included:

An inner-city social enterprise started by two nuns that trains and employs homeless people by selling natural products grown in their gardens;
A neighborhood community center in a church basement that brought together people in a fragmented urban neighborhood to develop programs that would help people address the challenges in their daily lives while building community;
A community kitchen we helped with strategic planning, resulting in their decision to merge with two other groups to expand distribution of free, hot meals to those in need;
A rural organization that with capacity building support was able to greatly expand the emergency services they provide in a remote area in Colorado’s eastern plains.

During the three years of the first initiative, 266 CCF clients (about half faith-based, and half community-based) participated in over 200 workshops. JVA provided more than 5,000 hours of direct technical assistance, nearly 2,000 hours of client management services, and distributed $888,000 in sub-awards.

This effort did achieve our intended result of increasing the capacity of participating organizations: A study, published in Research on Social Work Practice (March, 2007) found that faith-based and community organizations showed significant improvements in almost all areas of organizational capacity, and increased revenues as well.

What we learned through our work is that faith of many kinds is a powerful motivating force towards charitable endeavors, and that with education about the rules of separating religious from secular work and content, most people are very willing and able to do the right thing.

Did we worry throughout our work that someone might sneak in and use our workshop content towards the nefarious purpose of enhancing their religious programming? Did we interrogate workshop attendees to ensure that no one carried in their hearts the intent to use what we shared for any other purpose beyond the secular programming we were funding?

On the contrary. We encouraged organizations to bring as many people as they could from their organizations to the trainings and workshops, understanding that the more people who participated in capacity-building efforts, the more likely that positive results would be lasting and sustainable in their communities. We also know that in any effort, if the leadership of an organization is involved and committed, then the effort is more likely to succeed.

Carried to the extreme, answering this question in the negative would essentially mean no federal funding for any activity (and we recognize that some people would consider this a good result, but we respectfully disagree). Consider these examples, in which an individuals’ government-funded training could, potentially, advance their religious endeavors:

A soldier is trained in the U.S. Army, then returns home with his lessons of teamwork and effective organizational structure to mobilize a faith community; or
A newly laid-off executive attends a Small Business Administration workshop on starting your own business and then decides to start a mega-church.

Today, risks to the United States Constitution abound — many worth our concern. The potential that a pastor — who has started after-school programs for youth in a gang-infested community and learned through a capacity-building grant how to create a program budget — might also learn how to balance the church budget, doesn’t seem like one.