Both church or ministry leaders and their members are under the impression that the President and Congress have allocated millions and millions of public funds for faithbased organizations?for any purpose, religious or non-religious and that the faithbased grant tree is full of unrestricted, no strings attached ?ready to pick? fruits?also known as grant awards. In this book, my goal is to help churches and ministries across the United States?large and small, denominational and non-denominational?understand how to align institutions and congregations to receive the abundance intended under the Federal government?s faithbased grants initiative.

The Administration's efforts to improve the federal government's provision of social services through its Faith-Based and Community Initiative have sparked considerable interest. GAO was asked to examine (1) the activities of the initiative-related centers in five federal agencies; (2) the grant award procedures for selected grants; (3) the extent to which selected federal and state agencies are providing information on and ensuring compliance with safeguards designed to protect faith-based organizations (FBO), beneficiaries, and the government; and (4) how the progress of the initiative is being measured. We interviewed government officials administering 10 grant programs and officials from 26 FBOs.

FAITH-BASED GRANTEES: Few Have Sought Exemptions from Nondiscrimination Laws Related to Religious-Based Hiring

FAITH-BASED GRANTEES: Few Have Sought Exemptions from Nondiscrimination Laws Related to Religious-Based Hiring

The Bush Administration's Faith-Based and Community Initiative is intended to expand the participation of faith-based organizations (FBOs) in social services; in part, by increasing opportunities for public funding of their efforts through government contracts and grants. But to what extend to FBOs receive federal discretionary grant awards? Previous research by The Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy notes that the bulk of federal funding for social services flows through state and local governments, where administrative decentralization and the lack of capacity to identify the faith-character of grantees and contractors present significant obstacles for tracking the award of federal funds to religious groups. This study adds to what is known about the extent and trend of federal support for faith-based organizations by examining the direct recipients of discretionary grant awards made by the federal agencies expressly part of the Bush Administration's Faith-Based and Community Initiative.

FAITH-BASED GRANTEES: Few Have Sought Exemptions from Nondiscrimination Laws Related to Religious-Based Hiring