In our interviews, all interviewees brought in unique perspectives and concerns. Despite this, several clear themes emerged from our interviews with organizations that crossed the secular-religious divide. Click the button to read about these themes in-depth, or explore an introduction to the themes below.
Both religious and secular foundations set criteria to govern their funding practices. These policies are set internally; they may or may not be in writing, but organizational leadership usually has a clear sense of them. Some foundations make exclusions based on form and intensity of faith integration within programs to be funded. Although these policies may have been made apparent in a variety of interviews, the policies might not be publicly available in full detail.
Faith-based organizations and secular organizations tend to work together due to alignment in their respective missions. Faith-based grantees tend to connect with secular foundations through their faith communities’ relationships with the foundations. Secular foundations explained that they usually approached faith-based grantees through established connections with staff. Secular grantees approaching faith-based foundations did so mainly through previous staff involvement and relationships.
Some secular foundations are willing to fund faith-based organizations because it is a practical strategy to support community well-being. Faith-based nonprofits are driven by intrinsic motivations of faith, resulting in deep commitment to support the well-being of communities. Rural, low-income, and minority communities have historically relied more on religious organizations for essential services and resources. In these situations, it may be pragmatic for secular foundations to fund faith-based organizations.
Different faith groups tend to have different priorities and values that manifest in the level of relationships with secular organizations and amount of funds given or received. This includes reliance on their own community or external sources for funding, and preference of certain programs over others. Also, personal religious affiliations of the leadership tend to influence funding priorities of the organizations.
While many organizations give or receive funding across the faith-secular divide, most interviewees reported working with organizations that share their own affiliation a majority of the time. This hesitation usually stems from donor concerns about values misalignment, past issues with respecting organizations’ boundaries around proselytizing, and commonplace external communication issues.
