UMD study stresses ties for faith-based ministries
A multi-year study hosted by the University of Maryland and including several area groups concludes that faith-based organizations can better weather an economic downturn by building stronger ties with the ministries the congregations that support them.
From a release issued on Thursday:
Particularly during an economic downturn, faith-based organizations tied only to one or two congregations, especially if those were not thriving congregations, had the most trouble raising resources and some shut down. While single-congregation support of a program might be considered more authentic, faith-based organizations supported by a wider umbrella or an interfaith base fared better.
“We compared everything from small food pantries directly connected to a congregation to national hospital systems and their local affiliated hospitals,” said Maryland Associate Professor Jo Anne Schneider, who led the project. “Congregation-focused models work well for mainline Protestants, Quakers and African American churches, but only if several congregations provide support or the sponsoring congregation is sufficiently active with enough resources to support the nonprofit. Jewish and Catholic systems rely on their communities as a whole with the Jewish Federation, Archdiocese, or Order providing centralized support. Some thriving evangelical organizations rely on networks with no formal connections to congregations.”
Other key findings of the report, entitled “Faith and Organization Project: Maintaining Vital Between Faith Communities and their Organizations:”
* A new breed of evangelical organizations has emerged with a different understanding about how to develop an organization to do a specific mission that is firmly based in a particular set of beliefs but that focuses on personal relationships to provide services rather than sharing their faith as a means to improve the lives of those served.
* Faith groups are most likely to support organizations that most closely reflect their current values rather than organizations simply with historic ties to the faith.
* Informal mechanisms to maintain relationships, such as social networks between the faith community and the faith-based organization, were often more important than formal mechanisms -- such as requiring that a percentage of board members be from the founding faith -- in fostering vital, ongoing connections between faith communities and organizations.
* Faith communities founded most of the nonprofits in the United States and play a key role in social welfare, health, education and community development today. Clarifying specifically religious aspects of the relationship between founding communities and their organizations and effective best practices are key concerns for faith-based organizations and the religions that created them. The Faith and Organization project was created to provide communities, organizations and policy-makers with concrete information and targeted materials to address this issue.
Area organizations participating in the study included Catonsville Disciples of Christ church and its arts program, Kaleidoscope; Chesapeake Habitat for Humanity; Caroline Center; St. Ambrose Housing; St. Agnes Hospital; Union Baptist church and its programs; The Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore and its member organizations JCC of Baltimore and Chai; Chizuk Amuno synagogue and its Kreiger Schecter Day School.
