Successful Partnerships between
Faith Communities and Faith Based
Nonprofits
Keeping Services Faithful
Workshop Goals
• To help faith community leaders
understand their relationship to faith based
nonprofits sponsored by their faith
community
• To help faith community leaders or
committees responsible for finding board
representatives to faith based
organizations discern how to find
appropriate people for these roles
Workshop Goals 2
• To help faith community board members or
other contacts with faith based
organizations to understand their role
• To help faith based organization leaders
clarify strategies to strengthen relations to
their founding faith community
Project question 1
How do faith communities understand
their practical theology regarding work
in the world, and how does that
practical theology play out in
stewardship of organizations?
What practical guidance would best serve faith
communities and what groups or individuals
(clergy, lay committee members, organization
board and key staff, etc.) should receive advice
and training on stewardship and related issues?
Project question 2
How does stewardship differ among the
various branches of Christianity
(mainline Protestants, Evangelicals,
Peace Churches, Catholics, African
American churches) and Jews?
How should guidance to those faith communities
be tailored for each religion and denomination?
What lessons apply to all faith communities?
.
Project question 3
What strategies can a faith community
use to address concerns regarding the
faith base in organizations under its
care or affiliated with that religion?
How does stewardship differ depending on the
level of formal control that the founding faith has
over the organization? How does a faith
community remain steward of an organization
when it is legally independent of its founding
religious body?
Working Definitions of Practical
Theology and Stewardship
• Stewardship: the faith community’s efforts to
maintain its practical theology of justice and
charity in the activities of the nonprofits affiliated
with that religion or denomination.
• Practical Theology: The formal and informal
mechanisms a community uses to enact its
theological teachings through its religious culture
and structures.
Comparisons across systems:
Definition 1
• Institutionalized: In an Institutionalized
system, non-profit activities are managed
through centralized community-wide
structures that play a key role in fundraising,
planning, volunteer recruitment, and provide
training materials on the founding faith
tradition. They often centralize ownership of
property and back-office activities as well.
Comparisons across systems:
Definition 2
• Congregational: In a congregational system,
individual worship communities are the major
resource for non-profits and often
organizations were founded by one or more
congregations. Community-wide
organizations that come out of congregational
systems are usually sponsored by an
interfaith or congregational coalition who
often serve as a first line of support and
guidance.
Comparisons across systems:
Definition 3
• Network: Systems transcend congregations,
drawing together people with a similar faith
based vision to carry forward the work based
on either social networks of the founders or
institutional/virtual networks of people with a
similar vision. Everyone involved share the
faith approach of the organizations founders,
using this faith as a prime motivator in their
work.
Characteristics of Institutional Systems
• Centralized fundraising, volunteer recruitment, training
and sometimes back office and facilities management.
• Strong tradition of planning at a centralized level for the
community or its institutions as a whole.
• Centralized bodies occasionally encourage or force
mergers or collaborations among organizations in the
community for the greater good of the systems as a
whole.
• Ability to share resources across the system
• Develops strong networks of religiously based national
umbrella organizations for that religion.
• Tendency for organizations outside of the umbrella to
develop ties with other organizations either through
interfaith entities or independent groups of organizations
from the same faith.
Strengths and Weaknesses:
Institutionalized Systems
Strengths:
– Economies from centralized fundraising, volunteer,
and other management functions
– Well developed practical theology and materials to
train lay leaders, evaluate faith base in organizations
– Community wide support structures which encourage
resource sharing and general community support
Weaknesses:
– Lack of clarity regarding relationship of faith based
organizations outside of centralized structures to
other organizations created by that faith
Characteristics of Congregational systems
• Organizations maintain ties to one or more congregations
through board appointments, appeals for resources,
volunteers and in-kind supports.
• Most congregational organizations saw volunteering as an
important component of organizational activity, and created
volunteer opportunities.
• Established congregational organizations usually maintained
ties to their founding faith by requiring that a percentage of
board members be from the founding faith or founding
congregations.
• Ministries often formalize as independent programs of their
founding congregation(s) with independent advisory
committees and separate accounting systems, or spin off into
independent 501c3 organizations with limited ties to
congregations, or form as interfaith entities
Characteristics of Congregational systems 2
• In some cases, community members were drawn to the
congregation through work in the organization.
• Congregational system organizations from Mainline
Protestant and Quaker organizations often embedded
faith in general values, with many stating they valued
theological diversity within a general spiritual or Christian
context, and on principle they did not proselytize.
• Congregational system denominations created fewer
umbrella organizations and the organizations tended to
belong to fewer umbrella groups.
Strengths and Weaknesses:
Congregational Systems
Strengths:
– The norm for faith based organizations, with significant
technical assistance available for organization governance
– Clear understanding of what board appointments, fiscal
transparency “should” look like
Weaknesses:
– General lack of understanding among faith communities
about what stewardship role means
– Few, if any, training materials for lay people or clergy about
the practical theology of providing guidance and support
for non-profits
– Organizations with few congregations as supporters or
supporting congregations with limited resources have
limited support networks in bad economic times
Characteristics of Network Systems
• Organizations rely on a combination of staff and
volunteers, but nearly all share the founding faith or have
some personal connection with the ministry and their
involvement is motivated by that faith.
• Resources come through networks of like minded
believers, and often organizations highlight their faith or
trust in God as a source for resources.
• Since these organizations are supported through
personal networks, they are more likely to end when the
pastor or founder moves on. In older, established
organizations, ministries can change as the leader’s
calling or gospel vision changes.
• One main subset of this group is formed by evangelistic
organizations, for which sharing their faith is a key
element of the ministry.
Strengths and Weaknesses:
Network Systems
Strengths:
– Strong networks of people with common beliefs that
provide all forms of support for the organization
– Clear vision of practical theology that is shared by the
organization and its support networks
Weaknesses:
– Organizations are fragile if leadership moves on or
practical theology changes from that of its supporting
network
– Lack of fiscal transparency and standard governance
structures could lead to abuse and cause problems if
the organizations seek government funding
Recommendations - 1
• Board members need to understand and
participate in the faith activities; ability to
articulate the faith values is helpful.
• The number of faith-oriented members of
a board is not as important as their ability
to articulate that faith.
Recommendations - 2
• Ask the Board what skills it needs in new
board members. Try to find members who
can supply these skills, as well as being
able to articulate the faith motivation for
the service.
Recommendations - 3
• Boards should provide training to
members on how to serve on the board;
new appointees need not already have
that experience.
Recommendations - 4
Tell Board appointees what you want them
to do. What values from the faith should
be reflected in the Board’s actions? Be
prepared to inform new appointees how
your faith is reflected in the decisionmaking of the Board.
Recommendations - 5
• Identify the place within the faith group
which will receive and respond to reports
on the nonprofit. Ideally, both Executive
Director and Board President should be
present for reports at least annually.
Recommendations - 6
• Nurture informal relationships between
Board members and members of the faith
group, including yourself. Articulate faith
in these relationships.
• If possible, Board members should nurture
relationships with clients of the nonprofits
services and share this experience with
faith group members.
Recommendations – 7
• Consider some by-laws requirements that
keep the faith perspective active in the
nonprofit. This could be approval of the
mission, requirement of an annual report,
or use of a particular business process.
• This requirement can preserve a faith
perspective in nonprofits not affiliated with
a local faith group.
Recommendations - 8
• Encourage the development and
maintenance of umbrella organizations
from the faith perspective. Such
organizations can provide training and
background services on the faith within the
context of the service mission.
For Further Information
http://www.faithandorganizations.umd.edu