November 13, 2003 | Read Time: 2 minutes
A new study that compares the effectiveness of religious and secular charities has found that nonsectarian job-training groups in Indiana were more successful at helping clients obtain full-time employment and jobs with health benefits than similar organizations that had religious affiliations.
The three-year study examined 5,683 people who participated in government-supported job-training programs provided by both secular and religious groups in Indiana’s Marion and Lake Counties.
Fifty-three percent of the clients of nonsectarian groups obtained jobs working 35 or more hours a week, while for religious charities the figure was 39 percent.
Similarly, 9 percent of clients at secular organizations earned health benefits at their jobs, while only 0.5 percent of clients of religious groups did.
The study did find that the two types of nonprofit groups had roughly the same job-placement rates — for both full- and part-time work — and that their clients earned similar hourly wages.
President Bush, in pushing efforts to funnel more federal dollars to religious organizations for social services, has said that sectarian groups can do as good a job as their secular counterparts, if not better. But, according to a report on the study, the “results are counter to the recent political rhetoric.”
However, Robert W. Tuttle, a professor at George Washington University Law School, said the study will not settle the debate about what type of social-service provider is better. While the study provides a “helpful snapshot” of nonprofit effectiveness, “we still know little about social services at any level,” he said.
The study is part of the Charitable Choice Research Project at the Center for Public Policy and the Environment, at Indiana University-Purdue University, in Indianapolis. The project is studying organizations in Indiana, Massachusetts, and North Carolina.
The Ford Foundation, in New York, provided $1.2-million for the study; the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, $25,000; the Joyce Foundation, in Chicago, $20,000; and the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration, $15,000.
For more about the study, go to http://ccr.urbancenter.iupui.edu.
