White House Pushes Grant Makers to Step Up Aid to Religious Charities

Nonprofit officials last week gave mixed reviews to President Bush’s plan to hold a conference to encourage corporations and foundations to give more money to churches and other religious organizations. While several charity observers applauded the president’s goals, other observers questioned whether the effort would actually succeed in pushing grant makers to support Christian or other religious groups.

After Mr. Bush met privately with 17 leaders from black churches and charities July 25, the administration announced that the president would invite corporate and foundation officials to the White House in March to discuss ways they can give more to religious groups. In addition, individual philanthropists — primarily ones who made their wealth in the corporate world — will be included in next year’s meeting.

James Towey, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, said many grant makers do not support churches or other houses of worship in their charitable activities despite indications that such groups are effective. The president wants foundation and corporate officials to understand they can “make grants to these organizations and not fund proselytizing or worship or religious activity, but would fund effective social-service programs,” he said.

Corporate Giving

Mr. Towey said his staff members had examined the giving policies of the 50 largest corporations as ranked by Fortune magazine. Of the 30 companies that had written philanthropy policies, 17 percent banned or restricted donations to churches or religious organizations, he said. For example, Mr. Towey said, many of them require that company grants support organizations registered as 501(c)(3) under the federal tax code; churches, synagogues, mosques, and other religious groups are not required to register with the government.

The Target Corporation — which is ranked 27th on the Fortune list — has given money to Catholic Charities and other religious nonprofit groups for many years, said Laysha Ward, vice president of community relations for the Minneapolis company. But Target supports only organizations classified under Section 501(c)(3) by the Internal Revenue Service to ensure that grant applicants’ finances are transparent. “We want to have access to audited financial statements and tax forms,” she said.

Curt Weeden, president of the Association of Corporate Contributions Professionals, in Mount Pleasant, N.C., was skeptical that corporations would alter such requirements.

“I doubt corporations are going to change policy this late into the Bush second term,” he wrote in an e-mail message to The Chronicle. He wrote that while businesses do not give money to churches, they do support many religious charities, such as Habitat for Humanity International.

However, Wintley A. Phipps, president of the U.S. Dream Academy, a Christian nonprofit group in Columbia, Md., that runs after-school programs for poor children, said that many grant makers have rejected his organization in part because of its religious nature.

Mr. Phipps — who was one of the black leaders who met with Mr. Bush last month — praised the president for proposing the conference because he thinks it will help the U.S. Dream Academy and other religious groups make their case directly to corporate and foundation leaders. “In philanthropy, a lot hinges on your mission, your effectiveness, and relationships,” he said. “And that’s the difficult part: getting the attention.”

Mr. Bush first proposed a philanthropy conference at the White House four years ago during a speech at the University of Notre Dame. Mr. Towey said the military response to the September 11, 2001, attacks and the governance scandals that hit the corporate world forced the administration to postpone the meeting.

Before the end of the year, Mr. Towey said, the White House will produce a more in-depth study of how corporations and foundations restrict their giving to religious organizations.