**United States Agency for International Development**

# Working with Faith-based Organizations

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has more
than twenty years of experience in partnering with faith­-based
organizations conducting humanitarian and development programs overseas.
In fact, faith-based PVOs are among USAID\'s prominent development and
relief partners whose technical and institutional capacity has been
strengthened through USAID capacity-building grants and through funding
of their field activities.

Faith-based PVOs are afforded the opportunity by USAID to compete for
funding for humanitarian and social services activities on equal footing
with secular PVOs. USAID will not, however, support activities with a
significant religious/proselytizing purpose or content. Moreover, all
faith-based PVOs are required by USAID to maintain separate accounts for
funds to be used for development and humanitarian activities supported
by the USG and funds to be used for religious or church-related
activities. Similarly, faith-based PVOs are required to ensure adequate
and sufficient separation of their religious activities from
USG-financed secular activities so as to avoid the appearance that
government assistance subsidizes or endorses religion or promotes
religious doctrines.

Consistent with the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, USAID
may finance only programs that have a secular purpose and which do not
have the primary effect of advancing or inhibiting religion. This means
that a USAID-financed activity may not (1) result in government
indoctrination of religion, (2) define its recipients by reference to
religion, or (3) create an excessive government entanglement with
religion. Assistance recipients must allocate USAID funds on the basis
of neutral, secular criteria that neither favor nor disfavor religion,
and such assistance must be made available to both religious and secular
beneficiaries on a nondiscriminatory basis.

Given recent interest in USAID\'s work with faith-based organizations
and in light of the White House\'s faith based and community
initiatives, announced in January, this guidance has been prepared for
use by USAID personnel when confronted with questions about what the
agency can and cannot do in this area.

Q.

What is the definition of a faith-based organization?

A.

There is no generally accepted definition of this term. Review of an
organization\'s charter documents and statement of purpose should
provide some insight as to that organization\'s legally authorized
mandate, the religious nature of that mandate and its views on how to
implement its mandate.

Q.

Can USAID establish a program or issue a solicitation which is \"set
aside\" exclusively for faith-based organizations?

A.

No. Any type of program that would exclude organizations from
participating based on religious considerations would violate the
principle of neutrality articulated by the U.S. Supreme Court. According
to the Court, the religious, irreligious and areligious should all alike
be eligible for governmental aid.

Q.

Can USAID provide assistance to or through churches or organizations
engaged exclusively in religious activities?

A.

Condition No.1 of USAID\'s regulation for registration of PVOs provides
that an applicant may not be a church or an organization engaged
exclusively in religious activities. This policy derive\_ from the
Supreme Court\'s view that aid flowing to institutions that are
\"pervasively sectarian\" would have the primary effect of advancing
religion, i.e., that there would be a substantial risk that aid to such
religious institutions would result in religious indoctrination. USAID
recently denied an organization\'s application for registration as a PVO
for these reasons. The IRS had classified the organization as a mission
society sponsored by or affiliated with one or more churches or church
denominations. The charter documents of that organization stated that
its purpose was to \"evangelize and make disciples of all nations\" by
recruiting, training and sending missionaries to Africa \"to declare the
glory of God to the peoples of Africa.\"

Q.

How is \"pervasively sectarian\" defined?

A.

Pervasively sectarian is a vaguely defined term of art used by the
courts. Generally, an institution will be found to be pervasively
sectarian if religion is so pervasive that a substantial portion of its
functions are subsumed in its religious mission. To date, only some
church-affiliated primary and secondary schools have been found by the
Supreme Court to fit this profile. Presumably, a church, synagogue or
mosque would also be regarded as pervasively sectarian insofar as it
performs sacerdotal functions. In the most recent Supreme Court decision
on the separation of church and state, a four-justice plurality did away
with the \"pervasively sectarian\" factor, holding that nothing in the
Establishment Clause required the exclusion of pervasively sectarian
schools from otherwise permissible aid programs. This plurality view is
not yet the law, however, since it has not received support from a
majority of the justices.

Q.

Can we provide assistance to or through organizations which proselytize
using their own funds?

A.

Yes. While public funds may not be used to finance religious activities,
there is no prohibition against an assistance recipient using its own
funds to support its religious practices. This would be permissible only
if an organization\'s secular and religious functions are reliably
separable. If they are not separable, then assistance will not be
permitted.

Q.

What are examples of arrangements where separation is sufficient?

A.

USAID makes grants to local religious organizations around the world for
vocational training programs to benefit orphans and other needy groups.
Such assistance activities will be considered proper so long as there is
no real or perceived linkage between the training and the religious
activities of the recipient organizations. This means that the
organizations may not select beneficiaries by reference to religion and
that the organizations may not require beneficiaries to participate in
any religious activities or otherwise condition the assistance on
religion.

Q.

What are examples of arrangements where separation is inadequate?

A.

Recently in El Salvador an organization held prayer sessions prior to
conducting informational demonstrations on how to assemble temporary
shelters following several earthquakes in that country. By holding these
religious sessions immediately prior to implementing the USAID-financed
project, the organization created the appearance that U.S. government
assistance subsidized or endorsed religion or promoted religious
doctrines.

Q.

What other types of activities involving religious groups or symbols
have been permitted?

A.

USAID approved a grant to the UNOP for bi-communal activities in Cyprus
to further cooperation between the Greek and Turkish communities on that
island. Among the activities to be funded was the restoration of
buildings, streets and public lighting in the oldest part of Pyla, the
only remaining bi-communal village in Cyprus. Even though a church and a
mosque were among the buildings covered by the restoration program, this
activity was deemed proper since restoring the entire section of this
part of the community to preserve mixed settlement constituted a secular
purpose, the primary effect of the assistance was not to advance
religion, and neither religion was being favored over the other.

\_Similarly, in the Near East region, local currency account funds have
been used to preserve cultural works deemed to have
historical/architectural significance, including mosques. Again, this
activity was viewed as having a legitimate secular purpose.

Q.

What other types of activities not been approved for financing?

A.

USAID refused to fund a grant application from a secular PVO which
proposed to build local capacity of religious leaders in Papua New
Guinea and Fiji by training them to highlight environmental issues in
their preaching and programs. Environmental messages were to be
incorporated into sermons, church services, and other church programs.
Beneficiaries under the proposal were to be limited to the Christian
clergy

in those two countries.

USAID and its PVO partners must work together to ensure that the
programs being implemented are consistent with the provisions of the
First Amendment. In the event that questions arise, the Office of
General Counselor cognizant Regional Legal Advisor should be consulted
at the earliest possible stage.