Collaborations with faith‐based social service coalitions

Abstract

Based on the first national survey of faith-based social service coalitions in the United States, this article presents data on the degree to which these nonprofit organizations collaborate with other specific organizational types, as well as the range and intensity of these collaborations. In general, faith-based coalitions tend to collaborate most frequently with other faith-based agencies, a pattern especially characteristic of the more religiously expressive ones. However, collaboration with non-faith-based organizations is also quite common. Based on seven organizational characteristics, we are able to predict which faith-based coalitions are most likely to collaborate with different types of organizations: coalitions that have more explicitly religious policies and practices with reference to clients and staffs are less likely to participate in intense collaborations with some types of secular organizations, and consistently less likely to do so with all types of governmental agencies. F OR SEVERAL DECADES, nonprofit organizations have been forming collaborations and alliances with other nonprofit agencies, as well as with business and governmental entities. A number of studies focus on issues involved in creating and sustaining nonprofit collaborations (

Do U.S. Faith-Based Social Service Organizations Resist Collaboration? Examining the Role of Religiosity and Operational Capacity in Interorganizational Partnerships

“…Wuthnow (2004/2009) finds that FBOs create “informal and formal institutional linkages with other organizations” (p. 169). FBOs collaborate with both secular and religious nonprofit organizations and government agencies, particularly in social services (Chaves & Tsitsos, 2001; Ebaugh et al, 2007) and public health (Clerkin & Grønbjerg, 2007). However, comparative research suggests that FBOs are less likely to collaborate than secular organizations.…”

“…General Accounting Office [USGAO], 2002). Although a national survey of faith-based social service coalitions suggested that virtually all reported some collaboration, it also found that highly religious coalitions generally eschewed partnerships with secular organizations and government agencies and that organizational religiosity was associated with collaboration with other FBOs (Ebaugh et al, 2007). For some FBOs, religiosity may be a requirement for personnel.…”

“…This research investigates the influence of religiosity and operational capacity on the patterns of FBOs’ within-sector and cross-sector collaboration. We examine religiosity because it is the distinguishing factor that sets FBOs apart from their secular counterparts (Ebaugh et al, 2007; Kearns et al, 2005). Systematic reviews have documented the powerful influence of religious identity and values on individual and organizational performance (Héliot et al, 2020), as well as the effectiveness of social service delivery (Ferguson et al, 2007).…”

Navigating a world of religious NGOs: Ethnography, abstraction, and views of the horizon

“…While these various authors have pursued diverse mapping strategies, each tended to assume that religious NGOs constitute a distinct—albeit heterogeneous—unit of analysis . Others took up a methodological emphasis on context and sought to map and typologise religious NGOs in particular regions—frequently, though not only, within the boundaries of particular nation‐states (Green & Sherman, ; Sider & Unruh, ; Hula, Jackson‐Elmoore, & Reese, ; Ebaugh, Chafetz, & Pipes, ; Inbal, ; Hackworth, ; McGinnis, ; Cojocaru, Cojocaru, & Sandu, ; Jackson‐Elmoore, Hula, & Reese, , 76‐94; Muñoz Laboy, Murray, Wittlin, & Parker, ; Ferrari, ; Leurs, ; Olarinmoye, ; Olivier & Wodon, ; Hoffstaedter, ; Coulombe & Wodon, ; Save the Children India, ; Cochrane, McFarland, & Gunderson, ). Similar contextual studies were also pursued within particular traditions, such as Jewish or Christian NGOs (Inbal, ; Olarinmoye, ; Tam & Hesmath, ; Thaut, ), and across specific sectors, such as those working on HIV/AIDS (Cochrane et al, ; Cojocaru et al, ; Coulombe & Wodon, ; Ferrari, ; Leurs, ; Olivier & Wodon, ; Petersen et al, ; Rodriguez‐Garcia et al, ).…”

Faith-Based Organizations as Service Providers and Their Relationship to Government

“…Pipes and Ebaugh (2002) noted that much religious outreach is provided by faith-based coalitions. Ebaugh, Chafetz, and Pipes (2007) in a study of faith-based social service coalitions found that FBOs collaborated most often with other FBOs and that the most explicitly religious were least likely to collaborate with government. These coalitions had a variety of structures, resources, programs, and attitudes toward government contracting.…”