What is “Charitable Choice”?
The term Charitable Choice refers to a specific legislative proposal which seeks to require various governmental agencies to contract with faith based organizations on the same basis as any nonprofit provider without “discriminating against the religious character”. The proposal sets forth several exemptions for religious organizations and how they can participate in providing social services. Charitable Choice specifically provides that faith based organizations do not have to alter their religious character and explicitly allows religious organizations the ability to discriminate in their employment with public funds and the ability to proselytize beneficiaries of public services. Currently a number of religious affiliated organizations participate in government funded programs. Catholic Charities, Lutheran Services, etc. provide these services and do not need the drastic exemptions provided under Charitable Choice. These religiously affiliated organizations work hand in hand with go
The 1996 federal welfare reform law included an encouragement to government to reach out to community-based organizations, including congregations and faith-based nonprofits, to devise ways of working together to serve the poor and needy. The Charitable Choice provisions (section 104 of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996) establish new rules for such collaboration between government and faith communities. Charitable Choice is not a new pot of government money set aside for faith-based organizations. Rather, it is a set of rules that state governments must follow if they choose to use certain federal funds to contract with groups in the private sector that provide various social services (such as job training or mentoring). These rules require that state governments contracting with private sector organizations cannot discriminate against a faith-based social services provider because that provider is religious.
A. So-called charitable choice” provisions have been put forth as a solution to the very real problems associated with delivering social services to Americas neediest citizens. “Charitable choice” provisions require the government to give religious institutions an equal footing when it seeks bids and grants contracts for the private-sector provision of government-funded social services (such as providing food or job training). The opening of this process to pervasively sectarian institutions (churches, synagogues, mosques) is deeply troubling because many “charitable choice” plans have been put forth without adequate safeguards to ensure that religious activity, including proselytizing, is not a part of that service delivery. This is a major departure from previous practices. While it is true that religiously-affiliated organizations (such as Catholic Charities) have traditionally received government funds to deliver social services, government regulationsafeguardshave always ensured t
The Charitable Choice provision (Section 104) of the federal welfare reform law was enacted in the summer of 1996. Charitable Choice is a legislative provision designed to remove unnecessary barriers to the receipt of certain federal funds by faith-based organizations. The provision prohibits states from discriminating against religious organizations when choosing providers under certain government grant programs. It encourages states to involve community and faith-based organizations in providing federally funded welfare services to the poor and needy. While Charitable Choice is designed to improve access to government funding for faith-based organizations, it does not establish a new funding stream dedicated to these groups. Charitable Choice rests on four principles – A Level Playing Field. Faith-based providers are eligible to compete for funds on the same basis as any other social service providers, neither excluded nor included because they are religious, too religious or of the
