Chapter 2 - Faith-Based Philanthropy
Religious charities organized based on faith, and cater towards members of the community who follow, or are comfortable, with that faith. Each religion has its own unique culture. Faith-based charities are important because they understand this culture and can target the specific needs of its community. Certain people may also feel more comfortable seeking help from organizations that are affiliated with their culture or beliefs.
For example,
- a young man whose brother had been killed in New Jersey needed a shirt and tie to wear to the funeral. Even though he wasn’t religious, he’d grown up in a Catholic household. As a result, the young man went to a Catholic charity, that treated him with respect and gave him a brand new pair of clothes.
- Similarly, holocaust survivors in nursing homes may fear showering, because of its link to the holocaust; in these cases, a Jewish nursing home would be best suited to care for such patients. This sense of bonding and kinship is what makes faith-based charities so effective.
The following pages cover and analyze what qualities make different religious charities effective, and what qualifies them to be “all stars” in the city of Cleveland. These qualities are namely fundraising success, and effectiveness in helping their particular sector of the community. The city of Cleveland was ranked the third poorest city among cities with a population more than two-hundred thousand people in 2014. There are reported over twenty-one thousand homeless people with nearly thirty percent of kids eighteen years and younger living in poverty. Cleveland has never needed more organizations to step up and aid as many people as possible.
