Navigating religious bias in charity donors

September 11, 2024 10:01 AM

I'm trying to raise money for a secular program that exists under a religious umbrella organization. I'm trying to find a way to approach this so that won't put people off, and I'm stuck on a particular decision.

I was going to try to anonymize the religion here, but I think it's easier to come out and say it: a lot of people, including Christians, do not want to fill the coffers of the Catholic Church.

Some history: Fifty years ago a Catholic Diocese in the U.S. and one in Yucatán started a program called Mission of Friendship to support the poor of Mérida. For thirty years it was managed by the Dioceses as a religious organization, but by the early 2000s the programs were largely unrelated to Catholicism and a civil non-profit was formed. The U.S. Diocese did remain involved though, and in particular remained the conduit from the U.S. for tax free donations.

So if you want to donate to our secular organization, you have to write a check to the Catholic Church. Early response to that has not been good.

The way I see it is that we have two choices.

1) We suck it up and deal with the awkwardness.
2) We arrange a second conduit for funds from the U.S.

I've been investigating the second possibility and what it comes down to is that any organization I would trust requires a large startup fee and takes ten percent of the donations. That's not a terrible deal but could cause problems with hardware donations when we would have to come up with 10% of their value in cash.

So I'm sitting on the edge trying to decide between the two. I would be paying the startup fee out of pocket as there is no chance that Mission of Friendship could cover it, and I frankly have no idea how successful I will be in fundraising. The money might be better spent as a direct donation. Also, while it's a problem for some individuals, I have no idea if giving organizations will even blink if I tell them our financial sponsor is a Catholic Church.

I'm stuck. I'm hoping someone can suggest an alternative path, or just give me a push in either direction.

posted by Tell Me No Lies to Society & Culture (15 answers total)

I think the first step is to work on how you message this. They’re your fiscal sponsor which is a legal necessity in order to receive donations, and don’t have any control over your organization’s direction, etc.

There’s also the potential option of incorporating in the US for this purpose rather than using a fiscal sponsor, but I don’t know how onerous that would be.
posted by showbiz_liz at 10:25 AM on September 11 [2 favorites]

Early response to that has not been good

Among your target audience for these donations? Is it possible you could actually leverage the Catholic connection by trying to get word out through churches or Catholic demographics, thus attracting people for whom it wouldn't be a deterrent?
posted by trig at 10:32 AM on September 11 [2 favorites]

I would be straight up with why the situation is why it is, like a direct FAQ type of thing that is along the lines of "Why are you working with the Catholic Church? The Church sponsors us because this work meets their values of uplifting the poor, etc etc. Working with them allows us to reach more people and gives us access to more resources because of their longstanding positive presence in the area we serve, and [explain the financial/nonprofit reasons here.]" and something like "When I write my check, does any of it support the Catholic Church? No, your donation passes through their nonprofit structure but 100% of your donation benefits our work directly. The Church is our partner but does not keep any of your donation and passes it on to us entirely; see statements here [link to statements.]"

Also, assuming where the agency is doing the work is a majority-Catholic place, emphasize that many people in the community already see the Church as an ally, so it's efficient to work within that framework. And write this up as talking points in simple language for the people who are helping you fundraise.

Complete transparency is the way to go. Some people will never be convinced and that's OK; but some people will. I as a literal Satanist give to Christian charities when I am convinced they are doing good work that I care about. If our values of feeding hungry people align and they aren't wasting my money on tracts or prayer, then I personally am just glad someone is doing the work that needs to get done. To reach me, you have to emphasize transparency of where the money is going and why it's set up like that, and the results of your work.
posted by blnkfrnk at 10:55 AM on September 11 [22 favorites]

The diocese will be very unhappy with any solicitation in its name which appears to criticize, or even tacitly condone the criticism of, the Church, and could feel well within its rights to cease its fiscal agency services. There's a constructive way to put this, but the phrasing won't be easy.
posted by MattD at 11:16 AM on September 11

Without knowing the exact extent of your investigation into alternatives to the Diocese, I would suggest reaching out to the Los Cabos Children's Organization (loscaboschildren.org). I have donated to them many times and have been assured by people I trust that they do good work. From their donation page: "Los Cabos Children’s Foundation is a registered 501(c)(3) in the US & a registered Mexican Donataria."
posted by bricoleur at 11:29 AM on September 11

Response by poster: Among your target audience for these donations? Is it possible you could actually leverage the Catholic connection by trying to get word out through churches or Catholic demographics, thus attracting people for whom it wouldn't be a deterrent?

Catholic outreach is covered. I got the tricky bit. :-)
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 11:29 AM on September 11

Have you investigated whether people who don't want to give the Catholic Church money would be otherwise willing to help further a program the Catholic Church counts amongst its good works? When I was trying to promote a nonprofit in partnership with a different but still mainstream religious organization, generally it was the whole relationship itself that was the deal-breaker, not just the financials.
posted by teremala at 11:33 AM on September 11 [1 favorite]

I am not Catholic. I generally do not donate to religious organizations. If you could assure me that 100% of my donation would flow throw the Church and to the poor of Mexico/Merida, I would make that sort of donation. I would question the effectiveness of the program if it is still going on some decades after it started, but I assume you have that covered.

This, to me, is a marketing issue. The issue is the poor of Merida, not the Catholic Church. Sell it that way. Have data available to show that 99% of the funds flow through to the poor.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 11:40 AM on September 11 [1 favorite]

From the previous question: We've been doing this through a Catholic Diocese in Pennsylvania, but they've started to lose interest and we should probably have a backup in place.

I used to work for the company that's (probably) contracted with the Diocese to do the actual processing of the donations. I think it's likely the lessening in interest on their end is because our (small Catholic-oriented) company was bought out by another (giant Protestant-oriented) company around 2018 who have been slowly-but-steadily turning the product to shit ever since. The new company wants client churches to switch over to one of their competing products which use a completely different business model. They do not at all want to continue supporting the product the Diocese has (probably) been using.

Thus I believe you are correct you need to be proactive about finding a backup system, which is another reason option 1 may not be very practical.
posted by Press Butt.on to Check at 11:51 AM on September 11

I would question the effectiveness of the program if it is still going on some decades after it started, but

Sorry, so unless a program to help the poor successfully eliminates poverty in a couple decades, that makes it a failure not worth supporting? Thanks for reminding me why I left fundraising.
posted by showbiz_liz at 12:57 PM on September 11 [3 favorites]

My comment may not be helpful, but I'm offering it up, anyway.

I was recently very surprised to learn that Habitat for Humanity has a background/base/beginnings/whatever that is religious... especially given how open/nonjudgemental/accepting the organization is in my area. I'd always assumed that it was totally secular.

I know nothing about how the religious and secular coexist(ed) or how it transformed, but it might give you a research points, for both the actual details of operation, and in how the public perception is handled.

(I say this and it occurs to me that Boy Scouts might well be another organization to observe, though modern Scouts has an entirely different layer of challenges on top of any qualms someone might have about its way of handling religion. )

I believe there are likely many other organizations, both large and small, who've dealt with having a religious precursor but need to appeal to the world at large to survive... possibly even ones that have straddled international borders, as your group is. I don't, however, have the faintest idea of how one might search online for that detail. Maybe someone else could chime in if this rings any bells?
posted by stormyteal at 2:05 PM on September 11

There is probably an obvious reason why this wouldn't work, but why can't your fully secular organization raise funds for this purpose and then write a check to the Diocese to flow through to the Yucatan Diocese?
posted by notjustthefish at 2:41 PM on September 11 [1 favorite]

Does the org have a tax accountant or lawyer that they use? I wonder if there's a legal mechanism similar to a DBA (Doing Business As) that would allow the Catholic Church to accept and process checks made out to Mission of Friendship (or whatever), and hopefully, earmark those funds specifically for this. I would hope that the cost of setting that up would have to be minimal, compared to the setup + ongoing costs from a third party offering this as a service.
posted by xedrik at 3:43 PM on September 12

Response by poster: why can't your fully secular organization raise funds for this purpose and then write a check to the Diocese

Our fully secular organization exists in Mexico. To collect money in the United States, we would have to create a nonprofit entity there.

The problem is that creating and maintaining a nonprofit entity in the United States is an expensive proposition, probably more expensive than the amount of money we would actually raise.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 8:24 PM on September 12

I think one thing that might help me overcome my hesitation about donating to a programme that involved the Catholic church would be if part of the reason or benefit for working with the church is that it was trusted in the community that you're working with.

That's the thing that would supersede my discomfort because otherwise any donation I made would be about me, rather than the work I was supporting. So if that's true and you do have an FAQ I would emphasize that, and that the money doesn't go to the church.
posted by Laura_J at 5:09 AM on September 13 [1 favorite]