Faith-Based and Secular Social Service Agencies in Pittsburgh: Location, Mission, and Organizational Capacity

How are faith-based organizations (FBOs) and secular social service organizations distributed in relatively poor urban neighborhoods? How do FBOs compare with their secular counterparts in terms of services, resources, and organizational characteristics? What are the implications for community practice and capacity-building? This paper draws on a survey of 230 nonprofit organizations in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania to address these questions. The data suggest that FBOs are evenly distributed across communities of varying wealth, but in the poorest quartile communities, FBOs account for a disproportionately high share of essential social services. FBOs are comparable with secular organizations in terms of management infrastructure. The author offers suggestions for building the capacity of community-based social service organizations. (C) 2006 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.