Bush urges groups to bid for funding for faith-based initiatives

Published: 2006-03-10

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- President George W. Bush urged faith-based charities to bid competitively for federal funding March 9. In a luncheon speech at a daylong National Conference on Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, Bush said progress has been made but much more needs to be done to give faith-based social service programs equal footing with secular nonprofits in federal, state and corporate grant-making. "It used to be that groups were prohibited from receiving any federal funding whatsoever because they had a cross or a star or a crescent on the wall," Bush said. "And that's changed for the better." He called faith-based service organizations America's "armies of compassion." Figures released by the White House in conjunction with the conference indicated that last fiscal year 10.9 percent of the federal funding for social services from seven government departments went to faith-based organizations. The grants to such organizations amounted to more than $2.1 billion out of nearly $20 billion in total grants.

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