Updated May 15, 2012  

Organizational Structure

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Religious Tradition and Organizational Structure 

This report divides religious advocacy groups into six mutually exclusive categories based on their organizational structures.

Membership organizations – groups whose main constituents and/or funding sources are individual members – are by far the most common organizational type. They represent about four-in-ten of the organizations in the study (90 groups, or 42%). Of these, more than a quarter (24 groups) are interreligious. Roughly equal numbers of these organizations draw their members primarily from evangelical Protestants (16 groups), Catholics (15) and Jews (14). Some derive their funding exclusively from individual members, but many also receive support from foundations or other sources. Examples of membership organizations include Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Family Research Council and the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee. This category also includes religion-related professional associations, such as the Christian Medical and Dental Associations, the American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists, and Karamah: Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights.

Groups that primarily represent institutions, rather than individuals, are the next most common type. They include almost a fifth of the organizations studied (37 groups, or 17%). These advocacy groups defend the interests of secondary schools, colleges, hospitals, international relief and development agencies, social service providers, broadcast media organizations and religious orders. Associations of Catholic institutions, such as Catholic Relief Services and the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, are particularly common (16 groups). Organizations representing religious institutions tend to be funded by those institutions. Many have had a steady Washington presence for decades, consistently focusing on the same issue areas.

Thirty-two advocacy organizations (15%) represent official religious bodies. A quarter are mainline Protestant groups (eight), and about a fifth are evangelical Protestant (six). The remainder represent a variety of faith traditions, including Catholicism, Judaism, Islam, Scientology and the Baha’i faith, among others. These groups, such as the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the United Methodist Church’s General Board of Church & Society, defend the official interests and positions of their religious traditions or denominations, or the interests of interdenominational associations of official religious bodies, such as the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA and the National Association of Evangelicals. They typically receive financial and organizational support from the religious bodies they represent.

Religion-related think tanks make up one-in-ten religious advocacy groups (21 groups, or 10%). More than six-in-ten of them (13) are interreligious. These groups conduct research and provide policy recommendations on religion-related issues or approach their research and policy recommendations based on values rooted in a particular religious tradition. For example, the Culture of Life Foundation conducts research on bioethics, family and marriage, and other social issues, largely from a Catholic perspective. Similarly, the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy conducts research and policy workshops that promote the idea that Islam and democracy are fully compatible. Think tanks typically are funded by donations from benefactors – individuals and/or foundations – that support their policy positions.

While short-lived alliances frequently form around legislative issues, more enduring networks of groups are common enough to be considered as their own category. Permanent coalitions are about as numerous as think tanks (19 groups, or 9%). More than half of these (11 groups) are interreligious. These coalitions typically have their own funding, which is separate from the funding of the member groups. Unlike temporary alliances, however, they also tend to have their own permanent staff, as opposed to staff borrowed from alliance members. Established coalitions often have emerged from what originally appeared to be short-term alliances. For example, Jubilee USA Network, a coalition of development agencies and relief groups from different religious traditions, was formed in the late 1990s to support legislation to provide debt relief for Third World countries. Today, Jubilee USA Network works for the broader goal of complete cancelation of developing countries’ international debts.

Hybrid groups (17, or 8%) blend features of more than one structural type or do not fit neatly into any of the above categories. An example is the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which conducts legal research and generates publications like a think tank but also provides pro bono legal representation for individuals and religious bodies to further the cause of religious freedom. Six of the 17 hybrid groups in the study are interreligious, five are rooted in the evangelical Protestant tradition, four represent Catholic points of view, one is affiliated with the Unification Church and one is Muslim.

Religious Tradition and Organizational Structure 

Within each religious tradition, one or two organizational structures tend to predominate.

Among evangelical Protestant advocacy groups, about four-in-ten (41%) are individual membership organizations, such as Concerned Women for America and the Home School Legal Defense Association. Jewish groups also tend to represent the interests of individual members (56%), as do Muslim groups (53%). And among interreligious advocacy organizations, a majority represent either individual members (42%) or think tanks (23%).

Most Catholic advocacy groups represent either individual members (37%), such as Human Life International and Leadership Conference of Women Religious, or institutions (39%), such as Catholic Charities USA and the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities.

By contrast, half of mainline Protestant advocacy organizations (50%) represent the interests of official religious bodies, such as the United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Ministries.

For a full list of groups and their organizational structures, see the online directory.