About the Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives

President George W. Bush created the Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (CFBCI) at USAID by executive order 13280 on December 12, 2002, to create a level playing field for faith and community based organizations to compete for USAID programs.

The CFBCI works to 1.) Serve as a bridge between faith and community based non-government organizations and government 2.) Increase the capacity of faith & community based non-government organizations or NGO's to better compete for funding opportunities 3.) Eliminate barriers to faith and community based organizations 4.) Increase collaboration among the people and organizations that are trying to address some of the greatest social service needs in our world today.

The Center is designed to increase the access of faith and community based organizations to U.S. Government funding sources. We also work to ensure that faith and community based organizations are properly informed about the guidelines that they will need to follow to apply and successfully administer federal funding. We work to address legal and policy issues and educate USAID staff about the Initiative. We also work to link faith and community based organizations with capacity building resources that can be helpful to them. Since its creation the Center has empowered faith-based and other community organizations to apply for Federal social service grants.

The Center supplies information and training, but it does not make the decisions about which groups will be funded. Those decisions are made through procedures established by each grant program, generally involving a competitive process. No grant funding is set aside for faith-based organizations. Instead, the Faith-Based and Community Initiative creates a "level-playing field" for faith-based as well as other community organizations to compete so that they can work with the government to meet the needs of communities throughout the developing world.

Empowered by the President's Executive Order, we have learned that educating USAID and Washington personnel and field staff about the role faith-based and community organizations can play in meeting development objectives is critical, that providing technical assistance for new and potential partners is important for a level playing field, and that communicating regularly with faith-based and community groups about conferences, funding opportunities, and regulations regarding provision of U.S. Government assistance is essential.

The Center encourages collaboration between groups with similar objectives and goals and regularly highlights conferences and funding opportunities that may be beneficial to FBCOs through our CFBCI Newsletter. To sign up for the Newsletter, please click here. To learn more about funding opportunities and to review resources on grants and the procedures used by each grant program to determine funding, please click here.

Related Information

Please make plans to attend a Faith-Based and Community Initiatives Regional Conference, sponsored by the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. For more Information on these conferences, you can visit their website by clicking here.

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