The Public Value of Sacred Places:
Implications for Government and
Philanthropy
Progress since the 1980s:
Shifts in Perception, Shifts in Policy
O
ver the past thirty years, America’s civic, faith, and
philanthropic leaders have come to understand—even if slowly
and incompletely—that religious congregations serve a public
good by hosting a wide range of non-religious programs and
activities benefiting their communities. Partners’ early study, Sacred Places
at Risk—and its ground breaking finding that 81%of those benefiting
from outreach programs housed in older sacred places are not congregation
members—helped pave the way for this broader appreciation of sacred
places as civic assets. Further research conducted by the University of
Pennsylvania and others bolstered this understanding, influencing changes
in policy at local, state, and federal levels.
Adding to the general appreciation of the important cultural and
historic value of houses of worship, the new conception of public value
allowed advocates to open funding streams at all levels of government for
preservation and community-serving purposes, and to begin to level the
playing field for faith-based organizations to receive federal or state funds
for secular community-serving programs.
However, these developments have been piecemeal and sporadic, and
are often burdened by the conventional view that sacred places primarily
serve as worship places for their members. In the public sector, the courts
have supported the use of government grants for the preservation of
historic houses of worship under the same terms as secular nonprofits.
Though the government has become more open to funding historic,
community-serving sacred places, other sectors such as philanthropy are
often still cautious.
Until now, the broader understanding of public value did not take into
account the larger economic impact of sacred places, and how this impact in
all its facets can be supported and harnessed to work in conjunction with
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