Twitter users might not be so ready with their tweets had they risked the drastic punishments meted out to pamphlet publishers in the 1640s. Here is gossip for the nation, while in Farnham, Surrey, gossip fuels rivalries and domestic conflicts. And into this arrives Charity, an unwilling newcomer. Who, the gossips ask, is she? Why has she come? Which young man is she attracting? What will her choices be?

Debates on public policy in the United States are shaped, in part, by moral and religious commitments of individuals and communities. Heclo (2003) writes in Religion Returns to the Public Square, “Government policy and religious matters . . . both claim to give authoritative answers to important questions about how people should live.” Heclo’s words apply especially to the issue of poverty and welfare reform, a matter on which the great religious traditions have played an integral part. Apart from its profound political significance, there is every indication that the welfare reform legislation of 1996 (Personal Work Opportunity and Reconciliation Act, PWORA) has altered the landscape of American religion. Through Section 104 of PWORA, also known as Charitable Choice, religious congregations, interfaith ministries and denominational work relief agencies have been thrust into the center of America’s welfare to work transition and community revitalization efforts. Charitable Choice makes it illegal for state governments to discriminate against social service providers who organization has a religious mandate. This book examines Charitable Choice – and more broadly, the changing relationship between religion and social welfare – as its primary point of departure for investigating faith-based poverty relief in the post-welfare era. This research employs a mixed methods approach to understanding the role of Protestant evangelicals in addressing the needs of the poor and specifically their role in the implementation of Charitable Choice. To accomplish this task, two national surveys, one individual and one congregational, are used to explore the role of religiosity and the creation of Protestant evangelical sub-cultures and their effects on civic engagement, volunteerism and support for Charitable Choice. It then triangulates this data with qualitative research to develop a clearer understanding of the issues that affect participation rates and public welfare delivery systems. In-depth interviews of thirty-six Protestant evangelical ministers from central Appalachia are conducted and analyzed. This text will advance both practice and theory by providing an understanding about the complex world of Protestant evangelicalism. This volume has the potential to increase our understanding about the role intra-textual and inter-textual theological beliefs and convictions play in the public policy process and whether faith-based organizations can help to address the issues surrounding poverty and social welfare. To the policy maker, the authors hope to provide practical information that affects policy delivery and policy evaluation. To the religious scholar and social science researcher, they hope this study serves as one brick in a larger foundation known as Protestant evangelicalism. It will provide a different strategy for identifying key variables associated with public policy analysis. And in the end, it will require us all to answer if charity is truly a choice.

Deals with philanthropy. This title includes major themes in which the tools of choice, endogeneity, and self-selection are employed such as: What increases or decreases charitable activity? and How do organizational and managerial issues affect the performance of non-profit organizations?

Charities operate within an increasingly challenging environment, with competition for public engagement, funding and volunteers intensifying. High-profile scandals have knocked public trust and the recent Covid-19 pandemic has illustrated how important it is for charities to provide support in times of need and fill the gap left by inadequate public sector provision. Across 12 chapters a diverse group of academics and deep-thinking practitioners present contrasting perspectives and the latest thinking on the challenges within the charity sector. The approach of the book contributes to the growing phenomenon of Theory + Practice in Marketing (TPM) presenting different perspectives and theoretical lenses to stimulate debate and future research. Charity Marketing provides a bridge between the practice of contemporary nonprofit organisations, charity marketing and recent academic insight into the charity sector. Using exemplar case studies of nonprofit and charity brands, this edited volume will be of direct interest to students, academics, marketing practitioners and researchers studying and working in charities, public and nonprofit management, and marketing.

Using Indianapolis as its focus, this book explores the relationship between religion and social welfare. Arising out of the Indianapolis Polis Center's Lilly-sponsored study of religion and urban culture, the book looks at three issues: the role of religious social services within Indianapolis's larger social welfare support system, both public and private; the evolution of the relationship between public and private welfare sectors; and how ideas about citizenship mediated the delivery of social services. Noting that religious nonprofits do not figure prominently in most studies of welfare, Mapes explores the historical roots of the relationship between religiously affiliated social welfare and public agencies. Her approach recognizes that local variation has been a defining feature of American social welfare. A Public Charity aims to illuminate local trends and to relate the situation in Indianapolis to national trends and events. Polis Center Series on Religion and Urban Culture -- David J. Bodenhamer and Arthur E. Farnsley II, editors

Argues that for the first time in history we're in a position to end extreme poverty throughout the world, both because of our unprecedented wealth and advances in technology, therefore we can no longer consider ourselves good people unless we give more to the poor. Reprint.

Charitable Choice contains overviews of the Charitable Choice legislation itself and raises significant issues and questions regarding its implementation. It documents initial efforts by states to implement the law provides examples of church involvement in community social ministry looks at characteristics and attitudes of staff at faith-based programs explores the experiences of volunteer mentors in social welfare programs and it gives a rich qualitative look at how some rural churches respond to poverty and policy. Professional social workers are in a unique position to help bring people of faith and people in need together especially if these social workers are persons of faith themselves. This book is a resource for social work practitioners, educators, and students for leaders in churches and faith-based programs, and for advocates for the poor. In short it is intended to equip us to help others in a way that really helps.

For the first time in 400 years a number of leading common law nations have, fairly simultaneously, embarked on charity law reform leading to an encoding of key definitional matters in charity legislation. This book provides an analysis of international case law developments on the ever growing range of issues now being generated by clashes between human rights, religion and charity law. Kerry O'Halloran identifies and assesses the agenda of 'moral imperatives', such as abortion and gay marriage that delineate the legal interface and considers their significance for those with and those without religious belief. By assessing jurisdictional differences in the law relating to religion/human rights/charity the author provides a picture of the evolving 'culture wars' that now typify and differentiates societies in western nations including the USA, England and Wales, Ireland, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

This up-to-date analysis of current changes in government and charity relationships across five countries provides a cross-cultural analysis and global view of charity law. The balanced assessment of charity law reviews, legislation, and jurisdictional differences gives readers a comprehensive understanding of the tensions at work and considers overarching issues arising from charity law and social policy and helps readers understand the larger framework of charity law.