Understanding religion and its impact is vitally important for anyone who wants to truly grapple with big civic-sector questions, both in the U.S. and abroad. That includes the prominent role of faith-based nonprofits in this country, the threat of Christian nationalism, and ongoing developments in world affairs, including well beyond the Middle East.
That’s why it was concerning when, in the course of reporting about funders’ support for Religion News Service in July, I came across this 2019 Pew Research Center poll outlining just how little most Americans know about religion beyond Christianity. For example, in a country where the Christian far right is increasingly attempting to enshrine its extremist doctrines into national law, it’s scary that only 27% of Americans knew that the U.S. Constitution doesn’t require a religious test to hold public office. Nor, I’m betting, are many people in this country aware that, far from the U.S. being created as a Christian nation, conservative Christians at the time were actually opposed to the new United States Constitution because it omitted references to a god.
The U.S. may be more religious, comparatively, than most other western nations, and it’s clear that religion remains a huge motivator for charitable giving. But it’s also clear that we need more religious literacy in our country. Fortunately, there are several large funders who appear to agree – and are backing that with grant money. There’s also a much smaller grantmaker and grantmaking networker in the field, which is also one to watch given both the probable wealth of its founder and his interesting educational journey.
Given the dangers of religious illiteracy in a country where religion is being used as a divisive force, we have to hope that other funders will step up. Grants that benefit the cause of religious literacy don’t have to be made expressly for that purpose. A good example of this is the Hewlett Foundation, which recently committed $200,000 to Religion News Service through its democracy portfolio.
In the meantime, these funders with a specific interest in religious literacy are a great place to start for nonprofits engaged in religious literacy efforts.
Lilly Endowment
As my colleague Mike Scutari wrote in 2019, the Lilly Endowment has been a friend to religious organizations for a long time. Lilly’s religion grantmaking includes a program the funder calls “Improving the Public Understanding of Religion.” Grants in this category have gone to cultural institutions and museums, media (including Religion News Service) and resources like the Association of Religion Data Archives. According to a Lilly spokesperson, since 2019, the endowment has approved 161 grants to support public understanding of religion for a total of more than $245 million. And there’s a lot more where that came from. With reported net assets of $61.9 billion in 2023 – the endowment’s assets have surged on the success of Eli Lilly and Company stock – it’s safe to bet that this funder is going to be in a good position to make these kinds of grants for many years to come.
Henry Luce Foundation
The Henry Luce Foundation’s Religion and Theology program aims to “cultivate a deeper understanding of religion in culture, democracy, and civil society,” mostly through higher ed support. A Luce spokesperson told IP that the funder moves about $7 million a year through this program on average, with grant awards ranging from $10,000 to as high as $1 million. This grantmaking complements other Luce funding aiming to bridge divides, like its longtime support for cross-cultural studies in Asia. Luce’s application process is always open, with its website stressing that it makes project-based grants. Luce reported net assets of just over $1 billion in 2022.
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Fetzer Institute
While some major religion grantmakers in the U.S., like the Lilly Endowment, focus their funding on Christians, the Fetzer Institute’s mission is far broader: “helping build the spiritual foundation for a loving world.” To that end, the Institute, which was founded by radio and TV executive and former Detroit Tigers owner John E. Fetzer, runs two retreat centers. It also established the Fetzer Fund at the Kalamazoo Community Foundation, which is currently seeking RFPs for “spiritually-sourced solutions to social problems and challenges in Kalamazoo County, Michigan.”
A Fetzer spokesperson said that in 2023, the Institute funded several projects to “contribute to religious literacy and spiritual understanding,” and estimated that the funder had moved nearly $3 million that year for work directly related to religious literacy. At the same time, he said, Fetzer’s work “often weaves spiritual literacy throughout our broader strategy areas.” Fetzer’s religious literacy grants in 2023 ranged from $50,000 to Faith in Action to $1 million for the Coalition for Faith and Media. Fetzer reported net assets of $723 million in 2023.
Arthur Vining Davis Foundations
Perhaps best-known for supporting public television programming, the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations have a program for Interfaith Leadership and Religious Literacy, which includes supporting private education and educational TV for children, as well as digital media and religious publications. Individual grants made to these ends are significant, ranging from $100,000 to $300,000.
In July, AVDF President Michael Murray told IP that the foundations’ board had recently agreed to a joint funding project with the Lilly Endowment in which Lilly agreed to move $900,000 to NPR while AVDF provided $300,000 to Religion News Service to launch a religion-focused news reporting partnership, to be distributed by both outlets. While AVDF isn’t in the same weight class as the top three funders on this list budget-wise, its $98.2 million in reported net assets in 2022 – and its longstanding record of backing educational media – put it in a good position to support religious literacy for the long haul.
The Foundation for Religious Literacy
With a goal to “foster interreligious literacy and understanding among leaders in business, education, journalism, law, and politics,” this funder’s mission is specifically targeted to those with the power to influence others. The foundation says it acts as a “philanthropic scout” for its network of donors, which includes the top three religious literacy funders in our list, as well as a group that possibly includes smaller funders with little to no online footprint like the Once Here Foundation, and the Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement affinity group. The foundation provides seed money, and then connects recipients to its network. For example, AVDF has supported three of its seed projects, while Lilly supported its early work in the American religious history program at the Smithsonian.
The Foundation for Religious Literacy doesn’t accept unsolicited grant applications, but does “welcome being informed about your religious literacy programs and being in collegial relationship with you.” This foundation doesn’t boast the sizable assets of the other funders on this list, but it’s still one to watch: Its cofounder and president H. Bruce McEver also founded Berkshire Global Advisors and Berkshire Capital, meaning that the businessman and published poet likely has a lot of money to invest should he decide to expand the foundation. Given that he holds a master’s degree in theology from Harvard Divinity School, it feels safe to bet that this foundation will remain one of his enduring interests.
Dawn Wolfe covers issues including racial and economic justice philanthropy, abortion rights and women’s and girls giving, and philanthropic reform efforts for Inside Philanthropy. She has been intermittently writing (and ranting) about the dangers of Christian extremism since her first job in journalism for Michigan’s LGBTQ newspaper, Between The Lines, in the mid-2000’s.
