The Center for Effective Philanthropy conducts research and gathers data on nonprofit groups to help philanthropists make effective donations. In October 2009, the center hosted an event in San Francisco titled “Foundation Effectiveness in a New Reality.” Contact through the website.

Read a Sept. 29, 2009, Associated Press story (posted by the National Conference on Citizenship) about the recession’s effect on social service charities, some of them religion-based.

Read a July 9, 2009, story in The Christian Post about a survey showing that Christian nonprofits are increasingly relying on volunteers. The study, conducted by J. David Schmidt & Associates for the Christian Leadership Alliance, showed that one out of five Christian nonprofits is relying on volunteers to offset labor and income losses due to the recession.

Read a July 2009 Religion News Service story (posted by the Adventist Review) about the closing of Michigan-based Christian relief group International Aid due to financial woes, and job cuts at World Vision, one of the largest evangelical relief agencies.

Read a May 2009 cover story in Christianity Today about how non-profit organizations fared during the recession.

Robert Putnam is the Malkin Research Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University, where he studies civic connectedness, social capital, and religion and public life. He is author or co-author of more than a dozen books, including The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again and Bowling […]

Irwin L. Morris is a professor in the department of government and politics at the University of Maryland at College Park. He co-authored an article titled “A Mighty Fortress: The Social and Economic Foundations of the American Megachurch Movement.”

A leading scholar on megachurches concurred with some of the findings of a 2009 Barna study on congregations and religious and political beliefs, but disagreed on others, according to this Aug. 12, 2009, Newsweek/Washington Post On Faith blog post.

The Barna Group, a Christian research company, released a report on August 10, 2009, that found links between congregational size and the members’ theological beliefs, religious behaviors and demographic characteristics, including political leanings. The report says, for example, that those who attend megachurches are more likely to be Republicans.