The Role of Faith in Non-profit Faith-based Organizations

   INTRODUCTION

   For years, the contribution of non-profit faith-based organizations (NPFBOs) in social service and charity had been recognize in the eyes of the world. One of the ex-president of United State, George W. Bush official acts was to create a grant as the recognition and encouragement of their effort in doing charity (Margaret and Sheldon,2002). According to Gary (2008), non-profit organization (NPO) is an organization that does not distribute its surplus funds to owners or shareholders, but instead uses them to help pursue its goals. Thus, NPFBOs is a NPO that develop base on the faith, which embed the religious value. For example, World Vision and Missionaries of Charity are NPFBOs that develop base on Christianity value and mission.

THE ROLE OF GOD

    God is defined by Webster’s Dictionary as: ‘‘The supreme being, seen as the omnipotent creator and ruler of the universe’’ (Webster’s, 1987). In most of the NPFBOs, God is consider as their managerial stakeholder representing the ultimate CEO, owner, or partner of the organization (Mark, 2006). Considering God as a managerial stakeholder in a NPFBOs, is a great spiritual and mental support for the members of the organization. As, they know that they are actually serving The One that omnipotent and Creator of the world. Besides, putting God in a organization like NPFBOs is extremely important as God is the foundation of faith for all the employee, the unchanged God provide a sustainable faith to the member of organization.

FAITH AND MISSION

    In NPFBOs, faith toward the God shape the mission of an organization. Mission serve as the core of an organization. More than a statement or a symbol, the mission is a tool that provides a clear, compelling statement of purpose that the organization disseminates both internally and externally. A mission statement also helps define an organization, expressing its values and envisioning its future simply and clearly. Often, the mission statement attracts clients, donors, funders, employees, and volunteers to an organization (William and Carlton, 2003; Drucker, 1990).

FAITH BRING GREATER MEANING AND PURPOSE

    Faith bring a greater meaning and purpose for employer and employee that involve in the organization (Mark, 2006). In most of the religion, it teaches their follower to do good and pursuit the meaning of life. However, working alone and doing good sometime make people exhausted and feel meaningless of their work without the understanding of meaning of life, Mitroff (2003) concluded that people have the tendency to want to know their full potential as human being both on and off work. Having faith to serve in NPFBOs allow the follower to gain more experience in spiritual and share the passion of God with others. Working is no longer a pursuit of material satisfaction, but spiritual satisfaction.

FAITH IMPLANT STRONG SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

    Faith implant a strong social responsibility in an organization, this was found by Michael and Jerry (1982) in their research, it shows that student society with religious background are noticeably having more emphasis on social responsibility than non-religious background student society. Their result also show that student with religious background display strong desire to serve others as well as a desire for personal spiritual experience which emphasize of personal relationship with the Divine One. Thus, it proved that faith having great influence in social responsibility of an organization. Employee tend to see themselves as a steward who are willing to put the needs and interests of others before themselves. They are more willing to give out and reach out to the community that need helps. Motivated by Christ Jesus, the Christian based religious organization seek to follow Jesus in His identification with the poor, the powerless, the afflicted, the oppressed, and the marginalized, they practice the servant hood and humility of the Christ (World Vision: Core values).

FAITH CREATE A SUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENT

    Besides having social responsibility toward human being, faith also lead an organization to automatically take into account the interests and protection of the natural environment as part of God’s creation. This ‘sustainability’ perspective might alleviate the need to consider the natural environment as a distinct stakeholder or to only act in response to demands put forward by environmental special interest groups ( Mark, 2006). Quote from one of the core value of World Vision, “We care for the earth and act in ways that will restore and protect the environment. We ensure that our development activities are ecologically sound.”. Faith provide an organization not only to help human, but also to save the environment.

FAITH IN ETHICAL THINKING

    Faith had been identified as a variable that might influence ethical decision-making, behavior, and personality (Mark,2006). This is essential for a NPO in deciding how will the organization use the money from funding, large amount of money can easily lead people in wrong doing. However, faith given an organization a higher perspective of ethical principle and guide line, then they could not disown the negative impacts of their actions, particularly those that resulted in harm to the physical and social environment (Mitroff, 2003).

FAITH AS RECRUITING FACTOR

    It is sometime quite difficult for people to understand why are someone willing to dedicate in NPFBOs in this era of materialistic, knowing that working in a NPFBOs is often accompanied by lower salaries, fewer academic opportunities, diminished professional prestige, decreased control over the work environment, increased bureaucratic interference, and little free time (Farr et.al., 2006). Roger and Anna(2005) found that  people may engage in NPO because to a sense of obligation to a particularly good cause, feeling of social responsibility, or altruistic empathy with afflicted. There are also evidence show that people volunteer to attain social, psychological and practical benefit. In some case, they are easily to leave the organization when they obtain or reach their purpose, or when they felt low job satisfaction after a certain period. However, in NPFBOs, most of employee relate to their work as a calling more than a job (Farr et.al., 2006). For these, the work has meaning not merely as material gain, but the obligation to response to the love of GOD. This is especially true for Richard which was a former CEO in Lenox, America’s finest tableware company when he decide to dedicate himself to volunteer in Africa’s social work with World Vision (Richard, 2009). Richard claim that what he do is just to answer “The Call”. Thus, faith serve also as an important factor in recruiting employee and providing sustainable employee for the NPFBOs.

FAITH IN MOTIVATION

    Faith had prove to motivate employees and employers of NPFBOs to keep on serving in this organization although they are given low salary and less free time, and most of the time, they have to serve in the rural and disaster area alone without others. Motivation from faith is in the perspective of spiritual, in some extent, spiritual motivation is more effective than others form of motivation. Richard, in his testimonial, explain that through all this year of his service with World Vision, he was motivated not only by his colleague, but the Holy Spirit and the passion toward the needy. He exclaim that it was faith that keep him to serve for such a long time (Richard, 2009). Mother Teresa had serve her whole life in India, she says that whenever she thought of the love of Christ toward the children, she couldn’t stop to love them, she want to help them more (Teresa, 1997). Michael and Jerry (1982) research also show that religious motivation had significant factor in determine the employee’s participation in NPFBOs.

FAITH BUILD BETTER WORKING ENVIRONMENT

    Faith also build a good working environment for the employee and employer in NPFBOs. Having faith as the foundation of the organization, members of the organization create a spiritual environment in the working place (Mark, 2006). They having prayer to upholding each other every day and start their  daily activities with prayer as well. This kind of working environment is able to increase the employee’s commitment toward the organization.

FAITH IN REWARD SYSTEM

    In the other hand, reward system in NOFBOs is totally different from other organization. In other organization, employee looking forward the reward as a motivation and recognition of their effort and contribution. But, in NPFBOs, employee believe their reward is on the heaven instead of on the earth. In Christianity and Islamic, they believe in the reward in eternal life, while Buddhism believe they have to do good as a ransom to their sin. Divine reward is more precious than the reward on earth for them. When Mother Teresa accept her reward from the Nobel prize for Peace, she gave thanks to the Christ Jesus and donate all the money to Missionaries of Charity (Teresa, 1997).

CONCLUSION

    The role of faith in NPFBOs is not just a symbolic trademark, but it shapes the mission and the core value of the organization. Considering God as the managerial stakeholder of an NPFBOs is a mentality and spirituality support for the organization, leading the organization to do works that please the God and having higher perspective of ethical decision-making. Beside, having faith as the organizations support, it form a strong bonding that bind all the co-workers in the organization, allow the employees to work in higher spirituality working environment, giving them a higher perspective of meaning and purpose to serve and dedicate in the organization, and  improve the commitment of the organization’s member to the organization. Meanwhile, it also serve as the motor that motivate the employees and employers to work in an environment that accompanied with lower salaries, fewer academic opportunities, diminished professional prestige, decreased control over the work environment, increased bureaucratic interference, and little free time. All these factors  show that faith having positive influence in NPFBOs, and it may also works in others organization.