Is Your Faith-Based Nonprofit Invisible? What Houses of Worship Need to Know About Being Seen — and Funded

By Laurence A. Pagnoni, MPA Author, The Nonprofit Fundraising Solution | Former Faculty, NYU Heyman Center for Philanthropy, School of Professional Studies

The Pentagon recently reduced its military religious affiliation codes from 211 to just 31, eliminating 180 faith traditions — including Native American traditions — into the category "Other Religion." Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the change was necessary because the system had become unwieldy. In reply, Mr. Kerri J. Malloy, an enrolled Yurok tribal member and assistant professor of Native American and Indigenous Studies at San José State University, points out that without a distinct code, there is no way to know how many service members observe Native traditions. The change makes it, in his words, "…harder to see a religious group and therefore harder to staff for, plan around and justify spending on them.”

His analysis also applies to faith-based nonprofits. 

When your organization is folded into "Other," it disappears from the data systems that determine who gets funded, who gets counted, and who gets planned for. The consequences are real and immediate.

The Nonprofit Sector Has Its Own Version of "Other Religion"

The U.S. Internal Revenue Service and Candid — the nonprofit sector's primary research platform, use the NTEE code — National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities — to categorize nonprofits by mission. 

Faith-based organizations fall under the X codes: X20 for Christianity, X30 for Judaism, X40 for Islam, X50 for Buddhism. At the end of that list sits X99: Religion Not Elsewhere Classified. That is the nonprofit sector's "Other Religion." An organization coded X99 is harder to find in a grant database search, harder to count in sector research, and harder to surface when a funder filters by mission area.

The same problem surfaces for faith-based organizations running social service programs — a congregation's food pantry, a mosque's refugee resettlement work, a synagogue's elder care program. These organizations are frequently miscoded, undercounted, and as a result, underfunded. Their work is visible in their communities while remaining invisible to the systems that direct grant dollars.

There is also a deeper layer to this invisibility. Approximately 370,000 religious congregations operate in the United States, and roughly half hold formal 501(c)(3) status. Many of those that do not are automatically tax-exempt under IRS rules — churches are not required to file a Form 990, and many never appear in Candid's database as a result. A funder using Candid’s Foundation Directory to search for grantees in your zip code simply cannot find you. You do not register as existing. That is the invisibility problem in its starkest form, and the next four steps can aid in your corrective action. 

Four Steps to Make Your Organization Findable

Step One: Look yourself up.

Go to Candid at candid.org and search for your organization's name. Further, you should also go to ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer at projects.propublica.org/nonprofits and do the same. What do you find at those sites? Is your organization’s information accurate? What NTEE code are you listed under? If you are classified as X99 when a more specific code applies, contact Candid directly through candid.org to request a correction. Funders who filter grant searches by mission area will not find you under "Not Elsewhere Classified."

Step Two: Build a Candid profile even if you don't file a 990.

Churches exempt from annual 990 filing can still create a nonprofit profile on Candid at candid.org. The profile system allows any exempt organization to self-report its mission, programs, financials, and leadership — making your organization visible to the grant researchers and funders who use Foundation Directory Online. A complete profile costs nothing and takes a reasonable amount of time to complete. Without such a profile, you are invisible to grant makers.

One timely note: the old Foundation Directory platform at fconline.foundationcenter.org is being retired as of July 20, 2026. If your organization has used it in the past, transition your searches to the new Candid platform at candid.org now. 

Candid has also published a specific learning resource for faith-based organizations navigating grant research at learning.candid.org/grants-for-faith-based-organizations/272670. It explains how foundations approach faith-based grantees and how to search effectively for funders whose interests align with your specific work. It’s must reading for faith-based nonprofits. 

Step Three: Name your faith tradition specifically in everything you publish.

Your website, your grant applications, your Candid profile, your annual report — every public document your organization produces is an opportunity to be found and understood. Many faith-based organizations default to broad language — "interfaith," "multifaith," "spiritual services" — believing it will widen their appeal. But for funding purposes it does the opposite. A foundation whose program officer is searching for organizations serving the Sikh community in your city, for example, will not find you if your profile says "multifaith services." Grant database searches run on specific terms, not general ones, and the funder who would be most excited about your work is often the one most likely to search for exactly what you are. Name your tradition. Name the communities you serve. Specificity is not narrowing — it is how the right funders find you.

Step Four: Learn how to present your programmatic work to secular funders.

Many foundations that do not fund religious organizations will fund the programs those organizations run — food security, housing, youth development, elder care —

 when those programs are open to the full community regardless of faith. For example, the Wells Fargo Foundation's charitable giving guidelines make the logic explicit: they do not fund religious organizations "unless they are engaged in programs that are non-sectarian, benefit a broad base of the community, and have a separate 501(c)(3) designation." Knowing how to describe your work accurately and compliantly for that kind of funder is a skill your development staff deserves to have.

When searching Candid's Foundation Directory, search under your program areas — food security, workforce development, elder services — not only under religion or faith. Many funders whose interests align with your programs have given to faith-based organizations before, but they are indexed under the program area, not the faith tradition. Search both ways, and you will find funders you would otherwise miss.

One additional prospecting technique: if you are aware of a faith-based organization similar to yours that appears to be well-funded, you can research which foundations have supported them — not through their own Form 990, which does not publicly disclose individual funders by name, but through the foundation's side of the transaction. Private foundations are required to file a Form 990-PF with the IRS, and that document discloses every grant they made during the year — the recipient's name, the amount, and often the purpose. Search the foundations most likely to fund work like yours on ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer at projects.propublica.org/nonprofits, pull their 990-PF, and look for peer organizations in the grants list. That grants list is your expanded prospect map.

An Important Resource

If your faith-based organization is weighing whether to pursue formal 501(c)(3) status — or has questions about what that status requires and makes available — my companion white paper on this blog goes into that question in full: Should a Faith-Based Institution Seek 501(c)(3) Status? A Guide for the Perplexed.

The Rt. Rev. Matthew Heyd — now the 17th Bishop of New York, who served as director of Trinity Grants Program at Trinity Church Wall Street — framed the central question in that paper well: "The legal answer is one thing, but the management answer is just as vital if not more so." The white paper addresses both.

Has your congregation or faith-based organization run into the visibility problem described here — and how have you addressed it? Share your experience in the comments section of the website.

This post is offered freely for educational purposes. Please share it with ministry leaders, faith-based nonprofit staff, and board members who may find it useful — provided the author's byline remains intact: By Laurence A. Pagnoni, MPA. Your comments are welcome in the comments section of the blog.