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Research Projects
Below you will find a selection of major research projects undertaken by the USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture. Each project includes a description with links to read reports and learn more.
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The Center for Religion and Civic Culture and the Equity Research Institute at USC are partnering to study the reconstruction of the Los Angeles region’s social fabric following the 2025 wildfires. By examining the intersection of faith communities and social justice movements in the wake of the fires, the project will draw lessons for both future recovery efforts and longer-term incorporation of community and faith voices in L.A.’s civic life.
This “research-to-action” project allows CRCC to build on its 30+ years of documenting the grassroots efforts of faith and organizing networks in Los Angeles.
Years: 2025-2027
Funder: The John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation
Read: Project Announcement
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The Center for Religion and Civic Culture’s five-year Engaged Spirituality project focused on people who dedicate their lives to human flourishing. The joint academic-journalistic project resulted in the publication of more than 100 stories of “engaged spirituality”—stories about how religious values and spiritual practices inspire and sustain social action. Through “Spiritual Exemplars: A Global Project on Engaged Spirituality,” CRCC gained insights into how spiritually engaged humanitarians understand their lives and their work, as well as how their social action affects their beliefs and practices.
Years: 2018-2023
Funders: John Templeton Foundation and Templeton Religion Trust
Read: Final report and directory of “Spiritual Exemplars”
Explore: Project homepage
Watch Project Summary
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Transforming the American Sangha: Race, Racism and Diversity in North American Insight Meditation used a social scientific lens to understand the struggles, experiences and practices of people of color (PoC) who are teachers, practitioners and advocates who have sought to incorporate race and diversity concerns in major American Insight institutions over the last three decades. The project traversed ground between meditation practice and social justice and gave voice to PoC leadership’s unique perspective on the way meditation is popularly understood in the United States.
Years: 2021-2023
Funder: Kataly Foundation
Read: Project description
Explore: Articles from the project
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The Religious Competition and Creative Innovation project explored the proposition that competition between religious groups stimulates creative innovation, contributing to religious change. Building on CRCC’s research on religion throughout Southern California and global Pentecostalism, this project focused on multiple religious traditions and compared how religious innovation works across two locations: Southern California and Seoul, South Korea. CRCC’s methodological approach was qualitative, focusing on case studies of religious (and irreligious) organizations and the social contexts in which they operate, in order to gain a better understanding of how religion “works” in the world. Over the three years of the project, CRCC completed more than 70 in-depth case studies and mapped and collected data on more than 500 groups in Greater Los Angeles. In Seoul, a team of six scholars investigated innovative religious groups in six different areas of the Greater Seoul metropolitan area. Because of Los Angeles and Seoul’s similarities in size and religious diversity, CRCC could compare how religious innovation works in different locations and how “place” relates to religious change and innovation.
Years: 2014-2017
Funders: John Templeton Foundation
Read: Project description
Read: Project Report
Explore: Articles on religious innovation and change
Watch Conference Summary
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With researchers deployed in over 20 countries across the global South and East, the Pentecostal and Charismatic Research Initiative (PCRI) aimed to provide answers to three key questions related to renewalist movements: What are the defining characteristics of Pentecostal and Charismatic religion? Where is it growing and what factors account for its growth? And what are the social and political consequences of renewalism’s proliferation in places where the upheavals of recent decades are most acute? Through a competitive application process, the Pentecostal and Charismatic Research Initiative (PCRI) awarded five grants to research centers and 16 grants to individual scholars. The initiative provides funding for research in four specific geographic regions: Africa, Asia, Latin America and the former Soviet Union.
Years: 2009-2013
Funders: John Templeton Foundation
Read: Project description
Explore: Pentecostal and Charismatic Research Archive
Explore: Articles on Pentecostalism
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This study looked at the the evolution of the Los Angeles faith community’s role in the public sphere in the 20 years since the 1992 civil unrest. The social response to the Rodney King verdict was a watershed moment that provided an opportunity for congregations and other religious bodies to establish relationships across racial, ethnic, and economic divides. Faith-based organizations also launched efforts to meet short-term needs.
The project found that from 1992-2012, significant demographic and political events altered the landscape of Los Angeles, and of the faith community. While faith groups have always participated to varying degrees in the public sphere, over those two decades they became expected partners in dealing with social issues. This resulted in a substantial increase in the number of faith-based nonprofit organizations and a diversity of approaches to the problems they seek to address. The project documents five primary approaches to addressing the public sphere: 1) Charity; 2) Organizing efforts; 3) Advocacy; 4) Community development; and 5) Interfaith dialogue.
Years: 2008-2011
Funder: The John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation
Read the Project Report: Forging a New Moral and Political Agenda
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The Abrahamic faiths—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—have stressed the importance of transmitting religious identity from one generation to the next. Today, that sustaining mission has never been more challenged. As part of this project, CRCC helped gather scholars and religious leaders across three faiths and many disciplines, to examine the religious lives of young people in today’s world and “best practices” developed to revitalize traditional institutions.
Years: 2004 – 2005
Funder: The Lilly Endowment
Read the Project Book: Passing on the Faith: Transforming Traditions for the Next Generation of Jews, Christians and Muslims, Edited by James L. Heft
CRCC researchers Tobin Belzer, Richard Flory, Nadia Roumani and Brie Loskota contributed a chapter on “Congregations that Get It: Understanding Religious Identities in the Next Generation.”
Research conducted for this book chapter led to the creation of the American Muslim Civic Leadership Institute at CRCC, which has trained 400 American Muslim leaders.
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Before Donald E. Miller and John B. Orr founded the USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture in 1996, they and sociologist Wade Clark Roof embarked on a study of the role of faith communities in responding to and rebuilding after Los Angeles’ 1992 civil unrest.
This research, and the subsequent “Politics of the Spirit” report, led to conversation with the James Irvine Foundation, which funded the establishment of the USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture, which would go on to conduct evaluative studies of faith organizations funded by the Irvine Foundation.
Years: 1993 – 1995
Funders: The John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation and The Lilly Endowment
Grant Amount (total): $426,000
Read the report: Politics of the Spirit: Religion and Multiethnicity in Los Angeles
Evaluation and Consulting Services
The USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture provides measurement, evaluation, research and learning (MERL) and consulting services to philanthropy, business and government to enhance their engagement with faith communities on social issues.
This work is rooted in CRCC’s empirical research on religious, cultural and social change. Our partnership model is participatory, reflective and iterative. It seeks to help funders and grantees learn from their initiatives, understand their work within broader religious and social trends, and incorporate learnings into future grantmaking or programming.
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Singapore’s Ministry of Culture, Community, and Youth contracted with CRCC to provide training and evaluation for its Young Leaders Programme before and after the 2025 the International Conference on Cohesive Societies (ICCS) in Singapore.
In preparation for the conference, CRCC facilitated a leadership development training on cross-cultural collaboration for 100 young adult leaders from Southeast Asia in 2024. Immediately following ICCS, CRCC facilitated the closing session of the Young Leaders Programme, helping participants synthesize learnings from the larger conference. CRCC’s session helped equip 150 young people with tools for resilience, collaboration and intercultural understanding as they returned to their homes throughout Southeast Asia.
CRCC also provided evaluation of both programs, administering and analyzing participant surveys.
Years: 2024-2025
Funder: Singapore Ministry of Culture, Community, and Youth
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The Center for Religion and Civic Culture served as the Measurement, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) partner for the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation’s Catholic Sisters Initiative. The MEL partnership spanned three grantmaking strategies. The MEL project produced a series of research and evaluation reports, facilitated domestic and international convenings, and hosted monitoring and evaluation webinars.
This work fostered communities of learning across women’s religious congregations, national and regional religious conferences, and faith-based service organizations in the Catholic ecosystem. CRCC was a thought partner with foundation staff and its board of directors using reports and presentations to accompany staff and board members through the process of developing and then refining their grantmaking strategies.
Years: 2014-2022
Funder: Conrad N. Hilton Foundation
Read select MEL reports and tools created for grantees
Explore articles about Catholic sisters and the Catholic Church
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CRCC partnered with the GHR Foundation to develop a learning assessment and portfolio review of GHR’s 10-year Inter-religious Action initiative. CRCC evaluated GHR’s investments in inter-religious action within the context of faith as a lever in achieving global development goals. The assessment produced recommendations on how GHR could responsibly exit from this body of philanthropic work and share its knowledge with broader audiences to encourage adaptations in practice and that enhances investments by other funders in this sector.
Years: 2020-2021
Funder: GHR Foundation
Read Assessment Report
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The USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture assessed the critical role of faith-based organizations in disaster response for the then-California Emergency Management Agency (Cal EMA) from 2010-2011.
CRCC’s evaluation called for stronger collaboration between public agencies and faith communities to enhance disaster resilience in California. Faith-based organizations are key partners for public agencies before, during and after crises but have been largely overlooked in disaster planning, aside from some involvement through Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (VOADs).
Cal EMA subsequently funded CRCC and the National Disaster Interfaiths Network (NDIN) to create a field guide and primer on religious literacy and competency to address the issues identified from CRCC’s study.
Funder: California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (formerly Cal EMA)
Read report: Faithful Action:Working with Religious Groups in Disaster Planning, Response and Recovery
Download Field Guide: Working with U.S. Faith Communities During Crises, Disasters and Public Health Emergencies: A Field Guide for Engagement, Partnerships and Religious Competency
Download Primer: The Religious Literacy Primer for Crises, Disasters and Public Health Emergencies
CRCC’s work led to additional partnerships with FEMA, the Red Cross and other agencies to create tip sheets, trainings, and an mobile app. NDIN and New York Disaster Interfaith Services continue to support this work.
Download App: Disasters and Religions App
Find out more: National Disaster Interfaiths Network
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The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations (AVDF) commissioned the Aspen Institute Inclusive America Project (IAP, now the Religion & Society Program) to conduct a review of content providers and creators of religious literacy materials in the categories of new media, education, and journalism. IAP partnered with the USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture to undertake the review, focusing on those three categories. This collaborative effort has two aims: to distill findings and recommendations that might inform an approach to building on content creators’ current work; and to offer resources to funders as they explore opportunities to participate in this work.
Years: 2019-2021
Funder: Arthur Vining Davis Foundations
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CRCC partnered with the National Association of Real Estate Brokers (NAREB) to produce guidance for real estate brokers about working with religious organizations and their members located in predominantly Black communities. Houses of worship are cornerstones in Black communities. By establishing trust and building partnerships with faith communities, real estate brokers can promote Black homeownership in those communities.
Years: 2018-2019
Funder: National Association of Real Estate Brokers
Read the Report: Religious Literacy Primer 2019
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CRCC provided consulting services to the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health to document the process and learnings of the Clergy/Mental Health Staff Roundtable Pilot Project. Mental health clinicians have unique knowledge and training but they can overlook the role of spirituality and religion in the therapeutic process. This consultation identified the strengths and successes of the project with the goal of improving it and potentially expanding it to further support clinicians and the populations they serve.
Years: 2010-2012
Funder: Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health
Read the Report: Clergy/Mental Health Staff Roundtable Pilot Project