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A new report highlights which states have laws and policies on the books that are the friendliest and most hostile to faith-based nonprofits.
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The Napa Legal Institute released its 2025 Faith and Freedom Index on Monday. The report ranks each state on a scale of 0-100 based on its protections for religious nonprofit organizations. The overall score is based on a state’s “religious freedom score” and its “regulatory freedom score.”
Senior Counsel and Napa Legal Institute Director of Content Frank DeVito said the index is a “powerful tool for lawmakers to see where they must add protections, strengthen existing state laws, or repeal harmful state laws.”
A state’s religious freedom score is determined by several factors, such as the presence or absence of state constitutional protection of free exercise, whether the state has passed a Religious Freedom Restoration Act, religious freedom conditions for nonprofits with public programming, religious freedom conditions for faith-based employers, protections for religious exercise during a state emergency and state Blaine Amendments.
The states that ranked lowest in religious freedom were Michigan (22%), Vermont (23%), Delaware (25%), Washington (26%) and Maryland (27%).
In a statement reacting to the 2025 Faith and Freedom Index’s release, the Napa Legal Institute singled out Michigan and Washington as states that “over-burden and are even hostile towards faith-based nonprofits.”
On the other hand, Alabama (86%) and Kansas (79%) scored the highest in the religious freedom category. Other states that rounded out the top five in religious freedom were Mississippi (67%), Georgia (67%) and Florida (63%). The Napa Legal Institute praised Alabama and Kansas for their “exemplary protections for faith-based nonprofits that other states should emulate.”
“The many religious freedom attacks over the past few years are chilling reminders that without staunch state level protections for religious freedom, ordinary Americans will suffer, regardless of how supportive the current Administration may be,” said DeVito. “Too many Americans have been forced to spend precious time and money litigating issues that should never have gone to court in the first place.”
In the regulatory freedom category, Indiana and Montana had the highest scores of 82% and 80%, respectively. Iowa (79%) and Arizona (77%) also secured spots in the top five, while Texas (76%) and Wyoming (76%) were tied for fifth place. At the other end of the spectrum, Illinois ranked last with a regulatory freedom score of 40%. Other states that ranked near the bottom in this category were Michigan (45%), Massachusetts (48%), South Dakota (49%) and Washington (49%).
State regulatory freedom scores are also determined by several factors, like the state’s nonprofit religious corporation law, prior notice and consent requirements for major corporate actions, standards of conduct for directors of religious organizations, charitable registration law, audit requirements pursuant to charitable registration, corporate income tax and exemptions, sales tax and exemptions, use taxes and exemptions as well as property taxes and exemptions.
The states with the highest overall score were Alabama (72%) and Kansas (69%). Other states with high overall scores included Indiana (68%), Texas (65%) and Mississippi (63%).
The report praised Alabama for “strong constitutional protections for free exercise of religion, a state constitutional amendment requiring government burdens on religious exercise to satisfy strict scrutiny, and an automatic exemption from state corporate income tax for organizations with federal 501(c)(3) status.”
On the other hand, Michigan (31%) and Washington (35%) had the lowest overall scores. Massachusetts had an overall score of 37% while Illinois, Maryland and West Virginia all received overall scores of 38%.
The report criticizes Michigan for its “broad Blaine Amendment,” which prohibits religious organizations from receiving state funding, and for “nondiscrimination laws regarding public accommodations and employment that include no meaningful exemptions for religious organizations.”
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This article was originally published at The Christian Post. Photo Credit: Canva Teams.
