Faith-Based Platforms

We develop a new model of faith-based organizations (FBOs) as multi-sided platforms. Faithbased platforms (FBPs) offer two types of services. The first is a religious service that includes providing a moral narrative, giving guidance and counselling, and proposing access to the divine through prayer, meditation or rituals. The second is a networking service that allows members to connect with members who come for the religious service. By offeringboth types of service, FBPs benefit from the spill-over effect of the religious service, whichhelps to screen for trustworthy network members. FBPs are more profitable than organizations that only offer areligious service, often even per capita, and are generally larger in size. The optimal community size depends on the type of interactions the FBP fosters and how much it invests in the quality of the religious service. This can explain the diversity of FBOs that continue to thrive despite secular competition and some recent phenomena that cannot be fully explained by existing models of FBOs, such as the growth of religion in some urban settings and the emergence of religious communities that have grown very large without sacrificing high profits per member.