Religious activities generally need some infrastructure to be conducted. For this reason, there generally exist religion-supporting organizations, which are some form of organization that organize:

• the upkeep of places of worship, e.g. mosques, prayer rooms, other similar edifices or meeting places.
• the payment of salaries to priests, ministers or religious leaders.

In addition, such organizations may have other responsibilities, such as: the formation, nomination or appointment of religious leaders, the establishment of a corpus of doctrine, the disciplining of priests or other people with respect to religious law, etc.

Legal status

Public organizations

Some countries run the activities of one or more religions as part of their government, or as external organizations closely supported by the government. See state religion.