WASHINGTON — President Bush prodded corporate America on Thursday to open its wallet to faith-based charities and declared his administration's efforts in that area a great success. Independent analysts said the picture was far less clear.

While the federal government sent more than $2 billion to religious charities last year, the five-year White House priority has fallen far short of the ambitious goals that Bush touted as a presidential candidate in 2000.

Some faith-based groups shun government money to avoid restrictions on religious activity. Others find the federal grant process overwhelming. Liberal critics have attacked the program in court, asserting that the president's outreach to religious charities violates the principle of church-state separation.

Bush's effort to steer federal money to faith-based charities was a core element of the "compassionate conservative" agenda that he spelled out in 2000. The idea that faith can change lives for the better is personal for the president. He says his faith helped him overcome his "wandering years," when he drank heavily and lacked career goals.

"One of the things that really inspires me is when I get to meet folks who are on the front line of changing America one soul at a time," he said at a White House conference for religious charities. "Government can pass law and it can hand out money, but it cannot love."

He urged corporations and charitable foundations to increase their financial support to faith-based groups. A recent White House survey of 20 large corporate foundations found that about 6 percent of their donations went to religious organizations.

"I believe all of us, no matter if we're private or public, ought to allow religious organizations to compete for funding on an equal basis, not for the sake of faith, but for the sake of results," he said.

Gauging the success of Bush's five-year effort is tricky, because no one can say for sure how much government money goes to faith-based organizations or what they do with it. White House officials acknowledge that their $2.1 billion figure for last year is a best-guess estimate.

Academic studies that try to measure the effectiveness of charitable work fail to support the president's opinion that religious groups work better than secular organizations.

"The faith component, in and of itself, does not predict success or failure," said Sheila Kennedy, a law professor at Indiana University who has studied welfare-to-work programs. "The landscape was much more complex than the president seemed to understand."

Government cooperation with faith-based charities is nothing new, but Bush has tried to take it to a new level. At his direction, every major federal agency has designated someone to work with religious groups on federal grants and contracts. Earlier this week, the anti-terrorism Homeland Security Department became the 11th agency to establish an office for faith-based initiatives.

The government also has sponsored nearly two dozen regional conferences to help religious groups compete for federal dollars.

"As far as opening the doors to faith-based groups, it's had an impact on that," said R. Bryan Jackson, of The Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy, a project of the Rockefeller Institute of Government.

But Jackson said the outreach effort had been "a mixed bag" because some religious groups either didn't want federal money or couldn't meet government requirements. And growing budget pressures mean that organizations seeking money face plenty of competition.

"More players are interested in a shrinking pie. The world has changed since this whole thing began back in 2001," Jackson said. "If there were all kinds of money for new initiatives, you probably would see more progress."

David Kuo, a former deputy director of the White House faith-based office, concluded in a blistering critique last year that the program has become "a whisper of what was promised." He blamed opposition from congressional Democrats, indifference among congressional Republicans and a "minimal" White House commitment.

But Bush assured religious groups Thursday that he's as committed as ever to his goal of putting faith to work on social problems. He said he was trying to "change the culture" in Washington.

"You can't be a faith-based program if you don't practice your faith," he said. "We welcome your participation."