Charlotte Atheists and Agnostics also did our first-ever information booth at the festival as part of our community outreach.
http://charlotteatheists.com/

Even if they don’t, how is this organization an Atheist? Because its founder is so openly Atheist? Seems the James Randi Educational Foundation suggested would have the same obstacle.

But I have a bigger question. If this is non-profit and the proceeds go to charity, why not just lower the ticket prices to break even? I hate, hate, hate when they do that. A telethon or something that is promoted as being for a charity sure, but to have a general pop festival or something else that is of general interest and then to tack on the money goes to charity is so you can’t enjoy this music unless you support this cause so yes I guess I do disagree with those avoiding but I would even for a more benign purpose. You want to give to the people, do without the “proceeds”, break even and make the event more accessible to more people by lowering the ticket price.

World Vision Sponsor a Child

That makes me giggle. They went from explicitly Christian World Vision to explicitly Atheist Dawkins Foundation in one year?

World Vision is a lot closer to that “warm and fuzzy” area than the Dawkins Foundation though, as while they are very much a Christian charity in terms of their values (and who they’ll take on as volunteers) they are also very much committed to global development with minimal proselytizing. I wouldn’t explicitly donate to them, at the same time I wouldn’t avoid an event because it might support them a little.

I don’t really think it’s the place for a generic music festival to support a more “extreme” charity, and I think the Dawkins foundation qualifies. It may be that the money was earmarked for perfectly wonderful minimally controversial educational programs, but there’s still the name behind the foundation and the rest of it’s mission, which does include promoting atheism. They should choose a more broadly based organization to support. A local museum (the “Charlotte Nature Museum” seems like a likely candidate) or one of the other science education charities mentioned would have been great.

There’s a reason most broadly based events that want to support a charity chose something warm and fuzzy that 90% of people can get behind as at least not being something they definitely don’t want their money to go to. If you want to have an Atheist or Evolution music festival and support the Dawkins foundation, go right ahead, but it’s not an appropriate charity for something wanting to sell itself to a wide audience.

I think he might have picked the National Center for Science Education if he wanted to avoid any controversy. Or the James Randi Educational Foundation. Or any number of other, less provocatively titled organizations.