Finally, a Charity Targeting Atheist Donors

January 1, 2010 By Guest Contributor 11 Comments

For months now, I’ve been writing about Foundation Beyond Belief.

Foundation Beyond Belief is a new 501c3 charitable and educational foundation created (1) to focus, encourage and demonstrate humanistic generosity, and (2) to support a nationwide nonreligious parent education program.

For a while, we’ve been working on getting the website ready, getting the first slate of charities chosen, and building a fan base.

We’re finally ready to go:

This is a chance for us to prove we’re just as capable of volunteering our time and giving our money as any religious person.

This is an opportunity for us to help causes we may not typically think about.

This is a project I’ve been excited about ever since I first got involved with it.

Here is how the program works:

You sign up for monthly donations (of your choosing) and then decide how you want your money divided up. There are 10 categories to choose from: environment, education, health, human rights, peace, poverty, children, animals, “big bang” (small charity, big impact), and the foundation itself. The charities within each category change each quarter (with nominations culled from FBB members).

Please consider this as a new year’s resolution for yourself: Give at least $20/month.

That’s what I’m doing.

If you can afford more, consider giving more.

Let this foundation grow and let it be a symbol of the power of Humanism and the effect that a bunch of atheists can have to make this world a better place.

Filed Under: Atheist Generosity, General 11 Comments
  • http://www.youtube.com/user/infidelavenger InfidelAvenger

    I’m such a nice guy, I went and made a video announcing this very charity on my YouTube channel.

  • Pingback: Atheist generosity….AWESOME!! « The Incredible Blog of His Eminence, the Most-High Reverend Atheist

  • masud

    we’re just as capable of volunteering our time and giving our money as any religious person.

    I don’t quite like the comparison. A religious person usually does it to please the god. We have nobody to please. We do it ABSOLUTELY SELFLESSLY.

  • littlejohn

    I’m unemployed and in no position to domate money, but I’m in much better health than I deserve. I’m looking into donating a B-negative kidney to someone – even a Christian – in the Indiana area. Any suggestions?

  • Leilani

    I think that we have something to prove. What good are the bus signs that say ‘Good for goodness sake’, if we don’t back it up with proof. We are good people too, without the fear of an invisible sky daddy.

    More and more people are becoming non-religious, I went from being Mormon to Atheist this past year, and it’s nice to see a charity that I feel safe giving my money to. It’s nice to know that it won’t get spent on Bible’s and propaganda.

  • Deiloh

    I’m low with the pennies, have added the charity to my donation wish list. Thanx for the info!

  • Jamie

    Thanks for this Leilani. My sentiments exactly.

    “I think that we have something to prove. What good are the bus signs that say ‘Good for goodness sake’, if we don’t back it up with proof. We are good people too, without the fear of an invisible sky daddy.”

    I like the signs, especially the ones that wish everyone a happy holiday season, but I also like to see the non-religious in public doing something besides drinking beer and criticizing. I know there are a lot of good people out there, and it will take acknowledgment, encouragement and honesty to show that it doesn’t take god to do well in life.

  • muggle

    Cool! It’s about time. I’ve applied for a disability pension and, if I get it, money may be tight but I think I’ll go along with the $20 a month at least until I can’t afford to any more.

    (And if I get the disability pension from my retirement system, I’m also applying for Social Security and if I have both, I should be able to at least afford the $20 monthly.)

    This is more important than words if we can make a go of it, people. Not just for what it will accomplish in good and making the world a better place but image and influence-wise.

    Just a few things:

    Does this mean we can finally hope for a charity that alongside feeding hungry children educates about birth control so they’re not born to starve in the first place? That bugs the hell out of me with the current feed the starving children ads.

    I’m all for animal protection but I do not want it to extend to the insanity of specieism.

    Can I designate some portion for the Foundation itself to go to advertising this? We’ll need to get the word out and we certainly want to make a huge difference.

    One final comment: I just love, love, love the name. Foundation Beyond Belief! I couldn’t have picked a better name. What genius thought that name up? Keep it. It’s great.

  • Ashlyn

    All I wish is that I could set up a paypal subscription instead of using a credit card. I imagine the foundation doesn’t use paypal because of the fees, but it’s really difficult for me to participate otherwise.

  • http://iamtheblog.com I Am The Blog

    I think this project could be a very positive thing. One possible concern I have personally though is that there seems to be too much emphasis on proving that (secular) humanists and atheists are generous. I’m an atheist and humanist myself, but there’s something about it that hits me a little strange. I think it’s mostly the first stated goal of the organization.

    Foundation Beyond Belief is a new non-profit charitable and educational foundation created (1) to focus, encourage and demonstrate humanistic generosity, and (2) to provide a comprehensive education and support program for humanist parents

    Maybe it wasn’t the intent to make it sound like promoting humanism was more important than the charities being helped, but that’s how it comes off to me and might come off to others.

    In my opinion, the primary focus of a charity should be on the charitable work itself and who is being helped. What I dislike about many religious charities is exactly the fact that they don’t seem to be doing it just to be charitable: they infuse or promote religion in their charitable work (literature, mission statements, etc.).

    As important as I feel promoting humanism and freethought is, I would like a foundation to help people just to help people, not to promote an agenda. If the only cause the foundation worked for were promoting humanism or humanists (such as in goal 2), then it would make sense for a primary goal to be showing humanists are charitable. But it sounds like many, if not most, of the causes that will be helped through the Foundation aren’t humanist charities. So I think “demonstrat[ing] humanistic generosity” should be a secondary goal.

    It may be a minor point or subtle nuance, but I would very willingly donate to a group that supports environment, education, human rights, etc. which happened to be founded and supported by non-theists, but even though I’m an atheist and humanist myself, I’m not sure if I would personally support a group with a main goal of giving to charities in the name of humanism in order to show that non-theists can be giving.

    That doesn’t mean I want to discourage anyone else from donating at all. I’m sure the Foundation will do a lot of good work, and I think it is very good that atheists/humanists/etc. are getting together for charitable work. It’s just my take on the mission statement.

  • BathTub

    This looks quite interesting, will definitely have a read through the website.