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Brittany Shoots-Reinhard has a PhD in social psychology with a specialization in attitudes and persuasion and judgment and decision making.  She is also the Foundation Beyond Belief director of special projects.

Rather than charities simply explaining their cause, they often emphasize telling the stories of the people they help and showing their pictures. Charities have learned that people are more likely to give money when they can see who they’re helping and find out more about them. In fact, research shows that people are more motivated to give money to save a single victim than to potentially save thousands. This inconsistency in the way that we value lives is called the identifiable victim effect.

Although it seems cruel that people would be less willing to save thousands of lives than to save a single life, there are a number of reasons why we would do so. The first is that an individual person is more vivid than a boring statistic about number of lives being saved. The person’s picture and story are more likely to engage our emotions and influence our decisions and behavior (Nisbett & Ross, 1980).

Additionally, when giving to a specific person, we can be assured that person will be saved. For example, if we give money to sponsor a single student to attend school (e.g., through a program run by our past beneficiary Kasese Humanist Primary School), we will have helped 100% of the children we set out to send to school. If instead we gave the same amount of money to a charity that helps send hundreds of children to school, our donation only helped a fraction of the needy children, which is less psychologically satisfying than helping one particular child (Jenni & Loewenstein, 1997).
 
Unfortunately, though not surprisingly, teaching people about the identifiable victim effect reduces giving toward identifiable victims, but does not increase giving to statistical victims, thus making analytical thinking incompatible with charitable giving (Small, Loewenstein, & Slovic, 2007). Because charity often involves sympathy and empathy, reducing reliance on emotions would be expected to reduce charity as well.

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society makes great use of the identifiable victim effect by choosing “Honored Patients” each year and sharing their stories on their website, like Linnea’s (pictured here), and the FBB LLS team has encouraged each of our FBB Light the Night walkers to choose their own Honored Heroes.

So what should we do in our own fundraising efforts? We should follow the example set by successful charities and choose a “poster child” to put a face to our charity (and only one; see Kogut & Ritov, 2005). We can use the empathy people feel for identifiable victims to benefit statistical victims as well.

References

Jenni, K. E., & Loewenstein, G. (1997). Explaining the “Identifiable Victim Effect.” Journal of Risk & Uncertainty, 14(3), 235-257.

Kogut, T., , & Ritov, I. (2005). The “identified victim” effect: an identified group, or just a single individual? Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 18(3), 157 – 167. doi:10.1002/bdm.492

Nisbett, Richard, and Lee Ross (1980). Human Inference: Strategies and Shortcomings of Social Judgment. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Small, D. A., Loewenstein, G., & Slovic, P. (2007). Sympathy and callousness: The impact of deliberative thought on donations to identifiable and statistical victims. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 102(2), 143-153. doi:10.1016/j.obhdp.2006.01.005

One of the greatest strengths of Nourishing USA, our current Poverty & Health beneficiary, is that their work with food goes well beyond the norm of soup kitchens and food programs. They are passionate about using food and nutrition as a means to teach sustainable skills, build communities, reach vulnerable groups, and provide therapeutic and fun activities.

A perfect example of the extent of their food-related outreach is the GEMS cooking club. GEMS (Girls’ Education and Mentoring Services) is an organization based in New York state that aims to help girls and women exploited in the sex trade, providing a way for them to exit the trade, learn skills, and receive counseling. The Nourishing USA GEMS cooking club is partly therapeutic, recreational, and confidence-building, but also provides lessons in an important skill, as well as nutrition education. The foods created, from chicken curries to strawberries-and-cream tortillas, are healthy takes on well-loved foods, using substitute ingredients such as whole-wheat flour to boost nutritional values. In addition to the cooking classes, Nourishing USA has donated ingredients and equipment for the GEMS women to recreate the dishes they have learned to make.

A similar outreach program is the Junior Chef Class, aimed at a much younger group. Odyssey House in Harlem provides services ranging from mental health and dental treatment to educational vocational services to vulnerable families in the community, and Nourishing USA is contributing to their outreach by offering nutrition-based cooking classes at the center, for children aged 3 to 4. The children help to create healthy meals and then enthusiastically help to eat the delicious food, all the while learning basic information about nutrition and kitchen safety.

These classes help to fulfill Nourishing USA’s mandate to Feed, Educate, and Advocate, while offering enjoyable, confidence-building activities for vulnerable groups.

Staff Spotlight: Dale McGowan

Dale McGowan, a former college professor, currently serves as the Executive Director of Foundation Beyond Belief. Dale is editor and co-author of Parenting Beyond Belief and Raising Freethinkers, the first comprehensive resources for nonreligious parents. Dale is regularly involved in teaching nonreligious parenting techniques via his blog The Meming of Life as well as holding seminars that impart secular parenting methods.

After being named the 2008 Harvard Humanist of the Year by the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard, Dale went on to incorporate the Foundation Beyond Belief in 2009, after identifying the need to demonstrate humanism at its best. This would be done by supporting efforts to improve this world and this life, and to challenge humanists to embody the highest principles of humanism, including mutual care and responsibility. The charitable giving program was launched in 2010.

In 2009, Dale served as U.S. Communications Coordinator for Nonviolent Peaceforce, a global civilian peacekeeping organization based in Brussels. While living in Minneapolis, he was a charter member of the Critical Thinking Club, Inc., and has taught critical thinking skills in the college classroom, the corporate boardroom, and public venues.

Dale holds degrees in physical anthropology and music theory from UC Berkeley as well as a Ph.D. in music composition and theory from the University of Minnesota.

Third-quarter children’s beneficiary Camp Quest gave us this report about how they are using the funds contributed by members of Foundation Beyond Belief. Members donated $3,325 to Camp Quest last quarter.

Camp Quest was honored to be selected as a Foundation Beyond Belief beneficiary for a second year. Like last year, we are using the Foundation’s support to launch new camps.  It takes about $5,000 in seed money to start a new camp. Camp Quest gives out grants of $2,500, which gets our volunteer camp organizers halfway there, and they match that amount by raising the rest from local supporters. In 2010, Camp Quest used the $2,470 raised by Foundation Beyond Belief toward a camp-starting grant for Camp Quest Chesapeake, which had a very successful first camp session in 2011 with 35 campers.

This year, of the $3,325 raised by Foundation Beyond Belief, we are using $2,500 to fully fund a camp-starting grant for Camp Quest South Carolina.  Camp Quest South Carolina held a very successful family weekend October 1-2, which was attended by more than 120 people.  They are preparing to hold their first week-long sleep-away camp session in summer 2012, and the $2,500 camp-starting grant will make a big difference.

But that’s not all! We are putting the remaining $825 raised by Foundation Beyond Belief toward another camp-starting grant.  We are very excited to announce that Camp Quest is coming to Washington State. Camp Quest NorthWest will be holding their first session August 15-21, 2012.  Support from Foundation Beyond Belief will provide one-third of their camp starting grant.

Foundation Beyond Belief’s support over these last two years is making a huge difference for Camp Quest.  We want to thank all of the members of the Foundation for their generosity. It means a lot to us to see a community of atheists, humanists, and other freethinkers coming together to support Camp Quest and so many other worthy organizations.  Thank you Foundation Beyond Belief!

Amanda K. Metskas
Executive Director, Camp Quest, Inc.

We are very pleased to announce that five new teams have joined the Volunteers Beyond Belief program, and that we are kicking off a special partnership with a major national secular group!

First, this cycle of new teams is also the beginning of an exciting joint effort with the Secular Student Alliance (SSA)!  During each future application cycle, Volunteers Beyond Belief will select at least one new student group that is especially focused on volunteer activities to join our team!  We are also working with the SSA to include student groups that want to increase their volunteer activism and aren’t quite ready to commit to at least one volunteer event every six weeks.  

So if you’re a student group and interested in becoming a Volunteers Beyond Belief team, please check out our application page for more information.  If you want to join the many other SSA groups who will have access to the same tools and resources that our teams do, please contact us, or the SSA campus organizer, Lyz Liddell.  

And now to introduce our five new teams!  Drum roll please……..

Founded two years ago, the University of Chicago Secular Alliance has grown from a group of 8 students meeting once a week to watch YouTube videos and discuss secular issues in the world, to a significant part of the spiritual life community on campus. They regularly host special events and provide an engaging environment for secularists at the University of Chicago. 

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Third-quarter beneficiary Camp Quest gave us this report on how the funds they received from Foundation Beyond Belief will help them with their ongoing work.

For an organization with a small budget like Camp Quest, the $2,470 donation from the Foundation Beyond Belief makes a huge difference. Camp Quest operates almost entirely on volunteer labor, and currently we have volunteers starting new camps in a few locations. It takes about $5,000 in seed money to get a new camp started. We give out grants of $2,500 to get our volunteers halfway there, and they match that amount by raising the rest of the funds from local supporters. The $2,470 from Foundation Beyond Belief almost entirely funds our start-up grant to Camp Quest Chesapeake, which is having its first session in summer 2011 in Virginia.

In 2010, Camp Quest had more campers attend camp than ever before, and some of our locations even had to start a waiting list because they reached capacity. Launching new camps helps us meet this increasing demand and provides parents with options to send their children to camp closer to home.

We want to thank Foundation Beyond Belief for selecting Camp Quest, and we want to thank all of the members of the foundation for their generosity. It means a lot to us to see a community of atheists, humanists, and other freethinkers coming together to support our program along with so many other worthy organizations.

Amanda K. Metskas
Executive Director, Camp Quest, Inc.

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Our hearts go out to the people whose lives have been shattered by the earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12. Early death toll estimates are in the thousands, but officials fear the final count could top 100,000. Essential infrastructure has been flattened, and many skilled workers (including health care providers) who could help with recovery are missing or dead. Haiti is in urgent need of assistance in this time of crisis.

Charity Navigator has compiled a list of organizations that are responding to the earthquake in Haiti. Many of these organizations are not only doing great work, but also work with philosophies and practices that are in line with Foundation Beyond Belief’s mission.