Search results for: Dale McGowan

Member Spotlight: Joel Justiss, San Antonio, Texas  

A little bit about yourself and your family: During family dinners when I was a child, my father often told about the families he attempted to assist in his job as a county child welfare worker. His accounts of neglected children and parents who struggled with difficult circumstances were often heart-rending. I knew that when I grew up I wanted to have a career as important as his in helping other people.  

It didn’t work out that way. Now, as a business software developer too rapidly approaching retirement age, I take satisfaction in being able to give some financial support to other people who are doing the kind of work I’ve always considered to be the most significant.  

How did you first hear about the Foundation? As a survivor of a fundamentalist Christian upbringing, I’m thrilled to read about Dale McGowan’s experiences with secular parenting in his “The Meming of Life” blog. When he began writing there about creating the Foundation, I was intrigued.  

Why are you a member? Most of my contributions are to large, well-established, international charities. In the past I’ve given small amounts to small charities, but found that they spent most of my donation on mailing me pleas for more contributions. The Foundation solves that problem neatly by enabling me to support many good efforts without getting on any mailing lists. The research and screening that goes into selecting the beneficiaries gives me confidence that the charities I’m supporting are legitimate and worthwhile.

The Freethought Film Festival Foundation is hosting the first annual Freethought Celebrity Charity Texas Hold ‘Em Poker Tournament and Casino Night August 1, 2012, at The Church nightclub in Denver, Colorado. Proceeds from this event will go to Foundation Beyond Belief.

“This is going to be an amazing event,” said Dale McGowan, executive director of Foundation Beyond Belief. “We’re thrilled to be involved and grateful to FFFF for naming the Foundation as the event beneficiary.”

Tournament seating is limited to 135 players. Check the Freethought Film Festival Foundation website for information about reserving your space or sponsoring the event.

Message from FBB Executive Director Dale McGowan

Hello Foundation members!

Thank you to all the members who put so much thought and care into our first comprehensive member survey! Your responses and ideas were front and center last month when the Board of Directors met in Chicago for our annual strategy meeting.

You were very good about identifying the things you like, and we’ll do our best to keep those features in place as we move forward. You also gave us terrific, constructive input about what we could do differently. So in the next six months, we’ll be rolling out some changes we hope you’ll like — including a big one I’d like to announce right now.

We’ve heard that it’s often hard for members to get familiar with our slate of ten charities each quarter before a new quarter is upon us. It’s also been hard for us to effectively tell the stories of so many great organizations in a three-month span. That makes deep engagement a real challenge.

We’ve also heard a desire to have a greater financial impact on each charity. Though we’ve increased our average grants from $1,200 to $3,300 since launch, we’d like to make an even bigger difference in the work of our beneficiaries.

The Board discussed several different ways we might change our model to address these needs, finally hitting on a solution that I think is elegant and effective — reducing our ten cause categories to five, thereby doubling our average grant to over $6,500 and making real engagement more feasible.

This had to be done thoughtfully. The humanistic vision of many of our members is deeply connected to one or more of our cause areas, so we knew we couldn’t simply make entire categories vanish. The answer that emerged was combining categories that already have a clear affinity. Animal Protection and Environment are so inextricable that many of their beneficiaries to-date could have been in either category. Same with Poverty and Health, or Peace and Human Rights. And nearly every Education and Poverty charity we’ve featured has benefitted Children first and foremost. (Because it features organizations in non-secular worldviews, Challenge the Gap is our one uncombinable category.) 

Beginning Jan 1, 2012, our charitable giving program will feature five categories:

• THE NATURAL WORLD—organizations working to protect and preserve the environment, ecosystems, and the diversity of life on Earth;
• POVERTY and HEALTH—organizations improving the conditions of human life for those living on the margins;
• EDUCATION—organizations dedicated to improving access for all to the best of human knowledge;
• HUMAN RIGHTS—organizations working for a more equitable and just world;
• CHALLENGE THE GAP—non-proselytizing, progressive religious charities working for the common good.

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As you may have heard, a planned project by Foundation Beyond Belief to raise up to a half million dollars through the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life program was recently tabled when ACS declined to allow us to create a national Relay team as other non-profits have done.

The initiative was the idea of humanist philanthropist Todd Stiefel, a steadfast supporter of FBB, whose family has been devastated by the disease for generations. Todd offered to head up the effort; he and his father Charles offered an astonishing $250,000 in matching grants; and we dedicated one of our intern positions to assist in organizing local teams around the U.S. It was an exciting opportunity to do what we have always done: rally the compassion and generosity of the nontheistic community for the greater good. Our approach was met with initial enthusiasm and excitement from ACS — then, quite suddenly, a brick wall. (Read more here and here.)

It’s common practice for non-profits to decline support when they feel an association would result in a greater loss of support from other donors. Several such incidents have been in the news over the years. Unfortunately, such policies can have the effect of reinforcing stereotypes by keeping a perceived pariah on the cultural margins. Regardless of any short-term benefits to an organization’s cash flow, the maintenance of pariahs simply isn’t good for the culture.

This is not the first time we have been declined by an organization we had hoped to support—it is the fourth, in fact—nor is it likely to be the last. But in each previous case, we have chosen not to talk publicly about it, preferring to focus on the more than 70 charitable organizations who have been happy and grateful to accept our partnership in alleviating suffering and injustice around the world. This time, however, the frustration became part of a public conversation.

We are so grateful to Todd for his efforts and sorry for this disappointing outcome. Though both Todd and FBB are focused on other projects now, we have every intention of redirecting the positive energy of our community to another organization in the future. Thanks to all for your expressions of support and encouragement.

Dale McGowan
Executive Director, Foundation Beyond Belief

More on the story can be found at Greta Christina’s blog and AlterNet

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Meet Foundation Beyond Belief Executive Director Dale McGowan and Volunteers Beyond Belief Program Coordinator Noelle George at the Atheist Alliance of America Texas Freethought Convention, October 7-9 in Houston. Noelle will participate in Margaret Downey’s “Altruism Action” panel October 7 at 2:30 pm, and Dale will present “Humanity at Work” October 8 at 9:30 am. Stop by Foundation Beyond Belief’s table and say hello!

The event will feature renowned British biologist and author Richard Dawkins as its keynote speaker. The theme of the convention is “From Grassroots to Global Impact” and will feature a full slate of speakers, as well as interactive panels, a vendor fair, live music, a comedy night, and a secular parenting workshop.

If you live in the Houston area or are planning to attend the convention, AAA/TFC is offering a $50-$100 rebate for convention volunteers. Send an email to convolunteer2011@gmail.com with your name and availability.

Personal comment from executive director Dale McGowan

Some ethical questions are difficult, and some are not.

Two churches in Bend, Oregon were tagged with graffiti over the weekend, including symbols and slogans associated with the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. FSM is one of the most clever and creative religious parodies I’ve ever seen. That makes it especially galling that someone has now linked it with mindless, pointless, counter-productive stupidity.

When something so clearly indefensible happens, the obvious ethical response is to condemn it, period — to say it was wrong, and not add a “but.” Fortunately many atheist, humanist, and Pastafarian blogs are doing exactly that, without equivocation.

Now Friendly Atheist and FBB board president Hemant Mehta has gone one step further, putting ethics into action by organizing a ChipIn drive to raise money to repair the damage.

The power of this gesture is incredible. Whether your interest is in showing that atheists are ethical, or bridging the gap between worldviews, or rising above tribalism, or opposing antisocial action, or in simply doing the right thing, it’s hard to imagine a better opportunity.

Some commenters have opposed the idea, saying they would never give money to a church for any reason, that the churches already have enough tax-free money to fix the damage, that the money would indirectly support proselytizing, that “they would never do the same for us,” and more.

Though it’s fine to make a personal choice one way or another, I find these particular arguments really disappointing and shortsighted. Whether they need the money utterly misses the point of the symbolic gesture against the act itself. Arguing that “they would not do the same for us” implies that we should measure our moral incentives on the lowest common denominator of those around us. I could go on for pages of Internet here.

But I do understand where these arguments come from. A lot of us have been wounded by religion. There’s no diminishing that reality, and it takes time and effort to get past the all-consuming influence of that justified anger. We should never stop opposing the ill effects of religion, but we do need to make sure that anger doesn’t blunt our ability to reason, to discern, and to act ethically — including the willingness to act more ethically than others.

Fortunately, many are rising to the challenge to do the right thing in this situation, expressing our opposition to the unethical incident without asking the victim’s worldview. Some are even going further by donating to right the wrong. It’s an extraordinary opportunity to demonstrate humanism at its best. I hope that those of you who see the game-changing power of that gesture will add your support as well.

By way of full disclosure: Hemant has named FBB as the recipient of any overflow from this drive. I for one hope we don’t receive a dime — that instead, every bit goes toward this unique ethical gesture. Kudos to Hemant for leading the way.

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One of the most important tasks of the Foundation is connecting our members to the extraordinary work of the organizations we support. And one of our primary tools for making that connection is this, our homepage blog, which is managed and edited by Kelly Wright.

Kelly tells the story of her discovery of FBB:

“In mid 2009, I was thinking about the fact that it is very important to me to be involved with causes I believe in, but I wasn’t actually volunteering anywhere. I’d been searching around to find an outlet for my impulse to volunteer, but I couldn’t find a cause that felt like a perfect fit. I’d been following [Dale McGowan’s blog] the Meming of Life for some time, and Dale had been going on and on about some big announcement he was going to make. I mostly ignored it, figuring it wouldn’t be anything all that interesting to me. Then when he announced the formation of Foundation Beyond Belief, I thought, ‘That’s it! That’s what I’ve been looking for! I must be involved with that!'”

Kelly eventually signed on as our blog editor, and her husband Airan as our web designer and administrator.

“I so strongly support FBB’s mission, and I want to be a part of that mission,” she says. “Also, I want my daughters to see their parents actively involved in trying to make the world a better place, and I want them to be active, too. Maybe in a few years, we’ll recruit them as junior charity researchers.”

We are so grateful to have Kelly aboard!

In the five days since Japan was devastated by an 8.9 earthquake and massive tsunami, it has become clear that most international relief organizations would be only marginally involved in the response. Through long, painful experience, Japan has become the best-prepared nation on Earth for natural disasters.

Even so, the sheer scale of the task at hand will require an immense amount of effort and financial resources. As donations poured in from our generous members and supporters, we monitored the situation to determine how best to direct the funds. Today it became clear that our support would do the most good not in international hands, but by direct contribution to the domestic Japanese agency at the center of this massive effort.

Foundation Beyond Belief will forward 100 percent of collected funds to the Japanese Red Cross.

The Japanese Red Cross operates 92 hospitals nationwide and forms the backbone of domestic disaster response in Japan. By donating directly to JRCS, we can be confident that our funds are going where they are needed for the long recovery ahead.

As of Tuesday afternoon, our members and supporters have donated over $8,000 to the relief fund. [UPDATE: As of Wednesday afternoon, total donations exceed $12,000.]

To make a donation to the Japanese Red Cross through Foundation Beyond Belief, click on the orange ChipIn button in the sidebar, or go directly to the ChipIn page. As always, your full donation will go to the beneficiary.

Deepest thanks for your compassionate support for the people of Japan.

Dale McGowan

Executive Director

Among our plans for 2011 was the creation of a rapid disaster relief feature. It was scheduled to launch in summer 2011. But nature has its own schedule.

As you know, a massive 8.9 earthquake and tsunami have devastated coastal areas in several countries in the western Pacific. Even Japan, perhaps the most earthquake-ready nation on Earth, is reeling from the destruction of its largest quake on record. 

When the scale of damage is this large, we are sometimes stunned into inaction, feeling that a few dollars can’t make a difference. But as always, many small acts of generosity add up to a major impact. Now is the time to put humanist compassion to work.

Foundation Beyond Belief is now accepting donations for relief efforts currently underway. To donate through the Foundation, click on the ChipIn widget in the upper right sidebar.

No two natural disasters are alike. The earthquakes in Haiti and Chile presented dramatically different challenges for relief organizations, and the current quake and tsunami will have its own unique character. It takes 24 to 48 hours for the profile of a given disaster to become clear. Foundation Beyond Belief will begin collecting funds immediately but wait to decide on a recipient until the greatest needs of the situation are clearer. In any case, donations received by FBB will go to a major secular relief organization responding directly to the crisis.

Thanks for your help!
Dale McGowan
Executive Director

Early this morning, total donations from the members of Foundation Beyond Belief to our featured charities quietly surpassed $100,000.

That money has done a lot of good in our one and only world — feeding the hungry, educating children, providing access to health care, protecting biodiversity, fighting climate change, and supporting organizations that work for peace and basic human rights.