How Much Money Does the Religious Right Take In?

I received an email from Americans United for Separation of Church and State with the following banner image indicating how much money the following Christian Right organizations take in annually (click for larger version):

Most atheist organizations wouldn’t appear on this list. Only a couple would crack the very bottom of it.

We have a long way to go before politicians and society as a whole care about our concerns.

With less money, it’s harder to advertise what we’re fighting for. It’s harder to file lawsuits to defend our rights (right now, many groups have to pick and choose which important cases to take on).

With more money, there’s more awareness of the organization and exposure of what they represent.

With the end of the year approaching, I hope you consider donating to an atheist non-profit along with other secular charities.

Here’s a list of donation pages for various groups that could use your support:

American Atheists
American Humanist Association
Secular Coalition for America
Secular Student Alliance
Freedom From Religion Foundation
Center for Inquiry
Americans United

Chris (in Columbus)

Oh, my word…that’s just terrifying. Seriously.

Why don’t they take that money and help the poor, the needy, the starving children throughout the world? Why don’t they give shelter to the homeless and do the things that Jesus would?

Oh, because they have Rolexes to wear and Jaguars to buy! Silly me. I forgot that God wants all of his followers to be rich! How could I have forgotten?
christy c

I find giving money to anything but physical need, i.e., hunger, health care, senseless.

Christian or atheist.

Doesn’t it smack of a social club promoting its prestige?

Humans can be such herd animals. (Yeah, me too, at times…..)
justin jm

That’s $517.6 million dollars in total. I know that throwing money at something doesn’t insure you will succeed (at least in politics) but the deck is definitely stacked against us.

At least the good thing about blogs is their (relatively) low cost. Without the Internet, were would the various atheist groups be?
Alex

Mind you, the entertainment value of being able to laugh at the lunatic ranting and logic-mangling raving is priceless.
hoverFrog

If the state taxed them 10% on these huge assets then they’d have $50m to spend on some really cool stuff. Like a dozen tanks.

Meh! I’m unimpressed. Jerry Falwell can’t even afford a pair of tanks for himself to stand outside his tomb.
Jeff E.

I’m surprised that Falwell takes in so little, relative to the others.
Lost Left Coaster

I know that a lot of atheists aren’t joiners, but I hope people remember that church/state separation cases don’t fund themselves, nor do the great publications out there that promote atheist/humanist ideas and philosophy. There are a lot of great organizations out there doing great work. It’s so much harder for Americans in general to get a sense, even, of how many of us out here are nonbelievers when we aren’t organized.
mikespeir

I think it’s more than Falwell, Jeff E. I suspect all of those are lowball figures. I’ve heard even minor TV and radio ministries complain about how many millions of dollars they need each month to keep operating.
T’s Grammy

Already belong to FFRF & AU and am also a card-carrying member of the ACLU. Can’t resist saying that since they like to say that these days in the same tone they used to say card-carrying Communist. As if belonging to the ACLU is a bad thing. So I openly brag about it.

Yes, we have to be vocal and we have to support what we can, especially in the current political clime. Scary as it is, it’d be a damned sight scarier to live in a theocracy.

And, yes, love that blogging is help getting our voices out there.
Stephen

If you work for the Department of Defense or are in the military (or even contracted to work for the military) you can now donate to the Freedom From Religion Foundation (ffrf). This is their first year to be included in the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC). If you can donate, they are listed on page 28, organization #32519.
KenL

Another way we are losing is most atheist couples have 0,1 or 2 children and we are being out bred…our only recourse is to become visible and nurture freethought in these indoctrinated children.
martymankins

Unless they are using all of that money to help people in need and give to the poor, that’s just sick and wrong. Way too obscene for anyone to be giving these organizations that much money, since it’s obvious most of that isn’t going to help the poor and needy.
Sabayon

To compare: Ladies against Women (Concerned Women for America) takes in 10 million dollars a year. NOW, takes in not quite 800 thousand. This is why we are all doomed.