Foundation Beyond Belief Announces Q2 Beneficiaries

Foundation Beyond Belief, a non-profit group that encourages atheists to give to various charities, just announced its Quarter 2, 2011 beneficiaries! (Full disclosure: I serve as President of FBB’s board.)

Health: Japanese Organization for International Cooperation in Family Planning

Human Rights: The Innocence Project of Texas

Peace: Central Asia Institute (founded in 1996 by Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace, One School at a Time)

Child Welfare: Bright Star Vision

Education: National Center for Science Education (a repeat beneficiary, brought back by popular demand!)

Poverty: Water For People

Animal Protection: Straydog

Environment: The Pachamama Alliance

The ninth category is Foundation Beyond Belief itself.

And some of you may recall we have a new category this year called Challenge the Gap — where we choose a charity that may have religious ties but does secular, non-proselytizing work. This quarter’s charity is Buddhist Global Relief.

If you’re a member, you can choose how to divide up your monthly donation — want to give more money to the Peace charity? Fine. Want to give one of the charities none of your money? Fine, too. I’m personally excited about the Innocence Project of Texas and I’ll be giving a slightly larger percentage than usual to the Human Rights category.

I’ll say this again when we’re set to do a larger fundraiser, but FBB has raised over $130,000 since our start in 2010 and we currently have 769 members. But we still need more members if we want to sustain the organization as a whole. If you haven’t joined yet, there’s no better time to do so.