We are Humanism at Work

You may already know that Foundation Beyond Belief (FBB) collects monthly donations from humanists across the globe and uses every penny of these funds to make grants to secular charitable organizations in the categories of Poverty & Health, Human Rights, Education, and the Natural World. Each quarter FBB chooses four organizations--one per category--to receive an unrestricted grant.

What you may not know is that one quarter of each year is reserved for our single, game-changing Compassionate Impact Grant (CIG). Organizations begin the application process months in advance, and FBB selects the very best proposal for funding. A program must be innovative, transformative, evidence-based, and solve community problems to receive CIG funding.

While each of our finalists’ projects were strong in many ways, The Tandana Foundation's proposed project in the Bandiagara District of Mali is truly exceptional and will be receiving CIG funding in the Human Rights category.

Women in the Bandiagara District of Mali experience extreme gender inequality in terms of reproductive health, empowerment, and economic activity. While the region’s main economic activity is subsistence farming, women are traditionally barred from owning land. Furthermore, literacy for women in the region is approximately 10%, leaving them vulnerable and extraordinarily dependent.

Recognizing that the challenges faced by women in the region cannot be addressed without a multifaceted solution, Tandana has worked closely with the women and communities themselves to identify and prioritize needs and solutions.

With CIG grant funding, Tandana will be enrolling 600 Malian women from 20 villages in literacy and numeracy classes. Among these women, groups will be selected for leadership workshops. Women in the leadership workshops will then develop plans for income-generating enterprises, the best of which will be selected for implementation. The program was developed based on successes and challenges from past programming, as Tandana has been working in the Bandiagara District for the past 11 years.

Tandana’s strategies aligned so clearly with FBB’s in so many ways: the emphasis on planning initiatives based on community-identified needs rather than implementing projects based on preconceived assumptions; teaching literacy classes in the native Tommo So language rather than a western language such as French or English; and the emphasis on building long-term independence for the women.

We look forward to seeing the program begin in January of 2019 and are eager to share updates with you.

May’s Beyond Belief Network Picture of the Month comes from Center for Inquiry-Michigan’s day working at Long Lake Outdoor Center--the location of their upcoming Secular Summer Retreat. The planned this event to give back to the community and preserve this beautiful historic campground so that it can be enjoyed by the numerous schools, community groups, and wedding parties who visit every year. Projects this year included staining the outside walls of the Lodge, clearing brush and leaves from around the lodge, and general cabin inspections and maintenance. Great event CFI-Michigan!

South Texas Atheists for Reason (STAR), May’s Team of the Month added to their regular commitment to Lackland Airforce Base with a giveaway for people experiencing homelessness in downtown San Antonio. They collected donations, purchased some needed supplies, and volunteers brought clothing, water, and snack foods with them on the day of the  giveaway. 55 people were able to go through the line to get what they needed. Keep up the great work STAR!

Foundation Beyond Belief supported W!SE, Working in Support of Education, as our Education beneficiary for second quarter. Check out this video about their Quality of Life INNOVATIONS program:

Here are some particularly poignant highlights from the video:

•  A New York City high school student walks by an elderly man waiting for a bus. It’s the middle of winter, snow is falling and he is shivering. 20 minutes later, the student walks by again. Same man, still no bus. The student thinks, “This is wrong.” At school, he enrolls in QLI. He researches the bus routing schedule and discovers that not only is the schedule inefficient but also environmentally unsound. He designs a new routing schedule, wins the QLI Competition and earns scholarship money for college. He also lobbies the transportation authorities for change.

• “I really loved that exhilarating feeling when my partner and I finally saw the effects of our implementation. It took us an entire year’s worth of hard work until we were able to get our idea going. When we saw just how effective our implementation was, we were thrilled that we actually contributed to our community!” Rebecca, Staten Island Technical High School

To learn more about our Humanist Grants program, click here. To be a donor, click here. Thank you for being #HumanismAtWork!

Austin Humanists at Work used their 2017 Gold Grant to purchase supplies for 1,000 first aid kits that will included with with their monthly giveaways benefiting people experiencing homelessness. In March, they held an event with Austin Community College's Alpha Gamma Pi chapter of Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society and put together 500 of the first aid kits. In April, volunteers from PTK assembled the remaining 500 kits. Each kit contains five band-aids, four antiseptic wipes, two gauze pads, and two knuckle/fingertip bandages. Austin Humanists at Work expect the 1,000 kits to last for five to seven months! Great work!