Winter is the most difficult season to plan a service event. Volunteer groups can find themselves at the mercy of frigid temperatures, treacherous roads, and snowstorms. However, with careful planning, a volunteer group can stage a successful service project in winter.     Tips to Get Started   Stay inside. With winter, hosting an outdoor service event can be problematic. Planning an indoor service event during this season will probably meet with a greater volunteer turnout. There are a variety of options for an eager volunteer group. Volunteer at a local food bank. Collect winter coats/boots during a group meeting and donate to a local shelter. Host a raffle and donate the proceeds to a Foundation Beyond Belief beneficiary.   ...

To read powerfully requires comprehension within a context. But first, it requires a book. Foundation Beyond Belief’s current Education beneficiary, ConTextos, provides training to teachers and libraries in schools with young readers. ConTextos has built more than 70 libraries in schools across El Salvador. Alongside that material donation, the teachers at each school take part in training on integrating those books into their classroom lessons. Teachers place the readings into social and cultural contexts that facilitate discussions that are vital for students to comprehend and learn from what they read. ConTextos built its program on research that demonstrates the key factor in a student’s education is the quality of their teacher. Armed with the knowledge that excellent teachers thrive with ...

Over the years, Foundation Beyond Belief’s Humanist Giving program has transformed, most notably when we went from featuring 10 beneficiaries each quarter to selecting five beneficiaries. This action did not limit the number of charities that could become beneficiaries; instead, it recognized that many categories overlap. Charities and potential beneficiaries occasionally fit neatly into one of our category boxes. LightHawk, a former Natural World beneficiary, provides small plane support to natural world organizations to conduct research, giving them an aerial view of their research areas and supporting them in numerous ways. LightHawk is an innovative beneficiary that fit nicely into the Natural World box. Other times, charities mimic a web rather than a container. The need that is identified by ...