| Abbreviation | GO Humanity |
|---|---|
| Formation | 2009 |
| Dissolved | 2023 |
| Type | 501(c)(3) non-profit |
| Legal status | Dissolved |
| Headquarters | Houston, Texas |
Region served | United States |
Official language | English |
Key people | Dale McGowan, Founder and Executive Director (2009-2015) Noelle George, Executive Director (2015-2020) Tiffany S. Ho, Executive Director (2020-2023) |
| Website | https://foundationbeyondbelief.org |
GO Humanity (Giving and Organizing for Humanity) was a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization [1] founded in 2009 in Georgia by Dale McGowan, originally under the name Foundation Beyond Belief.
The organization's mission was to "end poverty and hunger, promote good health and well-being, and foster employment opportunities and economic growth in ways that exemplify humanist values." [2] Through giving and organizing a volunteer network, the organization served individuals and communities.
Dale McGowan served as executive director from 2009 to 2015. In 2015, Noelle George took over leadership of the organization. [3] In 2020, Tiffany S. Ho replaced George.
On October 1, 2023, Go Humanity dissolved and ceased operations. [4]
GO Humanity was founded in 2009, then under the name Foundation Beyond Belief (FBB). [5] The organization's founder Dale McGowan originally envisioned it as a way for nonreligious people and humanists to give to charity by "passing the tithing plate." The organization was featured in an April 2010 New York Times article on secular philanthropy. [6]
In March 2011, the organization responded to the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami by launching a disaster response program, raising and distributing $20,000 for recovery. [7]
In August 2011, FBB merged with the Houston, Texas-based Secular Center USA to launch Volunteers Beyond Belief, a service network initially consisting of five volunteer teams. [8]
The American Cancer Society was criticized in 2011 for turning down participation from Foundation Beyond Belief in its Relay For Life "National Team" program. [9] [10] FBB subsequently partnered with philanthropist Todd Stiefel to create a national team in support of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, raising $300,000 in 2012 and nearly $1 million over three years to fund lymphoma research. [7] [11]
Foundation Beyond Belief later sponsored the Reason Rally in both 2012 [12] and 2016. [13]
In July 2014, Foundation Beyond Belief held its first Humanism At Work conference focused on humanist service. The organization held talks about nonreligious identity and humanist service programs, and recognized outstanding contributions by humanist volunteers and organizers with its ongoing annual Heart of Humanism awards. [14] The Humanism At Work conference was held a second time in 2015 before the organization transitioned to integrating the Conference's programming into the American Humanist Association's Annual Conference in 2018. [15] [16]
In October 2014, FBB launched the competitive Compassionate Impact Grant (CIG), consolidating all donations to its Humanist Grants program for the quarter into one large capacity-building grant to the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative. [17] Through 2020, FBB gave the CIG one quarter per year to various anti-poverty organizations that met high standards of innovation, inclusiveness, data, and cultural sensitivity. In 2020, the grant became an annual three-year grant of $150,000 to a worthy organization. [18]
The Minnesota Atheists partnered with Foundation Beyond Belief in 2014 and 2015 for the third and fourth atheist-themed St. Paul Saints charity games. They were the first games the secularized Mr. Paul Aints team won, with the 2014 game taking 11 innings and being the last Aints game to be played at Midway Stadium. [19] Rebranded player jerseys were auctioned off during the games [20] and a shoe drive benefiting Soles4Souls was incorporated into 2015 the event (promoted as "Leave Your Soles at the Gate"). The team beat the Winnipeg Goldeyes in 2015 7–4 in front of 8,500 fans at CHS Field bringing the Aints' record to 2 wins and 2 losses. The Aints won again in 2016, but lost in 2017 bringing their record to 3 games won and 3 games lost. [21]
In January 2016, FBB launched a Humanist Disaster Recovery program which deployed to South Carolina following Hurricane Juaquin. [8]
In 2019, Foundation Beyond Belief partnered with Atheist Community of Austin to expand Volunteers Beyond Belief, renamed the Beyond Belief Network. [7] [8]
Foundation Beyond Belief rebranded as GO Humanity in May 2022, updating its values to further emphasize radical inclusion and shared, local power. [22]
On October 1, 2023, Go Humanity dissolved. An email to donors stated "We have met with an insurmountable financial crisis combined with liabilities that have led us to this very hard decision." [4]
Since 2009, GO Humanity has raised more than $3.6 million for philanthropic causes worldwide. [23] [24]
Through its original Humanist Grants program, the organization awarded over $1.5 million to 177 nonprofits exemplifying humanist values over 11 years. Each fiscal quarter through 2020, FBB selected four organizations to support, in the categories of Poverty and Health, Human Rights, Education, and Natural World. [25]
GO Humanity's Service Team network GO Teams encourages and assists local organizations groups to give and organize in their communities. The network is made up of approximately 150 teams throughout the U.S. and the world. GO Humanity provides grants and other support to these teams, sponsoring events in local communities. As of 2022, teams have collectively donated over 227,000 hours of community service (valued at $6.1M). [26]
In 2014, the American Humanist Association (AHA) and GO Humanity merged their respective charitable programs Humanist Charities (established in 2005) and Humanist Crisis Response (established in 2011). [27]
Between 2014 and 2018, Humanist Disaster Recovery raised over $250,000 for victims of the Syrian Refugee Crisis, Refugee Children of the U.S. Border, Tropical Cyclone Sam, and the Nepal and Ecuadoran Earthquakes, Hurricane Matthew in Haiti, and Hurricanes Irma and Maria. [28] In addition to grants for recovery efforts, volunteers have also helped to rebuild homes and schools in the following locations: Columbia, South Carolina after the effects of Hurricane Joaquin; [29] Denham Springs, Louisiana; and Houston, Texas after flooding from Hurricane Harvey. [30]
In 2013, GO Humanity launched the Pathfinders Project, a project to determine the viability of a long term Humanist Service Corp (HSC). Over the course of a year, the team worked with several organizations across the world, including in Cambodia, Uganda, Ghana, Haiti, Ecuador, Colombia, and Guatemala. [31] Upon returning to the United States, the members of the Pathfinders continued their work of promoting humanist service, including speaking about the project to gain new members for future years. [32]
In 2015, the Humanist Service Corps officially launched, with the members serving in a camp for accused witches in Ghana. [33] In 2015 and 2016, Humanist Service Corps provided free health screenings to the rural Ghanaian community of Kukuo. It created a bilingual medical records system to increase healthcare access. For the first time, 1,250 residents of Kukuo gained access to their health information in their native language. HSC also discovered and reported several child marriages during this time. [34]
Humanist Service Corps was renamed Humanist Action: Ghana in 2020, and in 2022 broke off from GO Humanity to become an independent, Ghanaian-run NGO. [35]
Secular humanism is a philosophy, belief system, or life stance that embraces human reason, logic, secular ethics, and philosophical naturalism, while specifically rejecting religious dogma, supernaturalism, and superstition as the basis of morality and decision-making.
Religious humanism or ethical humanism is an integration of nontheistic humanist philosophy with congregational rites and community activity that center on human needs, interests, and abilities. Religious humanists set themselves apart from secular humanists by characterizing the nontheistic humanist life stance as a non-supernatural "religion" and structuring their organization around a congregational model.
The American Humanist Association (AHA) is a non-profit organization in the United States that advances secular humanism.
Humanists UK, known from 1967 until May 2017 as the British Humanist Association (BHA), is a charitable organisation which promotes secular humanism and aims to represent "people who seek to live good lives without religious or superstitious beliefs" in the United Kingdom by campaigning on issues relating to humanism, secularism, and human rights. It seeks to act as a representative body for non-religious people in the UK.
HumanLight is a Humanist holiday celebrated annually on December 23. HumanLight was first celebrated in 2001, and was created to provide a specifically Humanist celebration during the western world's holiday season. The New Jersey Humanist Network founded the holiday in 2001 to aid secular people in commemorating the December holiday season without encroaching on other adjacent events—both religious ones such as Christmas and secular ones such as Solstice. The inaugural event involved only the founding organization, but is now celebrated by many secular organizations and individuals across the United States and other countries. Various organizations have recognized the holiday, including the American Humanist Association in 2004. The HumanLight Committee maintains the official HumanLight webpage and engages with humanist organizations and the media about the holiday.
Humanists International is an international non-governmental organisation championing secularism and human rights, motivated by secular humanist values. Founded in Amsterdam in 1952, it is an umbrella organisation made up of more than 160 secular humanist, atheist, rationalist, agnostic, skeptic, freethought and Ethical Culture organisations from over 80 countries.
The Secular Coalition for America is an advocacy group located in Washington D.C. It describes itself as "protecting the equal rights of nonreligious Americans."
The Center for Inquiry (CFI) is a U.S. nonprofit organization that works to mitigate belief in pseudoscience and the paranormal and to fight the influence of religion in government.
Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential, and agency of human beings, whom it considers the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry.
Christianity is the predominant religion in Zambia and is recognised as the state religion by the country's constitution. Before the arrival of European missionaries, the various ethnic groups residing in the territory of modern day Zambia practiced a variety of African traditional religions.
Thomas W. Flynn was an American author, journalist, novelist, executive director of the Council for Secular Humanism, and editor of its journal Free Inquiry. He was also director of the Robert Green Ingersoll Birthplace Museum and the Freethought Trail.
Minnesota Atheists is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that seeks to promote the positive contributions of atheism and to maintain the separation of state and church and is the largest atheist organization in the state of Minnesota. It is affiliated with Atheist Alliance International, and the American Atheists. Minnesota Atheists is also part of the Alliance of Secular Humanist Societies, which is connected to the Council for Secular Humanism. The organization publishes a monthly newsletter, a weekly radio show and podcast called Atheists Talk, and a community access television show by the same name.
Andrew James William Copson is a humanist leader and writer. He is the Chief Executive of Humanists UK and the President of Humanists International. He has worked for a number of civil and human rights organisations throughout his career in his capacity as executive committee member, director or trustee and has represented Humanist organisations before the House of Commons, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and the United Nations. As a prominent spokesperson for the Humanist movement in the United Kingdom he is a frequent contributor to newspaper articles, news items, television and radio programmes and regularly speaks to Humanist and secular groups throughout Britain. Copson has contributed to several books on secularism and humanism and is the author of Secularism: Politics, Religion, and Freedom.
Sikivu Hutchinson is an American author, playwright, director, and musician. Her multi-genre work explores feminism, gender justice, racial justice, LGBTQIA+ rights, humanism and atheism. She is the author of Humanists in the Hood: Unapologetically Black, Feminist, and Heretical (2020); White Nights, Black Paradise (2015); Godless Americana: Race and Religious Rebels (2013); Moral Combat: Black Atheists; Gender Politics, and the Values Wars (2011); and Imagining Transit: Race, Gender, and Transportation Politics in Los Angeles (2003). Her plays include "White Nights, Black Paradise", "Rock 'n' Roll Heretic" and "Narcolepsy, Inc.". "Rock 'n' Roll Heretic" was among the 2023 Lambda Literary award LGBTQ Drama finalists. Moral Combat is the first book on atheism to be published by an African-American woman. In 2013 she was named Secular Woman of the year and was awarded Foundation Beyond Belief's 2015 Humanist Innovator award. She was also a recipient of Harvard's 2020 Humanist of the Year award.
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Dale McGowan is an American author, educator, podcaster, and philanthropist who has written and edited several books related to nonreligious life, particularly parenting without religion.
Mandisa Lateefah Thomas is the founder and president of Black Nonbelievers Inc. She has spoken at secular conferences and events, and has promoted the group's agenda in media outlets.
Atheism in the African diaspora is atheism as it is experienced by black people outside of Africa. In the United States, black people are less likely than any other ethnic groups to be religiously unaffiliated, let alone identifying as atheist. The demographics are similar in the United Kingdom. Atheists are individuals who do not hold a belief in God or gods. Atheism is a disbelief in God or gods or a denial of God or gods, or it is simply a lack of belief in gods. Some, but not all, atheists identify as secular humanists, who are individuals who believe that life has meaning and joy without the need for the supernatural or religion and that all individuals should live ethical lives which can provide for the greater good of humanity. Black atheists and secular humanists exist today and in history, though many were not always vocal in their beliefs or lack of belief.
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