CFI’s $500,000 Next Big Step Challenge! Support our Potential New $200K Donation!
The Centre for Inquiry announces the $500,000 Next Big Step Challenge! As we approach the end of the first 5 years of our work in Canada, we are announcing an exciting opportunity which we need your help to fulfill.
We envision CFI homes for reason, skepticism and freethought in key cities across Canada. To be sustainable with our planned expansion, we’ve identified $500,000 as our critical threshold.
One of CFI’s largest donors has committed himself to this challenge. If CFI can raise the first $300,000 by September 30, 2011, he has promised to finish this campaign by donating the last $200,000! This is an extremely generous offer. Please donate to this campaign today!
Why should you support the vision shared by CFI?
1000 Christians have annual exclusive access to government officials like the Speakers of the House and Senate and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. In response CFI hosted the first atheist delegation to the National Prayer Breakfast in Ottawa, producing exposes and interviews. We then launched the annual National Secular Supper, to raise awareness of the importance of governing our
society based on reason, secularism and equality for those of different worldviews, while opening the door for secularists and skeptics to access policy makers.
Concerned by neglect for childrens’
rights by the banning in Ontario’s Roman Catholic Public Schools of Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) student clubs meant to protect against bullying and hate, CFI responded with a major panel featuring civil rights and gay rights advocates, interviewed GSA student leaders for our Think Again! TV channel, and increased our presence at Pride by now walking in at least 6 parades across Canada
Aware that notorious young Earth creationist and televangelist Ray Comfort was planning a coordinated
campaign to circulate thousands of copies of the Origin of Species featuring a creationist premable, CFI mobilized its vast campus outreach department and confronted ignorance by staging public events and distributing scientific literature across Canadian universities.
In an effort to confront negative
stereotypes of atheists and skeptics, CFI launched an unprecedent national
outreach project known as the Atheist Bus campaign which saw ads on public
transit in Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Saskatoon, Kelowna, and Kamloops. When the
ads were removed in Kelowna, with the city oblivious to why, CFI did not back
down. We received a tremendous amount of media attention as public champions
for free speech, we re-printed the ads to finish the Campaign we started, and
now we’ve launched the Extraordinay Claims Campaign, to build on our
momentum.
CFI is now established as the most vocal, influential and credible voice for atheists, humanists, skeptics, and freethinkers in the nation. We host the largest freethought events and run the busiest branches in Canada, receive constant and regular national media attention for your issues, provide much needed social services and support groups, and host popular multimedia like our award-winning YouTube Channels.
What can you do to help?
We have come so far since you first started to show your interest and support, but we have reached the limit of what we can accomplish within our current annual budget, which is why we are asking you to help us make the Next Big Step by donating to this Campaign today.
This may seem like a tall order, but it is absolutely necessary for us to offer a competitive voice if you consider the resources invested in other worldviews!
Investment in Major Christian Organizations
2008 Campus Crusade for Christ Canada: $5.6 M revenue
2008 Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation for the Diocese of Toronto: $135.6 M
2008 The United Church of Canada revenue: $ 73.4 M
Investment in Smaller Religious Organizations Compared to Those for Atheists, Agnostics and Secular Humanists
| Group |
Gifts (2007) | % Population |
| Islam | $48.1M | 2.00% |
| Judaism | $103.9M | 1.10% |
| Sikh | $19.3M | 0.90% |
| Baha’i | $13.6M | 0.06% |
| Buddhist | $18.7M | 1.00% |
| Hindu | $9.7M | 1.00% |
| Atheist/Agnostics | Under $300K | About 25% (36% of those under 25 |
Canadian religious charities receive over 2.5 times more in donations than educational charities. Small religious denominations like Sikh and Baha’i pull in over $10million/year despite representing under 1% of the population. CFI represents the values and principles of 25% of Canadians - atheists, agnostics, skeptics and secular humanists - with a current budget less than 2% as high. That must change if we are to take that Next Big Step.
Picture the Future
Imagine a future where CFI, the voice for our freethought communities across Canada, had the
resources it requires for the following:
* A permanent CFI owned home for freethinkers in key cities
across Canada
* National speaking tours with leading thinkers, like
Richard Dawkins, James Randi, Penn & Teller, and Salman Rushdie;
* Ending the funding of religion in education
* Advertising campaigns spreading new and unique messages
across Canada
* Major conferences, hosted by different Canadian
cities each year
* Lobbying to remove blasphemy from the criminal code
* Developing a critical thinking module for young students
* Broadcasting content from our award-winning YouTube
channels on television
* Launching critical social services at all CFI branches
across Canada.
Take the Challenge in Support of Our Next Big Step
We appreciate all donations, big and small. We also encourage you to consider making a regular monthly, quarterly, or annual pledge to CFI. A smaller, but frequent donation, may allow you to contribute a total larger amount, more comfortably, over time. By setting up a regular pledge, CFI will be able to budget for the future.
All funds pledged by September 30, 2011 to be paid over the next year, will be counted toward this challenge!
Please contact CFI directly for more information about setting up a regular pledge.
Email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or call (416) 971-5676