It’s the time of year when many employees are asked to give donations to charities through the Combined Federal Campaign.

CFC is the world’s largest and most successful annual workplace charity campaign, with more than 300 CFC campaigns throughout the country and internationally to help to raise millions of dollars each year.

It’s been a great way for me to give, since it’s deducted from my paycheck throughout the year. One that is always on my list to give to is Planned Parenthood of Central Oklahoma, but this year I wanted to give to some kind of skeptical charity. Or at the very least one that helped promote science and critical thinking.

I started by doing a keyword search of the charities for “skeptic”, but was not happy when the one and only hit ended up being this:

Reasons to Believe www.reasons.org Ministry that uses emerging scientific discoveries as strategic resources to
engage skeptics and equip believers with a fact-based foundation for Christian faith and outreach

Oh, joy. In addition I could also donate to Answers in Genesis. Yes, the same one that built the Creation “Museum”. Of course, there are many, many different Christian charities that are available, like the well known Catholic Charities, but I don’t understand how those two can make the qualification and re-qualification required each year.

So if I couldn’t give to a skeptical organization, my quest began to find a good science based one. Don’t get me wrong, there are quite a few really good organizations. Domestic, children, and sexual violence charities, AIDS charities, homeless and community organizations, civil rights…just to name a few. I ended up deciding on Science Olympiad:

Encourages male/female/minority K-12 students to participate in academic events at tournaments designed to promote career interest in science/technology/engineering/math (STEM) education.

Yay for getting kids into science! I really wish there were at least a few skeptical organizations available. I mean if quite a few creationist and “the bible is true!” type organizations can get approved for CFC (and believe me, there were more than just the two I listed), how hard could it be to get the James Randi Educational Foundation or the Richard Dawkins Foundation added as an option? I know I can’t be the only one who would love to give to a skeptical organization through the CFC.

If there is anyone involved in a non-profit skeptical organization, please please please look into the application for CFC for the next donation period. I will definitely donate if you make it on the list.