Letter from James Randi: Won't you help us fight the fakers?

Update: Double your gift through January 15, 2012. Thanks to a very generous and long-time friend of the JREF, one who recognizes that we are uniquely positioned to respond to harmful claims made by peddlers of woo-woo in our society, all donations up to $150,000 will be matched – dollar-for-dollar! Won't you help us fight the fakers and take advantage of this wonderful offer to double your gift?

The James Randi Educational Foundation invites you to give during our annual Season of Reason fundraising campaign.

Over half of our annual support comes during this critical year-end period and we couldn't continue our operations without it. Last year's Season of Reason helped us make some major strides for skepticism and critical thinking. In just the past year:

• We exposed paranormal and pseudoscientific frauds in the media, including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, NPR, ABC News, AOL News, Discovery News, Forbes and more. More than 4.5 million people watched us take down paranormal scams and put psychics to the test on ABC’s Primetime Nightline: Beyond Belief.

• We distributed the first of our new “JREF in the Classroom” curriculum modules for school teachers, to help educators inspire an investigative spirit in the next generation of critical thinkers.

• We published several important works of skepticism as digital books for download on the iPad, Kindle and Nook, including James Randi's own Flim-Flam!, The Faith Healers, and The Truth About Uri Geller.

• We developed some of the first free skeptic smartphone apps for iPad, iPhone, iPod and Android devices.

• We hosted the biggest skeptics’ conference in history, with more than 1,670 supporters of science and critical thinking at The Amazing Meeting 2011 in Las Vegas.

• We expanded our field efforts by supporting grassroots skeptics groups through regional workshops and free organizing materials.

• We appointed the three new JREF Research Fellows: Tim Farley, Dr. Ray Hall and Senior Fellow Dr. Steven Novella, who is directing JREF’s new Science Based Medicine Project.

• We provided scholarships to students who focus on skepticism in their academic fields, and awarded grants to teachers who bring skepticism into their classrooms through innovative programs.

• We sponsored the 10:23 anti-homeopathy campaign in the United States, providing organizing and training resources to dozens of local skeptics groups across the country.

• We coordinated lectures by James Randi around the world, including a nine city tour of Canada, talks throughout Norway and Spain, and several appearances in the United States.

• We expanded the impact of our Million Dollar Challenge by making it easier than ever to apply, and issued public challenges to manufacturers of quack medicine as well as celebrity psychics like James Van Praagh and Allison Dubois.

• ...And much more!

This year, we’re asking you to help us raise $220,000 to support the further development of our grassroots and educational programs that will be the backbone of the JREF’s work in 2012. 

The JREF is an independent non-profit and all donations are used for the sole purpose of promoting critical thinking to the public and advancing our skeptical mission. Your Season of Reason contribution will help us teach students to think critically about the world, support skeptical grassroots campaigns, and take on public figures and celebrities who promote dangerous nonsense.
 

Donate today to help us reach our goal!

Our Gift to You 

Make a one-time donation of $100 or more or a monthly donation of $25 or more during the Season of Reason campaign and you will receive this limited-edition, hand-made, ceramic ornament by Surly-Ramics. Surly-Ramics have long been a popular fashion staple of the skeptical community, and we are both proud and honored to have this special three inch diameter ornament available to a limited number of our supporters this year. The design on the 2011 Season of Reason ornament is James Randi as "SkeptiClaus" based on a popular photo taken at The Amazing Meeting 2011 (Photo by Ingrid Laas). Randi enjoyed the design immensely.

Your Support is Needed Now!

We can't accomplish all of our important work without your help. With the JREF on the front lines like never before, we need more support than ever. Unless we can count on your generous financial help right now, our plans to increase our impact may have to be placed on hold. Your donation today will make an enormous difference for the future of skepticism and critical thinking.

It is true that times are tough and some might hesitate before giving this year. But it is also true that tough economic times are when people are most vulnerable to false and manipultive promises of supernatural help. It's times like these that bring out the worst kind of charlatans, the Peter Popoffs of the world who prey on the desperate. And so it is in times like these that the JREF's work is more important than ever.

If you believe that skepticism and critical thinking can make the world a better place, please do not leave the burden of supporting this work to someone else. We need you to help keep the light of critical thinking shining brightly. Please consider helping with your most generous gift today.

Your contribution will help us teach students to think critically about the world, support skeptical grassroots campaigns, and take on public figures and celebritites who promote dangerous nonsense.

We are depending on you to support the important mission of the JREF. Won't you help make this a Season of Reason today?

Make a Tax-Deductable Donation to the JREF Now!

More About The JREF’s Work
  

The James Randi Educational Foundation was founded in 1996 to help people defend themselves from paranormal and pseudoscientific claims. Our mission is to promote critical thinking by reaching out to the public and media with reliable information about the paranormal and supernatural ideas that are so widespread in our society today. Through scholarships, workshops, and innovative resources for educators, we work to inspire an investigative spriit in a new generation of critical thinkers. 

Here are some of the programs we offer:

• Skepticism in the Media | We look for every opportinuty to help people defend themselves against misinformation. James Randi, D.J. Grothe, Steven Novella, Banachek, and other spokespeople make regular TV and radio appearances to tell the truth about paranormal and pseudoscientific scams. Recent appearances include CBS News, ABC News, Spike TV, Dr. Oz, Inside Edition, The Early Show, and NPR among others. More than 4.5 million people watched us take down paranormal scams and put psychics to the test on ABC’s Primetime Nightline: Beyond Belief.

• Educator Grants | JREF Grants for Educators provides financial and other resources to K-12 teachers, and are intended to help offset the cost of developing or improving critical thinking and scientific skepticism programs in the classroom and beyond.

• Academic Scolarships | The JREF awards academic scholarships to deserving students in potentially any field of study. A committee composed of a physicist, a social scientist, a physician, and a professor of philosophy select the winners, with the awards being announced in the spring/summer each year.
   
• JREF in the Classroom | This free program for educators provides free curriculum modules that expose students to concepts identified in the national science content standards and AAAS science literacy benchmarks related to the scientific process: Science as Inquiry, and Science in Personal and Social Perspectives. JREF in the Classroom uses the investigation of pseudoscience and the paranormal to promote critical thinking, and focuses both on the methods of science and the best scientific data on such paranormal and pseudoscientific claims.
   
• The Amaz!ng Meeting | Each year in Las Vegas, we produce The Amaz!ng Meeting (TAM), a celebration of critical thinking and skepticism. In 2011 more than 1670 individuals worldwide came together to share learning, laughs, and life with fellow skeptics and distinguished guest speakers. We've sponsored international TAMs in London and Sydney. We also host Amaz!ng Adventure cruises--skeptical conferences-at-sea that combine educational sessions with trips to destinations such as the Bermuda Triangle, Alaska, the Galapagos Islands, Mexico, and the eastern Caribbean. 
   
• New Media Publishing | The JREF is committed to reaching new audiences through digital media. We're converting both old and new skeptical books into digital formats and making them available for the iPad, Kindle, and Nook. Our mission is to make these texts as widely available as possible so that students of critical thinking and skepticism—young and old—have access to this important information in the exciting realm of digital publishing. We're also creating clever casual apps for mobile devices, and producing and sponsoring podcasts to share unique ideas with the broader skeptical community.
   
• Science-Based Medicine Project | With the guidance of JREF Senior Fellow Steven Novella, M.D., the JREF works to provide the media and the public with trustworthy information about unproven alternative medical practices. Part of our Science-Based Medicine project is an opinion study, conducted in partnership with the Women Thinking Free Foundation, to help skeptics better understand the vaccine panic that endagers public health.
   
• Supporting the Skeptical Community | The JREF connects local groups with speakers, workshops, and organizing expertise to help grow the skeptical movement from the ground up. We provide skeptical networking and activist training at The Amazing Meeting each year and on our online community the JREF Forum. We also provide sponsorship funding and other support for local skeptical events such as Skeptics in the Pub and SkeptiCamp meetings across North America.
   
• Million Dollar Challenge | The JREF offers a $1 million prize to any person who can demonstrate a psychic, supernatural, or paranormal ability under mutually agreed upon scientific conditions. More than a thousand have applied, and hundreds have been tested, but no one has come close to passing even our preliminary test. The Challenge is now administered by Banachek, the only professional mentalist to have fooled scientists into believing he has real psychic abilities.