Tomorrow is the last day to make a tax-deductible donation for 2012.
Send your year-end gift now and it will automatically be doubled!
Dear JREF Supporter,
The JREF works to expand the impact of what James Randi has been doing for many decades: promoting critical thinking by reaching out to the public and media with reliable information about paranormal and supernatural ideas so widespread in our society today.
Most of our annual support comes during this critical year-end period, and we couldn't continue fighting charlatans and promoting skepticism in the public interest without such support.
Unless we can count on your generous financial help right now, our plans to increase our impact may have to be placed on hold.
Please donate now to help us meet our funding goal.
Your contribution right now will help us equip more educators to teach students skepticism, support more grassroots campaigns to fight the fakers, and challenge more public figures and organizations that promote dangerous paranormal and pseudoscientific nonsense.
Beat the deadline, double your impact, and make your most generous gift today.
Thank you,
D.J. Grothe
President, James Randi Educational Foundation
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 spirit in a new generation of critical thinkers.
In just the past year:
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We exposed paranormal and pseudoscientific frauds, and raised awareness of the JREF's important work in major media around the world, including the Los Angeles Times, the Guardian, NPR, BBC, Scientific American, Al Jazeera, Forbes, the Young Turks, Discovery News,Huffington Post, Wired, Bloomberg Business Week, and major outlets in Spain, Italy, Germany, Australia, Canada and Latin America. Not to mention Randi's name in the New York Times crossword puzzle!
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We partnered with Wired and Huffington Post for ongoing Op-Ed pieces from Randi and D.J. Grothe, wherein we exposed Theresa Caputo (The “Long Island Medium”) and Dr. Phil (for his promotion of "psychic medium" John Edward) to public scrutiny, among many others.
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In our annual Pigasus Awards, we “honored” Daryl Bem (who conducted questionable scientific research on psychic powers), Syracuse University (which promoted pseudoscientific “facilitated communication” for autistic children), the "Long Island Medium" Theresa Caputo, her host network TLC, and “psychic medium” James Van Praagh.
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We expanded our line of free classroom resources to include both student and teacher editions, and published new JREF in the Classroom kits on topics ranging from dowsing to public hoaxes, all to help educators inspire an investigative spirit in the next generation of critical thinkers.
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We launched the new CONsequence podcast and continued other digital programs, including The Randi Show and For Good Reason.
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We published several new books on the iPad, Kindle and Nook, including Unnatural Acts by Robert Todd Carroll and Homeopathy and its Kindred Delusions by Oliver Wendell Holmes. They join our growing library of skeptical titles, including some of Randi's classic works such as Flim Flam, The Truth About Uri Geller and Faith Healers.
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We continued our blockbuster annual skeptics conference, The Amaz!ng Meeting, in Las Vegas, with more than 1,250 supporters of science and critical thinking in attendance. This year we have been sharing the TAM 2012 presentations on our popular YouTube channel as free educational resources for the public, and we also published many previous TAM videos from our archives. These videos have already been viewed over a half a million times.
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We returned to the sea with The Amaz!ng Adventure educational cruise — a TAM-at-Sea — exploring 2012 doomsday predictions in the Riviera Maya along with with seventy amazing adventurers!
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We enhanced our field efforts with several grassroots organization workshops at events around the United States, and regular action items and tips for skeptical activists on our website. We also published our grassroots database this year, which is the most comprehensive and up-to-date listing of skeptics groups we’ve published.
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We supported, presented at, and/or distributed educational resources at dozens of skeptical educational events, including the Reason Rally, NECSS, Dragon*Con, SkeptiCal, QED, the Australian Skeptics National Convention, Carl Sagan Day, Reason in the Rock, Camp Inquiry, the American Humanist Association's annual conference, The World Skeptics Congress, THiNK in India, the Phoenix Area Skeptic Society's End of the World party, the Orange County Freethought Alliance, Freethought Festival, SkeptiCamp DC, and Denver SkeptiCamp.
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We coordinated several dozen of Randi's lectures around the world, including a nine-day tour of India, a three week tour of Spain, Italy, and Germany, and a week in Australia. One of Randi's Italian lectures was broadcast to 35 movie theaters throughout the country as part of a public cultural series. Randi was also a featured speaker at the World Skeptics Congress, THiNK in India, the Australian Skeptics National Convention, the Porchlight Storytelling Series, the Reason Rally, the Magic Castle, the Academy of Magical Arts annual award show, Camp Inquiry, Dragon*Con, NECSS, the Barrow Neurological Institute’s annual gala, Carl Sagan Day, CFI - Portland, and at the University of Denver, Arizona State, University of Maryland, Broward College, University of Wisconsin, and Ohlone College. And he was honored this year to receive lifetime achievement awards this year from the American Humanist Association, The Academy of Magical Arts, and the Australian Skeptics.
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We appointed two new JREF Research Fellows: Kyle Hill, a popular science writer focused on effective public communication of science; and Leo Igwe, who is spearheading the JREF's new initiative to combat harmful superstition and promote critical thinking in Africa. To this end, the JREF has already released Igwe's A Manifesto for a Skeptical Africa, and will host Igwe's monthly column, Skeptical Africa on randi.org. They join our team of other JREF Fellows, including Dr. Steven Novella, Dr. Karen Stollznow, Dr. Ray Hall, and Tim Farley.
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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 also launched a skeptical educator series on Randi.org, curated by Bob Blaskiewicz.
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We've been involved with the production of a major documentary, An Honest Liar, which tells the story of Randi's life’s work and is expected out in late 2013.
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We promoted our Million Dollar Challenge in major media and offered the prize to celebrity psychics and other public figures and organizations who had made paranormal claims or endorsed charlatans, including priceline.com, and Simon Cowell. We produced a video of a live Million Dollar Challenge event hosted by Banachek from the stage at TAM 2012, illustrating the proper way to evaluate a paranormal or fringe science claim, and inspiring activists and ordinary people around the world to evaluate these types of claims themselves.
...And much more!
None of this would have been possible if not for the support we received from concerned and dedicated skeptics and science advocates like you during last year's Season of Reason. Now we are counting on your generous financial help to fund our operations into the next year.