Friends,

Happy Friday the 13th! (Or as we call it around the JREF, Friggatriskaidekaphobia Appreciation Day!). While we may sometimes make light of belief in superstitions like those surrounding Friday the 13th, our real work is to educate the public and the media with reliable information about pseudoscience and the paranormal, and to expose the paranormal hucksters who hurt so many people.

I’m writing you because we really need your help right now.

 

Like most non-profits, most of our annual donations come in during this important end of the year period, and we wouldn’t be able to keep fighting charlatans and promoting critical thinking about pseudoscience and the paranormal without it. Please donate now to help us meet our funding goals going into 2014.

For a short time, you can actually double the impact of your gift thanks to a generous JREF supporter who will match your donation dollar-for-dollar up to $100,000 — if you act today. That means your gift will go twice as far in helping us to:

  • provide more free resources to teachers and parents to teach scientific skepticism to youngsters;

  • produce more workshops, seminars and conferences bringing together the brightest activists and educators involved in our efforts;

  • create more free online courses on skepticism and scientific and critical thinking;

  • test more claimants for the JREF’s Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge;

  • help Randi and other JREF reps speak out even more in the media and at more universities and other public events;

  • publish more books on science, critical thinking and skepticism for the iPad, Kindle and Nook and publish more materials for grassroots skeptics; and,

  • take on more public figures and companies who promote dangerous paranormal and pseudoscientific nonsense.

I’m happy to say that by many measures, the last twelve months have been the most productive in the seventeen year history of the foundation, and with your support today, we can build on the successes of this year and be funded well into 2014. But we can do all of this only with your help.

The JREF exists to further the decades of work that Randi has done making the world a better place — a world where paranormal con artists are challenged, and their victims have a place to turn to get the truth. Randi’s tireless energy motivates our whole team of staff and volunteers to keep fighting the seemingly endless number of supernatural fakers preying on the vulnerable, and inspires us to be bold when asking for your help -- because we know that this fight — Randi’s fight — is worth it.

Your donation today will help expand our resources for educators, free online courses, library of e-books, grassroots materials, and everything else we do at the JREF. Please take a moment right now to double your impact for science, reason and critical thinking.

On behalf of Randi and the rest of our team at the JREF, thank you in advance for your help.

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D.J. Grothe
President, The James Randi Educational Foundation 

 


 

 

An Exceptional and Personal Gift from James Randi

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For a very limited number of generous contributors during this year’s Season of Reason, Randi himself will be offering a very rare, vintage, signed Amazing Randi "Levitation" poster from his own private collection.

There are very few of these original prints left in the world — a truly exceptional and unique gift!

These rare posters from Randi’s own collection are being offered as a personal Thank You for donations to the JREF of $2,000.00 or more during the Season of Reason 2013 campaign, or for a continuing monthly gift of $200.00. Don't miss this very special opportunity to get a rare piece of poster art from Randi’s illustrious magic career, which is perfect for framing.

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 spirit in a new generation of critical thinkers. Here are some of JREF's important projects and programs that your support helps fund:

Skepticism in the Media | We look for every opportunity to help people defend themselves against misinformation. JREF spokespeople make regular TV and radio appearances to tell the truth about paranormal and pseudoscientific scams.

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.

Online Courses | JREF produces courses on video, such as the free ten part video lecture series by noted skeptic and psychology professor Ray Hyman titled "How To Think About Dubious Claims." 

Academic Scholarships | 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 and parents provides free classroom lesson plans 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 2013, nearly 1200 individuals from around the world came together to share learning, laughs, and fun with fellow skeptics and distinguished guest speakers. We also host Amaz!ng Adventure cruises — TAMs-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 works to reach 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. We're also creating clever casual apps for smartphones, and producing and supporting popular podcasts to educate the public about pseudoscience and the paranormal, as well as publishing video content from The Amaz!ng Meeting for free online.

Science-Based Medicine Project | Under the leadership  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. 

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, through free online workshops, and help skeptics connect through our online community, the JREF Forum. We’ve also sponsored and supported various regional skeptical events such as the SkeptiCamp meetings around the world.

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. 

Support the JREF's Bright Future Today!