Recently some blogs, notably Uncertain Principles, have been listing and discussing charities that are non-religious. For those of us that would rather give to a charity that does not pray, preach, evangelize, proselytize and etc. I have collected a short list of those that seem to be most popular.
I am sure that I have missed many more. Feel free to comment with your own favorites. Due to comment spam, comments will be moderated – meaning I will manually review each comment.
To see financial and other important information about a charity, please refer to
- Alternative Gifts International
- Amnesty International
- Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
- Doctors Without Borders
- Freedom from Hunger
- FINCA International
- International Aids Vaccine Initiative
- Kiva – Loans that change lives
- Mercy Corps
- Oxfam International
- Partners In Health (PIH), Health Care for the Poor
- PATH A catalyst for global health
- Pathfinder International Changing Lives, Saving Lives
- Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc.
- Second Harvest
- Southern Poverty Law Center
- TechnoServe – Business Solutions to Rural Poverty
- The Nature Conservancy
- UNICEF
- WHO World Health Organization
UPDATE January 2011
Recently I have become aware of the Foundation Beyond Belief whose mission is:
”To demonstrate humanism at its best by supporting efforts to improve this world and this life and to challenge humanists to embody the highest principles of humanism, including mutual care and responsibility.”
I am impressed with their both their mission as well as their actions. I encourage you to check them out for yourself at the link above.
Speak Out Stupid 
September 4, 2007 at 7:27 am |
My favorites are:
Human Rights Campaign
Basic Rights Oregon
MoveOn.org
Greenpeace
I’m pretty sure they are non-religious. If I’m wrong, please correct me.
March 10, 2009 at 11:40 am |
In regards to Racquel’s post – The Human Rights Campaign and MoveOn are both great organizations, but may not be considered charities. Due to their political involvement and agendas, contributions to these organizations are not tax deductible as charitable donations.
Thank you for this list! It is important to me that my charitable donations do not proselytize, and I prefer to donate to non-religious organizations.
August 22, 2009 at 6:18 pm |
OxFam International
Amnesty International
Médecins Sans Frontières
June 22, 2010 at 11:57 pm |
I am looking for a non religious place to donate items to like families in need, people starting over. Who need household items Furniture clothing ect.. And not to a place like the thrift store… Please help 😛 Im in South Florida
December 20, 2010 at 2:44 pm |
Thanks, I just donated to Heifer International due to this post!
June 7, 2011 at 3:52 pm |
I have just began to study international aid. I am looking for an NGO )non religious for an assignment. I love Christopher Hitchens and was hoping anyone knew of his favorite NGO. I believe it is .(something).frontier. Can anyone help me. victoriaobrien@bigpond.com.au
June 14, 2011 at 1:12 pm |
Heifer International is not a non-religious organization. It is a Little Rock, AR-based Christian charity. Their Website is subtle. Their catalog is less so. But if you call they will tell you so.
June 16, 2011 at 3:38 pm |
C J,
thank you for the correction. I have removed H.I. from the list.
Ron
July 26, 2011 at 2:32 am |
Thank you so much for this website. There is so much suffering in the world and it’s nice to find so many charities to give to that actually help people in oppose to imposing religion on them. I want my money to feed, clothe, house, cure and educate. I DO NOT want my money to evangelize.
September 5, 2011 at 2:38 am |
Thanks for this posting. How about CARE? In their FAQ, they state they are non-sectarian. http://www.care.org/about/faqs.asp
February 14, 2012 at 9:42 am |
I am bookmarking your page. Thank you so much for this list. We are looking to do some humanitarian work this summer as a family. My husband showed me a video of a place that seemed nice, but I had the sense there were strong fundamentalist Christian underlays to the organization and, after doing some research, found I was right. I wish to show my kids people can care and do wonderful work in the world without an agenda (political or religious). I knew if I Googled, I would find others who were thinking along those same lines. I’ll look into your options here. Do you, by chance, know anyone or have any recommendations yourself?
August 30, 2012 at 4:28 am |
Does any one know of any Australian based NON-religious groups… charities or otherwise that do good works helping the poor. ill, disadvanatged, homeless etc?
I was in a nursing class today and a lot of people stated that without religion the poor, oppressed, disenfranchised and worn-torn peoples of the world would not get any help. I suggest that it is the religious missionaries (both historical and current), especially the fundamentalist, evangelical kind, are the ones behind the political corruption, wars, many infectious diseases that wiped out entire races and that continue to control and manipulate many peoples thought out the world, especially females and children. It is a pity that the vatican or the head of the anglican church ie the Queen and her family members who have inherited multimillion dollar legacies for doing no more than playing strip poker in LAs Vegas, (prince Harry etc) don’t sell their vast real estate holdings, blue chip stocks and solid gold communion chalices and put the money into feeding and housing the homeless and provding medical aide to sick, elderly and tortured or those living in slums so that they have something to live for and have a life expectancy and quality of life that is at least in par with modern OECD country inhabitants.
Thanks for the list! I shall con tinue to give some of my hard earned $$ and to continue volunteering work for cancer and school groups
October 15, 2012 at 12:14 am |
capn-jac, The Smith family and Lifeline are 2 big non religious ones in Australia.
November 28, 2012 at 9:48 am |
I really love your site.. Very nice colors & theme. Did you make this site
yourself? Please reply back as I’m trying to create my own blog and want to know where you got this from or just what the theme is named. Thank you!
November 28, 2012 at 9:17 pm |
I did this years ago and used the Kubrick theme with my own header. Right click on any page of the site and select “View Source” to check out the code.
December 26, 2012 at 4:04 am |
Thanks Scott but Life line is a Christian based group. They just hide it very well. My neighbour got ear bashed once (God will protect you if you just believe in him) when she called about my fear of having a caesarean section after having woken during an anaesthetic. The head office was called and they apologised but did admit they were Christian group.
July 29, 2014 at 11:24 pm |
UNICEF is affiliated with fundamentalist Christian organizations.
September 29, 2015 at 5:06 pm |
UNICEF is a United Nations based organization and is affiliated with a wide array of religious organizations –> http://www.unicef.org/about/partnerships/index_60231.html some of whom use this affiliation for their own purposes rather than for the good of the peoples they supposedly are helping. Yet, UNICEF does good work and has improved the lives of many who are unable to help themselves. So I will continue to recommend it.
December 12, 2018 at 10:57 am |
What’s wrong with organizations that are religiously affiliated?
December 12, 2018 at 12:04 pm |
Because religious organizations are NOT in the business of actually helping people, instead they are in the business of gaining members of their religion and reaping massive funds for their leaders. If on the odd chance some poor person now and then does benefit, that is a coincidence. and not part of their actual business plan.