-Our Mission-
“Secular Funds. Driving Education. Uplifting Society.”
Mission Explanation
The Richard A. Busemeyer Atheist Foundation is funding projects that re-invent educational structures to create short term, tangible value for third parties who are not the learner or the teacher.
By building new structures that generate external 3rd party value through the learning process itself, educational models shift from a cost incurred, to a value generated. Education becomes a self-sustaining engine of value creation, allowing it to be more effective, applicable and scalable beyond privilege and into all communities.
Theory of Change
Quality education is a universal good and engine that brings value to economies. Quality education lifts people out of poverty, reduces social problems, and generally improves both standards of living and sustainable economics in all parts of the world.
Unfortunately, the current education system is broken. The gap in access to quality education is widening between both rich and poor countries as well as within those countries between classes. Even for privileged individuals in rich countries, education systems are archaic, inefficient and ineffective.
“not much has changed about school. And not just in the West. Whether you’re at Horace Mann or from a slum in Mumbai, “school” looks something like 20–30 same-age students seated in fixed rows receiving standardized information from a teacher in a classroom. When people talk about “hating school,” this tends to be the image etched underneath their eyelids.”
“If the consensus of learning science could be summed up in a sentence, it would be that “a teacher in front of a classroom” is one of the least effective ways to teach kids anything.”
-Class Dismissed - Colossus
https://joincolossus.com/article/joe-liemandt-class-dismissed/?utm_source=tldrnewsletter 23/33
The world needs a paradigm shift in the way people learn; structures where there is tangible value generated from the learning process which is tailored to the students’ strengths; therefore, accelerating the learning, and removing the inefficiencies.
Dollars Gifted to RABAF’s mission since its founding.
Dollars Gifted since 2007
TOTAL GIFTS SINCE 2007 OF $4,497,000
** The foundation has historically given mostly to USA based non-profits. However, our focus is changing to drive education in developing countries where the human rights violations are more prevalent and the presence of secular support is less common. We believe that here, our dollars will go farther to inspire positive change and empower individuals.