Secular Funds. Driving Education. Uplifting Society.Our Mission
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
Since its founding in 1992, the Richard A. Busemeyer Atheist Foundation (RABAF) has supported efforts that address civil rights, bigotry, domestic violence, and hate. Over time, the foundation identified education as the most effective way to create long term social impact. This shift led to a deeper examination of how learning happens today and why so many promising innovations fail to reach the people who need them most. The findings revealed a central issue. Even with new technologies and creative ideas, most learners cannot realistically access them within the current education systems.
These systems are underfunded, slow to adapt, and unable to prepare students for the demands of modern life and work. Additional spending has not produced the results families and communities need, and there is little willingness to continue investing in structures that no longer serve learners well. After careful evaluation, the foundation concluded that meaningful progress will require a new approach, one that does not rely on the traditional systems that have struggled to change.
RABAF believes that real impact occurs when education can operate independently and reach learners directly. For this reason, the foundation invests in value generating educational structures that can stand on their own and grow outside traditional systems. These structures share three qualities. They teach skills that have clear real world use, they show measurable improvement for learners, and they provide outcomes that someone finds valuable enough to support. When these elements come together, education becomes something that grows through its own strength and relevance, not through dependence on outdated institutions.
Through this approach, the foundation aims to create better opportunities for learners, stronger talent for businesses, and healthier communities that benefit from expanded access to real skills and real economic participation. When education produces clear value, it uplifts individuals, communities, and society as a whole. This is the foundation’s theory of change and the work it continues to advance today.