Charities by deity: Roman pantheon

A rare painted depiction of Roman men wearing togae praetextae participating in a religious ceremony, probably the Compitalia; note the dark red color of their toga borders. Fresco on a building outside Pompeii.

Offering to the gods and goddesses was an important part of Roman religion.  How can a naturalist honor this tradition?  One possibility is to give to a charity related to a deity’s symbolic or mythical concerns.  This page compiles charities relevant to deities.

General correspondences and suggested charities are given for each deity, but these listings do not, and cannot, reflect the full range of nuance for each deity tradition; they only attempt to give starting points for research.  Resources for evaluating charities include Charity Navigator and GiveWell.

Your help is needed!  Please send us your links, comments, and improvements for this page!

Table of Contents

  • Antinous
  • Apollo
  • Bacchus
  • Ceres
  • Diana
  • Fortuna
  • Genius
  • Janus
  • Juno
  • Jupiter
  • Liber
  • Luna
  • Magna Mater
  • Mars
  • Mercury
  • Minerva
  • Neptune
  • Orcus
  • Saturn
  • Sol
  • Tellus
  • Venus
  • Vesta
  • Vulcan

General

Some nonprofits are broadly applicable; either their initiatives address a vast range of concerns, or the nature of their organization makes them in some way appropriate for nearly any deity.

  • Mercy Corps – a team of 3700 professionals helping turn crisis into opportunity for millions around the world; a vast list of programs addresses nearly all areas of humanitarian concern
  • Heifer International – giving livestock as an economic base to struggling families in developing countries; recipients agree to pass on offspring and knowledge to others; donating specific animals allows a correspondence to the traditional sacred/sacrificial animals of deities, thus making this charity broadly applicable to any deity that would have received animal sacrifices in ancient times

Antinous – alternative sexuality, LGBTQ, drowned lover of Emperor Hadrian

  • Human Rights Campaign – “the largest civil rights organization working to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans”
  • Marriage Equality USA – a volunteer-driven national grassroots organization whose mission is: “To secure legally recognized civil marriage equality for all, without regard to sexual orientation or gender identity, at the state and federal level through grassroots organizing, education, action and partnerships”
  • Five Practical Ways to Support LGBT Equal Rights – from the LBGTQ Humanists Council
  • Human Rights Campaign – “the largest civil rights organization working to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans”
  • LGBTQ Humanist Council – “The purpose of this grassroots network is to cultivate safe, welcoming, and affirming community; to funnel local news and other issues for national dissemination; and to articulate the values of the humanist philosophy and ethics across the country.”
  • LGBT Rights – from the Equal Rights Center
  • Transgender Foundation of America
  • Trans Youth Equality Foundation

Apollo – healing, divination, music, light

  • Doctors Without Borders– an international medical humanitarian organization working in more than 60 countries to assist people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe.
  • International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) – a worldwide mission to help victims of conflicts and internal violence, whoever they are; efforts help people affected by armed conflict in some 80 countries in 2009; Sudan is currently the organization’s largest humanitarian operation, followed by Iraq and Afghanistan.
  • The American Red Cross – the Red Cross in America
  • Oxfam International – a confederation of 13 like-minded organizations working together and with partners and allies around the world to bring about lasting change; working in development, emergencies, advocacy, campaigning, and policy research; campaigns in health, education, agriculture, climate change, arms control, and trade.
  • DonorsChoose.org – teachers ask for classroom project materials, you choose which to support
  • NothingButNets.net – mosquito nets for malaria-infested countries in east Africa (Apollo – god of plagues and healing)
  • Operation Blessing International – a variety of aid options including water purification and wells, HIV/AIDS, and more.
  • buildOn – a non-profit that empowers primarily urban U.S. high school students through in-class and intensive after-school program.  Students can participate in both local and international servicem including school-building and literacy programs in developing countries.
  • Broadway Cares – mission is to utilize the unique abilities of entertainment industry to raise awareness for and fight HIV/AIDS.  Efforts address both actors with HIV/AIDS and all those suffering from the disease.
  • The Carter Center – established by former president Jimmy Carter and former first lady Rosalyn Carter; promotes peace, human rights, and fights disease; credited with the near eradication of guinea worm disease; given a high evaluation by Givewell
  • Donations to any public school music program
  • Anything having to do with arts, sciences, athletics, music, and
    medicine

Bacchus – drunkenness, excess

  • Broadway Cares – mission is to utilize the unique abilities of entertainment industry to raise awareness for and fight HIV/AIDS.  Efforts address both actors with HIV/AIDS and all those suffering from the disease.
  • Human Rights Watch International Film Festival – festival to showcase fictional, documentary, and animated films or videos with a human rights theme
  • Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) – not a crusade against alcohol consumption – MADD’s mission is to stop drunk driving, support the victims of this violent crime and prevent underage drinking.
  • Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) – Founded as Students Against Driving Drunk in 1981, SADD has been committed to empowering young people to lead education and prevention initiatives within their schools and communities. SADD now highlights prevention of all destructive behaviors and attitudes that are harmful to young people, including underage drinking, substance abuse, impaired driving, violence and suicide.
  • Anything having to do with theatre, film and television.

Ceres – agriculture, harvest, mother

  • The Hunger Site
  • Countryside Restoration Trust
  • Feeding America – the nation’s largest food bank network.  With a network of 200 member food banks across the country, Feeding America supplies more the 2 billion pounds of food and grocery products annually.
  • United Nations World Food Programme – Among the Millennium Development Goals which the United Nations has set for the 21st century, halving the proportion of hungry people in the world is top of the list. Click through this section to learn more about hunger and how WFP food aid, which reached 86.1 million people in 80 countries in 2007, is leading the fight against the number one risk to global health.
  • Connecticut Food Bank – a partnership to alleviate hunger
  • Emergency Foodshelf Network (EFN) – a nonprofit food bank that collects, warehouses and distributes quality food and essential support services to Minnesota hunger relief organizations.
  • Operation Blessing International – a variety of aid options including hunger relief, orphan care, and more.
  • Feed the Hungry – Feed The Hungry raises money to build small, efficient kitchens attached to schools and then provides a hot, nutritionally balanced meal to over 4,000 hungry children every school day. Feed The Hungry currently supplies 35 kitchens and plans to build three more kitchens in 2009.  FTH serves the San Miguel de Allende area of Mexico.
  • Oxfam International – a confederation of 13 like-minded organizations working together and with partners and allies around the world to bring about lasting change; working in development, emergencies, advocacy, campaigning, and policy research; campaigns in health, education, agriculture, climate change, arms control, and trade.

Diana – wilderness, hunting, young girls, moon

  • Nearly any animal welfare, environmental conservation, hunting, reproductive health, or midwife organization.
  • Any children’s charity group or group for protecting women and children (domestic abuse etc)
  • Charity programs involved with hunting and archery, such as the Rage 100 charity shoot

Fortuna – luck, fortune

Genius – personal spirit

Janus – time, gates, boundaries

Juno – sovereignty, marriage, women

  • Marriage Equality
  • Nike Foundation – works to get girls on the international agenda and drive resources to them; researches the critical importance of girls in the developing world; finds the best programs for girls
  • The Girl Effect – initiative of the Nike Foundation communicating the importance of girls as agents of change in the developing world
  • International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) – tackles the complexities of the world’s most pressing problems ? poverty, hunger and disease ? by demonstrating that a focus on women and gender is necessary for lasting social and economic change; mission is to empower women, advance gender equality and fight poverty in the developing world; works with partners to conduct empirical research, build capacity and advocate for evidence-based, practical ways to change policies and programs
  • BRAC – works to fight poverty in the developing world through a broad set of services ranging from education to health care, emphasizes poor rural women as agents of change
  • Global Grassroots – supports women affected by violence in Rwanda, Darfur, and eastern Chad bordering Darfur; trains women in personal transformation, social entrepreneurship, and project building; also provides seed funding to graduates with quality projects, a list of which can be seen on their web site; founded by Gretchen Steidle Wallace of the film The Devil Came On Horseback.
  • International Peace Institute
  • United Nations Foundation
  • Witness – “Uses video and online technologies to open the eyes of the world to human rights violations.”
  • Shelter Listings – Database of listings for shelters of all kinds, including emergency shelters, homeless shelters, day shelters, transitional housing, residential drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs, and permanent affordable housing (Zeus – god of hospitality).
  • ChangeMakers.net – encouraging social innovation.  Changemakers is building the world’s first global online “open source” community that competes to surface the best social solutions, and then collaborates to refine, enrich, and implement those solutions. Changemakers begins by providing an overarching intellectual framework for collaborative competitions that bring together individual social change initiatives into a more powerful whole.
  • Amnesty International – a worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally recognized human rights for all.
  • Save Darfur Coalition – acting to end the atrocities in the Darfur region of Sudan.
  • The Carter Center – established by former president Jimmy Carter and former first lady Rosalyn Carter; promotes peace, human rights, and fights disease; credited with the near eradication of guinea worm disease; given a high evaluation by Givewell
  • Global Grassroots – supports women affected by violence in Rwanda, Darfur, and eastern Chad bordering Darfur; trains women in personal transformation, social entrepreneurship, and project building; also provides seed funding to graduates with quality projects, a list of which can be seen on their web site; founded by Gretchen Steidle Wallace of the film The Devil Came On Horseback.
  • Genocide Intervention Network – educational network empowering individuals and communities with the tools to prevent and stop genocide; in addition to advocacy, programs work actively to protect civilians on the ground, currently in Darfur and Burma.
  • Aegis – campaigns to prevent genocide worldwide; activities include research, policy, education, remembrance, awareness of genocide issues in the media, and humanitarian support for victims of genocide; offices in the UK Holocaust Centre and Rwanda
  • Human Rights Watch – independent organization reporting on human rights issues around the world

Jupiter – sky, thunder, sovereignty, rulership, justice

  • International Peace Institute
  • United Nations Foundation
  • Witness – “Uses video and online technologies to open the eyes of the world to human rights violations.”
  • Shelter Listings – Database of listings for shelters of all kinds, including emergency shelters, homeless shelters, day shelters, transitional housing, residential drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs, and permanent affordable housing (Zeus – god of hospitality).
  • ChangeMakers.net – encouraging social innovation.  Changemakers is building the world’s first global online “open source” community that competes to surface the best social solutions, and then collaborates to refine, enrich, and implement those solutions. Changemakers begins by providing an overarching intellectual framework for collaborative competitions that bring together individual social change initiatives into a more powerful whole.
  • Amnesty International – a worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally recognized human rights for all.
  • Save Darfur Coalition – acting to end the atrocities in the Darfur region of Sudan.
  • The Carter Center – established by former president Jimmy Carter and former first lady Rosalyn Carter; promotes peace, human rights, and fights disease; credited with the near eradication of guinea worm disease; given a high evaluation by Givewell
  • Global Grassroots – supports women affected by violence in Rwanda, Darfur, and eastern Chad bordering Darfur; trains women in personal transformation, social entrepreneurship, and project building; also provides seed funding to graduates with quality projects, a list of which can be seen on their web site; founded by Gretchen Steidle Wallace of the film The Devil Came On Horseback.
  • Genocide Intervention Network – educational network empowering individuals and communities with the tools to prevent and stop genocide; in addition to advocacy, programs work actively to protect civilians on the ground, currently in Darfur and Burma.
  • Aegis – campaigns to prevent genocide worldwide; activities include research, policy, education, remembrance, awareness of genocide issues in the media, and humanitarian support for victims of genocide; offices in the UK Holocaust Centre and Rwanda
  • Human Rights Watch – independent organization reporting on human rights issues around the world

Liber – freedom of expression, viticulture, wine, fertility

Luna – moon

Magna Mater – mother, eunuchs, gender issues

Mars – war, protection

  • Fisher House – helping military families
  • Operation Homefront – supporting our troops and helping the families they leave behind
  • USO – The USO is a private, nonprofit organization whose mission is to support the troops by providing morale, welfare and recreation-type services to our men and women in uniform.
  • War Child International – works to help children caught up in the horrors of war
  • Iraq Foundation – raises awareness for the suffering of Iraqi people and raises funds which are then given to institutions and organizations in Iraq to aid children, refugees, and widows.
  • Oxfam International – a confederation of 13 like-minded organizations working together and with partners and allies around the world to bring about lasting change; working in development, emergencies, advocacy, campaigning, and policy research; campaigns in health, education, agriculture, climate change, arms control, and trade.

Mercury – messenger, communication, commerce, rural areas, roads, travel

  • Kiva – An international microfinance site.  Donations/gift certificates are possible. Note: Kiva Lending Team: Wiccans, (neo)Pagans, Witches and fellows
  • Kyrgyzstan New Zealand Rural Trust – a NZ organization that helps poor rural families in Kyrgyzstan help themselves; all donations matched by the Morgan Family Charitable Foundation (Hermes – commerce, herding)
  • National Public Radio
  • Any local PBS station.
  • Witness – “Uses video and online technologies to open the eyes of the world to human rights violations.”
  • American Hiking Society
  • Sustainable Travel International
  • Heifer International – giving livestock as an economic base to struggling families in developing countries; recipients agree to pass on offspring and knowledge to others (traditional herding)
  • DonorsChoose.org – teachers ask for classroom project materials, you choose which to support
  • aGoodCause – free software allows you to donate as you shop online
  • FastTrackFundraising – service provides ready-to-go fundraising packages
  • Alternatively, leave pocket change in payphone coin return slots, along the edge of a fountain, or on playground equipment
  • Central Asia Institute – works with local people of remote parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan to promote education and literacy among girls; also awards scholarships
  • Oxfam International – a confederation of 13 like-minded organizations working together and with partners and allies around the world to bring about lasting change; working in development, emergencies, advocacy, campaigning, and policy research; campaigns in health, education, agriculture, climate change, arms control, and trade.

Minerva – wisdom, crafts, victory, heroes, protection, protectress of the city (and, by extension and with some interpretation, protectress of civil rights)

  • American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
  • Dress for Success
  • Novica – Not a charity, but a way to support (through buying from them) talented artisans from around the world.
  • Fisher House – helping military families
  • Operation Homefront – supporting our troops and helping the families they leave behind
  • VolunteerMatch – where volunteering begins; site helps you find a volunteering opportunity that’s right for you
  • Global Grassroots – supports women affected by violence in Rwanda, Darfur, and eastern Chad bordering Darfur; trains women in personal transformation, social entrepreneurship, and project building; also provides seed funding to graduates with quality projects, a list of which can be seen on their web site; founded by Gretchen Steidle Wallace of the film The Devil Came On Horseback.
  • Sudan Divestment Task Force – project coordinates Sudan divestment, which means removing investor capital from companies supporting the Sudanese government, the money from which funds ongoing genocide; a list of companies under scrutiny is available for free download, and the methodology used for selecting these companies is given upfront; companies which substantially benefit the Sudanese people are not targeted; the site also shows which U.S. states have adopted divestment policies.
  • Genocide Intervention Network – educational network empowering individuals and communities with the tools to prevent and stop genocide; in addition to advocacy, programs work actively to protect civilians on the ground, currently in Darfur and Burma.
  • Aegis – campaigns to prevent genocide worldwide; activities include research, policy, education, remembrance, awareness of genocide issues in the media, and humanitarian support for victims of genocide; offices in the UK Holocaust Centre and Rwanda
  • Human Rights Watch – independent organization reporting on human rights issues around the world
  • International Campaign for Tibet – engaged in human rights monitoring and advocacy, legislative activities, fact-finding missions, environment and development initiative, refugee assistance, Chinese outreach, education, and training Tibetan youth in leadership skills
  • Nike Foundation – works to get girls on the international agenda and drive resources to them; researches the critical importance of girls in the developing world; finds the best programs for girls
  • Anything that helps out the city or town you live in. Shop at mom and pop stores, support your local police and fire departments, help out schools, support your local Boys and Girls Clubs,  Boy and Girl Scouts, etc.

Neptune – sea, ocean, earthquakes, horses

Orcus – underworld, oaths

Saturn – time, generation, dissolution, plenty, wealth, agriculture, periodical renewal and liberation

  • The Hunger Site
  • Countryside Restoration Trust
  • Feeding America – the nation’s largest food bank network.  With a network of 200 member food banks across the country, Feeding America supplies more the 2 billion pounds of food and grocery products annually.
  • United Nations World Food Programme – Among the Millennium Development Goals which the United Nations has set for the 21st century, halving the proportion of hungry people in the world is top of the list. Click through this section to learn more about hunger and how WFP food aid, which reached 86.1 million people in 80 countries in 2007, is leading the fight against the number one risk to global health.
  • Connecticut Food Bank – a partnership to alleviate hunger
  • Emergency Foodshelf Network (EFN) – a nonprofit food bank that collects, warehouses and distributes quality food and essential support services to Minnesota hunger relief organizations.
  • Operation Blessing International – a variety of aid options including hunger relief, orphan care, and more.
  • Feed the Hungry – Feed The Hungry raises money to build small, efficient kitchens attached to schools and then provides a hot, nutritionally balanced meal to over 4,000 hungry children every school day. Feed The Hungry currently supplies 35 kitchens and plans to build three more kitchens in 2009.  FTH serves the San Miguel de Allende area of Mexico.
  • Oxfam International – a confederation of 13 like-minded organizations working together and with partners and allies around the world to bring about lasting change; working in development, emergencies, advocacy, campaigning, and policy research; campaigns in health, education, agriculture, climate change, arms control, and trade.

Sol – sun

Tellus – earth

Venus – love, beauty, sexuality

Vesta – hearth, purity

  • Shelter Listings – Database of listings for shelters of all kinds, including emergency shelters, homeless shelters, day shelters, transitional housing, residential drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs, and permanent affordable housing.
  • Operation Blessing International – a variety of aid options including orphan care, and more.
  • Any children’s charity group or group for protecting women and children (domestic abuse etc)

Vulcan – fire, volcanoes, smith, a lame god

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