I said a couple of years ago that atheist philanthropist Todd Stiefel‘s most effective donation may have been the one he made to Religion News Service to hire a journalist to focus on atheism-related issues.

But his latest gift, to the tune of $10,000, is going to an equally-worthy cause.

Stiefel is giving the money to People For the American Way in order to support their brilliant Right Wing Watch blog:

“The work of exposing the Right Wing’s extremism is critical to having a transparent conversation about the direction of our country,” said PFAW President Michael Keegan. “Journalists, bloggers and thought leaders rely on Right Wing Watch for trustworthy, authoritative information on what’s going on within the far right movement. We are grateful for the support of individuals like Todd Stiefel in helping us to expose the Right Wing’s incendiary rhetoric and extreme agenda.” “People For the American Way and Right Wing Watch do critical work uncovering the vicious language the Right uses to attack anyone whose religious beliefs differ from their own — especially those with no religious belief at all, particularly atheists,” said Stiefel. “This gift is an opportunity to show gratitude to an organization that does critical work to protect and bolster the rights of both religious and secular Americans, and to help make sure they can continue this work in the future.”

I rely on Right Wing Watch every day and I can’t think of a more effective watchdog group in the country. To pull audio and video clips from as many sources as they do, every single day, is work I wouldn’t wish on anybody — but they’re incredible at it. (By the way, we have a really fascinating interview with one of their contributors coming up on the podcast!)



