2025 - 990-EZ

2024 - 990

2023 990-EZ

2022 990-EZ

2021 990-EZ

2020 990-EZ

2019 990-EZ

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 Board Meetings

2026 Board Meeting - 5/30/2026

Attendees

  • Werner Haag

  • Deborah Meckler

  • Hank Pellissier

  • Rick Thomas

  • Karen Zelevinsky

Key Outcomes

Organization is shifting 80% of funding to Africa (14 countries), 10% to Asia and 10% to USA. All African partners funded through May 2026 with increased $600 grants (doubled from $300). Financial runway extends through 2027 with $40,000 current balance plus ongoing monthly donations.

Decisions Made

  • Grant increase: African partners now receive $600 instead of $300 to improve sustainability

  • Geographic pullback: Ending operations in Nepal (illegal transfers), Sri Lanka (dishonest partners), and most of India (Modi restrictions)

  • Partner consolidation: Limiting to 14 established African partners plus select Asia/USA groups; website now states "we fund our partners" only

  • Inspection protocol: Continue annual inspection using Usman Abdubakar (in-person) and Salu Olumide Sahid (video)

  • Kerala exception: Continue funding Kerala group via Mountain View nonprofit to circumvent India restrictions

  • Proposal review: Selection committee will meet 1-2 times annually in San Francisco to review proposals collectively rather than rolling reviews

Program Status by Region

Africa (14 Countries)

  • Active partners: Nigeria, Ghana, Chad, Liberia, Cameroon, Angola, Mozambique, Kenya, Gambia, Ivory Coast, Benin, Niger Republic, Togo, Burkina Faso

  • Partner profile: Ages 25-29, college-educated, became humanists after religious upbringing, lost parental financial support

  • Project types: Solar-powered water pumps, grain mills/silos, seeds/seedlings, tractors, fertilizer, yam barns, solar panels, computers, ice block factories

  • Inspection system: Usman Abdubakar (speaks French, Arabic, Hausa) inspects 5 West African countries; Salu inspects 4 Central/Southern African countries via Zoom

  • Recent visit: Hank met 5 partners in Ghana two months ago

Asia

  • Myanmar: main partner became full-time PhD student in Thailand

  • Nepal: Halted; crypto illegal, banks blocking transfers for political reasons

  • India: Only Kerala group fundable via Mountain View headquarters; raised $130,000 at one fundraiser, reducing dependency on HUMAN

  • Philippines: HAPI proposals focus on youth summer camps rather than direct aid

  • Taiwan: earthquake/crisis training group led by former intern

United States

  • Appalachia: 6-year partnership provides food, money, Narcan, and Plan B distribution

  • Recent experiments: Funded Food Not Bombs, community gardens in West Oakland and North St. Louis, homeless support in Berkeley and Eugene, but deemed less impactful than African projects

Financial Overview

  • Current balance: $40,000 (sufficient through 2027)

  • Monthly income: ~$1,000 from recurring donors (down from previous years due to Trump-related giving shifts and Canadian donor attrition)

  • 2025 spending: $125,000 on services

  • 2026 spending: 14 African partners plus minimal Asia/USA allocations

  • Major donors: Cameo Wood ($10,000 annually), Robert (Hank's brother, $4,000), nephew (promised $20,000-30,000)

  • Fund allocation: 80% services, 10% fundraising, 3% Hank's travel, 3% Phil Zuckerman's travel, 4% administration

  • 2024 lifeline: $200,000 bequest prevented shutdown two years ago

Pending Confirmation

  • IRS status: Atheist Community of San Jose (Werner's group) awaiting 501(c)3 confirmation after 5-year delay

Operational Improvements

  • Workload reduction: Shifted to twice-yearly funding cycles instead of continuous grants; website limits applications to established partners only

  • Proposal quality: 90% of African proposals now "perfect" (ChatGPT-assisted); bad proposals eliminated through selection committee reputation

  • Community building: African partners communicate directly, share advice, and provide mutual support

  • Carol's involvement: Hank's wife funding Usman's college education ($500/year)

Health and Risk Factors

  • Ebola: Cases in Congo and Uganda; no impact on partners yet (Kasisi, Uganda near Congo border)

  • Malaria: Partners report 10-15 lifetime infections each; periodic work disruptions

  • Life expectancy: Northern Nigeria male average is 49 years

  • Burkina Faso: Americans banned from country; partner accessible only through African inspectors

Opportunities Discussed

  • Vaccination labs: Harvard researcher contact developing DIY vaccination facilities for African villages (could treat 10,000 people)

  • Algiers meeting: Potential low-cost alternative to Ghana visits; Chad and Nigeria partners could fly cheaply to meet Hank

  • Deborah's retirement community: Presentation opportunity discussed as more promising than skeptics conference tabling

Action Items

  • Hank: Coordinate December/January proposal review meeting in San Francisco with selection committee

  • Rick: Confirm Bay Area Skeptics conference details (under 1 month away, Oakland Asian Cultural Community Center)

  • Werner: Follow up on IRS 501(c)3 status for Atheist Community of San Jose

Board Participation Notes

Karen Zelevinsky prefers current model: Hank emails when specific guidance needed rather than adding routine workload. Selection committee valuable for identifying suspicious proposals but current African proposals uniformly strong. Board comfortable with 80-10-10 geographic allocation and current funding levels given established partner relationships.

2025 HuMAN Board Meeting - June 1 2:00 pm PST

Attending: Karen Zelevinsky (Board President), Phil Zuckerman (Executive Directive), Susan Kuchinskas (Secretary), Rick Thomas (co-Treasurer), Hank Pellissier (co-Treasurer, Program Director)

Meeting starts at 2:05 p.m.

Present: Hank Pellissier, Karen Zelevinsky, Susan Kuchinskas, Phil Zuckerman and Rick Thomas.

• Everyone introduces themselves

• Dan Beaton joins our Board of Directors: New board member Dan Beaton goes to Africa regularly.; he will be the “face of the franchise” in Africa and work with new student groups. He just returned from Kenya where he met University of Nairobi Freethinkers, and he’s going to Nigeria in July to meet / inspect five different projects, including three secular student groups.

• Financial Update: We have $125,000 in bank account. Last year was biggest-ever in fundraising, $244,000. $200,000 came from a single donor, who died. The $125,000 is enough for at least two years. After that, other funds must be found. We have lost multiple regular donors - we only have around 15 donors a month. Potential sources of funds in future could be GoFundMe, which is also a good source of new email addresses.

Hank has a clear budget with most of the money allocated for the next year-and-a-half.

Instead of giving grants constantly, we will only provide funding twice a year.  

Below are ways we provide value beyond giving money.

  • The Africa Collective - ex-partners who have completed projects get a bio page. Ideally, Americans could hire them to do work. For example, someone in Chad made a song for our org and someone in Zambia made a video.

  • Humanist Sustainability School will display videos of successful projects we’ve done. This way, people who can’t/don’t receive a grant will have access to information and resources to help them achieve their goals.

HuMAN boosted our Grant Amounts from max $300 to max $1800 & reduced allocations to only Two Proposal-Accepting Time Slots Annually. Also we give out grants only once. When we find one reliable partner, that person can find other worthwhile partners. These people can also inspect projects; help communicate in languages besides English; and teach potential partners more about humanism. Some partners are paid for this work, and they can get a $50 reward if they bring in other groups.

Berkeley Unitarian Universalists: For the next four weeks, a local Unitarian church is passing the basket for our safe house for lesbians in Benin.

Writing grants can be difficult because many require the grants to be available to everyone regardless of creed.

Current USA Administration Might Repress Humanists & international funders? Trump may target anti-religious groups, or go after nonprofits that do international funding. Also concern about being audited since our funds in have been irregular, but Hank is confident in his bookkeeping.

We joined Secular Coalition of America - they advertise for us and amplify our social media.

Secular Student Alliance is reaching out to African student groups - we want to get kids from the states to connect with our student groups in Africa. This is another way we can be valuable without giving money. Maybe we could provide some peer-to-peer counseling, for example, for kids grappling with how to tell their parents they’re secular.

African Humanist Journal: we pay our partners in Africa to write articles for it. We also have a good connection with The Freethinker; they publish articles by our partners, paid for by us.

Phil is teaching humanism to people in prison.

Rick is connecting us to large national organizations like American Humanist Association, Teachers for Evolutionary Science, Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

2024 Board of Directors Meeting - June 2

Attending: Karen Zelevinsky (Board President), Phil Zuckerman (Executive Directive), Susan Kuchinskas (Secretary), Jesse Smith (Vice President), Rick Thomas (co-Treasurer), Hank Pellissier (co-Treasurer, Program Director), Binyamin Biber (Board Member)

Meeting Starts at 10:00 am PST

Africa Humanism

Hank updates the directors on our relationships in Africa. In 2023, four humanist leaders from four different SubSaharan nations were angry at HuMAN. Two of them were recently de-funded by HuMAN for corruption; the other two were their allies. The furious foursome tried to “cancel” Hank and HuMAN with accusations and threats on Facebook. HuMAN was accused (ridiculously) of funding only selected favorites in our attempt to establish “cartels” to “take over Africa.” Hank also caused an uproar when he publicly accused one accuser as “mentally ill.” the entire attack, Hank explains at the Board meeting, ended when our primary foe - the South African humanist, died suddenly of a stroke. Our relationships in Africa have been positive and peaceful ever since. This is aided by the presence of of Saliu Olumide Saheed, of Nigeria, who is now assisting us as Africa Director.

Update on Partnerships

In Africa, HuMAN has solid partnerships in Uganda, Nigeria, Shad, Liberia, Mozambique, Niger Republic, Ghana, Malawi,Zimbabwe and Sierra Leone. Additionally, we have partners in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, The Philippines, UK and USA.

$2,000 Gift

Vicki Van Horn, a donor in Albuquerque, recently died and left us approximately $200,000. Hank explains that this amount is nearly impossible to spend quickly due to our maximum $300 allotment. For this reason, he asked multiple donors to not donate for 1-2 years. Several directors disagreed with this; they believe we should keep encouraging everyone to continue donating. Karen suggests we enlarge the $300 amount to accomplish larger projects. The group agrees with this, all also agrees that all donors should be encouraged to continue donating.

Activism & Fscal Sponsorship

Hank discusses the possibility of HuMAN supporting an “activist” group. The other directors don’t want to do this; they believe it is better to avoid taking sides on political issues, because it is possibly illegal and it would surely displease the donors with contrary political views. Hank also reports that HuMAN is fiscally-sponsoring three groups at this time: South Sound Street Medics (indigenous-run team in Washington State), Duck Farm Collective (LGBTQ+ Appalachian group), and Mega Mouth Rebels (Hank’s own activist group). Two of these groups promote specific political viewpoints. The HuMAN directors decide it would be best to discontinue our support of these groups, and also to not directly support an activist group, unless the projects directly mirror our own Mission, i.e., assisting humanists in need.

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HGC Board Meeting 2023

May 20, 10-11 PST

Attending: Karen Zelvinsky, Phil Zuckerman, Cameo Wood, Hank Pellissier, Jesse Smith, Werner Haag, Omar Niage, Susan Kuchinskas

Karen Zelevinsky, Board President, introduces the meeting’s agenda.

Everyone introduces themselves.

Hank presents slide show depicting HGC’s 18 partners - two in Uganda, four in Nigeria, two in Zambia, two in India, two in Nepal, and one each in Chad, South Sudan, Bangladesh, Philippines, DR Congo, and Appalachia.

Hank talks about recent struggles with some African humanists, who are angry and “cancelling” him on Facebook - they are displeased for multiple reasons, generally stemming from his decisions in funding, not funding, or de-funding candidates.

The Board decides that Hank is targeted as HGC’s “face” and strategies are suggested and approved. A Selection Team will decide, in the future, how HGC funds are allocated, this team will look at proposals and determine who to fund and not fund. This will relieve Hank of the sole responsibility.

A Director of African Humanism has already been appointed to review African grant proposals - Saliu Olumide Saheed (he is currently the Minna Safe House director).

The Selection Team will confer regularly to determine who gets funded and who does not.

Moving on, the Board discusses and approves of Hank’s idea to move funding towards Mutual Aid groups and Community Service groups. There is brief discussion of changing the nonprofit’s name.

The Board discusses possible trips together - Nepal is mentioned and there is interest.