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December 2025 Online Fundraising Auction




Entirely Online, December 2025

Bid on Prizes

 Rewards Available for Prize Donors and Sponsors





Help the Foundation for Critical Thinking Continue Its Work

About Us

The Foundation for Critical Thinking is the world's longest-running non-profit organization dedicated to fairminded critical thinking. We began our work in 1980, developing the world’s most empowering, comprehensive critical thinking framework and advancing it through outreach to educators, students, businesses, and other organizations. Our renowned think tank has survived 45 years with almost no grant funding or major benefactors, and our scholarship is unfettered by outside monied interests. But we now need your help to survive.

While modern trends against critical thinking are mighty, with your help, we can work toward cultivating it in education and society. We invite you to support our first auction to raise funds for our initiatives. 



Initiatives That Need Funding


We seek to raise funds for three primary initiatives:

1. Reestablishing The Foundation for Critical Thinking Press. We print our books on 100% recycled paper, and for each book published, a tree will be planted. We aim to raise $100,000 (or $10,000 per author) for this purpose.

2. Updating our online platforms. Our website is badly aged and needs rebuilding, and our online learning platform requires renovation. Our goal is to raise $60,000 for these ends.

3. Establishing a scholarship funding pool. Many educators, small organizations, and individuals lack funding for our events and courses. We have long provided scholarships to assist them, but we need help to continue. We aim to raise $60,000 for this purpose.



Donations We Are Seeking


For this auction, we are particularly seeking donations of the following:

  • Art.
  • Jewelry.
  • Event tickets.
  • Gift cards for goods and/or services.
  • Travel tickets and/or lodging.

If you have something you would like to donate, but are not sure if we will accept it, please contact us to inquire.



Rewards for Prize Donors and Sponsors


Amounts Listed in Combined Value of Sponsorship and/or Donated Goods/Services:

$20 - $199.99:

  • Will be listed in our online annual conference program and/or annual Donations page as a donor/sponsor. 
  • Will be named and thanked in online announcements of our auction.


$200 - $399.99:

  • Will be listed in our online annual conference program and/or annual Donations page as a donor/sponsor. 
  • Will be named and thanked, with a copy of your logo, in online announcements of our auction.
  • 2 months' free membership in The Center for Critical Thinking Community Online.


$400 - $699.99:

  • Will be listed in our online annual conference program and/or annual Donations page as a donor/sponsor. 
  • Will be named and thanked, with a copy of your logo, in online announcements of our auction.
  • 4 months' free membership in The Center for Critical Thinking Community Online.
  • $50 scholarship to attend a future event or online course.


$700 - $1,099.99:

  • Will be listed in our online annual conference program and/or annual Donations page as a donor/sponsor. 
  • Will be named and thanked, with a copy of your logo, in online announcements of our auction.
  • 7 months' free membership in The Center for Critical Thinking Community Online.
  • $100 scholarship to attend a future event or online course.


$1,100 - $1,599.99:

  • Will be listed in our online annual conference program and/or annual Donations page as a donor/sponsor. 
  • Will be named and thanked, with a copy of your logo, in online announcements of our auction.
  • 10 months' free membership in The Center for Critical Thinking Community Online.
  • $150 scholarship to attend a future event or online course.


$1,600 - $1,999.99:

  • Will be listed in our online annual conference program and/or annual Donations page as a donor/sponsor. 
  • Will be named and thanked, with a copy of your logo, in online announcements of our auction.
  • 1 year of free membership in The Center for Critical Thinking Community Online.
  • $150 scholarship to attend a future event or online course.


$2,000 - $5,999.99: 

  • Will be listed in our online annual conference program and/or annual Donations page as a donor/sponsor. 
  • Will be named and thanked, with a copy of your logo, in online announcements of our auction.
  • Your business name and logo will be featured on our digital auction platform.
  • A complimentary year of access to The Center for Critical Thinking Community Online.
  • 35% off the cost of registration of all of our online courses and events for one year.


$6,000+

  • Special gifts are available at this level. To learn more, please write or call Nicole Fargo-Nosich:

-fargo@criticalthinking.org
-800.833.3645






Please do not pass this message by.

CRITICAL THINKING IS AT RISK.

Here are some of the big reasons why:

  1. Many people believe that critical thinking should be free and that scholars qualified to teach critical thinking should do so for free. Accordingly, they do not think they should have to pay for critical thinking textbooks, courses, or other resources when there is "so much free material online" - despite how erroneous that material may be.
  2. There are many misguided academicians, and some outright charlatans, pushing forth and capitalizing on a pseudo-, partial, or otherwise impoverished concept of critical thinking.
  3. Little to no funding is designated for critical thinking professional development in schools, colleges, or universities, despite the lip service widely given to critical thinking (as is frequently found in mission statements).
  4. Most people, including faculty, think they already know what critical thinking is, despite how few have studied it to any significant degree, and despite how few can articulate a coherent, accurate, and sufficiently deep explanation of it.
  5. People rarely exhibit the necessary level of discipline to study and use critical thinking for reaching higher levels of self-actualization. In part, this is due to wasting intellectual and emotional energy on fruitless electronic entertainment designed to be addictive and profitable rather than educational and uplifting.
  6. On the whole, fairminded critical thinking is neither understood, fostered, nor valued in educational institutions or societies.
  7. People are increasingly able to cluster themselves with others of like mind through alluring internet platforms that enable them to validate one another's thinking - even when their reasoning is nonsensical, lopsided, prejudiced, or even dangerous.
  8. Critical thinking does not yet hold an independent place in academia. Instead, "critical thinking" is continually being "defined" and redefined according to any academic area or instructor that, claiming (frequently unsupported) expertise, steps forward to teach it.

As you see, increasingly powerful trends against the teaching, learning, and practice of critical thinking entail extraordinary challenges to our mission. To continue our work, we must now rely upon your financial support. If critical thinking matters to you, please click here to contribute what you can today.

WE NEED YOUR HELP TO CONTINUE OUR WORK.

Thank you for your support of ethical critical thinking.