Category Archives: Safe Passage Foundation

This year, Safe Passage Foundation has disbursed 11 scholarship grants totaling $2550 and 21 emergency aid grants totaling $8044.  This is a significant increase from last year when we disbursed 9 emergency aid grants totaling $2175.  

Nearly all of the emergency aid grants we disbursed were for emergency food and housing needs. In the U.S. and most of the world, there are large gaps in the social safety net programs that help protect those with urgent needs related to economic or health crises.  Over the years, our emergency aid program has evolved to help fill those gaps as those raised in cults often lack the resources and social support structures that others take for granted.  Currently we are meeting only a tiny percentage of the vast need and in most cases the financial assistance we are able to provide is very limited but fortunately we have been able to help a few people.

In March 2021, Safe Passage Foundation borrowed $7600 at an annual interest rate of 2.75% through the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan program administered by the U.S. Small Business Administration.  The availability of these funds has enabled us to increase our operating reserves so we are more financially stable and able to provide emergency assistance faster.  In September 2022, Safe Passage Foundation purchased $3000 in Series I savings bonds with an interest rate of 9.48% for the first 6 months and 6.89% for the second 6 months.  We expect the interest earned on these bonds will help offset the interest cost of the EIDL.  

Currently, nearly all of the Safe Passage Foundation operating expenses (which average about $150/month) are paid directly by our corporate sponsor, MadLab so the only operating expenses in recent years are the credit card donation transaction processing fees.  For the current fiscal year, those fees totaled $104 or about 1.44% of the $7200 in donations received.  

FY 2023 interim Statement of Financial Activities

Here is the latest financial report covering activity through the end of September 2019 as well as the annual financial report for our 2019 fiscal year that ended on March 31, 2019. 

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Thanks to a generous contribution from nursing job board NurseRecruiter, last month we awarded our first ever nursing scholarship to a promising future nurse who was raised in a cult that routinely violated the basic human rights of children. 

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We started the year with a plan to revive Safe Passage Foundation and so far we’ve made significant progress. In May and June, director Steven Levithan, former director Juliana Buhring and many others launched Facebook fundraising campaigns that raised over $7800 for Safe Passage Foundation.  So far this year we have raised about $21,496 which is a significant increase over the $2820 we raised the previous year.

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Over the past 4 years (April 1, 2014 to March 31, 2018), Safe Passage Foundation has disbursed 28 college scholarship grants totaling $14,015 and 24 emergency aid grants totaling $13,128. During that period, Safe Passage Foundation received $35,597 in donations from over 40 donors and donations from current and former directors totaled nearly 50% of total donations.

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Many have asked about a brochure that they can use to tell others about the work that Safe Passage Foundation does and we are happy to announce that we got an updated brochure designed and it is is now available to anyone who wants to share a condensed version of who we are, what we do and how to get involved! Feel free to pass it along to friends, family or whoever you think might be interested.

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Today we are happy to announce that Anna Carpenter and Whisper Wind have joined the Safe Passage Foundation team of volunteers!

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Many have asked for more visibility into the work Safe Passage Foundation does and the people SPF has helped, which is a fair question when we are asking you for your donations, so when we are able we will make our work public and today we are sharing a thank you note from Rob McClelland, 42, who SPF was able to help through our Emergency Aid Fund.

“I would like to thank Safe Passage Foundation for their generosity. Sometime ago I broke my foot in several places and was unable to work. I did not have enough money to pay the doctor bills along with rent. Safe Passage Foundation gave me financial support which helped me make it through this difficult time when I was unable to help myself. Their work is very important in helping people feel and know there are others that care in time of need.”

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Do you want to be a nurse or do you know someone who wants to be a nurse or continue their nursing education? If so, you’ll want to know all about our new scholarship for nursing majors.

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When approaching prospective donors it is not enough that your organization has good intentions, good people and good plans. You are supposed to! It needs a proven track record of being able to accomplish its plans, a proven track record of being able to execute. The Safe Passage Foundation has been able to do important and valuable work with its scholarship and emergency aid fund when it has had the resources but there are certain economies of scale that are needed to sustain this, and in the last year Safe Passage Foundation was only able to raise roughly $1500, which is just not enough to make a meaningful difference. I have been appointed as SPF Coordinator till the end of the year to try to change this and to reinvigorate SPF and its important work for our community.

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We would like to express our gratitude and appreciation to everyone who organized and attended the special charity dinner event tonight at Il San Pietro Di Positano.  Thanks to your generous support, we raised over $10,000 for Safe Passage Foundation which will enable us to greatly expand the Julia McNeil Memorial Scholarship program and replenish the Safe Passage Foundation Emergency Aid Fund.

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This month, Safe Passage Foundation will be awarding 10 $500 college scholarship grants to individuals born and/or raised in cults. In January 2014, we also awarded 3 $500 scholarship grants. The 13 $500 grants SPF will award in 2014 is more than triple the originally planned amount of 4 $500 grants.

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Stacey Paul Rugely was born into the Children of God on February 12, 1982 in Sannois, Val-d’Oise, France. After leaving the cult with his family in the early 1990s, he started a new life in the United States but continued to travel the world to work on various art and film projects. Born into a family of musicians, he was passionate about music and in the mid-2000s started a band named Oplexicon.

In April 2014, he became ill and died in Yerevan, Armenia.

Safe Passage Foundation is raising funds to help Stacy’s family bring him home from Armenia and lay him to rest.

Safe Passage Foundation has made an Emergency Aid Fund grant of $250 to Rugely’s relatives to help cover the estimated $15000 in costs. With your support, we can make additional grants to cover more of the costs. As of May 19, 2014, a total of $4610 has been raised (including $4145 raised by Rugely’s relatives on GiveForward).

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Yes, you read that right, boys and girls. Safe Passage Foundation (SPF) is now accepting Bitcoin!

For those of you already familiar with SPF’s work (and in a hurry to push buttons), click here to donate to our cause using Bitcoin.

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Safe Passage Foundation was recently contacted by several abuse survivors who were dismayed to learn that the man who sexually assaulted them when they were children would be touring the United States and raising money (including on Kickstarter) to produce a new album.

On behalf of these survivors, and in consideration of the extensively documented abuse Jeremy Spencer has been credibly accused of, Safe Passage Foundation created a petition calling for the cancellation of this tour and fundraiser.

Warning: The remainder of this article contains graphic descriptions of child abuse and may be disturbing for some readers.

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Those who are born into groups that segregate themselves from the “outside” world often have a difficult time surviving outside the group they grew up in. Many are left to fend for themselves without any familial support, shunned as “apostates” or “backsliders” by their former peers.

The Safe Passage Foundation was founded by people who knew all too well what this burden could be like to bear. And it is run by volunteers who know more than any why we have to do what we do: because there’s often nobody else to help when one’s family and support system turns on you.

Many of us know people who didn’t make it. Many of us know those who did, despite the odds they had against them. And we are calling on others like them who have survived to help us help our peers who are struggling right now.

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The Julia McNeil Scholarship provides college scholarships to individuals who were raised in high-demand organizations based on demonstrated financial need, academic achievement or community participation or involvement. Initially funded by a donation pledge in memory of Daniel Frouman the scholarship was renamed in honor of Safe Passage Foundation founder Julia McNeil following her death in 2012.

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The mission of Safe Passage Foundation is to ensure:

• That minors within cults or high demand organizations are protected from abuse and exploitation and that their rights are respected and protected.
• That those who choose to leave a cult or high demand organization have a support structure throughout the transitional period.
• That those who violate children’s human rights are held accountable for their crimes and face justice

Safe Passage Foundation has adopted the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child as the statement of its guiding philosophy.