The Pantheon Foundation

Our Mission: To provide organizational support for the practice of Pagan religion and the fostering of Pagan Ministry. To study the history, promote the culture, and advance the social welfare of Pagans and the Pagan community.

The Pantheon Foundation will:

• Fiscal Sponsorship—Provide fiscal sponsorship for Pagan organizations,
• Education—Advance the study of Pagan religious practice, history and culture,
• Media—Establish and Support Media outlets and publish news and research about the Pagan community
• Events—Sponsor conferences to advance Pagan scholarship, culture and worship,
• Social Justice Advocacy—Advocate for the civil and human rights of Pagans,
• Social Welfare—Support the social welfare needs of Pagan families.

Fiscal Sponsorship
The Pantheon Foundation will provide fiscal sponsorship for Pagan organizations, enabling them to have bank accounts, lease meeting space, procure insurance, and receive bequests and donations, as well as have access to legal and accounting services.

Education
The Pantheon Foundation will advance the study of Pagan history, culture and religious practice, through funding and administering scholarships and research grants, sponsoring conferences and creating educational facilities. For example we plan to offer scholarships to 2nd year or later Master of Divinity students at accredited seminaries awarded on the basis of an essay on the nature of Paganism and Pagan ministry. We will offer research grants to scholars to produce works on Pagan religion, culture, and policy.  Also, the Pantheon Foundation sponsors conferences of religious, scholarly, and cultural leaders to share their work, their art and to worship. Likewise we will create educational facilities to advance Pagan religion, scholarship and culture, up to and including an accredited seminary.

Media & Publishing
The Pantheon Foundation will establish new and support existing Pagan media outlets. We will assist them with fundraising campaigns, developing organizational capacity, and see to their accounting and legal needs. We will also seek to advance Pagan journalistic quality. One such important Pagan media outlet which we plan to support is The Wild Hunt news blog. The Foundation will also publish works generated by grant-receiving scholars and other supported research projects or other documents of interest to the Pagan community, such as the many ancient untranslated Pagan texts.

Events
In addition to educational conferences, the Pantheon Foundation will sponsor religious observances and cultural festivals, and such other events as support of the Foundation’s religious, educational, cultural, and social welfare mission.

Social Justice Advocacy
The Pantheon Foundation will engage in social justice advocacy similar to the Lady Liberty Headstone Project which lobbied the Veterans Administration so that Pagan Military Dead could be buried with headstones marked with Pagan religious symbols. The Foundation will also provide relief and legal services to Pagans facing discrimination by the State and in the Justice system. One such example of this work (completely unaffiliated with the Foundation) is the case of the Maetreum of Cybele, a monastic Pagan community in Catskill, New York, that was seeking religious property tax exemptions and faced discrimination.

Advocacy projects like the Lady Liberty Headstone Project and the property tax issues of the Maetreum of Cybele require lobbying. The Pantheon Foundation intends to file form 5768, election under section 501(h) to be a lobbying 501(c)3, and does not expect lobbying expenditures to exceed 10% of all exempt purpose expenditures.

Social Welfare
The Pantheon Foundation will support the social welfare needs of Pagans by establishing resources and facilities to care for Pagan ill and elderly. One such planned project of the Foundation is the Tara Webster Memorial Hospice & Care Fund, which will collect and provide funding to caregivers serving the invalid and dying in the Pagan community in need of hospice care or in home support due to medical needs.