Freedom From Religion Foundation

The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) is an American nonprofit organization that advocates for atheists, agnostics, and nontheists.

Formed in 1976, FFRF promotes the separation of church and state, and challenges the legitimacy of federal and state government support for faith-based programs, such as chaplaincy services. It supports groups such as nonreligious students and clergy who want to leave their faith.

The FFRF was co-founded by Anne Nicol Gaylor and her daughter, Annie Laurie Gaylor, in 1976 and was incorporated nationally on April 15, 1978, who split with Madalyn Murray O'Hair’s American Atheists, in response to O’Hair’s antisemitism. The organization was supported by over 19,000 members in 2012 and operated from an 1855-era building in Madison, Wisconsin, that once served as a church rectory.

In March 2011, FFRF, along with the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science, began The Clergy Project, a confidential on-line community that supports clergy as they leave their faith. In 2012, it gave its first Freedom From Religion Foundation and Clergy Project "Hardship Grant" to Jerry DeWitt, a former pastor who left the ministry to join the atheist movement.

FFRF provides financial support to the Secular Student Alliance, an organization that has affiliate groups for nonreligious students on college campuses.

In 2015, FFRF announced Nonbelief Relief, a related organization that obtained and later gave up its federal tax-exempt status. Nonbelief Relief was unsuccessful in a lawsuit against the IRS because it lacked standing to challenge the Form 990 exemption that applies to churches. Nonbelief Relief is a humanitarian agency for atheists, agnostics, freethinkers, and their supporters. Nonbelief Relief was created by the executive board of FFRF to remediate conditions of human suffering and injustice on a global scale, whether the result of natural disasters, human actions or adherence to religious dogma.

On 7 November 2024, Kat Grant published an article titled "What is a woman", on Freethought Now!, a website operated by the FFRF. The article argued that “any attempt to define womanhood on biological terms is inadequate” and that “a woman is whoever she says she is”. In response, Jerry Coyne wrote a rebuttal titled "Biology Is Not Bigotry", defending the "biological definition of ‘woman’ based on gamete type". Coyne's rebuttal was initially published on Freethought Now!. However, the FFRF later retracted Coyne's page. On 27 December, the FFRF published a statement saying that "Publishing this post was an error of judgment, and we have decided to remove it as it does not reflect our values or principles". In response, Coyne, Steven Pinker, and Richard Dawkins resigned from the honorary board in objection to what they considered the problematic gender-ideological capture of the institute. Coyne stated that LGBTQ people have rights, but some of the desired rights are in conflict with rights of other groups in society. As a result of the division over the issues, FFRF dissolved the honorary board.

The FFRF publishes a newspaper, Freethought Today, ten times a year. Since 2006, as the Freethought Radio Network, FFRF has produced the Freethought Radio show, an hour-long show broadcast live on WXXM-FM Saturdays at 11 a.m. CDT. It had also been broadcast on Air America before that service ceased operation in March 2010. The show is hosted by the co-presidents of FFRF, Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor. Regular features include "Theocracy Alert" and "Freethinkers Almanac". The latter highlights historic freethinkers, many of whom are also songwriters. The show's intro and outro make use of John Lennon's Imagine song.