Religious Organizations

Benefits of Participation:

• Spread kindness throughout the community to improve human welfare and build a closer connection with others.

• Use your acts of kindness as an opportunity to share your house of worship’s message with those in need of spiritual guidance.

• Build fellowship and unity within your church’s congregation with group activities.

• Promote the Golden Rule (Treat others and the planet as you would like to be treated), an essential part of every organized religion.

• Build community goodwill for religious tolerance, building respect for all humans.

FAQ and Tips:

Be sure to registeryour house of worship as a committed participant on our global map at https://www.payitforward911.org/events/. It’s free. If you have multiple locations, fill out separate forms for each address with locations your people will be engaging in good deeds September 10th or 11th, 2021.

1. This year September 11 falls on a Saturday. Can we participate on Friday, September 10?

• YES! We’ve done this in the past. If you or any house of worship members need to schedule time to perform community service on Friday, then encourage the participants to tell the good deed recipients “Tomorrow is the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, and we invite you to do three good deeds for strangers this weekend to honor the lives lost.”

2. Is this event open to people of all faith traditions? 

• YES! Church, synagogues and mosques are all welcome and encouraged to participate. In the days after September 11th, American-Muslims saw a sharp increase in Islamophobia. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, “Anti-Muslim hate groups are a relatively new phenomenon in the U.S., with many appearing after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. They frequently traffic in conspiracy theories involving the infiltration of the government by Islamist extremists, warn that the U.S. legal system is being subverted by Shariah law and portray Muslims in general as potential terrorist threats.”

3. What information should we share with our congregation?

• Share our news release (or an edited version) on your e-mail newsletter.

• Share social media posts from @payitforward911 on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn or YouTube pages.

• Send an email to staff and congregation members on September 1, 2 or 3d and then send an email reminder on September 9th or 10th.

• Share our 1-minute video from YouTube via social media, website or email.

• Download and share our fact sheet online or print and post in your house of worship.

Tips for Faith-based Organizations:

1. Incorporate into a sermon or service the message of kindness and interfaith cooperation.

2. Include an announcement during the weekly sermons of Pay It Forward 9/11’s goal of achieving 20,000 Random Acts of Kindness.

3. Share educational resources about Islamophobia and Antisemitism.

4. If you have the spare resources, provide your congregation with SMILE cards and/or wristbands (available on payitforward911.org) that they can give out to friends and families to encourage them to make the pledge.

5. Reach out to other faith-based organizations within your community and city to organize an interfaith collaboration to do random acts of kindness.

6. Organize a walk through the community to post signs about the Pay It Forward 9/11 pledge      goal and invite strangers to learn more by coming to your house of worship or going to our website.

7. If your organization does door-to-door outreach, incorporate into your message an invitation to do a random act of kindness to a stranger

8. Work with your congregation to identify a nearby non-profit that may benefit from volunteer hours.

9. Go about the community on September 11th to do in-person praying (masking as required) to      help people overcome trials and tribulations that they are facing in their life.

10. If your church collects donations/tithes then consider using a portion of the collections to help fund a local community project such as housing, renovating a derelict area, etc.