The Diversity Foundation, also known as Smiles for Diversity, is a nonprofit organization started by Dr. Dan Fischer, who was raised in the polygamous community of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and who is a former member of the FLDS church.
The Diversity Foundation is a registered 501(c)(3) organization. The Foundation's mission is to strengthen and align global communities. This is accomplished by empowering vulnerable and underprivileged children with access to quality education. Through educational tools Diversity supports and encourages mindful awareness of the value of diversity and a respect of ethnic and cultural heritage.
After the attack on a Jewish day-care center in California and the murder of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard, Dan Fischer set up The Diversity Foundation to encourage dentists to promote respect for human diversity.
The Diversity Foundations three-fold aim is to:
- Provide dental products to disadvantaged people
- Encourage acceptance of diversity
- Help the Lost Boys of Polygamy
Smiles for Diversity's primary method for encouraging acceptance of diversity is through the distribution of comic books and coloring books. Part of The Diversity Foundation's charitable mission is to provide educational materials without charge to teachers and librarians. The comic book is Scrapyard Detectives, created by Bill Galvan and Chad Denton, and was originally created as "a way for kids to get the message that being different is great, and diversity should be appreciated and celebrated.".
The Diversity Foundation attempts to help the Lost Boys of Polygamy by helping the boys get schooling and even college educations. They try to "“We try to find these kids, find them a place to live and help them with school." However The Diversity Foundation isn't familiar with all lost boys, because there are many who "slip through the cracks and do not get help once they leave Hildale or Colorado City. Some of them simply don't know what help is available." Fischer also wants to raise awareness about the Lost Boys.