You may be asking, “Do the Odd Fellows Still Exist?” and the answer is an emphatic YES. What once was millions of Odd Fellows when the population of America was much smaller, is now tens of thousands with a much larger number of Americans.

At one time, a bit more than a hundred years ago and a hundred years after they got established in the United States from England, the Odd Fellows were the LARGEST of the fraternal organizations. 20% to 40% of all American men, according to historians, were in one or more fraternal organizations like Odd Fellows

Odd Fellows lodges, halls, cemeteries, orphanages and libraries were established in places from the smallest of the towns where 5 or more Odd Fellows could meet to the largest of cities where they could establish entities that would serve the largest cities fulfilling their command to “visit the sick, relieve the distressed, bury the dead, and educate the orphan” given to them by their charter granting headquarters in England.

Today, the Odd Fellows still exist but have shrunk in numbers with all those small towns, one by one like candles going out when they reach their end, have been disappearing. But it hasn’t stopped some Odd Fellows lodges from thriving. All of Odd Fellows have had to shift their focus since their command is largely taken up by the Social Security Administration (after all, Odd Fellows were once the largest “social safety net” at one time and an Odd Fellow, FDR, created the Social Security Administration).

So now the Odd Fellows still exist and, instead of focusing on widows and orphans and the infirm, have taken to partnering with other non-profits and charities to fulfill their mission to improve and elevate the character of man. After all, Odd Fellows is not a true 501(c)3 organization, like this website’s non-profit is, but instead they are 501(c)8 member-benefit societies and are tax-exempt but donations are not tax-deductible.