BCAD recognizes that the United States faces a multifaceted crisis of governance marked by intense partisan polarization, frequent political gridlock, rising inequality, low political trust, and stubborn policy challenges related to housing, crime, the environment, and many other areas.

Our inaugural programs seek to support and connect scholars working to identify solutions to these and other challenges that have placed acute pressure on our core democratic institutions. We promote rigorous data collection and research, and conversations on campus as well as connections across disparate research specialties in the department and across other disciplines and sites of inquiry on campus.

Thank you for joining us, and we invite you to learn more about our work at our website: Berkeley Center for American Democracy.

In order to preserve the spirit of the purpose of the fund, and the intent of the original donors who established it, new donors who make gifts to this endowment understand that changes may be made to the fund in the future if it ever becomes difficult to spend. Any future changes will be consistent with the original purpose as written here. As such, new donors agree upon making their gifts that any future potential change to the endowment purpose may be made without their consultation.