Elevate

Building Better Communities

Strong communities generate opportunity, create space for diversity of thought, and inspire lifelong learning. We contribute to and learn from our DC home, a unique place where changemakers from across the world converge. In the District and beyond, Change Can’t Wait will help us strengthen communities.

$192 MILLION RAISED

$192,000,000
A woman is interviewed in front of the Humanities Truck
  • Cultivate the Potential of Our Capital City

    Our students, faculty, and staff benefit from living, learning, and working in Washington, DC, and we are deeply committed to our role as a community partner. Change Can’t Wait will help us continue to expand opportunities to collaborate through specialized community-based partnerships and programs.

    How We Do It

    01
    Improve DC’s educational outcomes through programs like District Scholars and DCPS Teacher Pipeline, which cultivate local high school student scholars and a diverse teacher workforce for the District and beyond
    02
    Deepen our commitment to engage the DC community and address local challenges through community-based research and outreach, including programs that embed students in the city as well as our mobile educational platform, the Humanities Truck
    03
    Promote economic development through private-public partnerships
  • Build Civic Agency in a Global Society

    AU's core values include critical inquiry, intellectual engagement, and respectful discourse across diverse perspectives. These values are also fundamental to civic agency—the ability to work together around a common goal, regardless of viewpoints. Change Can’t Wait helps us further civic agency locally, nationally, and globally, facilitate dialogue in service of democracy, and address the issues that shape our world.

    How We Do It

    01
    Connect to each other and the world through public radio with WAMU, AU’s own NPR station
    02
    Convene and empower local, national, and global changemakers through transformative initiatives like the annual Summer Institute on Education, Equity, and Justice
    03
    Promote dialogue through tailored programs like the Project on Civil Discourse at the School of Public Affairs, which builds, practices, and shares the skill of civil discourse
  • Fortify AU's Future

    We are proud to lead the way in facing the world’s present and future challenges and delivering solutions. Change Can’t Wait increases our operating budget and expands our ability to create change where it’s needed most.

    How We Do It

    01
    Increase our annual endowment contribution to the annual budget by $2.5 million to help provide long-term financial security, fulfill the university’s educational mission, and plan for the future
    02
    Expand the AU Fund for Excellence and other annual giving funds to generate an additional $1 million in annual revenue, providing critical flexibility to meet emerging or unanticipated needs as they arise