Why Donate to Public Discourse?
Public Discourse is an online journal dedicated to renewing the culture through thoughtful reflections on education, family, and religion.
We publish insightful daily essays that foster constructive, civil dialogue about the five pillars of a free society: respect for the dignity of the person, the family, the rule of law, the university, and business.
Part of this work is that we address and evaluate controversial topics, but we always do so with a spirit of civility and charity and an aim toward fostering authentic intellectual friendships with our readers. Foundational to our work is an acknowledgment of our inherent, inestimable dignity as persons. This is the assumption on which all of our arguments rest.
Our goal is for readers, whether academics or professionals, clergy or laymen, to read our work, to challenge their own culturally conditioned beliefs and opinions, and to take what they’ve learned into their individual spheres of influence to continue thoughtful, reasoned dialogue.
What Public Discourse Offers
Americans are increasingly pulling back from the values they ordered their lives around. But research perennially shows that this has not left us freer, happier, or more successful. If anything, the more we unmoor ourselves from the traditional values of family, marriage, community, religious institutions, and classical education, the more depressed, anxious, isolated, and lonely we become.
A free and flourishing society depends on strengthening, not pulling out, our roots: marriage and family. Institutions. Connection to the local community. Our essays focus largely on the sociological, philosophical, and political motivations for strengthening the institutions that promote and further human flourishing.
Though our contributors keep up with, and occasionally write about, trends in politics and culture, our goal is not to keep up with the news cycle: our eyes are fixed on more lasting truths. That’s why our daily essays are organized around what we deem the five pillars of a decent society: respect for the human person, sexuality and family, politics and law, education and culture, and business and economics.
In Sum:
- Our Core Commitment: We defend the first principle of politics and culture: the dignity of the human person.
- Our Influence: We play a prominent role in defending life and human rights while also shaping public debates about religion, education, and culture.
- Our Integrity: We insist on the importance of reason, and we engage our interlocutors with civility, charity, and generosity.
- Our Legacy: We provide a platform for talented young writers and scholars who will be tomorrow’s thought leaders.
- Our Accessibility: We publish daily essays that are completely free of charge, and always will be: we do not use paywalls or rely on third-party ad revenue.
How Your Donation Will Help:
At Public Discourse, we never impose paywalls or run ad campaigns because we want everyone to access our content, free from the distractions that bombard us on every corner of the internet. We seek to create a quiet space for reflection, learning, contemplation, and discussion.
This means we rely solely on the generosity of our donors to continue to publish and grow, to shine light, to renew the culture through charitable discourse.
How We Use Your Funds:
- To pay our editorial team, staff, and authors.
- To cover the costs of our online operations and infrastructure (website, etc.)
- To invest in the next generation of intellectual leaders, including our Public Discourse fellows.
- To host webinars, in-person events, symposia, and more.
- To fund new initiatives that will broaden our reach and impact.
Please consider supporting our work and joining our community of committed donors. We would appreciate a monthly gift of $50 a month to offset the costs of running our website, paying our staff and authors, hosting events, and more. Or, you may make a one-time donation.
We thank you for your support.
Public Discourse is the online journal of the Witherspoon Institute, a 501(c)(3) non-profit public charity. We rely entirely on the financial support of donors like you.
Individuals interested in sponsoring Public Discourse or in learning more about the Witherspoon Institute should contact John Doherty at jdoherty@winst.org or at 609.688.8779, ext. 310.
If you prefer to contribute by check, please make the check out to “The Witherspoon Institute,” write “Public Discourse” in the Memo line, and mail it to:
The Witherspoon Institute
Attn: John Doherty
16 Stockton Street
Princeton, New Jersey 08540
