We partner with schools throughout the San Francisco Bay Area to found debate teams and transform the lives of students that traditional classrooms fail to engage. Over the past three years, we have doubled in size, touching hundreds of students across the Bay Area and have helped helped countless individuals reverse their trajectory from low expectations to high performance.

The young people we serve are more than 95% students of color, and the great majority live in poverty. Nationally, less than half of low-income high school seniors make it to college, and rates are even worse in the under-resourced public schools we serve. In contrast, 96% of BAUDL seniors graduate high school and fully 86% go on to college.

The BAUDL 500 is our campaign to reach 500 donors.  Over the past couple years, we have learned to maximize the leverage of every private dollar we receive and the BAUDL 500 is no exception.  We have a donor ready to match your money with $10,000 if we can find 500 people to give at least $20 - we are already above 400, and need your help to get the rest of the way.

To be completely honest, $20,000 would be life-changing for our program and the students it reaches.  And $20?  Probably not too much to sacrifice to give these amazing young people a leg up. Please join us:

If we reach 500 donors we will earn a $10K match that will fully fund the BAUDL Traveling Team.  Every Friday debaters stream from all our campuses to the BAUDL office to talk high-level strategy and research. Their dream is to compete at the highest level nationally - and we want to help make that dream real. Leveling the playing field for our students to compete with some of the most prestigious private schools around the country is an eye-opening opportunity that makes anything possible in the eyes of the student.  When students are able to surround themselves with this level of talent and competition they realize that anything is possible.

Spread the word

The BAUDL was built from the hard work and passion of it’s volunteers, advocates and staff. We need your time, energy and interest in helping as much as anything else. Below are three things you can do even if you are unable to donate:

1. Like Us On Facebook:  Surprisingly, we’ve been connected with numerous former debaters who have something great to offer through
   your social networks.   Help us spread the word by “Liking” us on Facebook.  (http://www.facebook.com/BayDebate)
2. Email 5 Friends: That’s right…Good Ole Word of Mouth!   We’d love to have you as an advocate.  If you can’t donate, but feel like the BAUDL is a worthy cause, please pass of the good word on and let your friends know for us.
3. Donate Your Time: We’re always looking for individuals in the surrounding Bay Area to get involved in our tournaments and our programming.   We’d love to have you as a judge, where you can experience the impact this program has on the students most directly by
   evaluating their performance.   We’ll teach you everything you need to know and I promise, it will be one of the most rewarding experience you could imagine.   Email us at: info@baudl.org if you’re interested.