Our current work focuses on four goals.

1. To increase the proportion of children growing up with their two married parents.
2. To renew the ethic of thrift and replace the culture of debt and waste.
3. To help turn the intellectual tide against extremism in the Arab and Muslim world.
4. To improve and civilize our public conversation.

We embrace the values of scholarly rigor, inclusiveness, and stewardship. We welcome your ideas and ask for your help.

Our work wins attention in the public square.

“ I am writing to express my sincere appreciation for the Institute for American Values' advocacy in supporting the institution of marriage and strengthening family formation in America. Specifically, I want to thank your organization for working with my office and for producing reports and studies like the "Marriage Index" and "Why Marriage Matters," which I believe will have a lasting effect on public policy debates in Washington, DC and in the state capitals.”

—Governor Sam Brownback, Kansas

“ The Institute is premised on the idea that values count in public policy, and has quietly brought together an incredible network of heavy hitters on the subject of family, culture, and values to enlighten the public debate.”

—Francis Fukuyama, Johns Hopkins University

“ For more than a decade, the Institute for American Values has tackled some of the toughest issues facing our country, at home and abroad. Working across partisan lines and with a deep respect for solid evidence and civil argument, the Institute has helped enlighten public opinion and shape public policy on matters ranging from marriage and the family to the Bush doctrine and America's relations with the Islamic world.”

—William A. Galston, University of Maryland

“ Of all the millions of words written about September 11 and the war against terrorism, “What We’re Fighting For” has been the only statement to initiate an authentic and honest exchange of views across the Atlantic and between intellectuals in the U.S. and the Middle East. Its appearance was a moral watershed that defined the debate that has only just begun and is likely to continue for generations.”

—Carl Gershman, President, National Endowment for Democracy

“ The Institute has become the site of the nation's most creative thinking on family and civil society.”

—Mary Ann Glendon, Harvard Law School

“ The Institute for American Values is one of the leading institutions that provides provocative thought to civil society and is a source of credible, scholarly information for the ongoing research on important American issues. A fiercely independent organization, it is an indelible voice at the table of national and international discussion and debate. The Institute's work serves the public policy interests of conservatives, liberals and even mainstream thinkers—people like me.”

—Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears, Supreme Court of Georgia (Ret.)

“ Almost everything that is important to a decent society depends on the family and no group does a better job of documenting its strengths and finding cures for its faults than the Institute for American Values. The Institute does more than complain or celebrate: It published important research and offers constructive ideas.”

—James Q. Wilson, UCLA (Emeritus)

We have a theory of change.

• We aim to develop overlapping networks of scholars, leaders of private organizations, financial partners, government officials, journalists, youth service providers, and other professionals and practitioners who will contribute to and benefit from our work. In other words, we aim to build what our 2003 report Hardwired to Connect called “authoritative communities.”
• Authoritative communities are created by dedicated individuals with a shared vision of building a good life. Such communities are founded on and generate two social realities: enduring relationships and trust. The Institute’s theory of change is therefore essentially ecological: we focus on empowering our partners, helping to create the environment that will allow them and us to bring about needed social change. Therefore, second only to our goal of producing innovative scholarship of the highest quality, we seek with our partners to be a civil society — an authoritative community — not merely to make arguments about civil society.
• Our greatest social impact comes when we are the ones to frame the inquiry — to define the key question to be asked. Our ultimate goal is to turn what are now controversial but well-founded propositions about families and civil society into conventional wisdom, such that they inform policy, programs, and public opinion even when they are no longer traceable to our work.

We have a strong team of leaders.

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