When we launched the Vision for Liberty Campaign in 2023, our goal was to dramatically expand the reach of principled, liberty-minded ideas at a moment when the public was hungry for them—to bring millions more Americans into a conversation about limited government, individual freedom, and constitutional self-governance.

That mission has never been more urgent.

The American constitutional system was built to restrain federal power, yet that design has been steadily inverted. Authority has flowed away from Congress toward the executive, and from deliberate lawmaking toward emergency rule. The result is a government that is bigger, too powerful, more centralized, and less accountable to the people it governs. And these trends have accelerated at an alarming pace.

Learn about Vision for Liberty

Meeting the Moment

At the same time, something else is shifting: the audience. Nearly 45 percent of Americans now identify as independents. A broad and growing exhausted majority, which is neither rigidly partisan nor ideologically settled, is actively searching for something more principled than what either party is offering.

This is the opportunity the Vision for Liberty Campaign was designed to seize.

We are proud to share that we have reached our $300 million campaign target more than a year ahead of schedule. It’s an inspiring example of your generosity and leadership, and a humbling reflection of your trust in the Institute and its direction.

But we have a lot more work to do! And, encouragingly, we continue to face more demand for Cato’s work and programs from those that are fed up with the current trajectory of our great country. Whether it’s seats in Sphere programs; space in our Congressional Fellowship Program; meetings, analyses, and ideas for policymakers; innovative new initiatives; or the tens of millions of Americans we have yet to reach, we need to keep building our capabilities and capacity.

Expanding the Vision

That’s why we are expanding our Vision for Liberty Campaign goal to $400 million to meet the gravity of the current challenges to liberty and the opportunities ahead.

This new goal corresponds to the urgency of the moment and the size of the audience that’s within our reach. Our expanded commitment allows us to achieve the following:

  • Advance Ideas That Drive Change: Recruit new scholars in critical policy areas, including executive power, trade, technology, and human progress.
  • Equip Future Generations: Scale the Sphere network from 23,000 to 50,000 educators by the end of 2030, scale Cato University to more than 1,000 alumni by the end of 2027, and register more than 10,000 users for Cato Courses in the next five years, building a robust pipeline of liberty-minded young leaders.
  • Bring Liberty to Life: Build on our early investments to strengthen and scale Cato’s marketing, communications, and content creation—amplifying scholars, engaging journalists, and reaching millions searching for principled alternatives.

As we approach Cato’s 50th anniversary in 2027, we will equip Cato to take on the challenges to liberty in the years ahead ever more forcefully. Difficult moments like this test free societies, but they are also when serious, principled ideas have the greatest opportunity to shape the future.

To our Partners who have joined this effort: Thank you for your leadership. You have affirmed Cato’s model, direction, and execution. Now we’re asking our community to take us still further.

Whether through increased annual support, a multi-year campaign pledge, or a legacy commitment, your investment ensures we meet this moment at the scale it demands.

To learn more about joining the expanded Vision for Liberty campaign—or to discuss how you can more deeply engage and partner with Cato—please visit cato​.org/​v​i​s​i​o​n​f​o​r​l​i​berty.

This is our moment. This is our watch. Let us join to keep the Republic for another 250 years.