Ways to Give
The Wilson Center is where research becomes action. Help us advance criminal justice and fairness through your gift today.
Donate to the Center
Make your meaningful gift to the Wilson Center today. In addition to accepting cash gifts and multi-year commitments, the Wilson Center can help facilitate donations of appreciated securities, distributions from donor advised funds, and other complex gifts. You can also check Duke's database(opens in new tab) of organizations that match donations to ensure you are maximizing your gift to the Wilson Center.
Your gift to the Wilson Center is tax deductible. Learn more(opens in new tab) about tax deductibility of gifts to Duke entities.
Sponsor a Center Initiative
With an annual gift of $100,000 — $500,000, your sponsorship of a Wilson Center initiative below supports our mission to advance criminal justice and fairness through the clients we represent, the research we produce, the policy conversations we shape, and the students who will carry our work forward.
To support our initiatives at the sponsorship level, including naming opportunities, contact our executive director Yvette Garcia Missri.
The Policy Lab
Our Policy Lab works at the intersection of research and real-world reform. Working with community members, students, and other partners, our policy team has delivered solutions to challenging problems. Through this work, our Policy Lab ensures that evidence drives change where it matters most.
Recent accomplishments include launching a webinar series(opens in new tab) on ending driver's license suspensions for court debt to inform policymakers, as well as leading a diverse coalition to expand North Carolina compassionate early medical release.
Your investment will expand this work by supporting policy research and analysis, engagement with people directly affected by the criminal legal system, coalition-building, and the communications and partnerships needed to turn research into policy change.
Wrongful Convictions Prevention
Every wrongful conviction represents a double injustice: an innocent person loses years or decades of their life behind bars, while the person who actually committed the crime may remain free. Through rigorous research, practical policy development, and strategic legal analysis, we provide the tools and evidence that defense attorneys, innocence organizations, and policymakers need to challenge unreliable practices and reform broken systems.
Recent accomplishments including creating the Brady Database(opens in new tab) to track cases in which prosecutors were found to have withheld evidence favorable to defendants updating and expanding the national DNA Exonerations Database(opens in new tab), which documents what goes wrong in wrongful conviction cases and helps researchers and policymakers identify patterns that can inform prevention.
Your sponsorship gift will help us grow this research, data infrastructure, legal analysis, and student engagement that make this work possible.
Second Chances and Legal Advocacy
For people serving long prison sentences, opportunities for parole, clemency, or compassionate release can be difficult to navigate—and many people have no access to legal representation. Our Second Chances and Legal Advocacy Initiative provides direct legal advocacy in these processes for those who would otherwise have none.
In the past year, our team, including law students, represented more than 20 individuals and filed 10 clemency and parole petitions. Our work is grounded in the Center’s research and data on North Carolina’s prison population and informed by the lived experiences of incarcerated people, which help policymakers, practitioners, and advocates understand and improve access to second-chance opportunities.
Your investment will expand legal representation to people who would otherwise have none, train the next generation of advocates, and support the research, education, and partnerships needed to improve second-chance opportunities across North Carolina.
Legal Representation in North Carolina’s Youth Prisons
There are hundreds of incarcerated children across North Carolina. Without lawyers advocating for them, there are few outside eyes monitoring youth prisons and no one making sure kids receive the education, mental health services, and other support they need. Many children feel forgotten—and without an advocate, they often are. The Wilson Center is working to change that by providing holistic legal representation to incarcerated children—addressing not only their legal needs, but the broader circumstances affecting their well-being.
In 2024, Sam Lawrence joined the Wilson Center as an Equal Justice Works Fellow. Drawing on his background in law and social work, Sam has designed and implemented a model of holistic defense for incarcerated children. As his fellowship comes to an end, we are seeking philanthropic support to sustain this work.
Your sponsorship gift would help fund Sam’s position and the resources needed to continue this work, including social work support and opportunities for Duke Law students to contribute to the representation of children in North Carolina’s youth prisons.
Support the Center's General Operations
General operating support ensures that the Wilson Center can continue its important work. It allows our faculty and researchers to devote their time, attention, and expertise to solving problems in our communities and engaging students in meaningful projects.
To make a gift to support the Center’s operations, give online or contact our executive director Yvette Garcia Missri.
Thank You to our Major Donors
- “Over the past five years, the Wilson Center has shown how Duke can bring people together across disciplines and across communities to find common ground and solutions grounded in research. I am honored to continue to support the center’s work, and I’m proud of the impact it has had—and will continue to have.” —Derek Wilson(opens in new tab), ’86, M.B.A. ’90, P’15
“I’m honored to support the JustScience Lab and the Wilson Center’s powerful mission. Our criminal legal system faces unprecedented burdens, and meeting those challenges will require a new generation of leaders who are equipped with a deep understanding of data and a passion for forging new policy solutions. Duke students are ready to meet that challenge.” —David McAtee(opens in new tab), '91
Foundation Support
