To donate with a credit card, please click here, or on the “Make a Gift” link below. To donate by check, fill out this form, indicating “California Language Archive, FN7677000” under “Please designate my gift/pledge to.” Mail the check and form to: University of California, Berkeley, Gift Services, 1995 University Avenue, Suite 400, Berkeley, CA 94704-1070.

Make a gift

Your donation supports the California Language Archive (Survey of California and Other Indian Languages) in its core missions of preservation, access, and outreach involving the world’s Indigenous languages. As of 2022, the CLA, founded in 1953, currently houses sound recordings, paper documents, and other materials such as photographs related to nearly 500 languages. In the context of the United Nations’ International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022-2032), we support the documentation, analysis, maintenance, reclamation, and revitalization of Indigenous languages, the majority of which are endangered. Among other activities, we directly support the biennial Breath of Life Archival Institute for Indigenous California Languages on the Berkeley campus.

There are often few permanent records of Indigenous languages, and they can be in fragile condition or stored on obsolete media. Language archives can be responsible for preserving the only physical documentation of the language(s) of some communities, and so are valuable for senses of historical and cultural continuity. We proactively collect, catalog, digitize, and make accessible legacy and newly created materials to ensure their preservation and their availability to current and future generations of Indigenous people, Berkeley students, and researchers from around the world.