📣Want to join our leadership team?

Let’s talk! Email us at contact@safebears.org

Hi, parents,

Our students have rounded the corner on the 2025-2026 academic year – freshmen and junior transfers are hopefully finding their Cal groove, while seniors are putting the final touches on their degrees and looking forward to graduation (yay!). My own student is a junior, deeply immersed in her classes and activities, while seemingly spending every free moment applying for summer internships.

In fact, every SafeBears officer – Steve (president), Melissa (secretary), Ingrid (treasurer) and Victoria (me, vice president) – has a junior student. And just as our students are approaching the end of their UC Berkeley undergraduate educations, we will soon say goodbye to SafeBears.

✅ SafeBears was formed as a nonprofit corporation to ensure parents had an enduring voice as advocates for student safety at UC Berkeley. The vision and hard work of the founding leaders – Sagar, Elena and others – has blossomed into the respected organization that is SafeBears, Inc. today. But a nonprofit needs board members, and that’s where YOU can help. SafeBears by-laws require board members to be parents of current or very recently graduated students.

✅ The SafeBears mission – student safety – is not static. The original focus was crime, and while that’s still important, the mission can encompass other safety topics, from drugs & alcohol to mental health to safe streets for pedestrians/cyclists. As a SafeBears board member, you will help define the organization’s priorities and bring about meaningful improvements to student safety.

✅ Time commitment? That’s really up to the new board members, but we’ve found it is typically no more than 1 hour per week.

Interested? Let's discuss! Email us at contact@safebears.org.

Go Bears! 🐻

-Victoria

SafeBears at a glance:

• The mission is student safety, broadly defined.

• Board members are volunteers; there is no paid staff.

• Most SafeBears activity is safety-related engagement and education – with parents, students, campus administrators, law enforcement, and local businesses and community members. SB has also funded programs and events, such as self-defense classes at RecWell and new-parent mixers during move-in.

• By design, SafeBears focuses on practical, local solutions. For example, because trespassing in dormitories has been a persistent problem over the years, SafeBears has advocated for things like gates, expansion of the lobby monitor program, and, most recently, a comprehensive security assessment for Clark Kerr Campus. SafeBears doesn’t get involved in complex, often divisive, policy debates, like, for example, how to solve homelessness in California.

• From time to time SafeBears advocates before the Berkeley City Council or the UC Regents. For example, in 2023 the newly formed organization urged Council to name Jen Louis as the permanent Chief of Berkeley Police. As a nonprofit, SafeBears can do some lobbying of legislative bodies, but lobbying cannot be a substantial part of the organization's activity.

• As a nonprofit, SafeBears is strictly prohibited from engaging in political activity, which means it cannot support or oppose candidates for office, or any ballot questions.

• Leadership has Zoom meetings with campus administrators approximately monthly.

• We communicate with our Facebook group members as needed, typically at least a few times a month. We also send email newsletters and strive to keep our website updated; our platform is beginner-friendly Squarespace.

• Nonprofits have annual filing requirements, including federal and state tax returns. While SafeBears has to date hired an accountant to file our returns, it would nonetheless be helpful for at least one board member to have an accounting background.

• “Keeping the lights on” for a small nonprofit requires about $5,000 a year, the bulk of which goes to insurance and tax preparation. (Other items include Zoom, Squarespace for website and emails, and Anedot for donations.) The new board will determine how much the organization fundraises for programs and events.