Civics PlaybookNational Constitution Center
- Mission: To increase awareness and understanding of the U.S. Constitution among the American people on a nonpartisan basis.
- Geographic Focus: National
- Audience: K-12 students and teachers, college students and teachers and citizens
- Budget: $18.7 million
- Number of Visitors: 150,000 in-person visitors and millions of online participants annually engaging with NCC resources and programs
- Focus Areas and Core Competencies:
- National Constitution Center Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, open to the public
- Free Constitution 101 Curriculum online
- Interactive Constitution and Founders’ Library of primary source documents online
- Free classroom resources
A National Headquarters for Civic Education Engages Civil Deliberation
Impact: National Constitution Center
The National Constitution Center has reached about four million students with their Constitution 101 curriculum since it launched in fall 2022. It is planning to launch a student-facing course in partnership with Khan Academy, and a middle school version of the curriculum.
A Conversation with Jeffrey Rosen, President of the National Constitution Center
Q: What is the mission of the National Constitution Center? What problem(s) in civics education is your nonprofit working to solve?
The mission of the National Constitution Center comes from our congressional charter—to increase awareness and understanding of the U.S. Constitution among the American people on a nonpartisan basis. It’s an inspiring mission. The National Constitution Center was founded during the bicentennial of the Constitution as a private nonprofit. We bring together people of different perspectives to discuss and debate every aspect of the Constitution including educators, college students and anyone wishing to participate.
We also focus on making our civics curricula widely available to K-12 educators and their students. We are located on Independence Mall in Philadelphia, just steps from where the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were drafted and signed.
It’s a challenging time for civics education. In a 2022 national civics assessment of eighth graders, only 14% of students scored proficient or higher in U.S. history and 22% scored at the level of proficiency or advanced in civics. That’s the first decline in civics and a continued decline in history since the assessments were first given in 1998 and 1994, respectively. So, there’s an urgent need to inspire students to learn about our founding principles and their relevance today.
Q: How do you describe the big goals the National Constitution Center is working to achieve? How do you measure impact?
We aspire to provide a counterweight to the polarization and partisanship of our current political debate, and we want to give Americans the tools they need to engage in civil deliberation. The mission to keep our republic is urgent.
Our three core goals are to serve as America’s leading provider of nonpartisan constitutional education among learners of all ages, to model and teach civil dialogue and deliberation across America and to serve as a national headquarters for learning about the Declaration, the Constitution and our founding principles.
We measure our impact with short- and longer-term measures. First, we track the number of teachers and students we’re reaching year over year. We track digital metrics like website visits, social media followers, media hits and downloads of our materials. With our course materials, we test changes in civic knowledge among students, as well as changes in civic disposition. We track subscriptions to our weekly podcast, “We the People,” plus the number of registrations for our town hall convenings. Finally, we also track visitors to our museum on Independence Mall.
Q: What are some of the biggest challenges the National Constitution Center has experienced working to accomplish its mission? How did your organization overcome those challenges?
We’ve already reached about four million students with our Constitution 101 curriculum, but there are 54 million public and private K-12 students in this country. We have an extraordinary opportunity to share these resources with them. We’re on the verge of launching a student-facing version of our Constitution 101 curriculum online with Khan Academy. What we need now is to distribute this amazing resource and encourage meaningful use of it by investing in a state-by-state educator-focused strategy.
In addition, we have an incredible network of educators from across the country who are helping us disseminate our resources in their schools and districts and helping us to scale our teacher professional development offerings, bringing more educators to Philadelphia as well as bringing our programming to educators where they live and teach.
Q: What is the National Constitution Center’s biggest need where philanthropists can help your organization achieve its goals?
Although the National Constitution Center was chartered by Congress in 1988, we’re not a government funded entity, as some potential donors assume we are. We receive little government funding, and we rely on the generosity of individuals, foundations and corporations to make our work possible.
As we look to America’s 250th anniversary in 2026—and also to the 250th anniversary of the Constitution in 2037—we’re seeking the support of philanthropists and donors who are inspired by our broad goal to be the physical and virtual home for anyone who wants to learn about our founding principles.
Q: Beyond the National Constitution Center, where should philanthropists who care about advancing civic knowledge invest their charitable dollars?
There are so many wonderful civics education organizations doing excellent work. We partner with many of them toward our shared cause of advancing civic knowledge. It’s inspiring to see that leading up to America’s 250th anniversary. The leading civic education organizations, historic sites and museums are coordinating our efforts. Donations to any of these great organizations would help all of us work together to inspire Americans to learn about the Declaration and the Constitution.
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Contact the Roundtable’s Programs team to learn more about this investment opportunity.