Introduction
Our nation is in a civic education crisis. Most American adults would fail the U.S. citizenship exam, and a third cannot name even one of the three branches of our government. Lack of civic understanding is a recipe for polarization, demonization, and tyranny.
The great American Experiment is based on equal protection under the rule of law, separation of powers, federalism, checks and balances, and, most fundamentally, protection of natural rights.
Philanthropists can have a major impact on civic education and the course of our nation by building on successful K-12 strategies, restoring civics to the college curriculum, and filling major gaps in civic understanding among adults. Reforming teacher education and studying the long-term retention of civic knowledge also are key to success. The Civic Education Program at The Philanthropy Roundtable has assembled this list of high-impact organizations working on such initiatives.
Interacting With the Constitution
The National Constitution Center goes beyond the traditional “museum” to educate both locally and nationally.
Twenty-two million unique visitors have viewed its online Interactive Constitution. For virtually every clause of the Constitution, two of the country’s top experts from different points of view, nominated by the Federalist Society and the American Constitution Society, explain where they agree and where they disagree. On Constitution Day 2019, NCC launched a Classroom Edition with lesson plans, videos, and virtual exchanges that link classrooms nationwide in constitutional conversations.
In Philadelphia, the NCC’s Constitutional Ambassadors Program immerses students in the basic principles of the Constitution. Students and teachers prepare with curated lesson plans, then come for a day-long intellectual, social, and skills-based experience. The program inspires Philadelphia students from diverse backgrounds to become ambassadors for constitutional principles and civil dialogue. Students also are nationally networked through the Center’s Constitutional Exchanges, where students practice civil dialogue through constitutional conversations with peers from different perspectives across the country. The National Constitution Center and The College Board also developed a two-week module on the First Amendment for high school students after their Advanced Placement exams. Using the Interactive Constitution, students examine their legal rights and moral responsibilities as they prepare to enter adult society.
NCC’s newest onsite exhibit focuses on the Civil War and Reconstruction period, exploring the nation’s constitutional clashes over slavery and how the Constitution transformed after the war to more fully embrace the Declaration of Independence’s promises of liberty and equality.
Also on Constitution Day 2019, the Library of Congress launched Constitution Annotated, a comprehensive explanation of how each article, amendment, and clause in the Constitution has been interpreted by the Supreme Court. This monumental product, a century in the making, is searchable, indexed, hyperlinked, authoritative, and objective. Congressional Research Service (CRS) staff will update it regularly as new Supreme Court opinions are issued. Since 1800, the Library has grown to hold about 40 million books and more than 100 million additional items. It sees about 2 million visitors per year.
- National Constitution Center
Philadelphia, PA
Annual expenditures: $15 million
President and CEO: Jeffrey Rosen
215.409.6600
constitutioncenter.org - Library of Congress
Washington, DC
Librarian of Congress: Carla Hayden
202.707.5000
loc.gov
Open Educational Resources on American History
The Bill of Rights Institute (BRI) provides more than 50,000 secondary school teachers of American history and civics with free digital resources and professional development. With OpenStax, BRI has developed a free U.S. history digital resource that can be used by all high school students, including the 500,000 per year who take the Advanced Placement U.S. History exam. Available in early 2020, the resource’s 16 chapters will include personalized learning, real-time assessment, compelling stories, primary source documents, and point-counterpoint material on opposite sides of a question so that teachers can facilitate dialogue.
Unlike many teacher development efforts, BRI intentionally helps teachers inspire students to pursue the institutions of a free society. The Voices of History lesson plans teach character through stories of civic virtue and vice among heroes such as George Washington and villains such as Benedict Arnold. Documents of Freedom offers teachers a full- length set of course materials in the primary documents of the American Founding, and its lessons include tags for alignment with state standards. Professional development seminars build on these resources, and master teachers coach educators in pedagogy.
The Institute for Education Policy at Johns Hopkins University is analyzing the scope and sequencing of BRI’s history and civics curricula so that schools can evaluate how frequently, and at what grade levels, they are teaching core civics concepts, and so that teachers can integrate civic education with language arts–understanding the reading level of civics texts so as to better teach vocabulary, grammar, and communication skills.
The Institute for Education Policy also has developed plans for longitudinal study of knowledge outcomes after changes in statewide civics curricula. The lack of long-term assessments of knowledge retention in civic education has limited what researchers know about what works. For example, after a statewide policy change in civics requirements, do students not only learn more but also retain what they learned into adulthood? Please contact the Roundtable if you are interested in supporting long-term retention studies, particularly in Florida.
- Bill of Rights Institute
Arlington, VA
Annual expenditures: $5.5 million
President: David Bobb
703.894.1776
billofrightsinstitute.org - Institute for Education Policy
Baltimore, MD
Deputy Director: Ashley Berner
[email protected]
edpolicy.education.jhu.edu
Citizenship Knowledge for Students Entering Adulthood
The Joe Foss Institute and partners, including its affiliated Civics Proficiency Institute (CPI), have inspired more than 30 states to require that, to graduate from high school, students must study civics and pass some form of the U.S. civics exam given to immigrants seeking citizenship. This first-step strategy restores civics to its place among the core disciplines that are critical for educated Americans. The Institute uses this lever to encourage further professional development of teachers, and provides lesson plans and an interactive online curriculum that promote deeper understanding of civics concepts. In fall 2019, JFI merged into the School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University.
- Joe Foss Institute
Scottsdale, AZ
Annual budget (with CPI): $1.5 million
Chief Academic Officer: Lucian Spataro Jr.
480.348.0316
joefossinstitute.org
Alexander Hamilton Comes to Town
The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History has produced a creative curriculum in partnership with the musical Hamilton, with more than 250,000 high school students in 30 tour cities (through the 2020-2021 school year) completing a rigorous Founding Era curriculum. Students perform their own creative works and see the show. The Institute also provides a fully online master’s degree in partnership with Pace University with more than 600 American history teachers currently enrolled, hosts more than 70,000 original documents, has 22,000 schools as network affiliates, and has a unique Teaching Literacy through History curriculum that helps more than 2,000 teachers per year use primary sources to integrate English literacy with historical literacy. The Teacher Seminar Program, having operated for 25 years, brings eminent scholars to 1,000 teachers per year to discuss content and pedagogy. A Teaching Civics through History pilot will use foundational American documents to give students a historical perspective on current events that will inform civic action projects-providing a stronger educational foundation than is common in “civic engagement” programs.
- Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
New York, NY
Annual expenditures: $9 million
President: James G. Basker
646.366.9666
gilderlehrman.org
Gamified Learning
Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor founded iCivics to transform civic education through games. The newest game, Race to Ratify, puts a student in the middle of the ratification debates that began in 1787: you travel to the states and collect argument tokens by talking with other citizens. You then use your arguments to create either a Federalist or Antifederalist pamphlet just in time to influence the ratification debate, going state by state, starting (of course) with Delaware. In 20 other games, you might find yourself at a law firm deciding whether your client’s constitutional rights have been violated, or in all three branches of government as a law gets passed, signed, and challenged in court, or on a jury, or in your naturalization interview. About 95% of teachers say they trust iCivics as a neutral resource that fosters civil conversation. iCivics reaches 100,000 teachers and more than 6 million students every year.
iCivics also runs the CivXNow coalition, a large, trans-partisan network promoting increased K-12 civics in state law and policy. Many CivXNow members tend to focus on civic engagement more than core constitutional principles. While not ignoring content, some members of the coalition emphasize direct political and community action over the fundamental understanding that would make such action wiser and more effective. Please contact the Roundtable if you would like to discuss the tradeoffs involved in civic engagement versus core civic knowledge and how each might improve the other.
- iCivics
Cambridge, MA
Annual expenditures: $4 million
Executive Director: Louise Dubé
617.356.8311
icivics.org
Educating Teachers With a Socratic Approach to Core Documents
The Ashbrook Center helps teachers examine core documents of American history through a uniquely Socratic approach in one-day and multi-day seminars. At Ashland University, the Center provides an M.A. program in American History and Government for middle and high school teachers. About 28,000 teachers in Ashbrook’s network have participated in its programs or regularly access its online resources at Teaching American History—a website that earns about two million annual visits and features sets of primary texts that illustrate key principles and debates in U.S. history.
- The Ashbrook Center
Ashland, OH
Annual expenditures: $7.1 million
Interim Executive Director: Jeffrey Sikkenga
419.289.5411
ashbrook.org
Supreme Court Justices Teach the Constitution
In the Annenberg Classroom, Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court and other experts teach constitutional principles and Supreme Court cases to high school students, as recorded in 65 videos. Other free resources include lesson plans on Supreme Court cases and a full curriculum on the Constitution. These resources were developed by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, which conducts an annual Constitution Day Civics Survey and hosts a consortium of civic education organizations, the Civics Renewal Network.
- Civics Renewal Network
Philadelphia, PA, 215.898.9400
Annual expenditures: $200,000
Director: Kathleen Hall Jamieson
civicsrenewalnetwork.org
Constitutional Experts on Video
The United States Capitol Historical Society, in partnership with NBC, now offers ten engaging videos and interviews in a We the People collection. Viewers get a tour of the White House, Capitol, Supreme Court, and National Archives from U.S. legislators, judges, and scholars from across the political spectrum as they discuss the branches of the federal government.
Prager University‘s many offerings include five-minute videos on constitutional topics such as the Electoral College and federalism and on historical figures such as Frederick Douglass. PragerU counts billions of total views across all videos.
With about 30 experts, historical actors, and people on the street, the Free to Choose Network explores contentious issues in American history and today through the lens of the Constitution in A More or Less Perfect Union, hosted by Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg. The three-hour series will be distributed by PBS in early 2020.
- United States Capitol Historical Society
Washington, D.C.
Annual budget: $3 million
President/CEO: Jane Campbell
202.543.8919
uschs.org - Prager University
Sherman Oaks, CA
Annual budget: $23 million
President: Dennis Prager
833.772.4378
prageru.com - Free to Choose Network
Erie, PA
President and CEO: Robert Chatfield
814.833.7140
freetochoosenetwork.org
Top Classical and Charter School Approaches to Civics
The Great Hearts Academies network of nearly 30 public charters in Arizona and Texas takes a classical liberal arts approach to K-12 education, including Great Books education, focus on ideas of truth, goodness, and beauty, and promotion of personal and civic virtue. The Institute for Classical Education aims to serve Great Hearts and more than 500 other K-12 classical schools across the country through higher education partnerships. Understanding America’s core documents and principles is a common priority for classical schools, including a number of charter networks. Please contact the Roundtable or the Institute for Classical Education for information on leading schools and networks in your region of interest.
- Great Hearts Academies
Phoenix, AZ
602.386.1871
San Antonio, TX
210.888.9475
Annual budget, all schools and programs: $140 million
Chief Academic Officer of Great Hearts America and Director of the Institute for Classical Education:
Robert L. Jackson
classicaleducation.institute
Great Hearts Foundation President:
Daniel Scoggin
602.438.7045
greatheartsamerica.org
College Bound: Reaching America’s Top Students
The College Board influences civic education nationwide through two Advanced Placement exams: AP U.S. History and AP U.S. Government and Politics. The AP History framework was improved in 2015 following strong criticism from historians. It connects primary sources, through key concepts, to seven general themes in nine historical periods. The AP Government framework engages five themes: Foundations of American Democracy, Interactions Among Branches of Government, Civil Liberties and Civil Rights, American Political Ideologies and Beliefs, and Political Participation. Students must learn fifteen Supreme Court cases and nine foundational documents, including the Constitution. For full credit, AP Government students also must complete a political science research project or an applied civics project.
- The College Board
Washington, D.C.
202.741.4700
New York, NY
212.713.8800
Annual expenditures: about $925 million
Chief of Global Policy & External Relations: Stefanie Sanford
collegeboard.org
Washington, D.C. 202.741.4700 New York, NY 212.713.8800 Annual expenditures: about $925 million Chief of Global Policy & External Relations: Stefanie Sanford collegeboard.org
Unique Civic Education Programs for Young Americans
Several organizations run excellent civic education programs for America’s youth, though short-term programs often lack follow-up alumni activities, peer education take-home materials, education materials for parents or the adults who run the programs, or other connections to next steps in a student’s development. Please contact the Roundtable if you are interested in helping an organization here extend its efforts and impact.
The Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts of America (Scouts BSA), two separate organizations each with roughly two million youth members, provide civic education through citizenship badges. Girl Scouts offers Citizen Badges at all six Girl Scout levels through the G.I.R.L. Agenda (Go-getter, Innovator, Risk-Taker, Leader), with a dual focus on civic knowledge and civic engagement. Girl Scout Juniors, for example, earn the Inside Government badge by learning how government works and finding ways to be involved in civil society. Boy Scouts of America offers six civics-focused Merit Badges including American Heritage, Citizenship in the Community, and Citizenship in the Nation. The guide for each badge identifies educational resources to develop knowledge and requirements to apply that knowledge. American Heritage, for instance, requires Boy Scouts to read and discuss the importance of the Declaration of Independence and interview people about what America means to them.
In Boys State, run by the American Legion, about 20,000 high school juniors each year learn how state and local government works by simulating all three branches of government, electing one another to office and passing and evaluating legislation. The best participants go on to Boys Nation. Similarly, the American Legion Auxiliary runs Girls State and Girls Nation for about 20,000 juniors. The American Legion also runs a student oratorical contest whose winners give ten-minute orations on aspects of the Constitution. The YMCA Youth and Government program similarly engages thousands of teens nationwide in model government.
For National History Day, started in 1974 at Case Western Reserve University and now funded substantially by the National Endowment for the Humanities, more than half a million middle and high school students and more than 30,000 teachers engage in a year-long American history program. Students develop creative projects, then engage in local and national contests. Performance contestants can perform in the roles of historical figures, replicating their historical dress and diction.
The Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge has reached more than 5 million students since its founding in 1949 by E.F. Hutton, Don Belding, Kenneth Wells, and General Dwight D. Eisenhower. On 75 acres of uniquely hallowed ground, it provides students and teachers with immersive, multi-day educational experiences in the history, ideals, and continuing relevance of the American Founding. In 2019 these programs educated 2,600 students and 405 teachers.
The Harlan Institute brings elite law school experiences into the high school classroom, focusing on the Constitution, Supreme Court cases, and the American justice system. The Virtual Supreme Court competition runs at a high level of sophistication in partnership with The Constitutional Sources Project (ConSource): teams research cutting-edge constitutional law, write appellate briefs, argue against students in different states, and give oral arguments. About 50 top students compete each year. ConSource provides an invaluable Constitutional Index.
The Case Method Project at Harvard Business School helps high school and college students dive deeply into 22 key decision points in the history of American democracy. Using insights from the case method pedagogy of HBS, Professor David Moss developed a college course in History of American Democracy in a format that expanded to high schools in 2014 and is now used in more than 150 schools across 250 classrooms.
Civic Spirit promotes comprehensive civic education among diverse faith-based schools by providing teachers with intensive professional development and students with core knowledge, skills, and foundational texts that help them understand and appreciate American political freedom, feel a sense of belonging in their community and country, and cultivate civic virtues. Civic Spirit has worked with more than 50 educators and has reached 5,000 students since its founding in 2018 as a project of Hillel International.
The New-York Historical Society Museum and Library, founded in 1804 by eleven prominent citizens of New York, houses more than four million artifacts and reaches about 200,000 students annually. Its new Academy for American Democracy, piloted to thousands of sixth graders and their teachers, educates about the foundations of democracy since classical Greece. Its Citizenship Project helps green card holders prepare for the U.S. citizenship exam.
- Girl Scouts of the U.S.A.
New York, NY
Annual Expenditures: $100 million
212.852.8000
girlscouts.org - Boy Scouts (National Boy Scouts of America Council)
Irving, TX
Annual Expenditures: $300 million
972.580.2000
scouting.org - American Legion
Indianapolis, IN
Annual Expenditures: $75 million
317.630.1229
legion.org - American Legion Auxiliary
Indianapolis, IN
Annual Expenditures: $9 million
317.569.4500
alaforveterans.org - National History Day
College Park, MD
Annual Expenditures: $3 million
301.314.9739
nhd.org - Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge
Valley Forge, PA
Annual Expenditures: $2.7 million
610.933.8825
freedomsfoundation.org - Harlan Institute
Washington, D.C.
Annual Expenditures: $15,000
Josh Blackman ([email protected])
harlaninstitute.org - ConSource
Washington, D.C.
Annual Expenditures: $200,000
202.282.5490
consource.org - Case Method Project
Cambridge, MA
617.495.0458
hbs.edu/case-method-project - Civic Spirit
New York, NY
Annual Expenditures: $550,000
646.825.1388
civicspirit.org - New-York Historical Society
New York, NY
President and CEO: Louise Mirrer
212.873.3400
nyhistory.org
Civics in Prison
Certell offers free full-semester courses in American government, American history, and economics for use by high school teachers. The courses are designed to integrate knowledge with independent thinking, character, and a sense of community responsibility. Certell’s reach includes more than 5,000 teachers and nearly 500,000 students. Over the past four years, Certell also has educated more than 200 inmates- with a wait list of more than 100.
- Certell
Indianapolis, IN
Founder and CEO: Fred Fransen
Annual expenditures: $3 million
317.870.1050
certell.org
Policy Expertise
The nonpartisan Education Commission of the States holds multi-day Policy Academies for government decision-makers in states that are ready to move on civic education or other topics. ECS also offers a detailed state-by-state comparison of civic education requirements including statutory language, and it provides real-time tracking of civics bills.
- Education Commission of the States
Denver, CO
Director of Strategic Initiatives: Matt Jordan
303.299.3686
ecs.org
Undergraduate Civics
The School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University focuses on statesmanship through deep consideration of diverse ancient and modern texts, including substantial emphasis on the U.S. Constitution. The School’s public programs bring academic and political thought leaders from around the country to model civil discourse despite often sharp differences of opinion.
Contact: Paul Carrese, director, 480.965.0155.
For almost 20 years, the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University has explored enduring topics in constitutional law and political thought and has examined ways of applying basic legal and ethical principles to contemporary problems. The Program promotes civic education on campus through courses, conferences, lectures, seminars, and colloquia. It also hosts graduate and postdoctoral fellows and visiting faculty, many of whom move outside the academy to advance policy informed by constitutional principles.
Contact: Robert P. George, director, 609.258.5107.
The Constitutional Studies Program at University of Notre Dame cultivates citizens to understand and defend American constitutional institutions. The program offers a Constitutional Studies Minor and partners with Notre Dame’s Potenziani Program in Constitutional Studies and Notre Dame Law School’s Program in Constitutional Structure and Design.
Contact: V. Phillip Muñoz, director, 574.631.5351.
The Political Theory Project at Brown University helps students assess the ideas and institutions that have made societies free, prosperous, and fair. Undergraduates, graduate students, visiting fellows, and faculty members come together to consider “market democracy,” the institutions of democratic governance and market economies that protect and promote property rights, freedom of expression and association, contractual and economic freedom, and the rule of law.
Contact: John Tomasi, director, 401.863.7837.
The Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy at the University of Missouri is a strong example of successful philanthropy in civic education. The Institute engages students, scholars, and the community on the subjects of American political thought, history, and institutions, emphasizing the ideas and events of the American Founding and their continuing impact and relevance. The Institute offers a B.A. in Constitutional Democracy, a residential living- learning community for students interested in these topics, a D.C. summer program, and study abroad at the University of Oxford. The Institute also supports M.A. and Ph.D. students with fellowships and research grants and offers a one- year master’s degree in Atlantic History and Politics. Transformative gifts from the Kinder Foundation have made all of this possible.
Contact: Justin Dyer, director, 573.882.7998.
- Many other professors do excellent work in this area. The Jack Miller Center (list; contact below) and the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (list; 202.467.6787) maintain lists of recommended college and university programs that focus on students’ understanding of core concepts of American government and history. Please contact JMC, ACTA, or the Roundtable for information about leading faculty and programs at your campuses of interest.
Graduate and Law School Civics: Educating Tomorrow’s Leaders and Professors
The Jack Miller Center for Teaching America’s Founding Principles and History advances the study and teaching of America’s history, its political institutions, and the central principles and ideas of the American and Western traditions. In higher education, the Center supports campus-based programs and postdoctoral fellowships, and it conducts conferences for college educators, including its flagship Summer Institute, an intensive program to support the careers of junior scholars of American political thought. Over the past 15 years it has developed a network of more than 900 educators at more than 300 colleges and universities. These faculty taught about one million college students by the end of 2019.
To help teachers meet new statewide high school civics requirements in Illinois, the Center supports teacher education in partnership with the University of Chicago’s Graham School, Lake Forest College, and the Newberry Library. It is expanding such efforts into New York City, Philadelphia, Virginia, and Wisconsin. The affiliated Jack Miller Freedom Initiative is developing strategies to facilitate collaboration among organizations interested in revitalizing K-12 civics education.
The Institute for Humane Studies provides educational, research, and career development programs for graduate students and faculty members within the classical liberal intellectual tradition, reflecting the political and economic freedoms of our constitutional order. IHS also offers fellowships and research grants to the most promising graduate students.
With more than 200 law school chapters and more than 100 Lawyers Chapters, The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies brings discussion and debate about core constitutional and legal issues to law students, faculty members, local attorneys, and business and policy leaders through events both on and off campus. Many student and faculty members enter top leadership roles later in their careers. Fifteen specialized Practice Groups focus on expertise in particular areas of law, such as free speech & election law. Seven specialized projects include the Article I Initiative, which facilitates dialogue around the constitutional role of Congress; the State Attorneys General Guide, which educates the public on the key role of attorneys general in interpreting and enforcing the law; and No. 86, named for Federalist 86, addressing how key constitutional and legal concepts are taught in law schools.
On the West Coast, the Stanford Constitutional Law Center brings America’s top law students into contact with top thinkers about the actual history and text of the U.S. Constitution. It has focused on the separation and scope of constitutional powers, the democratic constitutional structure, and the First Amendment. Postgraduate fellows spend 1 to 3 years deepening their understanding of the Constitution and usually land academic jobs at law schools. On the East Coast, the Georgetown Center for the Constitution focuses on originalism in interpreting the Constitution, especially through the Originalism Summer Seminar.
- The Jack Miller Center for Teaching America’s Founding Principles and History
Bala Cynwyd, PA
Annual expenditures: $3.7 million
President: Michael Andrews
484.436.2060
jackmillercenter.org - The Institute for Humane Studies
Arlington, VA
Annual expenditures (all programs): $19 million
President and CEO: Emily Chamlee-Wright
703.993.4880
theihs.org - The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies
Washington, D.C.
Annual expenditures (all programs): $24 million
President: Eugene B. Meyer
202.822.8138
fedsoc.org - Stanford Constitutional Law Center
Michael McConnell
[email protected]
law.stanford.edu - Georgetown Center for the Constitution
Randy Barnett
[email protected]
law.georgetown.edu
Defending and Educating About the First Amendment
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) defends the constitutional rights of college students and faculty members regardless of viewpoint. It also teaches high school and college students and educators about our first freedoms, files lawsuits and briefs in key cases, and engages college administrators and state actors to reform policies to protect fundamental rights.
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty is the leading appellate nonprofit law firm defending the First Amendment freedoms of individuals and groups across the religious spectrum. Becket’s subject matter expertise and successful representation have helped establish key legal precedents at the federal appeals courts. Becket’s legal internship program and clinical partnerships with Stanford and Harvard law schools put students to work immediately on active cases, supplementing core constitutional education for top law students.
The Alliance Defending Freedom is a large network of advocates for religious liberty, free speech, and related issues, engaging more than 3,000 allied attorneys and hundreds of likeminded organizations. The alliance litigates and funds lawsuits to defend constitutional rights in court and engages in a wide range of public advocacy for those freedoms in the culture. Through its Center for Academic Freedom, ADF defends free speech and religious liberty at public universities. ADF also hosts training programs focused on constitutional issues, notably the Blackstone Legal Fellowship, which provides more than 150 law students per year with a nine-week summer leadership program, and the Young Lawyers Academy, which equips recent law school graduates and early-career lawyers to advocate for constitutional rights.
Lawsuits and public advocacy at the Institute for Justice (IJ) focus on economic liberty, educational choice, private property, and the First Amendment. IJ also provides educational resources in these areas, including a Clinic on Entrepreneurship and First Amendment resources on topics such as donor privacy and occupational speech, to advance understanding of constitutional and other legal rights. The First Liberty Institute, a national legal organization dedicated to religious liberty, also produces a Religious Liberty Protection Kit for Students and Teachers and other resources that teach citizens about protecting their First Amendment freedoms.
- Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE)
Philadelphia, PA
Annual expenditures: $9.5 million
President and CEO: Greg Lukianoff
215.717.3473
thefire.org - Becket Fund for Religious Liberty
Washington, D.C.
Annual expenditures: $7.4 million
President: Mark Rienzi
202.955.0095
becketlaw.org - Alliance Defending Freedom
Scottsdale, AZ
Annual expenditures (all programs): $55 million
President, CEO, and General Counsel: Michael P. Farris
800.835.5233
adflegal.org - Institute for Justice
Arlington, VA
Annual expenditures: $28 million
President and General Counsel: Scott G. Bullock
703.682.9320
ij.org - First Liberty Institute
Plano, TX
Annual expenditures: $12.5 million
President, CEO, and Chief Counsel: Kelly Shackelford
972.941.4444
firstliberty.org
Educating Civil Society’s Leaders
While K-12 civic education has many strong providers, and many organizations now work with adults to improve civil discourse, only a few organizations successfully engage post-college and non-college adults in civic knowledge and understanding. Please contact the Roundtable if you are interested to help fill this gap and reach adults, the largest component of our civil society.
One model has several dozen community leaders each year attend a series of nine full-day sessions at the Leadership Program of the Rockies. This program educates key opinion leaders from diverse backgrounds—business, politics, medicine, education, the media—to understand constitutional principles and become more effective communicators to their peers. National experts on current events, leadership, and political processes lead the sessions. More than 1,500 graduates are now influential ambassadors of political and economic freedom throughout Colorado, and the program is expanding into other states.
Nine free online courses about the Constitution at Hillsdale College including Constitution 101: The Meaning and History of the Constitution have reached about one million citizens around the country to date. Hillsdale’s monthly publication Imprimis also commonly features essays that advance civic knowledge among an estimated 4 million readers. The June 2019 issue provides the history of the Electoral College, for example, and in the February 2019 issue, the author reminds us that “America’s own Sons of Liberty in 1776…toppled a statue of the hated George III and melted down its lead to make 40,000 musket balls.” Hillsdale’s Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship extends the College’s educational mission to teach the Constitution into Washington, D.C., through frequent events. The Kirby Center’s James Madison Fellows Program has engaged more than 200 senior congressional staff.
The Heritage Foundation regularly educates adults on the Constitution through two centers in particular: the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies and the B. Kenneth Simon Center for Principles and Politics. Both centers publish research on constitutional topics and host lectures in Washington, DC, in addition to specialized training programs in U.S. law. Heritage also offers the Heritage Guide to the Constitution featuring line-by-line analysis of every clause, as well as teacher resources, available in print and online (with more than 20 million lifetime views); a Preserve the Constitution lecture series where law and policy professionals analyze major contemporary constitutional issues; and a Young Leaders Program, with 15-week internship programs that have taught more than 4,500 students.
In addition to the National Constitution Center’s debate-format We the People podcast, two podcasts make it easy for adults to brush up on constitutional principles. Civics 101, produced by New Hampshire Public Radio and supported by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, features two podcasts per month at 20 to 30 minutes. Civics 101 also provides teaching resources including shorter clips for the classroom. 60 Second Civics, as advertised, is a daily offering from the Center for Civic Education on a constitutional topic or historical event.
- Leadership Program of the Rockies
Denver, CO
Annual expenditures: $1.1 million
President: Shari Williams
303.488.0018
leadershipprogram.org - Hillsdale College
Hillsdale, MI
Associate Vice President and Dean of Educational Programs: Matt Spalding
517.607.2738
online.hillsdale.edu - Heritage Foundation
Washington, D.C.
President: Kay Coles James
800.546.2843
heritage.org - Center for Civic Education
Calabasas, CA
Executive Director: Charles Quigley
818.591.9321
civiced.org
Other Civic Education Projects
- All four leading historic sites in Virginia, where visitors can learn about early American history through restored residential landscapes, are owned and operated privately: George Washington’s Mount Vernon, James Madison’s Montpelier, Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, and Colonial Williamsburg.
- The American Battlefield Trust helps visitors navigate battlefields at Yorktown, Lexington & Concord, the War of 1812, and the Civil War and learn their history, including maps and biographies. It also is working to preserve battlefield lands such as those at Saratoga and Newtown. The organization also is the official nonprofit partner of the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission to celebrate 250 years since 1776.
- The National Park Service operates several sites in Philadelphia through the Independence National Historical Park. The National Park Foundation, its nonprofit arm, is organized to accept private donations. Sites in Philadelphia include Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, Declaration House, Benjamin Franklin Museum, and Washington Square.
- The National Archives Foundation is a nonprofit arm of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) that can receive private donations. NARA keeps on public display the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights. The Founders Online resource provides access to thousands of documents pertaining to George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and other founders. NARA also makes available two million digitized historical documents and has responsibility for the 14 operating Presidential Libraries.
Textbooks
In addition to the new Bill of Rights Institute/ OpenStax online textbook described above, three noteworthy options are:
- Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story by University of Oklahoma professor Wilfred M. McClay, published in 2019 by Encounter Books. The book, intended as a trade publication usable as a textbook, “should outshine the competition thanks to its balanced approach to American history, its superb narrative style, and its reintroduction of topics and themes that have long since fallen from the pages of most classroom editions” (reviewer and high school teacher Howard Muncy, May 2019).
- What So Proudly We Hail is a rich anthology of stories, speeches, poems, and songs by patriotic Americans from diverse perspectives, edited under the direction of prominent educators Amy and Leon Kass. The selections and commentary promote a shared national identity based on informed patriotism, character, and citizenship rooted in America’s founding principles.
- We the People, a series for elementary, middle, and high school students offered by the Center for Civic Education. Since 1987 the Center’s We the People program, which extends beyond textbooks to include teacher professional development and simulated state legislative hearings, has reached more than 30 million students and 75,000 educators. Civic education leaders say that We the People is the most valuable part of the Center’s work as a solid, unbiased program. Contact: Robert Leming, director, 818.591.9321.
What So Proudly We Hail is a rich anthology of stories, speeches, poems, and songs by patriotic Americans from diverse perspectives, edited under the direction of prominent educators Amy and Leon Kass. The selections and commentary promote a shared national identity based on informed patriotism, character, and citizenship rooted in America’s founding principles.
We the People, a series for elementary, middle, and high school students offered by the Center for Civic Education. Since 1987 the Center’s We the People program, which extends beyond textbooks to include teacher professional development and simulated state legislative hearings, has reached more than 30 million students and 75,000 educators. Civic education leaders say that We the People is the most valuable part of the Center’s work as a solid, unbiased program. Contact: Robert Leming, director, 818.591.9321.
Civil Discourse
From inside academia, Heterodox Academy and its 2,500 members advocate for high-quality research and teaching that avoid academic and political bias. Its membership spans the political spectrum.
Founder: Jonathan Haidt, New York University
Executive Director: Debra Mashek, 646.992.3730
Heterodox Academy spun off OpenMind in January 2019 as “a free, interactive, psychology- based platform designed to foster intellectual humility, empathy, and mutual understanding across a variety of differences” with the goal of depolarizing American communities.
Among many additional organizations addressing hyperpolarization, leading practitioners with a neutral or freedom-oriented mission are:
- Better Angels (New York, NY) including college-oriented programs through Better Angels Debates. Contact: David Blankenhorn, President, 212.246.3942.
- The Policy Circle (Wilmette, IL) focusing on empowering women to take part in policy discussions. Contact: Sylvie Légère Ricketts, President, 847.687.7864.
- The Association of Former Members of Congress (Washington, D.C.) a congressionally chartered nonprofit, which always brings both a Democrat and a Republican to campus and community events. Contact: Peter M. Weichlein, CEO, 202.222.0972.
The Administrative State
Several organizations are leading educational and litigation efforts regarding the large impact and constitutional status of the administrative state—the part of the executive branch that issues regulations and enforces its own rules in the place of the other branches of government. These organizations provide the public, scholars, and the courts with key information about how the branches of the U.S. federal government were set up in the Constitution and how they operate today.
- The Pacific Legal Foundation (Sacramento, CA) educates and litigates on the administrative state through the Center for the Separation of Powers, on both federal and state issues. It also convenes strategy conferences on the administrative state. Contact: Steven Anderson, President and CEO, 916.419.7111.
- The New Civil Liberties Alliance (Washington, D.C.) was founded in 2017 for education and litigation about the administrative state. Contact: Philip Hamburger, President, 202.869.5210.
- The C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State (Arlington, VA) at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School publishes significant legal scholarship about the administrative state. Contact: Adam J. White, Executive Director, 703.993.9556.
- The Competitive Enterprise Institute (Washington, D.C.) annually surveys the size, scope, cost, and other results of federal regulations in its Ten Thousand Commandments report. Contact: Kent Lassman, President, 202.331.1010.
The Civic Education Program at the Philanthropy Roundtable
The Roundtable’s Civic Education Program aims to equip donors to give wisely in charitable efforts to strengthen the American people’s knowledge and understanding of core constitutional principles. These include separation of powers, checks and balances, federalism, equality under the rule of law, and First Amendment rights.
Specific projects beyond this guide include:
- Identifying and inspiring philanthropy to fill gaps in constitutional education where new organizations and/or initiatives would be helpful:
- Adult education in civic knowledge—increasing both demand and supply.
- Understanding what works through longitudinal studies of knowledge retention.
- Reform of teacher credentialing and preservice requirements for civics teachers.
- Address missed opportunities. For example:
- More prominent, more frequent celebration of naturalization of new citizens.
- Alumni and ambassadorship programs to extend organizations’ short-term programs.
- Exploring city-level work with donors/foundations, practitioners, and public officials to create national models for civic education about core constitutional principles, for instance in Philadelphia, as part of the preparation for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026. The National Constitution Center will host the Roundtable’s National Civics Expo on May 6-7, 2020, in Philadelphia.
- Convening meetings of donors and foundation representatives to evaluate philanthropic and practitioner strategies. The first was a pre-conference on constitutional education, Investing in a Civic Renaissance, on October 23, 2019, immediately before our 2019 Annual Meeting in Carlsbad, California.
Please contact Adam Kissel at the Roundtable to learn more and to discuss how to maximize your own philanthropic strategies, or visit the Roundtable’s Civic Education Program website at philanthropyroundtable.org/civics.
Mr. Kissel is available at 202.600.7916 or [email protected].
