#WeTheCivic: America 250
In 2026, the United States will mark 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It is a document that promised liberty and justice for all, and delivered it to chosen few.
This anniversary will be loud. It will be choreographed. Already, political forces are rewriting history in real time, weaponizing public memory, and narrowing the definition of who counts as American. Without intentional intervention, the America 250 moment risks becoming a monument to mythology, instead of a celebration of the people, movements, and organizations that have spent 250 years pushing this country to advance democracy and opportunity.
#WeTheCivic: America 250 is a national narrative movement to put the multiracial nonprofit and civil society workers, organizations, and communities at the center of how the United States tells the stories and histories of 250 years of fighting for a true, vibrant democracy for all.
“In times of dread, artists must never choose to remain silent.”
—Toni Morrison,
‘No Place for Self-Pity, No Room for Fear’
Why
America 250?
A critical narrative moment.
In the last years, we’ve witnessed a full-scale campaign by elected officials to silence American voices, stories, bodies, history, and journalism.
Illegal attacks on First Amendment rights. Wholesale erasure of non cis white males from curricula and archive. Kidnapping and disappearing communities online and in person
Official America 250 commemorations will not fix this. Left uncontested, they will deepen it.
Why tell nonprofit stories?
Multiracial nonprofits are democracy’s daily defenders.
The multiracial, multilingual, multigenerational nonprofit sector has been the connective tissue of “American” democracy for all 250 of those years.
Enslaved people building mutual aid networks. Immigrant communities founding neighborhood institutions. Indigenous organizers defending sovereignty. Black women leading civic movements. Queer activists building health infrastructure. Workers organizing for economic dignity across generations. Climate defenders protecting communities that government abandoned.
Nonprofit workers, leaders, activists, and funders are central to the work of democracy—and to the stories of democracy.
None of these stories will tell themselves.
Join The Movement
This this America 250 season, join us to celebrate the nonprofit and civic workers who protect and advance democracy every single day of the year.
Writers and artists
Do you have a piece of history that needs telling? A nonprofit leader, organization, or movement moment that's been overlooked or misrepresented? We're accepting essays, reported pieces, criticism, poetry, and original visual art on a rolling basis.
Organizations and partners
We're building a coalition of nonprofit organizations, advocacy groups, newsrooms, and civic institutions to amplify #WeTheCivic on July 4. Add your organization's voice to the movement.
Funders
#WeTheCivic is open infrastructure for the nonprofit field. Your support makes the Essay Series, the Newsroom Network, and the Day of Narrative Action possible.
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive."
— Thomas Jefferson
#UniteInAdvance.
United We Stand.
