Issuu

Meeting the Moment A N N U A L

R E P O R T

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Dear Friends of iCivics, We face one of the most daunting moments in our constitutional democracy’s history. Polarization plagues our nation; distrust deepens our inability to work together. And then, last Spring, every facet of American life was upended by a global pandemic. Our current crises have revealed what civics is truly about: the fine, but sacred, balancing act between citizens, their communities and their government to forge a better path forward. Moments like these yearn for knowledge and norms. Undoubtedly, civic education is the muscle behind it; and like a muscle, it must be nourished frequently and exercised carefully. These norms – of decency and integrity, of informed civic participation and the rule of law – are worth the fight. This is what iCivics is up against. We must invest in our students like never before – tenaciously, deliberately, unapologetically. In 2020, as iCivics launched into its second decade, two things are clear: (1) Demand is higher than ever, with 120,500 teachers and 7.6M students served. (2) Civic education is the key to solving what ails our democracy. This last one isn’t just me saying so. Recently, well-known pollster Frank Luntz surveyed a representative sample of American voters to identify the single best solution to our problems. On this rare point, conservatives and liberals agree: civic education was the #1 answer. For this reason, iCivics leads a cross-ideological movement to make civic education a priority in the United States: the CivXNow Coalition. With 140+ influential and diverse members, CivXNow has made exceptional strides. Broad civic education reform is already a new reality in some states ... and a very real possibility elsewhere soon. Lastly, better civic education must include equity. Beyond issues of access, equity means taking the time to tell true, often overlooked, stories of lived experiences. It means unveiling racism in all its facets. Our constitutional democracy will not be revitalized unless we address these inequities – these injustices – that pervade our system. Our cause is bold and urgent. iCivics exists to grant all students – regardless of zip code, first language, or skin color – a rigorous and relevant civic education. Thank you for entrusting us with this noble mission. Our experiment in self government dances on this fine, and sacred, line. Kind regards,

Louise Dubé Executive Director 2 |

iCivics Annual Re p or t 2020

iCivics Governing Board HOnOraBLe Sandra daY O’COnnOr Chairwoman Emeritus Associate Justice (ret.) Supreme Court of the United States

WendY d. MaY Chairwoman Of Counsel (ret.) Hartline Dacus Barger Dreyer LLP

MarY HenrY Partner & Managing Director (ret.) Goldman Sachs

tHOMaS Lue General Counsel DeepMind

Laird MaLaMed Director/General Manager of Operations Oculus, Facebook

JaY O’COnnOr Advisory Partner Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital

arnOLd B. PeinadO, iii Senior Partner (ret.) Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy

ann M. raVeL Fellow New America CA

LindSaY reiMerS Community Advocate

PriteSH SHaH Partner Davis Polk & Wardwell, LLP

On equity and Civic education iCivics has engaged holistically on the matter of equity – a journey

KatHLeen SMaLLeY Of Counsel (ret.) Foley & Lardner, LLP JudGe ann WiLLiaMS Of Counsel Jones Day

of sorts. It was, and remains, a time of deep reflection on who we are as Americans, what iCivics’ role is in our field, and how we can be better. In light of this, iCivics: • Will release a formal statement on what equity in civic education means, and entails; • Commits to new internal

JuStiCe SOnia SOtOMaYOr Associate Justice Supreme Court of the United States

practices and hires regarding our Board and staff; • Will conduct a full content review under an equity lens; • Seeks to adapt all of its materials for English Learners.

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sChool shUTDoWNs: a Call To CiviC aCTioN In the span of two weeks, everything changed. Nearly every facet of American life was upended. All sectors were hurt. Education, most particularly. Some 118,000 schools closed nationwide, affecting 54 million students in K-12. Their teachers scrambled to become effective distance-educators; their parents struggled to become improvised homeschool teachers. When it comes to e-learning, most teachers, parents, and even states, were vastly unprepared and unsupported. Fortunately, iCivics has expertise in online education. Our platform is already digital, free, comprehensive, and trusted nationwide. Put simply: iCivics was uniquely placed to answer the call – quickly, effectively, and at scale.

A Call To Action

• Prioritizing Content-rich materials

Immediately, iCivics shifted gears. Our staff spent every

• Ease of use

moment of early spring trying to anticipate – and respond to – our new, shifting reality. The implications for civics teachers,

• Youth engagement

their students and parents were simply enormous. They still are. Within weeks, iCivics built the Remote Learning Toolkit. The Toolkit, a free dedicated hub, was speciﬁcally designed for civics educators and families wanting to support their kids’ civic education. It combines a host of ﬂexible materials: Infographics, mini-lessons, games, enrichment activities, weekly planners, and a range of professional learning materials.

A Teachable Moment Civics is not just something learned, but lived. This pandemic

iCivics has created lessons on how to broach difficult topics

– unprecedented, disruptive, and awesome in its ramiﬁcations –

in current events – and transform them into deeper learning.

is a profound teachable moment in civics. With urgent civic

Students should be encouraged to discuss the virus and its

questions:

impact, all while gaining civic knowledge, skills, and a sense

What is a state of emergency? How does it affect our freedoms? Has “civic virtue” taken on a new meaning in the face of social distancing and mask-wearing? 4 |

iCivics Annual Re p or t 2020

of shared purpose. They must be prepared to ﬁnd common solutions to problems: local and global.

For Civic Educators

iCivics creates and provides

Many teachers felt lost and overwhelmed. They lacked guidance on many issues,

amazing high-quality materials

like how to best transition to distance-learning, or balancing their teaching with

that teachers can use right off

at-home duties. In light of this, iCivics listened actively to teachers. We reached out to many and

teachers, free of charge,

the shelf. There’s a game for pretty much every topic I teach.

monitored their networks to best assess their needs in real time. Beyond our hundreds of resources at their disposal, iCivics offers topical webinars, online support forums, and suggestions on timely lessons to assign. These resources help students to spot false reporting and sharpen their news literacy skills, or explain the roles and duties of government in times of emergencies.

– Ada Belanger, ESOL Social Studies Teacher Fox Lane Middle School, NY

Featured parent resource: Civic Odysseys

These turn our games into exciting, self-paced adventures for civic knowledge. Students play, claim badges, share their successes – and learn key civic lessons on the way!

For Parents and Families Family members, however, are not trained educators. With many now having to educate their children, it was clear they needed earmarked resources: civics resources broken up in easy-to-use bundles. They combine games, mini-lessons, web-activities, and skills-based training. In addition, iCivics designed weekly planners for parents to make their kids’ learning more manageable and self-guided, along with a suite of bite-sized support videos. They cover: game-based learning; civics content and skills; curriculum planning; best practices for at-home learning; and engaging kids in civic discussions of current events.

// I’m a homeschooling parent. My son is 13 and in 8th grade. We’re using iCivics this year as his main civics/ government curriculum. We just ﬁnished the election units and really enjoyed them. – Wayne Bowen, Parent

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iCiviCs iNNovaTes Upgrading our edu-games In 2020, iCivics continued to expand and innovate. We updated the content, functionality, and technology for 6 popular games, and added new in-game Spanish support tools for our nation’s 4.9 million English Language Learners and struggling readers. In fact, our cherished game With the White House was honored with a gold medal from the 2020 International Serious Play Awards, while Race to Ratify was recognized by Common Sense Media and the Play Make Learn Conference for its quality. Our six new and improved games were played 9.7 million times last year Cast Your Vote/¡ A Votar!: Before a vote is even cast in this ﬁctitious local election, students discover what it takes to become an informed voter — values, key issues, and candidates’ stances. Win the White House /Camino a la Casa Blanca: In our most popular game, students are challenged to build a winning campaign for the presidency, including strategic messaging, fundraising and polling. Argument Wars/Guerra de Argumentos: Students hone

their persuasive abilities by arguing 9 real landmark Supreme Court cases against opposing counsel. Whoever uses the strongest arguments wins! Branches of Power/Los Tres Poderes: Checks and Balances come to life as students get to control all three branches of the U.S government to understand the powers – and limitations – of each.

[iCivics] is one of my favorites to teach with. I am so grateful to all of you for further improving its value during remote teaching. – Trish Stripling Middle School Social Studies Teacher, Missouri

Court Quest/Trayecto Tribunal: Students explore state

and federal courts as the Judicial Express guides their path through the American judicial system. Lawcraft/Taller de Leyes: In a simulation of the law-making process, students step into the halls of Congress, review constituent concerns, dig into data, then draft – and pass – a law they can be proud of. 6 |

iCivics Annual Re p o r t 2020

iCivics continues to expand its reach, and deepen its impact. Ours was a year rich in unforeseen civic events: an impeachment, a global pandemic and state of emergency, a contentious Census process, and a ﬁery election season. Once again this year, teachers – and parents – ﬂocked to iCivics in record numbers. We are now reaching 7.6 million students nationwide each year; they are the majority of all U.S. middle and high school students.

KEY PERFORMANCE METRICS

ANNUAL % INCREASE

2019

2020

Students reached

6.2 M

7. 6 M

Game plays

20.1 M

21. 4 M

W7%

Site visits

13.5M

16.7 M

W24%

Resource downloads

1.3 M

1.8 M

W32%

Active teachers

99,516

121,226

W22%

New teachers recruited

57,716

73,560

W27%

W22%

Just-in-time lessons iCivics pivoted fast to meet the moment. Our users needed urgent guidance and resources for remote civic learning. In these conditions, how could kids best be engaged in meaningful civic discussions of complex, and contentious, current events? In 2020, iCivics developed and curated a wide range of timely resources, helping educators and their students make sense of complex civic concepts, historic milestones, and current events. These include topics on the Census, Voting by Mail, the Financing of Elections, States of Emergency (updated for COVID-19), the 100 year anniversary of the Women’s Suffrage Movement and the 19th Amendment, as well as Impeachment and Conviction, which was featured in the Washington Post.

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bUilDiNG a ThRiviNG DeMoCRaCY High-quality civic education is our best solution to what ails our constitutional democracy. But ﬁrst, we must face an unsettling and long-standing reality: civic education – and the opportunities it offers – is not equitable in America. Our history is one of great successes, but it is also rife with racial abuse and injustice. To this day, many of our political institutions are vestiges of this unequal past. iCivics is dedicated to non-

Invest as the Premier Provider

Catalyze a Movement

partisanship. Yet, we will not compromise on key values. Our institutions will corrode, as they already have, when they are not held accountable to the people they are supposed to serve. We must teach young people the full truth, or they will not believe us.

Equity

A Plan For Equitable Civic Education by 2026 This year, iCivics adopted a 5-year Strategic Plan for 2026. Built around 3 interconnected pillars, this plan is a robust analysis of the assets that make iCivics the nation’s leading

Evolve for Impact

provider of civic education… and outlines the steps needed to: (1) grow demand and expand place-based civics programming; (2) shift the national mindset to prioritize civics in schools; and (3) put in place new policies to ensure highrate civic education mandates in 20 states. Importantly, equity deﬁnes our case and vision. It is at the core of our Strategic Plan. In 2020, iCivics went through a serious process of ‘Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion’ – it will drive every facet of our work moving forward: curriculum writing, policy work, as well as a host of internal practices.

The Youth as Civic Experts Fellowship For the ﬁrst time ever, iCivics launched a Fellowship of youth civic experts: a diverse network of 26 talented high school students across the U.S. Its goal is to give youth a voice – a stake – in how to make civic education more equitable. This year-long program is high-touch and high-impact. It empowers student-leaders by combining digital learning, lived experience, and hands-on civic engagement.

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iCivics Annual Re p o r t 2020

A Movement for Broad and Lasting Civic Reform In 2018, iCivics founded the CivXNow Coalition: a fast-growing

This movement has now galvanized 140+ organizations: large-

movement calling for a civic education revival in America.

scale, inﬂuential, and spanning the ideological spectrum. Each

Our goal is to raise national visibility, interest, and support

member is committed to prioritizing K-12 civic education – both

for high-quality and equitable civic education.

in and out of school – in the U.S.

u To advance the Coalition’s work, we established both the State Coalition Affiliate Program and the Federal Policy Task Force. We must drive broad goals around civic education policy, movement-building, and communications activation. The work concerns 20 key states, where legislative action is deemed possible, as well as the federal landscape. u Educating for American Democracy (EAD). This initiative is an unparalleled collaboration between iCivics, Harvard, Tufts, and Arizona State University… and well over 100 field-experts, academics and practitioners. This collaboration will result in a visionary and highly implementable guide: the EAD Roadmap. The Roadmap seeks to integrate American history and civics in K-12 social studies, for an array of diverse learners. The EAD Initiative’s formal goal will be to establish the groundwork to prepare all learners about our nation’s fundamentals: understanding both the distinctive ideals and values of America’s constitutional democracy as much as its past failures and present challenges. u Finally, iCivics has taken up an ambitious “Equity in Civics” field-building project alongside Generation Citizen. The goals: (1) conduct a five-city listening tour that provide a place-based, ground-level perspective of how parents, students, and teachers view equity in K-12 education; (2) the publication and dissemination of an “Equity in Civics” white paper, combining insights and key themes from the listening tour. This white paper will be the basis for ongoing work. i C i v i cs A nnua l Re p o r t 2020

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Those Who Make iCivics Possible We are immensely grateful to our donors, with distinct recognition to Leonard and Judy Lauder who have granted iCivics an unprecedented $5 million matching gift opportunity.

Leader (+ $100,000) Annenberg Public Policy Center Arthur Rock and Toni Rembe Rock Carnegie Corporation of New York Google Ads Program Hearst Foundations

Paul & Phyllis Fireman Charitable Foundation

Margaret Vick

Protea Fund

Martha Minow

Ray and Dagmar Dolby Family Fund

Mary Henry

William H. Neukom

Martin Rodgers

Zegar Family Foundation

Milbank

Mark Perry and Adele Mouzon

Milton Chen and Ruth Cox

Howard and Geraldine Polinger Family Foundation

Sustainer ($1,000 -$24,999)

Move The World Foundation

Leonard and Judy Lauder

Alice Z. Pannill

Nasser Kazeminy

Library of Congress

Anne T. Irwin

National Conference on Citizenship

National Endowment for the Humanities

Arnold B. Peinado

Neal and Connie Sullivan

Robert R. McCormick Foundation

Barbara Russell

Oparty Family Foundation

Silicon Valley Community Foundation

Beverly Goulet

Oren Root

Stanton Foundation

Bresky Foundation

Paul Hastings

Texas Women’s University

Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, LLP

William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

Carole Leita

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, LLP

Clarissa Echezarreta Partner ($25,000-$99,999)

Cravath, Swaine & Moore, LLP

Amazon Web Services

Davis Polk

Ann and Paul Sagan

Esta Stecher

Beatrice Snyder Foundation

Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, LLP

Charles Evans Hughes Memorial Fund

Pritesh P. Shah Richard Fishman Robert E. Long, Jr. Robert H. Smith Family Foundation Sandra Waddell Scott A. Barshay

Google Matched Giving Program

Shepard Broad Foundation

Grateful American Foundation

Sidley Austin, LLP

Herb Block Foundation

Silvija Strikis

Honorable Ann Claire Williams

Sue Bancroft

Honorable James C. Hormel

Sullivan & Cromwell, LLP

FOX Corporation

Jay O’Connor

Thomas Wilner

Goldman Sachs

Joanne Freed

Tom Lue

Koret Foundation

Kathleen Smalley

Watchell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz

Lee and Juliet Folger

Laird Malamed

Wendy May

Norman Raab Foundation

Leo Guthart and Kate Medina

William B. Wiener, Jr. Foundation

O’Melveny & Myers, LLP

Lincoln and Therese Filene Foundation

Park Foundation

Lisa Clark

ECMC Foundation Ellen & Ronald Block Family Foundation Farvue Foundation Foundation of the International Association of Defense Counsel

Louis DeJoy

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iCivics Annual Re p or t 2020

FY2020 FiNaNCial RePoRT

Students Reached vs. Expenses* For every $.63 invested,

.........................................................................................

a student learns with iCivics.

â– Students reached 4M

â– Expenses (in $)

3M 2M 1M

*Excludes in-kind donations

Revenue and Expenses

FY16

FY17

FY18

FY19

FY20

FY19

Contributions In-Kind Royalties & Contract Income Interest Income & Other Revenue Total Support

5,480,113 825,618 142,268 73,821 6,521,820

4,239,331 972,532 91,879 94,564 5,398,306

Program Expenses Management & General Fundraising Total Expenses

4,568,197 (81.5%) 463,589 (8.3%) 575,103 (10.2%) 5,606,889

4,087,517 (82%) 476,019 (9.5%) 432,248 (8.5%) 4,995,784

Net Assets, Beginning of Year Net Assets, End of Year Change in Net Assets

3,569,890 4,484,821 914,931

3,167,368 3,569,890 402,522

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“I do want to say how extremely grateful we are for the resources you provide. It means a lot to us to teach our kids the principles of democracy – to impart upon them the role of history, institutions and citizens in this country... We can, of course, tell them how we personally think, but we are above all trying to teach them how to be independent critical thinkers of their own. Towards that goal, it is immensely useful for us right now to have access to iCivics which provides an impartial view of the system as a whole.” – Anne Huang Parent

info@icivics.org | 1035 Cambridge Street, Suite 21B | Cambridge, Ma 02141 (617) 356-8311 | www.icivics.org |

@icivics |

facebook.com/icivics

“Thank you for your time and work in developing these lessons, units and games to help middle and high school students learn citizenship and civics. Of all resources I have searched for across the wide swath of the internet, I think that iCivics has the highest and most engaging quality.” – Anthony Crafa, Assistant Principal St. Joseph Catholic School, Florida

“I am so grateful for what you and your team are doing. I have used the resources from iCivics in my classroom, but even more so during distance learning when schools were closed. I just want to thank you and let you know that I sincerely appreciate your hard work to support teachers, students, and families.” – Brittany May Middle School Social Studies Teacher New York