A Virginia-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit · Nonpartisan civic education
We Are Building an America Where Every Citizen Knows How Government Works.
Who decides. How they are elected. What they are deciding this month. And how an ordinary person takes part before it is final.
What we are
- A 501(c)(3) nonprofit
- Organized in Virginia for charitable and educational purposes. Not a government agency, and not affiliated with one.
- Nonpartisan by charter
- We do not endorse or oppose candidates or parties, and we do not tell anyone how to vote. We explain how the machinery works.
- English and Spanish
- Both languages, at the same reading level, on the same day. No account, no paywall, nothing collected from you.
Our purpose
An America where being an informed citizen is ordinary rather than exceptional.
We were founded on a single conviction: that self-government only works when the people inside it understand it, and that this understanding should belong to everyone rather than to a professional few.
So we teach it. How federal, state and local government are elected, and what each one is actually allowed to decide. What rights a person holds and what responsibilities come with citizenship. How to find the officials who represent you, read an agenda before the vote rather than the news afterward, speak at a public hearing, comment on a proposed rule, and follow the policies being written for you at every level.
Where a person knows which office to call, which room to walk into, and which week their voice still counts. Communities that know these things make better decisions, hold their officials to a higher standard, and carry a sense of responsibility no law can require and no election can manufacture. That is the country we are working toward, one community at a time.
Know who decides. Know when they decide. Know how to take part.
The short answer
What Is Civic Education?
Civic education is understanding how government in the United States works, who makes the decisions that affect your life, and how you can take part in that process. It covers the Constitution, the three levels of government, the three branches, elections, courts, public meetings, and the practical steps a resident can take before a decision is final.
It is not about telling anyone what to think. It is about understanding the system well enough to use it. The full explanation is here.
Why this matters to America
Self-Government Is a Skill. It Is Not Inherited.
The people who wrote the Constitution did something unusual. They did not design a system that runs on its own. They designed one that runs on the attention of ordinary people, and then they built in every opening that attention would need: elections at short intervals, meetings open to the public, records anyone can request, comment periods before rules take effect, and courts open to anyone with a claim.
Every one of those doors is still open. Most of them go unused. Not because Americans stopped caring, but because almost nobody was ever shown where the doors are.
That is the gap this organization exists to close, and it is narrower than it looks. Nobody needs a degree in political science to be a capable citizen. They need to know which body decides the thing they care about, when it meets, and what to say when it does. That is an afternoon of learning rather than a career, and it lasts the rest of a life.
A republic does not run on passion. It runs on the ordinary competence of the people inside it.
Consider what changes when that competence is common in a neighborhood rather than rare. A zoning hearing that usually draws four people draws forty, and the outcome moves. A school board that has never been asked to explain a budget line is asked, publicly, on the record. A comment period that would have closed with eleven responses closes with two hundred, and the agency is legally required to answer the substantive ones.
None of that asks anyone to change their politics. It asks them to know the calendar.
This is also the least expensive civic infrastructure a country can build. A new road costs millions. Teaching a thousand people how a county budget is adopted costs almost nothing, works permanently, and compounds, because the person who has spoken once at a public meeting tells four neighbors what the room was actually like.
Stronger communities
Decisions about schools, housing, roads and public safety are made locally, often in half empty rooms. A community that knows the schedule is a community that gets a hearing, and a hearing is most of the battle.
Stronger families
School boundaries, tax rates, bond debt and zoning shape a neighborhood for a generation, which means they reach children more than adults. Knowing when those decisions happen is how a family gets a say rather than a surprise.
A stronger country
A public that understands how decisions are made is harder to mislead, easier to serve, and more likely to accept an outcome it can trace. That is worth something regardless of who wins any particular election.
Our work is open to everyone. Our focused outreach goes to the communities where the information gap is widest, including naturalized citizens and immigrant communities, working families without time to decode an agency website, and long time residents who were simply never taught. We publish no immigration or citizenship application guidance. Once a person is a citizen, this site is about the rights they already hold and how to use them.
What the research shows
Most Americans last studied civics years before they were old enough to vote.
Over time civics received less classroom attention as schools emphasized subjects tied more closely to standardized testing, and for most adults there was little opportunity to return to it afterward. What the national surveys measure is not a gap in ability. It is a gap in opportunity.
That distinction matters, because a gap in opportunity closes quickly. Adults pick this subject up fast once it is explained clearly and attached to a real question, which is usually the moment they arrive here.
- 70 percent
- of American adults can name all three branches of government. Thirteen percent cannot name one. Annenberg Public Policy Center
- 9 percent
- could name all five freedoms protected by the First Amendment. Annenberg Public Policy Center
- 39 percent
- knew what constitutes the supreme law of the land. American Bar Association civic literacy survey, 2025
- Under 20
- percent turnout is routine in the odd year local elections that set property tax rates and run school systems
What civic education covers
Six Areas, and Every One of Them Comes Up in Real Life
Who decides what
The Constitution and your rights
How rules get made
Voting, and the races nobody covers
How to reach the people in charge
Rights, duties and responsibilities
Start here
The Questions People Actually Bring Us
Is voting a civic duty or a responsibility?
What is separation of powers?
What does a school board actually do?
What are the three levels of government?
How do I find out what my government is doing?
Who represents me, beyond Congress?
In person, in your room
A Website Answers the Question Somebody Already Knew How to Ask
A room answers the one they were not willing to type. We run civic education workshops for congregations, libraries, unions, employers, English language programs, student groups and neighborhood associations. About ninety minutes, English or Spanish, and you pick the topic.
You pick the topic
Who decides what. How to be heard locally. Reading a ballot you have never seen. The Constitution without the fog. Getting an answer out of an agency. Or a community forum with local officials in the room.
We come to you
Church basements, library meeting rooms, union halls, lunch rooms, classrooms, living rooms. Wherever your people already gather is the right venue, and twelve people is a real workshop.
Open to everyone
No charge to the host or to anyone attending, in English or Spanish. Bring every question, including the ones people are embarrassed to ask out loud. Those are usually the best ones in the room.
Ten minutes, nothing recorded
Twenty Questions. Find Out What You Were Never Taught.
This is not an official test and it has nothing to do with any government agency. It is twenty questions about how American government works day to day, and several of them catch people who work in government. Nothing is recorded, nothing is sent anywhere, and nobody sees your score but you.
How we work
Nonpartisan by Law, and by Practice
We Are Americans Foundation is a Virginia-based nonprofit organization, organized for charitable and educational purposes under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Organizations described in that section are prohibited by federal law from participating or intervening in any political campaign for or against a candidate for public office, and we observe that as policy as well as law.
Where a question of public policy is genuinely disputed, we describe the dispute and identify the positions others take, and we leave the conclusion to you. The Foundation is not a government agency and is not affiliated with or endorsed by any government entity. Everything we publish is general civic education rather than legal advice, and every page names its sources and the date it was last reviewed so you can check us against the original.