Founded in 1894 by Teddy Roosevelt, Louis Brandeis, and Mary Mumford, the Civic League championed the democracy innovations of the Progressive Era to help defeat challenges like corruption, labor unrest, urban poverty, and poor public health. Today, we leverage our staff, our senior fellows and our nationally recognized board to inspire, support and celebrate civic engagement in America’s communities.

Meet our team!

 Transforming Democracy: Democracy must evolve if it is going to survive. The design of our public institutions dates to the early 20th Century and doesn’t facilitate collaboration between officials and residents. We need forms of democracy to meet today’s expectations and challenges. The National Civic League led this kind of transformation in democracy before and we are positioned to do it again.

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Our Programs

The Center for Democracy Innovation (CDI) works with communities across the U.S. to understand, test, and disseminate the next generation of civic innovations to make democracy more participatory, equitable, and productive. Current efforts include:

• Measuring the quality of democracy so communities can track progress when adopting innovations, using approaches like the Civic Infrastructure Scan, Engagement Scorecard, and Civic Measurement Guide.
• Working to make official public meetings more civil, deliberative, and productive through the Democracy Innovations for Better Public Meetings project.
• Mapping the universe of organizations promoting healthy democracy in America through the Healthy Democracy Ecosystem Map, which helps community leaders make connections to potential collaborators, funders decide how to invest their resources, and the American people get engaged and contribute to civic health.
• Supporting communities with their charter review by providing best practices in public participation and ensuring the review process is inclusive, transparent, and trusted by the community.

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The All-America City (AAC) Award highlights and celebrates what is working in local democracy now. For 76 years, AAC has recognized the work of communities in using inclusive civic engagement to address critical issues and create stronger connections among residents, businesses and nonprofit and government leaders. The annual Awards event brings together 500 people, in teams representing 20 cities, towns, and counties, to recognize their civic achievements, learn from one another, and compete for the honor of being named an All-America City. We then use our network, resources, and reach to spread and scale the promising practices of these inspiring communities.

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CivicGenius aims to rebuild American civic culture through everyday opportunities to learn and engage. The program’s focus is on deliberative public processes that create better policy and strengthen relationships between governments and the people they represent. Two of CivicGenius' main programs include:

• It's Your America, a dynamic, participatory event that invites residents to come together for a few hours of fun, connection, and thoughtful deliberation. Participants engage across differences, weigh policy tradeoffs, and generate community-rooted solutions to shared challenges.
• Reimagined Congressional Town Halls, innovative town halls, hosted alongside members of Congress, that are designed to bring more voices to the table for thoughtful and productive conversations.

America’s democracy is at a breaking point. Communities are eager for solutions, and the National Civic League is delivering them. But too often, we’re forced to spend precious time chasing short-term, one-off grants instead of building lasting change.

That’s why we’ve launched this campaign to raise $50,000 in unrestricted funding—so we can focus fully on helping communities modernize outdated systems, strengthen trust, and make democracy work for everyone.

Every dollar you give fuels practical, proven innovations that connect leaders and residents, improve civic health, and spread solutions nationwide. With your help, we can accelerate the transformation democracy desperately needs.