As the official celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence culminate on July 4, a well-financed, privately funded initiative will kick off to try to connect hundreds of millions of Americans with efforts to solve local problems.
The “Be The People” campaign aspires to change the perception that the U.S. is hopelessly divided and that individuals have little power to overcome problems like poverty, addiction, violence, and stalled economic mobility. It also wants to move people to take action to solve those problems.
Brian Hooks, chairman and CEO of the nonprofit network Stand Together, said the 250th anniversary is a unique moment “to show people that they matter, that they have a part to play, and that the future is unwritten, but it depends on each one of us stepping up to play our part.”
Funded by a mix of 50 philanthropic foundations and individual donors, Be The People builds on research that indicates many people want to contribute to their communities but don’t know how. The initiative is targeting more than $200 million for its first year’s budget.
Founding members range from nonprofits — including GivingTuesday, Goodwill Industries, and Habitat for Humanity, businesses like Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment and the National Basketball Association, to funders like the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and More Perfect.
Hooks said this is a 10-year commitment toward trying to achieve what would be a profound shift in behavior and culture. He referenced a 2024 Pew Research Center survey that found most Americans in 2023 and 2024 did not believe that the U.S. could solve its most important problems, saying it was a “red alert” for the country.
Hooks said the initiative envisions actions far beyond volunteering or service that people could do in their free time. He pointed to a role for businesses and schools and said the initiative would launch a major data collection effort to track whether people are actually more engaged and whether problems are actually getting solved.
Stand Together, which was founded by the billionaire Charles Koch, works across a broad range of issues and communities in the U.S. and has carved out a role for itself as a convener that can bring coalitions together across ideological lines.
“Be The People,” will not incorporate as a new nonprofit, but act more like a banner for groups to organize under and use to connect to resources. As an example, at the Atlanta Hawks game on Monday, Martin Luther King III and his wife, Arndrea Waters King, linked a program they launched last year, Realize the Dream, which aims to increase acts of service, to the new campaign.
“Our vision is that ‘Be The People’ helps lift up what is already happening in communities across the country and reminds people that service and shared responsibility are defining parts of the American story,” the Kings said in a written statement.
Asha Curran, the CEO of the nonprofit GivingTuesday, said small actions can build on each other like exercising a muscle.
“Our experience with GivingTuesday is that when people volunteer together, when people work together on something to do with positive social impact, they find it harder and harder to demonize each other,” said Asha Curran, its CEO.
The initiative comes against a backdrop of deep polarization, economic inequality, and the degradation of democratic norms and institutions in the U.S.
Hahrie Han, a political scientist at Johns Hopkins University, has studied civic engagement and said people need more opportunities to authentically participate as problem solvers when connecting with local organizations.
“They’re more likely to be invited into things where people are asked to let professional staff do most of the problem solving and they show up and give their time or their money,” she said.
The result is that people feel less committed and don’t see their participation as helping to achieve their interests or goals.
A growing number of private foundations have started funding issues related to the health of U.S. democracy, said Kristin Goss, a professor who directs the Center for the Study of Philanthropy and Voluntarism at Duke University. While foundations cannot participate in elections, Goss said they can influence policy or public opinion in other ways.
“Funders are getting more concerned about of the health of American democracy, the future of the democratic experiment and pluralism and inclusion,” Goss said.
Another group of funders, including the Freedom Together Foundation, launched a project last year to recognize people and groups who stand up for their communities, which they called a “civic bravery” award. In a November report, they issued a similar call for funders to invest in helping individuals organize together in response to a rise in authoritarianism.
Hooks and the other leaders of “Be The People” have also convened major communications teams to help tell these stories, which they think are lost in the current information ecosystem.
“What we’re doing is we’re helping to lift up the story of Americans that is unfolding at the local level, but is not breaking through,” Hooks said. “So we’re holding up a mirror and a microphone to Americans to reveal to each other who we truly are.”
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—Thalia Beaty, Associated Press