239 years ago, the United States Constitution was completed and signed at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. This year, Founding Forward marked Constitution Day by celebrating with chapter members, partners, League members, donors, volunteers, and more. The organizational achievements of 2026 were also celebrated – we welcomed over 1,700 students, 723 educators, and 3,005 League members and community participants through our year-round programs. Our immersive, place-based civic education programs enable citizens across the country to understand, appreciate, and practice the principles, rights, and responsibilities of American citizenship. Together, we are all working to make our country a more perfect union.
As part of our celebrations, we invite you to watch our newest video about our Valley Forge campus revitalization, read about the awarding of the inaugural Charles Kurz, II Prize for Civic Education Leadership, and read a moving essay by Founding Forward Board Chair James P. Dunigan.
As we begin yet another tremendous year, we hope the video, news of the Prize, and Mr. Dunigan’s words inspire you to become more actively engaged with Founding Forward. Whether by increasing your annual gift, donating your time and expertise, or participating in more programs, we look forward to your involvement with us.
Valley Forge Campus Revitalization
Founding Forward is also marking the occasion of the start of the first major project on the Valley Forge campus. With over $4 million already invested, Founding Forward is now taking the next major step: transforming the heart of its campus, the main classroom and administrative building formerly known as the Martha Washington building.
View the video below for a great showcase of multi-year Valley Forge campus revitalization initiative to create a place worthy of the mission.
Charles Kurz, II Prize for Civic Education Leadership
During last night’s events, the inaugural Charles Kurz, II Prize for Civic Education Leadership, generously endowed by Union League Life member and avid Founding Forward supporter Charles Kurz, II, was awarded to Greg Lukianoff.
Greg is an attorney, New York Times best-selling author, and the President and CEO of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). He has co-authored several books and has been published in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, and numerous other publications. He frequently appears on TV shows and radio programs, including the CBS Evening News, The Today Show, and NPR’s Morning Edition.
The Charles Kurz, II Prize for Civic Education Leadership is awarded annually to a United States citizen who has distinguished themselves for their civic education leadership and modeled the patriotic values and principles of Founding Forward and The Union League of Philadelphia. We congratulate Greg on this tremendous achievement and share our deepest appreciation to Charles Kurz, II for his unwavering support.
What will sustain America for the next 250 years?
By Jim Dunigan, Chair, Board of Trustees, Founding Forward
For much of our nation’s history, Americans understood that self-government came with a responsibility: each generation had to prepare the next generation to sustain it. In 1822, James Madison stated it this way , “…a well-instructed people alone can be permanently a free people…”
As America begins its next 250 years, that responsibility may be more important than ever.
At a time when our country is deeply divided, when trust in institutions has diminished, and when young people receive much of their information through social media and other fragmented sources, we need to ask a fundamental question: Are we doing enough to prepare the next generation for the responsibilities of citizenship?
I believe the answer is no.
Civic education was once considered essential to preparing young Americans for adulthood. Students learned not simply the mechanics of government, but the principles upon which our nation was founded—the meaning of liberty, the responsibilities that accompany freedom, and the role individual citizens play in preserving our democracy.
Somewhere along the way, we began paying less attention to that responsibility. A constitutional democracy cannot function if its citizens do not understand the institutions that sustain it, the rights those institutions protect, or the responsibilities citizenship requires.
Civic education should not tell young people what to think. It should teach them how to think as citizens.
That means understanding the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. It means appreciating both the brilliance and the imperfections of the American experiment. It means learning how our institutions work, why disagreement is inevitable in a free society, and how citizens can disagree without viewing one another as enemies. It means being an active leader in your community.
Most importantly, it means understanding that citizenship is not a spectator sport. I see this firsthand through my work with Founding Forward, a national civic education organization based in Valley Forge and Philadelphia.
Each year, thousands of students and teachers from across the country participate in immersive programs that engage them with America’s founding principles in ways that go far beyond a textbook. They discuss ideas, wrestle with difficult questions, learn from history and discover that the freedoms they inherit carry responsibilities of their own.
Those experiences have reinforced something for me: young people are not disengaged from our country. They are curious about it.
Give them the opportunity to discuss the meaning of freedom, leadership, service and citizenship, and they respond. Give teachers the resources and inspiration to bring those conversations back to their classrooms, and the impact multiplies many times over.
The goal of civic education is not to create Republicans or Democrats, conservatives or liberals.
The goal is to create informed, thoughtful, and engaged American citizens. There is an important distinction.
A healthy democracy does not require us to agree. In fact, disagreement has been part of the American story from its beginning. It requires an understanding of the system within which those disagreements are resolved, respecting the rights of those with whom we disagree, and remaining committed to the idea that our shared citizenship is more important than our political differences.
That is why civic education should concern all of us.
Government cannot carry this responsibility alone. Schools cannot carry it alone. Families cannot carry it alone. Organizations such as Founding Forward cannot carry it alone.
Business leaders, philanthropists, educators, community organizations and individual citizens all have a role to play.
We often talk about investments that will determine America’s future—infrastructure, technology, scientific research and economic competitiveness. Those investments are unquestionably important.
But there is another form of infrastructure which all the others ultimately depend: our civic infrastructure.
The strength of our institutions ultimately rests upon the people who inherit them. For more than two centuries, each generation of Americans has been entrusted with something extraordinary: a system of government built upon the proposition that free people are capable of governing themselves.
That inheritance is not self-sustaining.
We must teach it. We must understand it. And each generation must choose to preserve it.
At Founding Forward, we sometimes express our mission very simply: We don’t teach civics to raise test scores. We teach civics to raise citizens.
Few investments in America’s future are more important than that.
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Jim Dunigan is a seasoned financial services executive and civic leader. He retired from PNC Bank as Executive Vice President and Chief Investment Officer of its Asset Management Group and has held leadership roles on numerous corporate and nonprofit boards. He currently serves as Chair of Founding Forward, a national civic education organization, and previously served as President of The Union League of Philadelphia. A graduate of Villanova University, Jim is deeply committed to strengthening civic education, effective governance, and community service.