Nevada Center for Civic Engagement
College-ready. Career-ready.
Community-ready.
In 1987, for the Constitution's 200th birthday, We the People and National History Day came to Nevada classrooms. For forty years they have sent Nevada students out able to weigh evidence, build an argument, and use a voice that carries: into college, into work, and into the rooms where their communities get decided. Give $40, a dollar for every year, and help us arrive at forty ready.
Or raise $40 from forty people you know. Every gift, any size, counts toward the campaign. NVCCE is a registered 501(c)(3).
Why 40 for 40
It started as the country's birthday present to itself.
In 1987 the Constitution turned 200, and the federal commission marking it, chaired by Chief Justice Warren Burger, decided the celebration should be a civics lesson rather than a party.
The Commission adopted We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution as the principal education program of the bicentennial, and backed National History Day so students would research the country's history in the original sources. That same year, both programs arrived in Nevada classrooms. They never left.
Since 1987, Nevada students have come out of these programs able to do something most adults cannot: read a primary source, build an argument, stand up in front of people who disagree, and hold their ground without heat. That skill does not stay in the classroom. It shows up years later in courtrooms, city council chambers, hospital boards, and school board meetings across this state.
Arriving at the country's 250th.
From the archives
Four decades, in the rooms where it happened
We are rebuilding the visual history of these programs from scratch, and a lot of it lives in boxes in Nevada garages. Scroll down if you have photos.
What $40 does
A dollar for every year.
Here is the scale of it.
These are examples of the scale a gift this size works at, not restricted purchases. Every gift is unrestricted and goes where the need is greatest that month, which is what lets us keep the programs running in the lean parts of the year. Give what fits. $40 is the anniversary number, not a minimum and not a ceiling.
Four ways in
Not all of this costs money
Give $40
The anniversary gift. It funds textbooks, teacher training, competition travel, and the scholarships that go to Nevada students who earn them.
Give now →Raise $40 × 40
Start your own fundraising page and ask forty people you know for forty dollars. That is $1,600 from one person who spent twenty minutes on it, and it reaches people we could never have reached on our own.
Start a page →Tell your story
Were you in We the People or National History Day? We want to know what you are doing now, and which parts of that experience you still use. Takes about fifteen minutes.
Share your story →Join the campaign
Judge a hearing. Mentor a team. Ask your own network. Dig through your garage for photos. Tell us what you are up for and we will follow up with something specific.
Count me in →Become a 40 for 40 fundraiser
Forty people. Forty dollars.
You already know them all.
The most effective fundraiser for this campaign is not us. It is a former We the People student who texts nine people from their old team, a National History Day alum who posts the project they spent a year on, or a parent who says something true once. People give to people they know, and they give more, and faster, than they ever give to an organization.
Set up your page
Two or three minutes. Add your name, a photo, and one or two sentences about why these programs mattered to you. That sentence is what does the work, not the logo.
Send it to forty people
Text, email, whatever you actually use. Personal beats polished every single time. We will send you wording you can copy if you would rather not start from a blank screen.
Thank people out loud
Post when you hit half. Post when you finish. Watching someone get there is what pulls in the people who scrolled past the first time.
Setting up a page is free and takes about three minutes. You do not have to hit $1,600. Every page raises more than no page.
One form. Two minutes.
Tell us how you want to be part of this
Whether you were a student in 1989, judged one hearing in 2015, or just heard about this today, this is the place to raise your hand. Pick whatever is true for you and we will follow up with something specific, not a newsletter.
Form not loading? Open it in a new tab instead.
Meet the People
Ready to tell the whole thing?
If you ticked "share my story" above, or you came here to do exactly that, this is the long version. Not the nostalgic kind. We want to know what you are doing today, and which parts of it you still use: the research, the argument, the standing up in front of people who push back. In your work, your community, your arguments with people you love.
Stories run on our Meet the People blog through the fortieth year. Nothing is published without your permission, and most questions are optional.
What your gift supports
The programs behind the number
We the People: The Citizen & the Constitution
Created in 1987 as the principal education program of the Constitution's bicentennial. Nevada students study constitutional principles all year, then defend their positions before panels of judges, attorneys, and scholars in simulated congressional hearings.
National History Day Nevada
Students choose a research question, work in primary sources, and present in the format that fits the story: a paper, a documentary, an exhibit, a performance, a website.
Educator Summer Institutes
Multi-day residential training for Nevada teachers, built with UNR's Center for Constitutional Law. Constitutional scholars, primary-source work, and a stipend. Reach one teacher and you reach every student they will ever have.
Nevada Seal of Civics
A diploma credential recognizing students who have gone well past the civics requirement, and the eligibility pathway to statewide recognition.
America250 Nevada Civic Leader Awards
A $2,500 scholarship for a Nevada student and a $1,776 classroom grant for a Nevada educator, awarded in the run-up to the nation's 250th anniversary.
School of Civics Excellence
Recognition for a whole school that has built civic learning into how it operates, not just what it teaches. Nevada's first designation is coming this year.
The campaign
Now through December 31
A specific favor
Check your garage.
Seriously.
Forty years of Nevada civic education happened mostly before anyone had a phone in their pocket. Much of the visual record of it is in boxes, albums, and filing cabinets that belong to families like yours, and every year that passes, more of it gets thrown out.
- Photos from a hearing, a contest, or an awards night, any year
- Competition programs and printed brochures
- Newspaper clippings about a team or a student
- Team T-shirts, banners, or trophies
- Certificates, medals, and award letters
- Video or audio, even on tape
Send us a phone photo of it. That is enough for us to know what you have. If it needs real scanning, we will handle that, and you keep the original. Everything is credited unless you ask us not to.
Questions
Before you give
Why $40?
Where does the money actually go?
If these programs are forty years old, why do you need money now?
Are you the same thing as the Center for Civic Education?
Is my gift tax deductible?
I am not an alum and I never did these programs. Should I still give?
Can my company match my gift, or sponsor the campaign?
What is a fundraising page, and do I have to be good at this?
Can our team, class, or school fundraise together?
I would rather give my time than my money.
Can I give by check?
40 for 40
$40. A dollar for every year. Help us arrive at forty ready.
nvcce.org · chull@nvcce.org
A registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization · EIN 81-3948081
#40for40Nevada