Building Shared Understanding. Strengthening Collective Impact.
A healthy democracy depends on people who are prepared to participate in it. The Civic Education Learning Lab brings together funders investing in formal and informal K–12 civic education and youth civic engagement to explore how we can better prepare young people with the knowledge, skills, and experiences they need to engage in public life.
This Lab creates space for funders to step back from individual portfolios and look at the broader ecosystem of civic learning.
Together, participants:
• Build relationships across civic education funders
• Map current investments, grantees, and strategies
• Explore different theories of change for how civic learning leads to long-term democratic participation
• Surface shared challenges, including polarization, measurement, and sustainability
• Identify gaps and opportunities to strengthen the field
Civic culture is the set of shared norms, relationships, and practices that shape how people participate in public life and engage with one another and with institutions. At a time of declining trust and rising division, strengthening civic culture in the United States is essential to sustaining our democracy over the long term. This series brings together funders working across areas like belonging, pluralism, narrative change, community wellbeing, local civic renewal, and leadership to explore how civic culture shapes the health of our democracy. This learning space helps funders connect the dots between culture, community, and democratic resilience while exploring how to support both immediate needs and long-term renewal.
This cohort is designed as a flexible, peer-driven space for sensemaking in an emerging and rapidly evolving field.
Together, participants:
• Build relationships across diverse approaches to civic culture
• Explore how different strategies contribute to civic health and social cohesion
• Map grantmaking approaches and underlying theories of change
• Examine shared challenges, including polarization, trust, and measurement
• Identify strategic gaps and opportunities for collective progress
For more information about PACE’s funder learning labs, please email Siri Erickson at siri@pacefunders.org.
