Essays, Reported Pieces, Criticism, Art & Visual, Video & Hybrid Forms

In 2026, the United States will mark 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence—a document that promised liberty and justice for all, and delivered it to very few.

n 2026, the United States will mark 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence—a document that promised liberty and justice for all and delivered them to very few.

This anniversary will be loud. It will be choreographed.

And Nonprofit Quarterly, in community with nonprofit and media partners, will contest it.

Already, political forces are rewriting history in real time, weaponizing public memory, and narrowing the definition of who counts as American. Without intentional intervention, this moment risks becoming a monument to mythology—a celebration of a nation that never quite was, sanitized of the people, movements, and organizations that have spent 250 years insisting it become what it claimed to be.

#WeTheCivic: America 250 is a our editorial resistance initiative built around two commitments.

1. The first: to reclaim the United States’s 250th anniversary as a moment of national reckoning, surfacing not just what this country has declared, but the stories of what it has denied.
2. The second: to place the nonprofit workers, organizations, and movements that have kept democracy’s promises alive at the center of how this country tells its 250-year story.

Because centering the people who actually built our democracy—and refusing to let their stories be silenced—is an act of resistance, not just recognition.

Background

The multiracial, multilingual, multigenerational nonprofit sector has been the connective tissue of US democracy across those 250 years. Enslaved people building mutual aid networks. Immigrant communities founding neighborhood institutions. Indigenous organizers defending sovereignty. Black women leading civic movements. Queer activists building health infrastructure. Workers organizing for economic dignity across generations. Climate defenders protecting communities that government abandoned.

None of these stories will tell themselves.

NPQ is building partnerships for nonprofits advancing the promises of a multiracial democracy to seize this historic moment, tell these stories, and hold the door open for every community that has historically been written out of them.

What We’re Looking For

We are seeking essays, reported pieces, criticism, visual art, and hybrid forms that illuminate the ways nonprofit and philanthropic workers, leaders, organizations, movements, and policy fights that advanced the promises of a multiracial democracy over the last 250 years. We are especially interested in stories from communities and geographies that rarely anchor national narratives about US democracy—the rural South, the borderlands, Indigenous nations, immigrant enclaves, mid-sized cities, faith communities, labor halls, and more.

Examples of the kinds of stories which we want to uplift:

• How a mutual aid network, fraternal society, or community institution that sustained a neighborhood when government wouldn’t
• How a nonprofit or philanthropic organizer, advocate, or civic leader—particularly from a community written out of dominant narratives— shaped American democracy in ways that went uncredited
• How a nonprofit organization, movement, or philanthropic institution built the infrastructure for a right, a protection, or a social norm we now take for granted
• How a nonprofit-led or philanthropy-supported coalition crossed lines of race, class, language, or generation for an unlikely win
• How nonprofits and philanthropy are advancing the fight for reparation and repair (in partnership with Liberation Ventures)
• How nonprofits or philanthropy engaged in a policy fight—local, state, or federal—and changed what democracy could mean for a specific community
• Moments of sector failure, co-optation, or compromise, because honesty and accountability isare also part of this history
• The thread between moments or events in our sector’s history and the current struggle against authoritarianism

Forms We Welcome

• Reported essays and analysis (~1,000–3,000 words)
• Historical or academic essays written for a general audience (~1,000–3,000 words)
• Short-form criticism or commentary (~800–1,200 words)
• Personal essays and memoir (800–2,000 words)
• Original visual art, illustration, and photography

Payment

• Every accepted written reported, historical, or criticism piece will receive $500.
• Original visual or multimedia art will receive $500
• Existing visual or multimedia art will receive $150.

How Your Work Will Circulate

All accepted #WeTheCivic pieces will be published at Nonprofit Quarterly and are freely available for co-publishing on your own platforms (Substack, Mailchimp, LinkedIn, local newsroom or national newsroom, etc.). NPQ will also aggressively syndicate accepted work to our #WeTheCivic Newsroom Partnership Network and to mainstream publications covering the United States’ 250th anniversary. This is your work—we want it seen.

To Pitch or Submit

• Writers: please send a completed draft to wethecivic@npqmag.org with the subject line #WeTheCivic Pitch: [Your Title]
• Visual artists and photographers: send a portfolio link or representative samples with a brief note about your proposed work to wethecivic@npqmag.org with the #WeTheCivic Visual Pitch: [Your Title]. We welcome pitches on a rolling basis. The 250th is the deadline history gave us—we’d love yours sooner.

Questions? Write us at wethecivic@npqmag.org

If speaking up at this moment impacts your or your family’s personal security, we’re here for you and to support anonymous publications.