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25th Anniversary Campaign

The American Constitution Society (ACS) is undertaking a five-year comprehensive campaign to establish an endowment and launch a growth campaign to fight back against the corrosion of our democracy. Especially since 2016, we have seen a rise in authoritarian beliefs taking hold, both domestically and internationally, and ACS is determined to resist this backslide to autocracy. To help meet this moment, ACS will raise $50 million over the next five years, which includes the creation of a $10 million endowment that will ensure ACS’s future sustainability, as well as expand ACS’s annual fundraising to multiply our present-day impact.

This historic campaign is an opportunity to invest in the long-term health of our democracy and the rule of law and ensure ACS and its progressive network can fight to preserve our foundational freedoms.

The ACS 25th Anniversary Campaign will ensure ACS can meet the moment to secure a truly inclusive, multi-racial democracy.

We believe in a U.S. Constitution and democracy that is of the people, by the people, and for the people and so do you. We need your partnership.

Establish an Opportunity Fund—The Endowment

Matters of democracy evolve at lightspeed and ACS is committed to remaining responsive and nimble to address the most pressing issues faced by our legal system. To do this responsibly, we need to build the long-term resources to reclaim progressive momentum that represents the will of most people. As part of this campaign, ACS will create an endowment, which will allow ACS to:

  • Establish a stable, additional stream of income,
  • Build annual revenue,
  • Alleviate the pressures of unpredictable annual funding,
  • Develop meaningful opportunities for supporters in perpetuation of ACS’s work, and
  • Create an opportunity for our progressive community to leave a legacy of vitality to ACS.
The engine that drives ACS’s work is its rapidly growing network of 200+ student and lawyer chapters in 48 states and almost every law school.

Why Now?

This is a make or break moment. There is a movement underway to radically reinterpret the U.S. Constitution, corrode our fundamental freedoms and subvert the will of the people.

As we approach our 25th Anniversary, we seek to raise $50 million over the next five years to scale our work and meet the moment – activating our nation-wide progressive legal network to preserve democracy and safeguard the Constitution. Your investment will ensure that ACS can effectively:

Diversify the Bench and Restore the Legitimacy of our Courts

  • With the support of 55 working groups in 42 states – identify, recruit, and support diverse, qualified candidates for the federal and state benches.
  • Work with the White House and Senate to expedite the confirmation of diverse, qualified federal judges.
  • Support approximately 150 student chapters at law schools across the country to grow the pipeline of legal leaders.

Mobilize Voters and Candidates Around Down Ballot Races

  • Recruit diverse, qualified candidates to run for down ballot offices.
  • Educate voters about the impact of down ballot races.
  • Recruit poll workers to help ensure eligible voters can cast their ballot.

Thwart the Right’s grip on Judicial Legal Interpretation

  • Dispel the myth of originalism.
  • Sound the alarm about the Right’s pursuit of an Article V Convention to rewrite the Constitution.
  • Promote constitutional interpretation that incorporates lived experience.

Shape the National Legal Debate

  • Advocate for structural and non-structural Supreme Court reform, including adding seats and creating term limits.
  • Support our network in undertaking Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation to repair harms experienced by marginalized communities at the hands of the legal system.
  • Amplify legal remedies for reforming the criminal justice system, driving economic justice, and redressing the founding failures of our Constitution.
  • Build and sustain a network of State Attorneys General through knowledge sharing, dissemination of legal resources, and connection to subject matter experts to inform State AG’s unique work.

The 25th Anniversary Campaign marks an opportunity to invest in the future of the progressive legal movement and the progressive bench.

We are asking our friends and allies to support us in undertaking the most ambitious campaign in our history. Gifts can be pledged and paid over a period of up to five years in the form of cash, negotiable securities, irrevocable trusts, and real property.

Thank you for all you do for democracy.