About | AmericansAll

Submitted by Americans All on July 12, 2019

The People of America Foundation was created in October 1995 to become the parent organization of Americans All, a national education program developed in the 1980s to recognize and honor the contributions of different immigrant groups to our nation’s growth. We were formed as a nonstock corporation to manage and grow Americans All classroom resources and received notification of our publicly supported nonprofit status from the Internal Revenue Service in March 1997, a status reconfirmed in March 2001. Click here to review the foundation’s recent tax returns.

Sensing a much greater need at that time, we expanded our mission to supporting excellence in K–12 social studies instruction and promoting civic engagement in our nation’s public and private schools to help ensure students are prepared to participate in our nation’s democracy, economy and workforce and in our global world. Despite our success, however, the emphasis in education shifted toward STEM topics, which reduced funding for history and civics. Fortunately, our Heritage Honor Roll aimed to recognize, honor and preserve the contributions that all people have made, and continue to make, to our nation by recording their legacy stories. This component is in line with author David McCullough’s belief that “history is the story of people.”

In August 2013, the foundation created the Americans All Benefit Corporation as a marketing and operations arm to raise the necessary funds to support our education mission; this kind of corporate entity is equally committed to doing social good and making a profit. Our foundation is a major stakeholder of the benefit corporation. To pursue the foundation’s education mission and create revenue-generating products and services, the benefit corporation created a membership-based Social Legacy Network to support the public’s interest in legacy preservation and upgraded Heritage Honor Roll legacy stories to include a password protected section. In addition, it aims to distribute additional ethnic and cultural texts and new grade-level-specific social studies resource databases that meet state content standards to afford access to quality history and civics information; create Web-based professional development opportunities to impart best practices on using these and other instructional resources.

Leveraging the public’s interest in legacy preservation enables us to continue to pursue our education mission. The foundation’s privacy policy ensures that contact information will not be shared or published.

In 2019, we modified our focus to support non-academic school activities and enable us to gain the funding needed for our mission. Americans All now uses a unique storytelling tool to facilitate legacy preservation, enable students to communicate better and help small businesses succeed. In addition, storytelling brings communities together by sharing people’s common histories, rather than their differences. Schools, students and students’ families and friends participate in Americans All at no cost and receive a free, one-year trial to our Social Legacy Network.

Local businesses and service providers participate in our program as Business Legacy Partners, for a nominal fee. They can leverage stories about their business or practice to build closer relationships with current and future customers and clients. They can also use our program to share discounts on their goods and services with Americans All Social Legacy Network members.

Schools frequently ask businesses for financial support but rarely provide them with anything of value in return. Our grassroots approach enables schools to receive ongoing revenue from the fees paid by Business Legacy Partners. Americans All members can also continue their Social Legacy Network subscription for a small monthly cost ($4) after the free trial to receive additional benefits besides publishing a story on our web-based Heritage Honor Roll. Schools also benefit from the Social Legacy Network fees.

Americans All Program

To get a free, lifetime membership in Americans All program, click here to create a New User Account.

Program members can create a legacy story on an individual or a group important to them and share the story forever through our Web-based Heritage Honor Roll and the Americans All home pages of schools, groups, businesses and organizations comprising our Legacy Partner Alliance. Legacy stories acknowledge that heritage and culture are rich aspects of personal and group identity and are part of the foundation left for family members and society. Americans All members will find it easy to start creating their life stories. Our template only requires individuals to fill in their name, date of birth (and passing, if appropriate) and a summary not to exceed 60 words. Legacy story text, hyperlinks, photographs, movies and other audio and video media can be added over time, and a shortened version can be printed on an 8½" x 11" template. To ensure privacy, a section of the story can be password protected. Americans All members also gain access to our non-academic school activities resources and can subscribe to our Social Legacy Network for only $4 per month after a free, three-month trial period.

Program members can also access our education resources—the ethnic and cultural texts, period-specific photographs and posters, and music which are being used in more than 2,000 schools and libraries nationwide (a $650 value). Although we are no longer active in Social Studies or English curriculum activities, our supplemental social studies resources remain online. Importantly, Americans All program members are encouraged to maintain their membership in our Social Legacy Network after a three-month free trial to continue receiving discounts on goods and services from our program business partners.

Social Legacy Network

Americans All members receive a free, three-month trial membership in our Social Legacy Network, and can continue receiving discounts on goods and services from our program business partners after their trial expires. Students maintain their free membership until their class graduates. Membership in the Network is $4/month and we believe our members will receive more in discounts each month than their fee. Even if a member chooses not to extend their membership in the Social Legacy Network, they maintain their Americans All membership.

Homeschool families can also access quality social studies resources through our soon to be completed. Homeschool Resource Center. Our resource databases are grade-level-specific, and some of the information can be used to help ensure homeschooled students meet state testing requirements in social studies. The databases are organized, alphabetically and by subject matter, to include names of people, places, events and concepts. Embedded in the databases are links to other appropriate information to strengthen learning opportunities and facilitate interdisciplinary connections. Center users will also find links to other social studies instructional materials and teaching tools that we have developed during the past 36 years. In addition, we offer guides to professional development for teaching social studies in homeschool environments.

Importantly, our Homeschool Resource Center will later include information from other disciplines to increase its value to homeschool families. We leave all content, curriculum and instructional decisions to individual families.

Heritage Honor Roll

Every individual and group has a story worth telling and, through our Web-based Heritage Honor Roll, we make it possible for everybody to permanently preserve memories, experiences and accomplishments to give current and future generations knowledge, insight and inspiration. Americans All members will find it easy to start creating their life stories. Our template only requires individuals to fill in their name, date of birth (and passing, if appropriate) and a summary not to exceed 60 words. Legacy story text, hyperlinks, photographs, movies and other audio and video media can be added over time, and a shortened version can be printed on an 8½" x 11" template. To ensure privacy, a section of the story can be password protected.

The Heritage Honor Roll may contain more than one legacy story for an individual or a group—or the legacy story may appear in more than one language—because members have opted to recognize different contributions of the same individual or group or wanted to share the story in their native language. Use of our Heritage Honor Roll costs less and affords more content and greater reach than traditional memorial devices.

Members and their legacy stories are acknowledged in our Sponsor Directory.

Legacy Partner Alliance--Businesses and Nonprofits

Legacy Partners are families, groups, schools and local, regional and/or national groups, businesses or organizations whose missions reinforce our goals of creating and sharing legacy stories and supporting students engaged in non-curriculum school activities. They participate in our program at no cost because they:

Host, on their home page(s) on our website, legacy stories published on our Heritage Honor Roll—created by their clients, customers and members—to provide additional exposure for these stories; and
Generate a home page or home pages (in multiple languages if desired) on our website to share information about themselves, better connect with their clients and customers, and demonstrate their commitment to strengthening their community.

A landing page(s) in this section can also be used to host individual and group Heritage Honor Roll stories in the same category.

Business Legacy Partners offer discounts on goods and services and other benefits with Social Legacy Network members and other Legacy Partners. They:

Receive free home pages on our website—in multiple languages, if desired—to share information about their business or practice and advertise discounts for current and future Americans All Social Legacy Network members;
Get three additional business accounts at no charge. These can be used for branch offices or to list your business under multiple categories at the same location. Every renewal includes the continuation of the three additional business accounts. The additional accounts register by clicking on the "Add My Location" link on their Welcome Back page.
Are listed on our Legacy Partner Alliance landing page and our Discounts landing page and can be searched by name, language, category and location;

Host, on their home page(s), stories that customers and clients have published on our Heritage Honor Roll to provide further exposure for these stories; and

Can begin creating or expanding a loyalty club for their business or practice and developing co-marketing strategies with other Americans All Business Legacy Partners.

All Legacy Partners can access Americans All posters to communicate the importance of our program and the value of our network to their current and future clients and customers.

History

Americans All evolved from national and local projects. Predating Americans All was a program created by the Coordinating Committee for Ellis Island, Inc., a 501(c)(3) organization incorporated in 1981. The committee’s program arranged for bronze sculptures depicting immigration and Ellis Island to be produced and donated to the National Park Service. When some of these sculptures became part of a traveling exhibit, the committee created the Images of Ellis Island education materials to place the sculptures and their subject matter in a historical context.

Sensing a much greater need, the Committee expanded the project to include a diversity-based emphasis and teacher training. This led to the development of the Americans All program, which sought to share the contributions of immigrants to our nation’s growth. Conceived by a team of scholars led by co-developers Dr. Gail C. Christopher and Allan S. Kullen, the program was funded by individuals and foundations in the late 1980s. It consisted of printed texts, videos, recordings, period-specific posters and photographs, and simulations and teacher’s guides.

In the 1980s, Americans All received grants from major charitable foundations, including The Hitachi Foundation, The Sears-Roebuck Foundation, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The Quaker Oats Foundation and The Procter&Gamble Fund, as well as from people and businesses that supported its goals. We used these funds to implement the program's pilot tests in San Diego, Chicago and Washington, DC, beginning in 1990. We tested the program's registration process in Nevada, New York (Nassau County), North Dakota and Vermont, beginning in 2001.

Our program's materials and name are protected by copyright and trademark registrations. We modified the Americans All logo in May 2007 to better reflect our activities.

Between 1992 and 1995, Houghton Mifflin Company handled retail sales of the program resources. The People of America Foundation, the parent organization of Americans All, was then formed as a nonstock corporation to manage and grow the program. The foundation received notification of its publicly supported nonprofit status from the Internal Revenue Service in March 1997. That status was reconfirmed in March 2001.

When national attention shifted to STEM programs, the foundation could not secure funds to achieve our mission of supporting excellence in K–12 social studies instruction and promoting civic engagement to help ensure students are prepared to participate in our nation’s democracy, economy and workforce. We decided to focus on one of the program’s components to help generate these funds. Immigrant stories, which were part of the early Americans All program, would serve as a model for a Heritage Honor Roll that would preserve the legacy stories of individuals and groups in text and through photographs, home movies and other video and audio mediums. These stories could be updated at any time and published in multiple languages. A section of the story can now be password-protected to share confidential information, and a unique tool enables network members to communicate memorial and anniversary announcements.

The People of America Foundation created the Americans All Benefit Corporation in August 2013 as its marketing and operations arm to raise the necessary funds to support excellence in K–12 social studies instruction and promote civic engagement. The benefit corporation created a membership-based Social Legacy Network to pursue these activities. In addition, it expanded the Americans All education resources to include electronically distributed texts on more ethnic and cultural groups.