America250 vs. Freedom250: The Civil War for America's Attention, Pride & Donor Dollars

America250 vs. Freedom250: The Civil War for America's Attention, Pride & Donor Dollars

America only turns 250 once.

So how did one historic milestone become two competing brands, two fundraising efforts, and one very confused public?

In this episode of Philanthropy N The Black, Celly Cel examines the unexpected battle between America250 and Freedom250 and what it reveals about fundraising, nonprofit leadership, branding, and public-private partnerships.

You'll learn how each organization was created, who oversees them, how they're funded through a combination of taxpayer support, corporate sponsorships, and private philanthropy, and why competing campaigns can unintentionally undermine the very mission they're trying to advance.

The episode also explores the late rollout of Giving 4th, America's new national day of generosity, and why it represents both a tremendous opportunity and a missed opportunity for nonprofits across the country.

More importantly, this conversation isn't about choosing sides politically.

It's about asking what happens when collaboration gives way to competition—and what nonprofit leaders can learn from it.

Finally, Celly Cel shares practical ways every American can celebrate the nation's 250th birthday through volunteerism, charitable giving, preserving family history, supporting local nonprofits, and strengthening their communities.

Because America's next chapter won't be written by government alone.

It will be written by the people—and the nonprofits—that choose to invest in it.

Philanthropy N The Black is the podcast keeping nonprofits in the Black... financially, socially, and morally, through honest conversations about fundraising, leadership, ethics, and the future of the nonprofit sector.

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:18

We're about to celebrate the 4th of July. You see the thing that my man the power three from New Orleans. If you didn't know now, you know. Listen, there are layers to this whole setup. We have the 40th president making an appearance with the bandana, American flag. We got the beads. All of this is layered. You have to figure out what it is. But listen, this episode and why this is all layered is because we're talking about what I believe is one of the biggest nonprofit failures nobody really is talking about. There are a few outlets talking about it, but we're going to talk about Freedom 250 and America 250. And they're not because anybody stole money or fraud or somebody used the donor dollars to go get that Louis bag, right? No. This is just not about a failure of leadership or fundraising. It is a failure of vision, people. 250 only comes around every 250 years, all right? So what is we doing? What are we even doing if we're not on one accord? And I don't think we are. This should have been one of the greatest um community organizing, fundraising opportunities in our history. Let's think about it. Every museum, library, veterans organization, civil rights organization, arts organization, every state, city, corporation, community foundation had an opportunity to go, hey, one country, one birthday, one campaign. One opportunity to inspire Americans, regardless of where you fall, about the next 250 years, or to invest in the next 250 years. I mean, that that was the opportunity over the last 249 years, right? But instead, we have America 250, Freedom 250. We have Congress, we have the White House, we got nonprofits, corporate sponsors, politics, confusion. We've got competing brands, we've got these organizations, these two organizations asking the same donors for patriotic dollars. Bruh, they turned our little birthday party into a nonprofit civil war. And we're gonna talk about it right about now. Let's talk about the two organizations. Let's get right into it. Contrary to what people believe, America 250 didn't begin with Trump. Hell, it didn't even begin with Biden, it really started in um 2016. Um keep that name in mind. America 250 started in 2016. So they had some layway, right? Some headway to get some things done. Now, here's the key part. Uh Congress passed the U.S. Semi-Qentennial Commission Act, right? It created this commission to coordinate all the festivities for the 250th anniversary. Again, America 250 started in 2016. Okay, so this commission uh includes members appointed by Congress, both political parties, and some private citizens to support the work of the America 250 Congregational Congressional Committee. They founded a foundation was created as a foundated um fundraising partner, right? So keep this in mind now. You with me? America 250 2016 Congressional Act, Congressional Committee started a foundation. Here is what their mission was for the 250th birthday. Um, celebrate the birthday, promote civic education, preserve history, support nationwide community celebrations, which is cool, engage every America in reflecting on our shared history. So, in nonprofit language, America 250 was supposed to become the national campaign headquarters for the country's biggest birthday party. That's America 250. You got it? Now, you know we like to talk about the money on this show, so let's talk about how this entity is funded. Okay. A lot of us didn't realize America 250 is not funded entirely by taxpayer dollars. It's a classic public partner, I'm sorry, public-private partnership. Congress provides federal appropriations that support the work of the commission. That's taxpayer money, right? But the nonprofit side raises additional support. And listen, it does it the same way any other nonprofit organization does foundation grants, corporate sponsorships. They have licensing agreements, they sell merchandise. Some of their merchandise is pretty cool. They have philanthropic partnerships, right? So think about it like this. Um, you have a local zoo the city owns, that's taxpayer dollars that keep the lights on, right? But the donations, memberships, and things like that support the exhibits, education, and programs. That's how 250 is designed to work. Government created the framework. Philanthropy helps make the celebration extraordinary. All right, that's 2016 America 250. Okay. Now, let's get into Freedom 250. Here we go. So let's fast forward, right? We get to Freedom 250. President Trump uh he created this White House task force uh on celebrating the 250th birthday, right? The Trump administration introduced Freedom 250 as its signature initiative to coordinate celebrations and private sector participation. Can't make this up. Now, here are the goals of Freedom 250. National celebrations, patriotic concerts, state fairs, sporting events, public ceremonies, entertainment, corporate partnerships. Nothing in that lineup is bad, right? The White House celebrating uh America's birthday, that makes sense to me. Uh, the federal government coordinating agencies makes sense. Um, potentially uh creating another initiative that made some sense until the branding started. Here we go. Competing branding. Wait, before I jump ahead, let me backtrack to how Freedom 250 is funded, and then we'll get into the branding because I want folks to know how these two uh somewhat identical names and entities are funded. So the White House Task Force itself operates through normal federal resources that is taxpayer funded. But the events programming and things like that associated with Freedom 250 rely heavily on peep this private funding, corporate sponsorships, individual donations, um, let's see, merchandise, event underwriting, so on and so forth. You catch that? Both of these organizations, different names, different leadership, different branding, but many of the exact same funding sources, the same Fortune 500 corporate corporations, philanthropists, patriotic Americans who want to help, all of that. The same dollars. That's a problem, and it's a problem in this sense. So imagine if you're Coca-Cola, you want to sponsor one of America's party. You're like, I've been down with America all these years. I want to give them $50 million. And you say, hey, I want to give you $50 million, but who the hell do you do you call? Who America 250 or Freedom 250? Do you call both? Who's official? Who owns the national campaign? What does your $50 million sponsorship get you? Who listen? Nobody seems to know. They're so similar, it's a problem. That's a fundraising nightmare. And what I want to get into because I don't want to get into the politics, it's a fundraising, philanthropic, nonprofit show. I want to get into this. Every fundraiser listening knows exactly what this is called. It's called donor confusion. I wish I could put an echo on that. Let me say it again. Donor confusion chan chan. And donor confusion will kill all your fundraising. I don't know how to tell you. Listen, people don't give to confusion. They give to clarity who you are, what you are, when you're gonna do it. Imagine in your city you had two food banks or two arts councils, both claiming to be official, both calling the same donors, both asking the same corporations, both using nearly identical branding. What happens? Sponsorships, sponsors, they'll hesitate, right? Because I don't know who's the real, who's gonna get the biggest bang for my book. Donors might wait. Your major donors, not just an annual or certain level donor, but your major donors might wait. Your marketing gets diluted, and that's what we see happening right here. And I'll get into it. Volunteers, their energy is divided. You can't do both, right? America 250, Freedom 250. Who do I volunteer for? But all in all, everybody raises less money, and I know that's not what they want if they want to raise funds truly at all. Instead of creating one gigantic patriotic fundraising campaign, America can created competing brands. It's it's like that movie Um Avengers Civil War or hell, even our own real civil war back in the day. So this is what we have in America 250, Freedom 250. Now, imagine this instead. Now, this let me let me look at my notes because I want I wrote this down. Imagine we separate these, would have separated these like so. America 250, OG 2016, America 250 handled the museums, education, schools, historic preservation, community grants. And then you have Freedom 250 on the other side handling White House ceremonies, national concerts, sporting events, entertainment, federal celebrations, same birthday, different lanes. A shared calendar, shared marketing, shared fundraising strategy. I wish I could put an echo on that too. Shared fundraising strategy, sponsors, messaging. Nobody loses, everybody wins. But instead, but instead, Americans spent months asking, wait, what who the real one? Who who that baby daddy? Like we were all confused, and then here it just kept getting worse. Uh, you know, if you pay attention to stuff like this, because eventually that confusion led to political politicizing. It got very political, which is unfortunate, to say this started as a bipartisan uh project in 2016. You know, you remember hearing about that event where the artists started withdrawing from the Freedom 250 Act because I'm sorry, the Freedom 250 concert because they thought it was the America 250 concert. So not everybody is confusing. They pulling out. Then Congress started asking questions, media picked up on it and started asking who's representing the official uh celebration. The conversation shifted away from us, our country's birthday, toward politics. And again, as I always like to say, this show isn't a political show. This is about nonprofit management because, regardless of your political beliefs, competing brands chasing the same sponsors almost creates unnecessary friction. And I deep breath, deep breath, because this is the part that's gonna get that grinds my gears, right? This is the part that that really is disappointing when you think about 250 years, right? There's a lesson in here, and I'm getting to the lesson for us in the nonprofit sector. But here's what frustrates me the 250th anniversary only happened once. Hell, some of us ain't even gonna be here for the 300th, and that's 50 years away, right? The reality is we should be planning for that, but let me stay on track. Every nonprofit in America should have been preparing for this years ago, and I mean all of us, but I just don't believe that we were, I promise you. Um, I don't think we were preparing for what 250 would be, because I don't think the guidance from either one of those organizations was crystal clear, loud, and early enough, right? But think about if historical societies, library, black history museums, veterans groups, Native American cultural groups, women's history, like what a thing, think about all of these types of nonprofits preparing with a campaign, let's say, um, a campaign that said, Leave America better than you found it. Come on, drop a bomb. This is two years in advance, ten years in advance, five years in advance. We got a campaign slogan. Now imagine a national day of service. Imagine millions of volunteer hours, imagine corporate matching gifts, imagine legacy fund, planned gifts, national giving days, which they have now, and I'll get to that. Community restoration project. Listen, New Orleans is older than the United States, right? We celebrated two, I'm sorry, 300 years uh a few years ago as an organ as a city. Great event, a lot of planning went into it, and I think I believe the New Orleans and Company or the Greater New Orleans Foundation convention, they did a great job of prepping for New Orleans 300th birthday, and everybody capitalized on it in their own way. We could have had that with the 250th anniversary. Now, here's, you know, I have an episode that talks about giving days. Go look it up on philanthropyandheblack.com. I'm not a big fan of them. But America 250, again, the OG has launched what they're calling a new National Day of Giving. Uh, that's gonna be annual, I believe. It's called Giving Forth. Now, I hadn't heard any promotion about this four months ago, two months ago, three months. I've literally started seeing this push for giving forth a few days ago. That's not enough time. I mean, nobody knew it existed. Like some people still don't know that this is going to become an annual day of giving, right up there with the give day in your city at your school, uh the national uh giving day in November. Listen, it's just not enough time for people to do what they need to do and prepare to donate. I don't think you launch a national day of giving the week before an event and expect corporations, community foundations, individuals to just give millions of dollars magically. I don't think that was well thought out. Giving Tuesday that's built overnight, it just don't work. And I could be wrong, but I don't think I heard anything about a giving day until this week. And that's unfortunate. Now imagine if Giving Forth, this Ludu National Day of Giving, was introduced two years ago. Imagine nonprofits around the world having an opportunity I'm sorry, around the country having an opportunity to build a campaign around the 205th, 50th Giving Fourth Day. It would have done a lot of good for nonprofits that suffer with summertime giving, having that kind of runway to prepare, right? I mean, we're doing it now, but I it just seems haphazard and not well thought out. I mean, I mean, with two years in advance, that kind of notice, we could have done something with 250 acts of giving. Instead, a fantastic idea became an afterthought because it wasn't promoted early enough or broadly enough. And that's sad and it's unfortunate, and it breaks my heart because even though I'm not a fan of give days, if you're going to celebrate 250 years, this is the perfect time to do it. Listen, I sincerely hope it succeeds because America deserves a summer tradition of generosity just as much as it loves a year-in giving tradition. Like I think this could be big, and I think it will be big as more nonprofits make it more of a grassroots thing, because looking for some type of national direction won't help us. But now listen, I don't want to end this episode on a negative note because despite all of the confusion, it's still a celebration, Mitches. Yeah, it's a celebration. America's 250th, it's still worth celebrating. That's without a doubt. And I think there are things that we can still do. Listen, listen, now before you come for me, please understand. I know some people like, oh, the red, white, blue, and this ain't my day. But here's the truth in the way I see it. Whether your ancestors arrived on a Mayflower against their will, came through Ellis Island, crossed the Rio Grande, served in the military, or were on this land for thousands of years. The truth of the matter, people, this is all of our story. Point blank. And there are things we can do right now to celebrate. So past. The nonprofit part of this. Let me get to this. Listen, here's some of the things I think we can still do as Americans. Are you with me? Are you not from here? Visit history, people. You ain't got to go to DC to go to the National Monument. There are things you can do in your own hometown museum that support would mean a lot to them. You could visit historic churches in your area. That would mean a lot to those organizations. Battlefields in your city and your state mean a lot. Civil rights walkthrough. Listen, support your national parks. Learn something about your community that you have never known. That's one thing you can do. Volunteer. Listen, America wasn't built by presidents only, it was built by volunteers. And finally, something as a nonprofit professional that's always going to be mentioned on this show. Support organizations preserving America's history in your neighborhood. Okay. Local historical society. Your libraries could use your support. Any of the veterans organizations, black history, Native American, Arts Coastal, Italian, German, listen, supporting with a donation, those organizations on the 4th of July is what I highly recommend because that is a way to celebrate the diversity and beauty and struggle and ugly and fight it has been and is continues to be to be this great country we call America. Also, in your own family, talk to, you know, preserving your own family history, which is part of American history, is big. So I advise folks to interview your grandparents or your parents if they're still with you. Digitize family photographs, make that a project. Record family recipes, you know we're losing those, and we in New Orleans love to eat. Write down military service, document migration records, search church records or save church records. Listen, using sources like ancestry.com, family search, your local libraries, genealogy department is important because tracing your family's journey and preserving those stories before they're lost forever is critical because your story is a part of America's 250th story, and that's worth supporting and saving. Here's my final message to my brothers and sisters in the nonprofit sector. Listen, your message isn't enough. Your brand really does matter. Your partnerships and your messaging matters. You need your donors to understand immediately who you are, what you do, and why you are different and how their money makes an impact. Because if you haven't done that immediately, you've already made fundraising harder than it needs to be.