Citizen Schools is a left-leaning nonprofit organization that provides after school programs for K-12 students. It also has professional development programs for teachers to incorporate Citizen Schools’ project-based curriculum. ¹

Citizen Schools’ programs focus on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses. In 2021, it highlighted some of the projects from its climate science courses. It included projects that acted as a public service announcement and made claims that human consumption of conventional energy and water are harmful to the environment and cause disasters. ²

Background

Founded in 1995, Citizen Schools is a left-of-center nonprofit organization that provides after-school programs and mentoring in communities it considers to be impoverished or under-resourced. It focuses on providing hands-on experiences to enhance learning in STEM fields as well as mentoring for professional development and real-world development. ^{3 4}

Historically, Citizen Schools has received much of its funding from large corporations such as Biogen, Cisco, Cognizant Fidelity, and Google. Between 2009 and 2015, it received $1.3 million from Cisco, and also in 2015, it received a $350,000 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. ⁵

Programs

Citizen Schools has a Makers and Mentors program that partners with schools and communities to offer STEM courses that focus on providing instruction through hands-on activities. ⁶ As of 2021, Citizen Schools reports having over 250 partner communities and schools with 264,000 students in its Makers and Mentors program. ⁷ In 2021, the program announced an anti-racism initiative for the program that seeks to liberate ethnic minorities by teaching its program through the perspective of African culture. ⁸

Catalyst is a program Citizen Schools offers through which students engage in project-based learning, covering topics to include climate science and voter engagement. Its Projects webpage posts highlighted projects, including multiple “climate science” projects, described as public service announcements, and are based on content taught in its climate science courses. ⁹

Citizen Schools’ webpage advertising its projects includes a 2021 project using their lessons from a climate science course to argue that conventional energy sources need to be ended because the global population is too high, and it is leading to climate disasters caused by human activities. Another project, also created in 2021, promotes similar arguments, explicitly states that its work is a culmination of Citizen Schools’ climate science content and also argues human water use is a contributing factor to increases in climate-relate disasters. ^{10 11}

People

Eric Schwartz is a cofounder, former CEO of Citizen Schools, and currently serves as a board member. He also serves as CEO for College for Social Innovation (CFSI), which he cofounded as well. Prior to cofounding Citizen Schools, Schwartz was Vice President of City Year. ¹²

Financials

According to its tax returns, Citizen Schools received $8.6 million in contributions and total revenue in 2020. ¹³ Also in 2020, it spent $7 million on salaries and compensation and reported $8.6 million in total expenses. It did not report making grants. ¹⁴

1. “Providing Hands-on Learning & Career Mentors.” Citizen Schools. Accessed November 21, 2022. https://www.citizenschools.org/what-we-do.
2. “Catalyst: Projects.” Citizen Schools. Accessed November 21, 2022. https://www.citizenschools.org/catalyst/projects.
3. Dolan, Kerry A. “A High-Stakes Education: Nonprofit Citizen Schools Works to Close the Opportunity Gap.” Forbes. Forbes Magazine, November 4, 2015. https://www.forbes.com/sites/kerryadolan/2015/11/03/a-high-stakes-education-nonprofit-citizen-schools-works-to-close-the-opportunity-gap/?sh=7f1d10e34585.
4. “Providing Hands-on Learning & Career Mentors.” Citizen Schools. Accessed November 21, 2022. https://www.citizenschools.org/what-we-do.
5. Dolan, Kerry A. “A High-Stakes Education: Nonprofit Citizen Schools Works to Close the Opportunity Gap.” Forbes. Forbes Magazine, November 4, 2015. https://www.forbes.com/sites/kerryadolan/2015/11/03/a-high-stakes-education-nonprofit-citizen-schools-works-to-close-the-opportunity-gap/?sh=7f1d10e34585.
6. Makers + Mentors Network. Accessed November 21, 2022. https://makersandmentors.org/.
7. “Make for All.” Makers + Mentors Network. Accessed November 21, 2022. https://makersandmentors.org/makeforall.
8. “Make for All Commitments Catalog 2021.” prezi.com. Accessed November 21, 2022. https://prezi.com/i/_id1idjrsldf/make-for-all-commitments-catalog-2021/.
9. “Catalyst: Projects.” Citizen Schools. Accessed November 21, 2022. https://www.citizenschools.org/catalyst/projects.
10. “Keiry’s Project.” YouTube, March 4, 2021. https://youtu.be/FRGydoHF6dA.
11. “Levon’s Climate Science Project.” YouTube, July 12, 2021. https://youtu.be/Bnye9TfvPrw.
12. “Eric Schwarz.” College for Social Innovation. Accessed November 21, 2022. https://collegeforsocialinnovation.org/eric-schwarz.
13. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990). Citizen Schools. 2020. Part I, Lines 8-12.
14. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990). Citizen Schools. 2020. Part I, Lines 13-18.