Society of the Cincinnati, Inc.

The Society of the Cincinnati promotes understanding and appreciation of the achievements of the American Revolution through the American Revolution Institute of the Society of the Cincinnati, which operates a major special collections library and a museum, presents exhibitions and public events, provides classroom materials, publications, and teacher training, and advocates for devoting more time and attention to the achievements of the American Revolution in schools. The Society of the Cincinnati was founded in 1783 by George Washington and the officers of the Continental Army, and is the nation's oldest patriotic organization. The Institute's website is: www.americanrevolutioninstitute.org

The American Revolution was the most important event in our nation's history. It remains relevant no

Goal One: Reform and advocate for history education, ensuring that the accurate story of our Revolution, its constructive achievements and the legacy of the Revolution are widely recognized.

Goal Two: Protect and promote our Revolutionary heritage, including books, manuscripts, art and artifacts of the Revolution, as well as the remaining battlefields of our War for Independence.

Goal Three: Grow designated endowments and operating resources to support the program growth of our museum, library, and educational outreach, as well as for battlefield preservation and educational reform.

The Society has an extensive network of more than 300 volunteer leaders, many of whom serve on a variety of mission-related committees. These committees oversee the activities of all of our educational and outreach programs, including Education, French & American Student Exchanges, History, Library, Museum, Battlefield Preservation, the Society of the Cincinnati Book Prize, as well as the Board of Governors for the American Revolution Institute. Members serve for at least three-year cycles, often repeating service. This allows members to become increasingly familiar with our educational programs from both an operational and strategic perspective, and builds leadership capacity. During the pandemic, these committees pivoted to meeting entirely by ZOOM for more than a year. This facilitated regular meeting rotations and for an increasing amount of committee member participation, even when in-person meetings were not possible. As a result, our committee structure is stronger.

We transformed educational outreach as a more effective online organization, including these changes: 1. Launched "The American Revolution Institute Today" e-newsletter. 2. Published "The Art of War in the Age of the American Revolution: 100 Treasures from the Fergusson Collection," our first online book about our most valued library holdings. 3. Executive Director Jack Warren wrote "America’s First Veterans," our first hardcover book published by the Institute. 4. The Society has hosted more than 60 virtual events for members and/or the public. 5. Jack Warren gave an online lecture with the North Carolina Museum of History about the reasons for the American Revolution: https://youtu.be/VIPDQx7NEds 6. Launched a completely new online museum collections catalog. As of 7/30/21, some 1,100 users ran 2,985 searches with 4,840 pages visited. The database contains 968 objects (some 20% of the museum collections) and 1,882 images. 7. Increased our digital library by 39%. We added 1,465 individual pages, now a total of 5,172 online pages. 5,638 users opened 8,400 sessions viewing 30,720 cumulative pages of library content. 8. Unveiled a new approach to online learning about the Revolution, reflected in new lesson plans, which are unlike anything available elsewhere on the internet. 9. Released the educational video game "Revolutionary Choices," which students play online or download to their own devices. As of 7/30/21, the game had 138,542 views for the web and Apple app combined, hosting more than 27,000 web users, 22% of whom return. 10. Jack Warren published 16 chapters on the Institute web site of a new, totally re-written Revolutionary War history text book aimed at teachers, educators, high school students and lifelong learners. 11. Advocacy: To meet attacks on the memory of the Revolution, we are conducting a thoughtful advocacy effort. Our new essays and blogs helped increase web site usage 5-fold.