Elsewhere on our website, you’ll find CityClub’s mission, vision and values. To complement those ways of knowing us, I want to provide metrics on our impact – the demonstrable contribution we make to our community’s civic health. 

Civic capital is the term we use to describe the force motivating people to be actively engaged in community life. CityClub builds civic capital by increasing King County residents’ knowledge, connectedness, trust and action.

Knowledge: 82% of CityClub participants claim that our programs introduce them to new issues and diverse perspectives, inform their opinions and challenge their thinking.

Connection: Nearly 3/4th agree that CityClub helps them make new professional and social contacts while providing a forum for their voices to be heard by leaders (especially for people under 35).

Trust: 88% agree that we present issues fairly with credible speakers and our work promotes accountability of political leadership.

Action: 83% claim CityClub participation encourages them to communicate with civic leaders. Nearly 2/3s say CityClub influences their voting decisions and inspires them to advocate for a cause or position to family, friends and neighbors. 

The strategies we use to achieve these results are:

Program Excellence, Timeliness and Balance: Our integrity rests, first and foremost, on the quality of our programs: Are they fair and well-moderated? Are they pluralistic in the speakers and perspectives represented? Are they vital to the community? Our goal is to present topics, issues, decisions, people and policies that inform citizens and foster public deliberation so that our constituents are better prepared for their roles as voters, volunteers, philanthropists, and advocates. Whether we’re creating single forums or series, candidate or initiative debates, dialogues or social networking programs, we work to create diversity in our individual forums and balanced content across our full annual program schedule.

Convening and Connectivity: CityClub is a lively civic network. We foster connections among individuals, businesses, non-profit organizations, government, the media and academic institutions. At CityClub people meet people they don’t know and their business, social and civic network grows. Complementing our 35-40 annual programs, we’re daily bloggers, Facebook and Twitter conveners linking people on-line as a 24/7 civic resource.

Nonpartisanship and Civility: Our program offerings are not driven by any specific political agenda, ideology or business interest. We include volunteer program developers, speakers and audiences across the political spectrum. That is a sacred element of CityClub’s ecology. We model civility in public life by creating a safe, respectful place for airing diverse views and controversy and fostering fair and lively debate.

Leader-Citizen Interaction:  We provide direct access for citizens to regional leaders and policy makers. All forums are open to members and non-members alike—and all are encouraged to ask questions and exchange ideas. In 2009, we saw on-site program attendance climb 20% to 5,000 with a doubling of web usage to 14,000 network participants. Our volunteer pool includes six citizen task forces representing over 100 community volunteers who develop and evaluate our programs. We view staff’s role as facilitating this citizen initiative. Because CityClub programs are also documented, broadcast and podcast on public access sources, they become part of the public record supporting transparency and accountability.

Think of CityClub as a gym – stretching and toning your civic muscle! I encourage you to get involved - as a member, volunteer or program participant. Your civic health – and the health of our community – will thrive.

Sincerely,

Diane Douglas,
Executive Director