National Issues Forums Institute

Name

National Issues Forums Institute

Legal name

National Issues Forums Institute

Website

https://nifi.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1989

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Dayton

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Grant Funding: As a nonprofit operating foundation, NIFI receives federal and private grants to support its programs. Recent examples include federal grants from the U.S. Department of Education for civics education initiatives.
2. Donations and Contributions: NIFI accepts tax-deductible donations as a 501(c)(3) organization to support its mission of promoting public deliberation.
3. Publication Sales: Some NIFI resources such as starter videos are available for purchase through the website, providing materials for forum facilitation.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

National Issues Forums Institute (NIFI) is a nonprofit operating foundation that publishes Issue Guides and other deliberation materials designed to help citizens, civic organizations, schools, and community groups engage in structured, nonpartisan public dialogue on difficult public issues. It trains moderators, supports a nationwide network of conveners, and offers programs such as the Deliberative Democracy Fellowship, the Southern Deliberative Democracy Network, and the 'Everyone's In' online forum format to enable forums on topics ranging from immigration and health care to civic education and constitutional study.

Product overview

National Issues Forums Institute (NIFI) operates as a nonprofit operating foundation that promotes public deliberation about difficult public issues. The core product is the National Issues Forums (NIF) platform, which centers on Issue Guides—published discussion materials covering national, local, and historic decisions. Supporting products include Forum Tools (Starter Videos, Moderator Guides), the Deliberative Democracy Fellowship program, and the Southern Deliberative Democracy Network. NIFI also offers the 'Everyone's In' online forum format and the 'Talk. Decide. Act.' workshop series. Award programs include the Elizabeth 'Libby' Kingseed Teaching Award and Taylor Willingham Legacy Fund grants.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• National Issues Forums (NIF) The core platform that offers citizens the opportunity to join together to deliberate, make choices about ways to approach difficult issues, and work toward creating reasoned public judgment through locally organized forums.
• Issue Guides Published discussion guides about national, local, and historic decisions that frame issues by presenting the overall problem and three or four broad approaches, enabling participants to examine costs, consequences, and trade-offs.
• Forum Tools Resources for moderators to conduct deliberative events including Starter Videos, Moderator Guides, Educator Guides, and Post-Forum Questionnaires.
• Deliberative Democracy Fellowship One-year fellowship program (September–August) supporting individuals from academic and community-based backgrounds to develop new Issue Guides through a structured process of naming, framing, and information gathering.
• Southern Deliberative Democracy Network (SDDN) A community of support, learning, and collaboration for scholars, practitioners, community and faith leaders united in strengthening civic life across the Southern United States.
• Talk. Decide. Act. Workshop Series Virtual workshop series offering practical introduction to deliberative practices including Framing Issues for Deliberation, TALK (Introduction to Moderating for Deliberation), and ACT (Introduction to Deliberative Talk-to-Action Initiatives).
• Elizabeth "Libby" Kingseed Teaching with Deliberation Memorial Award $500 award for K-12 teachers new to deliberative practices, recognizing commitment to civic education and supporting teacher networking and experimentation.
• Taylor Willingham Legacy Fund Grants to individuals enabling them to develop understanding of deliberative democracy and launch deliberative dialogues in their communities, supporting newcomers to the field.

Quantifiable outcome

• Forums result in deeper understanding of issues and tensions within them
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments8 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Seven partnerships are on record, tiered major and core.

• James Madison UniversitymajorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 10 October 2025JMU received over $2.1 million from the U.S. Department of Education to expand civics education through the American History and Civics Seminars Program. NIFI partners with JMU's James Madison Center for Civic Engagement to deliver professional development, deliberative dialogue materials, and an America 250 Student Civic Fellows program. This is part of a historic $153 million federal investment in civics education.
• James Madison's MontpeliermajorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 10 October 2025Montpelier (the home of James Madison) partners with JMU and NIFI on the federal civics education grant to provide expert-led seminars on America's founding principles and constitutional study for students and educators across Virginia and beyond.
• Local School DistrictscoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 10 October 2025Local school districts partner with JMU and NIFI to receive professional development and deliberative dialogue materials as part of the American History and Civics Seminars Program.
• Hofstra UniversitycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerHofstra University developed the 'Turning the Corner: Approaches for Gen Z Students to Cope with Mental Stress' issue guide through a collaborative effort of students and faculty dedicated to civic engagement and public advocacy. Authors include undergraduate and graduate students alongside faculty and academic leaders.
• National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNASPA prepared the 'Free Speech & The Inclusive Campus' issue guide, bringing expertise in student affairs and higher education to address campus issues of inclusion, diversity, and freedom of speech.
• Kettering FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe Kettering Foundation collaborated with NIFI and the North American Association for Environmental Education to develop the 'Climate Choices' issue guide as part of the Environment and Society Series designed to promote deliberation on environmental issues affecting communities.
• Southern Deliberative Democracy Network (SDDN)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSDDN is a network co-facilitated by NIFI that provides members with a community of support, learning, and collaboration. Members are scholars, practitioners, community and faith leaders united in strengthening civic life across the Southern United States.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• National Civic League: A nonprofit civic organization that promotes participatory democracy and community-based deliberation. Targets similar audiences (local officials, civic groups, educators) and overlaps in mission, though with a different methodological pedigree.
• Kettering Foundation: A nonprofit research foundation that has co-developed NIFI's deliberation methodology and historically funded the National Issues Forums network. Both organizations share the deliberative-democracy mission and collaborate on issue-guide production, making them the closest peer in practice.
• Everyday Democracy: A nonprofit (formerly Study Circles Resource Center) that provides dialogue and deliberation tools for community groups. Operates a similarly distributed moderator/convenor network with comparable issue guides, making it one of the closest functional peers to NIFI.
• Public Agenda: A nonprofit focused on public engagement and deliberation on national issues. Public Agenda produces structured public-input resources and reports that compete directly for the same civic-deliberation mindshare as NIFI's issue guides.
• CIRCLE (Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement): A youth-focused civic research center at Tufts University. CIRCLE produces research and frameworks on civic participation that overlap with NIFI's K-12 and higher-education civic-deliberation work, especially in the educator/student programming segments.

Broad incumbents

• Demos: A public-policy organization advancing democracy, economic equity, and inclusive participation. While Demos focuses more on advocacy and research, it shares NIFI's mission of strengthening participatory democracy and frequently intersects in civics-education funding pools.
• International City/County Management Association (ICMA): A professional association for local-government managers that supports public engagement and community-dialogue practices. Comparable to NIFI in addressing deliberation but serving a primarily government-manager audience rather than grassroots conveners.
• National Conference on Citizenship: A congressionally-chartered civic organization tracking U.S. civic participation trends through the Census Bureau. Operates broadly in the civic-engagement field with shared touchpoints to NIFI's mission, though more focused on measurement and national indicators than on local deliberation.

Others

• NASPA (Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education): A higher-education association that NIFI actively partners with on issue guides (e.g., 'Free Speech & The Inclusive Campus'). Not a deliberation competitor but rather a key collaborator and indirect peer in the civic-learning-on-campus space.

Emerging players

• BridgeWorks: A Minneapolis-based nonprofit focused on bridging political and cultural divides through conversation. Smaller and more recently founded than NIFI, but uses overlapping dialogue methodologies for similar community-settings and is increasingly competitive for civic-polarization funding.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/NIForums

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about National Issues Forums Institute