These days with church-state separation under siege at every level and in every branch of government, there is so much for Americans United to do. It’s easy to imagine that AU staff are frenetic and panicked, playing whack-a-mole and struggling to catch our breath. Let me reassure you, though, that we are focused, calm and aligned in how to use our resources. That’s because we have a plan that we are committed to implementing together, as a staff.
I want to bring you up-to-speed about Americans United’s recently completed 2025 Strategic Roadmap — a bold, forward-leaning plan designed to guide the organization over the next three years.
This roadmap — the culmination of one year of input and deliberation involving staff, Board and external stakeholders — is the second we’ve created since I came to AU. It builds upon the progress we’ve made over the past nearly 80 years as our nation’s premier educational and legal advocacy organization committed to church-state separation.
At its heart, this roadmap centers on four things: protecting public education from escalating attacks and advancing our vision of inclusive public schools; educating, empowering and expanding our base of activists; lifting up faith voices and strengthening partnerships across religious and nonreligious communities; and working in even greater coordination across AU’s departments to expand our impact in the courts, in legislatures and in the public square.
Protecting inclusive public education
Inclusive public education has always been at the heart of AU’s mission, and it will remain our focus as it’s under assault like never before. This work — including the expert legal work that AU is known for — is crucial to preventing Christian Nationalists from succeeding at indoctrinating the next generation of public school children.
Educating, empowering and expanding our base
For years, I have heard you, our most committed supporters, asking for more tools and language to advocate for church-state separation. You want “101s” on how to explain that church-state separation is an American foundational promise and on how best to sell its importance to your friends and even unsympathetic family members. Our roadmap makes this a priority, while also expanding education and deepening outreach to faith constituencies — and other groups like youth and school parents — where we have potential for growth.
Chapter friends: We look forward to having conversations with you to understand how AU can best and most efficiently educate, train and network supporters throughout the country and prepare them to take action as needed.
Based on positive feedback, we will continue our vibrant Summit for Religious Freedom (“SRF”), which brings us together across our differences, educates us and fuels our movement’s collective hope and power. AU’s comprehensive youth programming will also continue to thrive, both at SRF and through our high school and college essay and video contests; our six-year-strong Youth Organizing Fellowship; and our Legal Academy (soon in its fifth year) — which AU leads in partnership with 16 other legal nonprofits to educate and cultivate networks for the next generation of leading litigators, judges and scholars.
Building diverse faith support
Our roadmap recognizes that because our opponents have successfully painted church-state separation as anti-religion, AU must ensure that more faith communities — and particularly Christian ones (who form the majority in our country) — join our movement. We will focus our expansion work on connecting with more white mainline and Black Christians, starting with deep listening and relationship building with key partner organizations and faith leaders. We will continue to prioritize lifting up faith voices and uniting the religious and nonreligious.
Maximizing our impact
Though we have been practicing it for a while, this roadmap formally names integrated advocacy — especially at the state level — as the key to increasing AU’s impact and countering the rise of Christian Nationalism. Integrated advocacy means, for example, running innovative communications campaigns featuring stories from faith leaders and parent plaintiffs in our lawsuits about what’s at stake for them and their children. It means AU staff spending time on the ground listening to faith leaders, parents and tribal leaders in Oklahoma to understand how we can support them in turning AU’s legal battles into momentum for opposing harmful laws and advancing good ones.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the author of The Little Prince, wrote: “A goal without a plan is just a wish.” At AU, we have a bold vision and a clear plan — and thanks to your partnership, we’re turning our goals into lasting progress every day.
Rachel K. Laser is president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.