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NATIONAL AFFILIATION
The World Affairs Councils are non-profit, non-partisan organizations open to all who wish to join. Started in 1918, the current system has 86 councils and 10 affiliated organizations. The council system has 450,000 participants, of which 90,000 are dues-paying members and 350,000 are in the nationwide foreign policy discussion and polling program Great Decisions. Councils run on membership dues, corporate sponsorships, grants, in-kind donations, fund-raising events, and fee-for-service activities. Over 2,000 corporations and organizations financially support council work.
Over 2,500 people speak before the 80 councils every year. Councils also run travel programs, international exchanges, school programs, teacher workshops, model UNs, foreign policy discussions, national opinion polling, young professionals’ programs, international festivals, conference, corporate programs, journals, newspaper columns, and local radio and television programs.
The national office organizes an annual conference, leadership missions overseas, a speaker referral system, international speaker exchanges, corporate tours, educational workshops, book tours, subscription discounts, and publications. It puts on operations workshops and publishes council best-practices studies. It also runs nationwide program series such as Congressional Town Meetings, the Fiftieth Anniversary of NATO, World Bank Town Meetings, Contemporary Europe and the Legacy of the Marshall Plan, State Department Town Meetings, Mexican Migration, an EPA International Environmental Issues series, Global Trends, the Future of the Korean Peninsula, and American Diplomacy.
World Affairs Councils annually reach 24,000,000 people through their programs. This figure includes 1,500,00 students and 34,000 teachers. The WACA system is the largest non-profit international affairs organization in the world.
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