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USA Goals
We heard 47,093 goals for what people hope for America
Explore more
The most powerful thing you can do? Ask people what they want and give it a voice.
Canva asked one simple question: what’s one goal you’d like to see in your lifetime? That's the simple idea behind the Goals Platform: start by listening. Ask people what they want for their communities, their country, and the world, make those goals visible, and see where they overlap.
To listen at scale, we partnered with the Ad Council Research Institute, drawing on more than 80 years of experience. This is a starting point, and it will help shape the next phase of the Goals Platform.
Updated Oct 21st
Here’s what
America told us
As well as asking people to share their goals, we also looked at what motivates people to take action in their local communities.
- Goals Shared47,093
- States50
- Cities & Towns4500+
Key findings
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Americans told us they worry about things like political division, affordability, and conflict overseas. But their goals, at every level, kept coming back to the same themes: kindness, respect, understanding, and stronger connections.
For their own local community, Americans’ top goals were feeling connected and getting involved (32%), and simply being kind and welcoming (24%).
Key findings
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People feel more connected to, optimistic about, and empowered to improve their own communities than the nation or the world.
58% of people say they’re more willing to act in their local community, compared to 31% on the world level.
Key findings
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Only about a quarter of Americans say they're actively involved in their community, not out of apathy, but because they are unsure where to start (23%) or which organisations to join (19%) or whether their actions have impact (20%).
Download the free report
Goals shared from America
Check out the themes and goals for America below
Where the goals come from
This site features over 40,000 goals. They come from Americans sharing their goals on the Canva Goals platform, and a nationally representative survey run with our partners, the Ad Council Research Institute.
How they were sorted
We used automated text analysis — as well as human checks — to group goals by what they mean, not just the words used.
What the numbers mean
Each percentage shows how much of that place's goals fall under a theme, or subtheme. If a town doesn't have enough goals yet, we show its state's numbers instead.
FAQs
Canva’s Goals platform is where people can have their say on the type of world they’d like to live in. It’s built on one question: What’s one goal you’d like to see achieved in your lifetime? Every answer becomes part of a bigger picture of what people care about at a community, national, and global level.
This is a starting point — it will help shape the next phase of the Goals Platform: testing how shared ambitions can create clearer local pathways for action, and over time, a more visible and accountable connection between what communities say they need and how institutions respond.
The Goals Platform is based on real voices from real people — and it’s open to anyone who wants to contribute. If your hometown isn’t showing up yet, that’s your cue: share your goals, and encourage those in your local community to get involved as well.
No. The project is non-partisan, and always has been. Goals come from real people on the ground, and anyone can share theirs, regardless of their particular views. It’s an invitation to contribute freely, and to listen to what matters most across different locations and communities.
The Ad Council is uniquely positioned to bring together the full power of media, marketing, and creative communities to drive impact on the issues that matter most. For more than 80 years, they've helped shape national conversations around public health, civic engagement, and social impact. The Ad Council Research Institute (ACRI) leverages the Ad Council's insight-driven approach to examine some of the most important social issues of our time.
Their ability to convene partners across industries and connect with communities at scale ensures that the work reflects the real experiences of people across the US, not just those already engaged, but those who are often hardest to reach.
We only collect the information you choose to provide. You may submit a goal anonymously. Any information you share is used solely to analyze and present the goals in aggregate - helping us identify patterns and areas of shared ambition.
Personal data is handled in accordance with Canva’s Privacy Policy and is never sold to third parties.
Small ideas can turn into big change.
What starts on the ground is part of something much bigger. Share your goal to get involved, or sign up for updates as the platform grows.
