National Study of Community Organizing Organizations

Abstract

The organizations in the National Study of Community Organizing Organizations (NSCOO) are located throughout the country and share a similar structure and mission. They operate as community-based organizations that bring together individuals from their member institutions to address social, economic, and political issues that affect poor, low-income, and middle-class sectors of U.S. society. Each organization has a board of directors consisting of representatives from its member institutions, which include religious congregations, nonprofit organizations, schools, unions, and other civic associations. The board members function as the organization’s core leaders and meet together on a regular basis to lead the organization. These commonalities enable the analyses to hold the organizations’ form relatively constant, while allowing their social composition, internal dynamics, and organizational outcomes to vary.