What is a grassroots movement?

Now, if there’s something wrong with that image then there’s something wrong with the way we trivialize the idea of citizen engagement, and we need to improve.

Demystifying citizen action

Let’s start with a definition: grassroots organizations are those that regular people actually want to support. As in, people want to go out and march with them, donate money to them, spread their content, listen to their leaders. They are organizations that members see as able to change things, one through which they identify. LUCHA is a grassroots organization, so is the National Rifle Association. Nowhere in the rulebook does it say that they have to be progressive.

In an ideal world, a grassroots organization should just be called “organization.” As in, every organization should have popular support; otherwise, what’s the point of an institution, in particular of a nonprofit, that nobody on the ground supports?

And here is your answer to the question of why this type of organizing is becoming more prominent. The growing visibility of citizen activism is an indication of a broken system, of political gridlock, of hypocritical philanthropy, of bland NGOs, of “zombie” international organizations long deprived of any power, relevance to the individual citizen, or ability to create lasting change on the ground. At a recent event I heard an activist talk about her organization as a “white blood cell” protecting the body of the society from corruption; a potent enough metaphor, but a society with so many white blood cells in its bloodstream is an ill society, not a “vibrant” one as some pundits are trying to argue.

The trajectory of a social movement

At their best, in their beginnings, activist movements are just people, people with an intense lived experience of a problem, people who have decided to do something about it. People who have lost someone to drunk driving, felt racism on their own skin, became disgusted by the harassment they were seeing in the workplace. Activism is the practical expression of nonconformity based on moral principles. It may improve a society, it may pull it backwards. Holding Shell to account is activism, funding right-wing think tanks is activism.

Many nonprofit organizations started as bright, shining stars of grassroots action, and, just like real stars out there in the Universe, they met their effective ends in different ways. Some just imploded on their own before they could institutionalize. Others died slowly as their energy dried up – these organizations became bloated, focused on bureaucracy and job security, co-opted by big money, small politics and bland philanthropy. Their existence may continue in name only, but their ability to create real change has disappeared.

What do the best activist movements look like?