Table of contents
- At a glance
- What grassroots movement statistics show about scale
- Organizing and volunteer power
- Digital reach, media, and messaging
- Funding, grants, and movement infrastructure
- Policy, outcomes, and civic pressure
- Comparing the major organizations in the dataset
- What the volunteer data says about participation
- Why these grassroots movement statistics matter
Grassroots movement statistics are easiest to understand when you look at scale, not slogans. The numbers in this dataset show how large modern organizing networks can become when volunteers, donors, media, and local chapters all pull in the same direction.
At a glance
Big number: MomsRising reported more than 1,148,000 active members in 2024 and said that represented about 1 in every 300 people in America (MomsRising 2024 Impact Report).
Fast fact: MomsRising members took action over 25,976,130 times in 2024, showing how a large network can convert membership into repeated civic activity (MomsRising 2024 Impact Report).
Second big number: Tides awarded more than $445 million in grants in 2024, including $212 million+ through Tides Foundation to protect democracy (Tides 2024 Annual Impact Overview).
Participation benchmark: In the U.S., more than 11 million people volunteered on an average day in 2022, but the volunteer rate still declined from 5.8% in 2012 to 4.2% in 2022 (BLS More than 11 million people volunteered on an average day in 2022).
Reach signal: MomsRising reported 49,198,314 audience reach via social media and digital programs in 2024 and 2.2 billion audience reach from its media clips in the same year (MomsRising 2024 Impact Report).
What grassroots movement statistics show about scale
The strongest pattern in this dataset is that grassroots work is not small-scale by default. Several organizations are operating at a size that looks more like a national communications and field operation than a local volunteer club.
MomsRising is the clearest example. It reported over 1,148,000 active members in 2024, operated in all 50 states, and maintained dedicated state-specific programs in more than a dozen states (MomsRising 2024 Impact Report). That combination matters because a movement with national membership and state-specific infrastructure can localize its message without losing national consistency.
The same report shows how membership becomes action:
- 25,976,130 member actions in 2024 (MomsRising 2024 Impact Report)
- More than 83,000 volunteer get-out-the-vote participants (MomsRising 2024 Impact Report)
- 2,400 grassroots local events nationwide (MomsRising 2024 Impact Report)
- 4,270 local letters to the editor submitted by volunteers (MomsRising 2024 Impact Report)
That is a useful reminder that membership counts and movement strength are not identical. A large list of supporters is only the starting point; the real story is how many times those supporters act.
Organizing and volunteer power
Grassroots movement statistics are often most convincing when they show repeated participation instead of one-time signups. This dataset contains several examples of that.
MomsRising reported 82,938 Get-Out-the-Vote volunteers in 2024 and said members helped organize 2,300+ grassroots GOTV events during the same year (MomsRising 2024 Impact Report). It also said members sent 20+ million texts to low-frequency mom voters, mailed 5+ million handwritten postcards, and placed 1+ million calls (MomsRising 2024 Impact Report). Those figures suggest a layered outreach model where a movement uses multiple channels rather than relying on a single tactic.
Quick organizing snapshot
| Organization | 2024 organizing signal | Source label |
|---|---|---|
| MomsRising | 25,976,130 member actions | MomsRising 2024 Impact Report |
| MomsRising | 82,938 GOTV volunteers | MomsRising 2024 Impact Report |
| MomsRising | 2,400 grassroots local events | MomsRising 2024 Impact Report |
| MomsRising | 4,270 local letters to the editor | MomsRising 2024 Impact Report |
| Corporate Accountability | 30,000 people mobilized directly | Corporate Accountability FY24 Annual Report |
| Solidaire | $7.5 million moved to defend movements from immediate security threats | Solidaire Network 2024 Annual Report |
| EarthShare | 198k people connected | EarthShare Annual Report 2024 |
The table shows that organizing is not just turnout. It also includes donor activation, public-facing participation, and protective support for movement work.
Corporate Accountability gives another angle on grassroots scale. It reported 30,000 people mobilized to challenge corporations directly in 2024, held 120 house parties, and said 2,000 people increased their giving from the previous year (Corporate Accountability FY24 Annual Report). That mix of house parties and giving growth points to a movement that tries to convert event attendance into sustained financial support.
EarthShare also fits this pattern in a different way. It reported 536 nonprofit partners, told 171 stories, and connected 198k people in fiscal 2024 (EarthShare Annual Report 2024). The numbers are smaller than MomsRising’s totals, but they still show a broad relationship network rather than a single-issue campaign.
Digital reach, media, and messaging
Modern grassroots movements are measured as much by attention as by attendance. The dataset shows that digital and media reach can dwarf local event counts.
MomsRising reported 49,198,314 audience reach via social media and digital programs in 2024 (MomsRising 2024 Impact Report). It also recorded 2,898 total media clips that reached an audience of 2.2 billion (MomsRising 2024 Impact Report). Even when the same organization is counted through different channels, the scale is striking.
A few related figures make the communication model clearer:
- 152 MomsRising clips were in Spanish-language outlets (MomsRising 2024 Impact Report)
- Those Spanish-language clips reached 81.5 million people (MomsRising 2024 Impact Report)
- MomsRising had 52 high-impact member media appearances that reached 422.8 million (MomsRising 2024 Impact Report)
- MomsRising members submitted over 6,084 personal stories (MomsRising 2024 Impact Report)
- MomsRising sent 12 books of member stories to the White House, Congress, state legislators, and other decision-makers (MomsRising 2024 Impact Report)
These numbers reveal a movement communications strategy built on story volume, multilingual distribution, and repeated visibility. The personal-story figure is especially important because it shows that digital reach is not only about broadcasting messages outward. It is also about collecting lived experience and presenting it back to institutions.
Moms Clean Air Force shows a more issue-specific version of this same logic. It appeared in 3,856 articles, broadcasts, op-eds, and letters to the editor in 2024, while members sent more than 152,900 messages to the White House, EPA, Congress, and state and local officials (Moms Clean Air Force 2024 Annual Report). It also held more than 100 meetings with elected officials and more than 300 in-person and virtual events (Moms Clean Air Force 2024 Annual Report).
That is a clear example of a movement operating across message, meeting, and media layers at the same time.
Funding, grants, and movement infrastructure
Grassroots movement statistics are also financial infrastructure statistics. Large-scale organizing usually needs grantmaking, fiscal sponsorship, and donor coordination behind the scenes.
Tides reported more than $445 million in grants in 2024, including support for more than 3,250 global grantees through Tides Foundation and more than 125 organizations through fiscal sponsorship (Tides 2024 Annual Impact Overview). It also granted $212 million+ through Tides Foundation to protect democracy in 2024 and supported 500+ BIPOC-led organizations through grants (Tides 2024 Annual Impact Overview).
Those numbers matter because they show the size of the intermediary layer that helps grassroots campaigns function. Not every movement statistic is about people in the street or on a call list. Some of the most influential numbers are about who can pay for the organizing ecosystem itself.
Solidaire is another example of movement infrastructure with a protective role. It hosted 10 Solidarity Circles from fall 2023 to 2024, said more than one-third of members participated in or facilitated those circles, and moved $7.5 million to defend movements from immediate security threats in 2024 (Solidaire Network 2024 Annual Report). The data suggests a support network focused on resilience rather than only public campaigning.
The New England Grassroots Environment Fund offers a more local-granting picture. It distributed $1.37 million across 273 grassroots groups in 2024, and 63% of grantees had annual budgets under $50,000 (Grassroots Fund 2024 Annual Report). That is a reminder that many grassroots recipients operate on very small budgets even when the broader movement system reaches millions.
A funding and infrastructure comparison
| Organization | Funding or support figure | What it signals | Source label |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tides | More than $445 million in grants | Major movement infrastructure | Tides 2024 Annual Impact Overview |
| Tides Foundation | $212 million+ to protect democracy | Priority campaign funding | Tides 2024 Annual Impact Overview |
| Solidaire | $7.5 million moved to defend movements | Emergency and security support | Solidaire Network 2024 Annual Report |
| New England Grassroots Environment Fund | $1.37 million across 273 groups | Local small-grant distribution | Grassroots Fund 2024 Annual Report |
| EarthShare | $4.1 million raised | Network fundraising | EarthShare Annual Report 2024 |
The span here is important. It ranges from multi-hundred-million-dollar grantmaking to relatively small community distributions, which shows how different layers of grassroots finance coexist in the same ecosystem.
Policy, outcomes, and civic pressure
The most meaningful grassroots movement statistics are often the ones that move from activity to outcome. The dataset includes several examples of civic pressure turning into policy results or public commitments.
MomsRising reported that 47 states had extended Medicaid postpartum coverage from 60 days to 12 months as of June 2024 (MomsRising 2024 Impact Report). That is one of the clearest outcome-level numbers in the dataset because it shows a policy shift linked to sustained advocacy work.
RESULTS offers a different kind of outcome story. Its advocates covered senators in 47 states and two-thirds of U.S. representatives in 2024 (RESULTS Annual Report 2024). It also published hundreds of local and national media pieces, with another 38 pieces in national media alone (RESULTS Annual Report 2024). That mix of legislative coverage and media publication suggests a classic pressure model: reach lawmakers directly while shaping the public narrative around the issue.
The same report says RESULTS’ fellowship program has mentored more than 700 young leaders over the last 10 years (RESULTS Annual Report 2024). That matters because a movement’s long-term influence depends on leadership development, not just campaign wins.
Corporate Accountability’s figures also point toward movement persistence rather than one-off mobilization. It said 139 people who organized with the group in 1977 were still involved today (Corporate Accountability FY24 Annual Report). That is a rare long-horizon signal in activism statistics: continuity across decades.
Comparing the major organizations in the dataset
Some of the strongest comparisons in this dataset come from looking at the type of movement each organization built, not just the raw size of its numbers.
| Organization | Main strength shown by the data | Most notable 2024 figure | Source label |
|---|---|---|---|
| MomsRising | Membership scale and multichannel action | 25,976,130 actions | MomsRising 2024 Impact Report |
| Moms Clean Air Force | Issue advocacy and earned media | 152,900+ messages | Moms Clean Air Force 2024 Annual Report |
| Tides | Grantmaking and infrastructure | $445 million+ in grants | Tides 2024 Annual Impact Overview |
| RESULTS | Legislative coverage and media pressure | Advocates in 47 states | RESULTS Annual Report 2024 |
| EarthShare | Network-building and partner coordination | 536 nonprofit partners | EarthShare Annual Report 2024 |
| Solidaire | Movement defense and solidarity | $7.5 million moved | Solidaire Network 2024 Annual Report |
| YIMBY Action | Field organizing tied to housing outcomes | 51,846 homes supported | YIMBY Action 2024 Impact Report |
YIMBY Action is especially interesting because it connects grassroots activism to a concrete policy domain. It reported 65,990 activists, 72 chapters, 3,248 supporters, 51,846 homes supported, 41 state policy victories, and 12 lawsuits in 2024 (YIMBY Action 2024 Impact Report). That combination of chapters, supporters, legal action, and policy victories shows what a movement looks like when it is both decentralized and outcome-oriented.
Corporate Accountability, by contrast, looks like a mobilization and giving-growth engine. EarthShare looks like a coalition and partner network. Tides is the funding backbone. MomsRising is the mass-membership mobilizer. RESULTS is a legislative pressure and media advocacy shop. The comparison is useful because it shows that “grassroots movement” is not one organizational model; it is a family of models that use different levers.
What the volunteer data says about participation
The broader volunteer statistics in the dataset help place movement organizing in national context.
The BLS data says that on an average day in 2022, more than 11 million people volunteered in the U.S.; about 7 million were women and about 4 million were men (BLS More than 11 million people volunteered on an average day in 2022). It also breaks volunteering into activity types:
- Around 4,712,000 volunteered in administrative and support activities, averaging 1.56 hours per day (BLS More than 11 million people volunteered on an average day in 2022)
- Around 3,187,000 volunteered in social service and care activities, averaging 2.23 hours per day (BLS More than 11 million people volunteered on an average day in 2022)
- Around 2,038,000 volunteered in meetings, conferences, and training, averaging 2.15 hours per day (BLS More than 11 million people volunteered on an average day in 2022)
Two trend lines stand out:
- U.S. volunteer rates declined from 5.8% in 2012 to 4.2% in 2022 (BLS More than 11 million people volunteered on an average day in 2022).
- The volunteer rate for women rose from 4.1% in 2021 to 5.1% in 2022 (BLS More than 11 million people volunteered on an average day in 2022).
The U.S. Census Bureau’s civic engagement story adds another layer. It found that formal volunteers served an estimated 4.99 billion hours between September 2022 and September 2023 and contributed over $167.2 billion in economic value (U.S. Census Bureau civic engagement story). It also reported that 18% of formal volunteers served completely or partially online and that 54.2% of Americans helped or exchanged favors with neighbors in the same period (U.S. Census Bureau civic engagement story).
Volunteer participation at a glance
| Measure | Figure | Source label |
|---|---|---|
| Average daily volunteers in the U.S. | More than 11 million | BLS More than 11 million people volunteered on an average day in 2022 |
| Volunteer rate, 2012 | 5.8% | BLS More than 11 million people volunteered on an average day in 2022 |
| Volunteer rate, 2022 | 4.2% | BLS More than 11 million people volunteered on an average day in 2022 |
| Formal volunteer hours | 4.99 billion | U.S. Census Bureau civic engagement story |
| Economic value of formal volunteer hours | $167.2 billion+ | U.S. Census Bureau civic engagement story |
| Online share of formal volunteers | 18% | U.S. Census Bureau civic engagement story |
| Neighbors helping or exchanging favors | 54.2% | U.S. Census Bureau civic engagement story |
One of the more interesting comparisons in the Census data is the drop in average hours served per volunteer from 96.5 hours in 2017 to 70 hours in 2023, along with the drop in the median from 40 hours to 24 hours (U.S. Census Bureau civic engagement story). That suggests volunteer participation may be spreading across more people in smaller doses, rather than concentrating in a smaller number of very heavy volunteers.
Why these grassroots movement statistics matter
These numbers make one point very clearly: grassroots work scales when it combines people, money, media, and infrastructure.
A movement like MomsRising shows what happens when membership, state presence, media reach, and voter contact all reinforce each other (MomsRising 2024 Impact Report). Tides shows the funding layer that keeps campaigns alive (Tides 2024 Annual Impact Overview). RESULTS shows how legislative targeting and media pressure can work together (RESULTS Annual Report 2024). YIMBY Action shows that local chapters and legal action can translate organizing into policy wins (YIMBY Action 2024 Impact Report). Solidaire shows that movement defense is also part of organizing capacity (Solidaire Network 2024 Annual Report).
The volunteer statistics widen the frame even further. They show that participation in civic life remains substantial, but not evenly distributed or steadily growing. That makes every organizing metric in the dataset more meaningful, because each one sits inside a broader environment where attention, time, and volunteer energy are all limited.
In other words, grassroots movement statistics are not just a scoreboard. They are a map of how civic power is built, sustained, and turned into action.