For decades, nonprofit organizations have played an increasingly central role in social justice campaigns in the United States, providing legal support, advocacy, and public education. Unlike the mid-20th century movements that once led such work, nonprofits are often the primary drivers of these campaigns today. By the end of the last century, the unions and large civic organizations once central to American civic life were in a steep decline. The student and church-led civil rights movements of the 1950s and 60s had likewise dissipated. Advocacy nonprofits filled the gap.
You can read the rest of the article here.