The Death of a Community Action Organization: A Case from the Heartland

The nonprofit service sector has become the fastest growing employment and activism sector in the past decade and has allowed many anthropologists to engage in social activism and action research. Many nonprofit success stories are published, but rarely do we share the failures. This article describes the collapse of a community-based nonprofit organization. The Lawrence Alliance is a community organization against racism and discrimination and may serve as an example of failure in sustaining community support for social activism once such an organization institutionalizes and is reasonably successful. The article first describes the history of the Lawrence Alliance, analyzes the impact of its various organizational parts, and finally discusses the lessons learned for anthropologists involved in the nonprofit sector.