The exact number of community organizers in North America is not available.
But there are many thousands of community organizations and many thousands
of people volunteer and work for them.
Funding is a constant struggle for many community organizations. Salaries
can be quite low. Some community organizers have other jobs and make little
or nothing from community organizing.
"There's a level of challenge, there's a level of economic sacrifice that's
going to come with it, because it comes with the territory," says Yusef Bunchy
Shakur, a full-time community organizer in Detroit. "But if you're doing your
best, and you're serving the community the way you should be, and improving
the community, it'll work itself out at the end of the day."
Some community organizers make a good full-time living, however.
"I think that in terms of the not-for-profit sector, community organizers
make a lot more money than the average not-for-profit folks, maybe excluding
things like hospital foundations or these bigger not-for-profit organizations
[where] a lot of their staff make the same as a corporate [employee] would,"
says community organizer Laura Jeffreys. "[But] I think organizers get remunerated
fairly well for what they do."
Earnings and employment information from the U.S. Department of Labor is
not available for this field at this time.