Launched in 1981, ARC was born out of the community organizing experience. Both activists and academics recognized a need for rigorous study of the practice of organizing and the need for solid research into the issues around which organizers were mounting campaigns.

Today ARC is a leading research lab and foundry where academics and activists forge tools to spark social progress and measure the result.

In 2000, the NAACP initiated a separate Section 501(c)(4) organization, the NAACP National Voter Fund (NVF). NVF's mission is to engage in issue advocacy, educate voters on candidates' stands on civil rights, and increase voter turnout in the African American community through voter education and non-partisan registration and get-out-the-vote efforts. In 2000, NVF led a nationwide effort resulting in an historic increase in African American voter participation, despite well-documented cases of unfair purges and barriers.