Some theorists argue that civil society organizations (CSOs) can knit together diverse societies by assembling demographically different individuals. CSO core participants (staff, board members, and engaged volunteers) are, however, often demographically homogeneous. Coalitions—CSOs whose members are organizations—might be an exception. We hypothesize that coalitions have more demographic diversity among their core participants than clubs (organizations whose members are individuals) and non-member organizations. We theorize that coalitions can attain greater diversity because they provide unique strategic efficiencies to members and have a membership stickiness that reduces homophilic membership churn. We test this hypothesis by combining hand-coded data on the membership structure of 5,239 CSOs with demographic data on their core participants. We find that coalitions have more racial diversity (but not more gender diversity) than CSOs with other membership structures. Our findings provisionally suggest that coalitions form the diversity layer of civil society and could help bridge societal divides.
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