Do Protests Actually Create Change?

With the protests and resistance efforts happening in Minneapolis, I’m starting to get this question a lot.

I understand why people are asking. When you see thousands of people in the streets, when there is real urgency and emotion and media attention, it feels like something big must shift as a result. 

Sometimes it does. But not always in the way we hope, or not on its own. There are three main paths to effect policy change. They are not competing tactics. They are part of an ecosystem.

• Electoral change

• Protest and resistance

• Legislative advocacy

  
  

Electoral change: who holds the power still matters

Electoral change is about who holds the power and who has the authority to make decisions. That part is fairly straightforward. When people in office already agree with your policy goals, change is usually easier and faster. When they do not, it takes more time, more pressure, and more persistence.

That said, this does not mean advocacy is only successful when “your people” are in office. If that were true, we would not bother doing legislative advocacy at all.

What elections really do is shape the environment in which advocacy happens. That is exactly why nonprofits cannot afford to ignore them. Educating advocates about what is at stake, helping candidates understand your issue, and building relationships before someone takes office all matter. A lot.

Even in difficult or hostile political environments, advocacy still moves the needle. It may not always lead to immediate wins, but it builds familiarity, shifts narratives, and lays groundwork that pays off later.

Elections do not replace advocacy. They influence how steep and difficult the climb is.

Protest and resistance: visibility, pressure, and community

Protest plays a very different role.

Protests create visibility. They apply pressure. They make harm visible and impossible to ignore. They also create community, which is not incidental. Being in the streets together can be grounding and energizing, especially in moments of fear, anger, or grief.

I think often about the Women’s March in 2017. Millions of people showed up across the country. For many, it was the first time they had ever participated in something like that.

It sent a clear signal about scale and urgency. It made clear that these concerns were widespread and deeply felt.

What the march did not do on its own was pass legislation. And that is not a critique. It was never meant to. The real question was always what came next. Were there organizations ready to help people stay engaged? Were there pathways to move from visibility to action? Was there infrastructure in place to carry that energy forward?

Protest is often the beginning of the work, not the end of it.

Legislative advocacy: where change becomes durable

Legislative advocacy is where change actually becomes durable. This is where rules are written and rewritten. Bills, budgets, regulations, and enforcement. All the slow, technical, sometimes frustrating work that doesn't always feel inspiring in the moment.

This is the long game. It requires strategy, timing, and persistence. It requires relationships and follow-up and showing up repeatedly, even when progress feels incremental or invisible.

Advocacy is rarely glamorous. But it is how pressure becomes policy and how moments become outcomes.

Seeing the ecosystem, not just the tactic

What I see most often is not nonprofits choosing the wrong tactic. It is nonprofits thinking about these approaches in isolation.

Protests, elections, and advocacy do different jobs. Strong movements understand how those jobs connect. Protests create urgency and visibility. Elections shape what is possible and who you are talking to. Advocacy translates pressure into durable change.

When one of those pieces is missing, momentum often fades. Energy spikes, then stalls. People feel burned out or discouraged because they showed up and nothing seemed to happen, even though something important actually did happen. It just was not carried forward.

What this means for nonprofits right now

What really matters is understanding where your organization fits and how your work connects to the larger ecosystem around you.

For organizations that are focused primarily on resistance and protest, the key question is not whether those tactics are valid. They are. The more important question is whether those moments are being treated as the beginning of people’s advocacy journey.

If you are mobilizing people into the streets, what happens after that moment passes? Is there a plan to help people stay engaged once the signs are put away and the crowd disperses? That engagement might not live within your organization, and that is okay. It might mean intentionally connecting people to a partner organization that focuses on legislative advocacy, electoral education, or long-term relationship building.

Some useful questions to sit with right now, especially for organizations leading or supporting protest and resistance work:

• If attention and energy are high, how are we helping people stay engaged beyond a single moment?

• Do we have clear next steps for people who want to help but are not sure what to do next?

• Are we intentionally connecting people to organizations, campaigns, or coalitions that can carry this work forward over time?

• How are we helping supporters understand how change actually happens after a protest ends?

• How are we thinking about our role in a larger power-building ecosystem, rather than as a standalone effort?

And for individuals who are showing up to protests and resistance actions, there is a parallel set of questions worth asking.

• How are you thinking about your own advocacy beyond that moment? 

• What does building power look like for you over the long run? 

• How are you engaging with organizations that work on policy, elections, or other policy change efforts? 

• Who are you building relationships with, and how are you sustaining that engagement over time?

Showing up matters. Being visible matters. But lasting change usually comes from pairing those moments with ongoing work that builds power, relationships, and strategy over time.

That is where real change comes from.

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How Snyder Strategies Can Help

This is where a lot of well-intentioned advocacy work gets stuck. The energy is real. The urgency is justified. People show up. And then there is no clear bridge between the moment and the long-game.

At Snyder Strategies, this is the gap we help organizations close. We work with nonprofits, coalitions, and movements to translate moments of visibility into sustained advocacy by building clear pathways for engagement, aligning protest, electoral work, and legislative strategy, and helping organizations understand their role in a larger power-building ecosystem.

That might look like developing an advocacy roadmap, strengthening relationships with policymakers, building internal advocacy capacity, or helping organizations move from reaction to strategy without losing their values or momentum.

Protests matter. Elections matter. Advocacy matters.

The work is not choosing between them. It is understanding how they connect, and being intentional about what comes next. That is where change stops being momentary and starts becoming durable.

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