in USA a main problem with the way a lot of community struggles are conducted is that it is thru 501-c-3 nonprofit organizations. 501-c-3 refers to the U.S. tax code, and means nonprofit status. But to get funding these orgs tend to become hierarchical, run by professionalized staff, with a top manager, partly because this is what the funders, either private foundations or government want to see. and this results in a staff driven organization that is more akin to the bureaucratic business unions.
this is more of a problem, in regard to reformist tendencies, than making demands on the government, in my observation. for example the welfare rights movement of the '60s did mass protests where they would jam welfare offices, to demand relief. this is based on mass action pressure. this is different than lobbying by a bureaucratic nonprofit.