Benefits and trade-offs of ACLU membership

Benefit Types

The American Civil Liberties Union, (hereinafter, ACLU) is a nonprofit organization that focuses on ensuring and protecting people's civil liberties and civil rights through political and legal action. There main mode of change is through the courts of law and through legislative lobbying. Thus, the benefits one receives from being a member of the ACLU is that they know somebody will be looking out for the interest of their rights and liberties.

Stigmatization: The ACLU is labeled as a liberal, and sometimes even a radical, organization. Thus, it has the stigmatization as being liberal and therefore looses some credibility with conservative and even moderate citizens. A member of the ACLU may lose some benefits that they would otherwise receive from these other citizens.

Cost Effectiveness: The benefits offered by the ACLU in exchange for a small membership fee are relatively intangible. In fact, one may never directly benefit from their services. Yet, one does gain the benefit of knowing that, in the case that something does come up, they will still have their civil liberties and rights. Further, the benefits are often indirect, such as the ACLU campaign against the federal government's domestic spying program.

Substitutability: There is no real substitute for the benefits offered by the ACLU. The only real option is to take on these issues personally. This would require filing an individual law suit or lobbying one's personal legislator.