CALPIRG Students

student-funded public-interest advocacy organization

CALPIRG Students

Industry Education

A California student public-interest group funded through student pledges and campus chapters at UC campuses. CALPIRG scores low because it gives students some organizing experience and public-interest campaigns, but recurring student-fee funding and professional network alignment create a coercive-adjacent youth pipeline.

Why this matters: CALPIRG is a concrete campus example of how PIRG-style public-interest work can become controversial when student billing and recruitment are involved.

Letter grade D Extractive High confidence (AI) Rubric gcd-rubric-v1 Parent / owner: Student PIRGs

CALPIRG Students is evaluated as a state student-PIRG example in the broader Student PIRGs/Public Interest Network ecosystem.

Final Score 13* D - Extractive
DEXTRACTIVE13 tentative score pts

* Tentative scaffolding score. Not human-checked or final.

Base Material28
Bonus+3
Cap41Ownership <= 4 and Governance <= 4
After Cap31
Penalties-18
!Not Verified
Represent this organization?

Request verification to have the evidence record checked against primary materials and organization-supplied documents. Verification does not buy a higher score; scores change only when review finds factual errors, omissions, or miscalibration.

Request verification

Owned by Student PIRGs

The parent profile is currently rated D (Extractive, 15*). This subsidiary is not mechanically capped at the parent score, but parent control is part of the ownership, governance, policy, accountability opacity, reversibility, and harm analysis.

Evaluation Overview

D - Extractive

The score turns mainly on Solidarity with the Unemployed, with the largest penalty coming from Youth Capture.

Strengths

  • Solidarity with the Unemployed4/7
  • Product Integrity4/5
  • Scale Integrity4/5

Penalties

  • Youth Capture-5
  • Policy Capture-3
  • Subscription Capture-3
  • Identity Capture-3

Evidence state

  • ConfidenceHigh confidence (AI)
  • ThoroughnessDeveloped (AI)
  • Linked claims18
  • Direct axis claims18
  • Coverage18/18

Scoring Axes
Axis Score Why this score
Ownership
?
Control rights: shareholder-dominated at 0, worker cooperative control at 10.
3 / 10

CALPIRG Students's public record identifies it as a nonprofit, advocacy network, recruiting organization, student group, research center, or electoral advocacy organization rather than a worker-owned or user-owned cooperative.

Calibration notes

Comparative anchor: Public Interest Network and adjacent liberal activist infrastructure calibrated across network parent, canvassing arm, policy advocacy, research, student, recruiting, community-support, and electoral organizations.

Linked evidence
  • CALPIRG Students's public record identifies it as a nonprofit, advocacy network, recruiting organization, student group, research center, or electoral advocacy organization rather than a worker-owned or user-owned cooperative. [1]
  • context CALPIRG Students's public materials do not show binding democratic control by ordinary workers, donors, canvassers, students, constituents, or affected communities. [2]
  • context CALPIRG Students's operating model converts donations, dues, student fees, volunteer labor, campaign work, public attention, or research into advocacy capacity. [3]
  • context CALPIRG Students's worker-power record is evaluated against public descriptions of staff roles, recruiting pipelines, canvassing work, union activity, or NLRB/labor records where available. [4]
  • context CALPIRG Students's mission or services address public goods such as consumer protection, environmental health, democracy, education affordability, or pollution cleanup rather than ordinary private consumption. [5]
  • context CALPIRG Students's advocacy, research, organizing, or community-support work can shift some problem-solving costs away from isolated individuals and toward organized public action. [6]
  • context CALPIRG Students's conduct is evaluated as advocacy-market conduct: recruitment, canvassing, donor acquisition, student-fee funding, policy pressure, research publication, and public campaign framing. [7]
  • context CALPIRG Students's core output is advocacy, research, organizing, recruiting, electoral support, or community training rather than a physical consumer product. [8]
  • context CALPIRG Students's scale and network position determine whether its campaigns create broad public benefit, concentrated institutional control, or both. [9]
Governance
?
Binding decision authority: centralized control at 0, democratic stakeholder control at 10.
3 / 10

CALPIRG Students's linked public materials do not show binding democratic control by ordinary workers, donors, canvassers, students, constituents, or affected communities.

Calibration notes

Comparative anchor: Public Interest Network and adjacent liberal activist infrastructure calibrated across network parent, canvassing arm, policy advocacy, research, student, recruiting, community-support, and electoral organizations.

Linked evidence
  • context CALPIRG Students's public record identifies it as a nonprofit, advocacy network, recruiting organization, student group, research center, or electoral advocacy organization rather than a worker-owned or user-owned cooperative. [1]
  • CALPIRG Students's public materials do not show binding democratic control by ordinary workers, donors, canvassers, students, constituents, or affected communities. [2]
  • context CALPIRG Students's operating model converts donations, dues, student fees, volunteer labor, campaign work, public attention, or research into advocacy capacity. [3]
  • context CALPIRG Students's worker-power record is evaluated against public descriptions of staff roles, recruiting pipelines, canvassing work, union activity, or NLRB/labor records where available. [4]
  • context CALPIRG Students's mission or services address public goods such as consumer protection, environmental health, democracy, education affordability, or pollution cleanup rather than ordinary private consumption. [5]
  • context CALPIRG Students's advocacy, research, organizing, or community-support work can shift some problem-solving costs away from isolated individuals and toward organized public action. [6]
  • context CALPIRG Students's conduct is evaluated as advocacy-market conduct: recruitment, canvassing, donor acquisition, student-fee funding, policy pressure, research publication, and public campaign framing. [7]
  • context CALPIRG Students's core output is advocacy, research, organizing, recruiting, electoral support, or community training rather than a physical consumer product. [8]
  • context CALPIRG Students's scale and network position determine whether its campaigns create broad public benefit, concentrated institutional control, or both. [9]
Extraction
?
Surplus allocation, wage share, CEO pay ratio, margins, and structured extraction judgment.
3 / 10

CALPIRG Students's operating model converts donations, dues, student fees, volunteer labor, campaign work, public attention, or research into advocacy capacity.

Calibration notes

Comparative anchor: Public Interest Network and adjacent liberal activist infrastructure calibrated across network parent, canvassing arm, policy advocacy, research, student, recruiting, community-support, and electoral organizations.

Linked evidence
  • context CALPIRG Students's public record identifies it as a nonprofit, advocacy network, recruiting organization, student group, research center, or electoral advocacy organization rather than a worker-owned or user-owned cooperative. [1]
  • context CALPIRG Students's public materials do not show binding democratic control by ordinary workers, donors, canvassers, students, constituents, or affected communities. [2]
  • CALPIRG Students's operating model converts donations, dues, student fees, volunteer labor, campaign work, public attention, or research into advocacy capacity. [3]
  • context CALPIRG Students's worker-power record is evaluated against public descriptions of staff roles, recruiting pipelines, canvassing work, union activity, or NLRB/labor records where available. [4]
  • context CALPIRG Students's mission or services address public goods such as consumer protection, environmental health, democracy, education affordability, or pollution cleanup rather than ordinary private consumption. [5]
  • context CALPIRG Students's advocacy, research, organizing, or community-support work can shift some problem-solving costs away from isolated individuals and toward organized public action. [6]
  • context CALPIRG Students's conduct is evaluated as advocacy-market conduct: recruitment, canvassing, donor acquisition, student-fee funding, policy pressure, research publication, and public campaign framing. [7]
  • context CALPIRG Students's core output is advocacy, research, organizing, recruiting, electoral support, or community training rather than a physical consumer product. [8]
  • context CALPIRG Students's scale and network position determine whether its campaigns create broad public benefit, concentrated institutional control, or both. [9]
Labor Sovereignty
?
Worker power: coercive conditions at 0, co-determination or ownership at 7. Employee dissatisfaction matters only when source-backed evidence shows concrete limits on worker agency, such as coercive scheduling, retaliation, wage theft, harassment, unsafe conditions, suppression of worker voice, or extreme turnover.
2 / 7

CALPIRG Students's worker-power record is evaluated against public descriptions of staff roles, recruiting pipelines, canvassing work, union activity, or NLRB/labor records where available.

Calibration notes

Comparative anchor: Public Interest Network and adjacent liberal activist infrastructure calibrated across network parent, canvassing arm, policy advocacy, research, student, recruiting, community-support, and electoral organizations.

Linked evidence
  • context CALPIRG Students's public record identifies it as a nonprofit, advocacy network, recruiting organization, student group, research center, or electoral advocacy organization rather than a worker-owned or user-owned cooperative. [1]
  • context CALPIRG Students's public materials do not show binding democratic control by ordinary workers, donors, canvassers, students, constituents, or affected communities. [2]
  • context CALPIRG Students's operating model converts donations, dues, student fees, volunteer labor, campaign work, public attention, or research into advocacy capacity. [3]
  • CALPIRG Students's worker-power record is evaluated against public descriptions of staff roles, recruiting pipelines, canvassing work, union activity, or NLRB/labor records where available. [4]
  • context CALPIRG Students's mission or services address public goods such as consumer protection, environmental health, democracy, education affordability, or pollution cleanup rather than ordinary private consumption. [5]
  • context CALPIRG Students's advocacy, research, organizing, or community-support work can shift some problem-solving costs away from isolated individuals and toward organized public action. [6]
  • context CALPIRG Students's conduct is evaluated as advocacy-market conduct: recruitment, canvassing, donor acquisition, student-fee funding, policy pressure, research publication, and public campaign framing. [7]
  • context CALPIRG Students's core output is advocacy, research, organizing, recruiting, electoral support, or community training rather than a physical consumer product. [8]
  • context CALPIRG Students's scale and network position determine whether its campaigns create broad public benefit, concentrated institutional control, or both. [9]
Solidarity with the Unemployed
?
Treatment of exits and nonworkers, including severance, redeployment, and non-competes.
4 / 7

CALPIRG Students's mission or services address public goods such as consumer protection, environmental health, democracy, education affordability, or pollution cleanup rather than ordinary private consumption.

Calibration notes

Comparative anchor: Public Interest Network and adjacent liberal activist infrastructure calibrated across network parent, canvassing arm, policy advocacy, research, student, recruiting, community-support, and electoral organizations.

Linked evidence
  • context CALPIRG Students's public record identifies it as a nonprofit, advocacy network, recruiting organization, student group, research center, or electoral advocacy organization rather than a worker-owned or user-owned cooperative. [1]
  • context CALPIRG Students's public materials do not show binding democratic control by ordinary workers, donors, canvassers, students, constituents, or affected communities. [2]
  • context CALPIRG Students's operating model converts donations, dues, student fees, volunteer labor, campaign work, public attention, or research into advocacy capacity. [3]
  • context CALPIRG Students's worker-power record is evaluated against public descriptions of staff roles, recruiting pipelines, canvassing work, union activity, or NLRB/labor records where available. [4]
  • CALPIRG Students's mission or services address public goods such as consumer protection, environmental health, democracy, education affordability, or pollution cleanup rather than ordinary private consumption. [5]
  • context CALPIRG Students's advocacy, research, organizing, or community-support work can shift some problem-solving costs away from isolated individuals and toward organized public action. [6]
  • context CALPIRG Students's conduct is evaluated as advocacy-market conduct: recruitment, canvassing, donor acquisition, student-fee funding, policy pressure, research publication, and public campaign framing. [7]
  • context CALPIRG Students's core output is advocacy, research, organizing, recruiting, electoral support, or community training rather than a physical consumer product. [8]
  • context CALPIRG Students's scale and network position determine whether its campaigns create broad public benefit, concentrated institutional control, or both. [9]
Loss-Bearing Fidelity
?
Willingness to absorb costs to preserve values, workers, users, and public obligations.
3 / 7

CALPIRG Students's advocacy, research, organizing, or community-support work can shift some problem-solving costs away from isolated individuals and toward organized public action.

Calibration notes

Comparative anchor: Public Interest Network and adjacent liberal activist infrastructure calibrated across network parent, canvassing arm, policy advocacy, research, student, recruiting, community-support, and electoral organizations.

Linked evidence
  • context CALPIRG Students's public record identifies it as a nonprofit, advocacy network, recruiting organization, student group, research center, or electoral advocacy organization rather than a worker-owned or user-owned cooperative. [1]
  • context CALPIRG Students's public materials do not show binding democratic control by ordinary workers, donors, canvassers, students, constituents, or affected communities. [2]
  • context CALPIRG Students's operating model converts donations, dues, student fees, volunteer labor, campaign work, public attention, or research into advocacy capacity. [3]
  • context CALPIRG Students's worker-power record is evaluated against public descriptions of staff roles, recruiting pipelines, canvassing work, union activity, or NLRB/labor records where available. [4]
  • context CALPIRG Students's mission or services address public goods such as consumer protection, environmental health, democracy, education affordability, or pollution cleanup rather than ordinary private consumption. [5]
  • CALPIRG Students's advocacy, research, organizing, or community-support work can shift some problem-solving costs away from isolated individuals and toward organized public action. [6]
  • context CALPIRG Students's conduct is evaluated as advocacy-market conduct: recruitment, canvassing, donor acquisition, student-fee funding, policy pressure, research publication, and public campaign framing. [7]
  • context CALPIRG Students's core output is advocacy, research, organizing, recruiting, electoral support, or community training rather than a physical consumer product. [8]
  • context CALPIRG Students's scale and network position determine whether its campaigns create broad public benefit, concentrated institutional control, or both. [9]
Market Conduct
?
Pricing fairness, switching costs, lock-in, and rent extraction.
2 / 5

CALPIRG Students's conduct is evaluated as advocacy-market conduct: recruitment, canvassing, donor acquisition, student-fee funding, policy pressure, research publication, and public campaign framing.

Calibration notes

Comparative anchor: Public Interest Network and adjacent liberal activist infrastructure calibrated across network parent, canvassing arm, policy advocacy, research, student, recruiting, community-support, and electoral organizations.

Linked evidence
  • context CALPIRG Students's public record identifies it as a nonprofit, advocacy network, recruiting organization, student group, research center, or electoral advocacy organization rather than a worker-owned or user-owned cooperative. [1]
  • context CALPIRG Students's public materials do not show binding democratic control by ordinary workers, donors, canvassers, students, constituents, or affected communities. [2]
  • context CALPIRG Students's operating model converts donations, dues, student fees, volunteer labor, campaign work, public attention, or research into advocacy capacity. [3]
  • context CALPIRG Students's worker-power record is evaluated against public descriptions of staff roles, recruiting pipelines, canvassing work, union activity, or NLRB/labor records where available. [4]
  • context CALPIRG Students's mission or services address public goods such as consumer protection, environmental health, democracy, education affordability, or pollution cleanup rather than ordinary private consumption. [5]
  • context CALPIRG Students's advocacy, research, organizing, or community-support work can shift some problem-solving costs away from isolated individuals and toward organized public action. [6]
  • CALPIRG Students's conduct is evaluated as advocacy-market conduct: recruitment, canvassing, donor acquisition, student-fee funding, policy pressure, research publication, and public campaign framing. [7]
  • context CALPIRG Students's core output is advocacy, research, organizing, recruiting, electoral support, or community training rather than a physical consumer product. [8]
  • context CALPIRG Students's scale and network position determine whether its campaigns create broad public benefit, concentrated institutional control, or both. [9]
Product Integrity
?
Preservation of quality rather than degradation for monetization.
4 / 5

CALPIRG Students's core output is advocacy, research, organizing, recruiting, electoral support, or community training rather than a physical consumer product.

Calibration notes

Comparative anchor: Public Interest Network and adjacent liberal activist infrastructure calibrated across network parent, canvassing arm, policy advocacy, research, student, recruiting, community-support, and electoral organizations.

Linked evidence
  • context CALPIRG Students's public record identifies it as a nonprofit, advocacy network, recruiting organization, student group, research center, or electoral advocacy organization rather than a worker-owned or user-owned cooperative. [1]
  • context CALPIRG Students's public materials do not show binding democratic control by ordinary workers, donors, canvassers, students, constituents, or affected communities. [2]
  • context CALPIRG Students's operating model converts donations, dues, student fees, volunteer labor, campaign work, public attention, or research into advocacy capacity. [3]
  • context CALPIRG Students's worker-power record is evaluated against public descriptions of staff roles, recruiting pipelines, canvassing work, union activity, or NLRB/labor records where available. [4]
  • context CALPIRG Students's mission or services address public goods such as consumer protection, environmental health, democracy, education affordability, or pollution cleanup rather than ordinary private consumption. [5]
  • context CALPIRG Students's advocacy, research, organizing, or community-support work can shift some problem-solving costs away from isolated individuals and toward organized public action. [6]
  • context CALPIRG Students's conduct is evaluated as advocacy-market conduct: recruitment, canvassing, donor acquisition, student-fee funding, policy pressure, research publication, and public campaign framing. [7]
  • CALPIRG Students's core output is advocacy, research, organizing, recruiting, electoral support, or community training rather than a physical consumer product. [8]
  • context CALPIRG Students's scale and network position determine whether its campaigns create broad public benefit, concentrated institutional control, or both. [9]
Scale Integrity
?
Whether growth improves or degrades fairness and accountability.
4 / 5

CALPIRG Students's scale and network position determine whether its campaigns create broad public benefit, concentrated institutional control, or both.

Calibration notes

Comparative anchor: Public Interest Network and adjacent liberal activist infrastructure calibrated across network parent, canvassing arm, policy advocacy, research, student, recruiting, community-support, and electoral organizations.

Linked evidence
  • context CALPIRG Students's public record identifies it as a nonprofit, advocacy network, recruiting organization, student group, research center, or electoral advocacy organization rather than a worker-owned or user-owned cooperative. [1]
  • context CALPIRG Students's public materials do not show binding democratic control by ordinary workers, donors, canvassers, students, constituents, or affected communities. [2]
  • context CALPIRG Students's operating model converts donations, dues, student fees, volunteer labor, campaign work, public attention, or research into advocacy capacity. [3]
  • context CALPIRG Students's worker-power record is evaluated against public descriptions of staff roles, recruiting pipelines, canvassing work, union activity, or NLRB/labor records where available. [4]
  • context CALPIRG Students's mission or services address public goods such as consumer protection, environmental health, democracy, education affordability, or pollution cleanup rather than ordinary private consumption. [5]
  • context CALPIRG Students's advocacy, research, organizing, or community-support work can shift some problem-solving costs away from isolated individuals and toward organized public action. [6]
  • context CALPIRG Students's conduct is evaluated as advocacy-market conduct: recruitment, canvassing, donor acquisition, student-fee funding, policy pressure, research publication, and public campaign framing. [7]
  • context CALPIRG Students's core output is advocacy, research, organizing, recruiting, electoral support, or community training rather than a physical consumer product. [8]
  • CALPIRG Students's scale and network position determine whether its campaigns create broad public benefit, concentrated institutional control, or both. [9]

Penalties
Penalty Applied Why this penalty
Policy Capture
?
Private-interest attempts to bend law, regulation, subsidies, taxes, enforcement, trade, labor, safety, competition, environmental, healthcare, housing, surveillance, civil-liberties, or consumer policy against workers, customers, citizens, affected communities, or ecological life. Public-interest advocacy is not penalized merely because it is lobbying. Range: -15 to 0.
-3

CALPIRG Students's own materials describe policy advocacy, lobbying, candidate support, public-pressure campaigns, or citizen mobilization aimed at changing public rules.

Calibration notes

Comparative anchor: Public Interest Network and adjacent liberal activist infrastructure calibrated across network parent, canvassing arm, policy advocacy, research, student, recruiting, community-support, and electoral organizations.

Linked evidence
  • CALPIRG Students's own materials describe policy advocacy, lobbying, candidate support, public-pressure campaigns, or citizen mobilization aimed at changing public rules. [13]
Youth Capture
?
Manipulative youth-directed marketing, youth-data or attention monetization, collectible/add-on traps, parasocial or identity capture, surprise mechanics, or treating young people as lower-disclosure consumers. Making useful toys or welcoming children is not itself penalized. Range: -5 to 0.
-5

CALPIRG Students's model recruits, trains, bills, or mobilizes students and young organizers, making youth-culture and early-career capture a direct axis-specific concern.

Calibration notes

Comparative anchor: Public Interest Network and adjacent liberal activist infrastructure calibrated across network parent, canvassing arm, policy advocacy, research, student, recruiting, community-support, and electoral organizations.

Linked evidence
  • CALPIRG Students's model recruits, trains, bills, or mobilizes students and young organizers, making youth-culture and early-career capture a direct axis-specific concern. [14]
Subscription Capture
?
Manipulative recurring-payment, automatic-renewal, cancellation-friction, bundling, trial-conversion, or refund designs that profit from inertia or confusion. Range: -5 to 0.
-3

CALPIRG Students's model includes recurring donations, student-fee pledges, membership fundraising, or contact acquisition that can outlast the initial moment of consent.

Calibration notes

Comparative anchor: Public Interest Network and adjacent liberal activist infrastructure calibrated across network parent, canvassing arm, policy advocacy, research, student, recruiting, community-support, and electoral organizations.

Linked evidence
  • CALPIRG Students's model includes recurring donations, student-fee pledges, membership fundraising, or contact acquisition that can outlast the initial moment of consent. [15]
Accountability Opacity
?
Material opacity, reputation laundering, or hidden accountability structures that prevent public accountability. Range: -2 to 0.
-2

CALPIRG Students's public materials do not give a complete plain-language map of governance control, related entities, fund flows, staff power, and constituent consent.

Calibration notes

Comparative anchor: Public Interest Network and adjacent liberal activist infrastructure calibrated across network parent, canvassing arm, policy advocacy, research, student, recruiting, community-support, and electoral organizations.

Linked evidence
  • CALPIRG Students's public materials do not give a complete plain-language map of governance control, related entities, fund flows, staff power, and constituent consent. [16]
Identity Capture
?
Customer pressure, employee pressure, and pervasive identity saturation. Range: -3 to 0.
-3

CALPIRG Students's mission framing can bind staff, students, donors, and volunteers to a moralized activist identity as well as to specific practical public goals.

Calibration notes

Comparative anchor: Public Interest Network and adjacent liberal activist infrastructure calibrated across network parent, canvassing arm, policy advocacy, research, student, recruiting, community-support, and electoral organizations.

Linked evidence
  • CALPIRG Students's mission framing can bind staff, students, donors, and volunteers to a moralized activist identity as well as to specific practical public goals. [17]
Ideological Disavowal
?
Concealed ideology presented as neutrality, expertise, professional necessity, public-service administration, market inevitability, or non-ideological common sense while exercising power. Range: -3 to 0.
-2

CALPIRG Students's public language often presents a contested political program as public interest, fairness, science, democracy, or nonpartisan necessity rather than as an explicit ideological standpoint.

Calibration notes

Comparative anchor: Public Interest Network and adjacent liberal activist infrastructure calibrated across network parent, canvassing arm, policy advocacy, research, student, recruiting, community-support, and electoral organizations.

Linked evidence
  • CALPIRG Students's public language often presents a contested political program as public interest, fairness, science, democracy, or nonpartisan necessity rather than as an explicit ideological standpoint. [18]

Bonus Credits
Bonus Credit Why this credit
Openness to Dissent
?
Credit for tolerating internal, user, customer, worker, and public dissent without retaliation, capture, or viewpoint laundering.
1 / 3

CALPIRG Students's advocacy challenges corporate, governmental, or institutional power in public policy disputes, which can create some civic space for dissent.

Calibration notes

Comparative anchor: Public Interest Network and adjacent liberal activist infrastructure calibrated across network parent, canvassing arm, policy advocacy, research, student, recruiting, community-support, and electoral organizations.

Linked evidence
  • CALPIRG Students's advocacy challenges corporate, governmental, or institutional power in public policy disputes, which can create some civic space for dissent. [10]
Constitutional Spirit
?
Credit for respecting constitutional rights and civil-liberties norms even where private law does not strictly require it.
1 / 3

CALPIRG Students's work uses research, litigation, public education, policy advocacy, or electoral engagement to contest stronger institutions through civic channels.

Calibration notes

Comparative anchor: Public Interest Network and adjacent liberal activist infrastructure calibrated across network parent, canvassing arm, policy advocacy, research, student, recruiting, community-support, and electoral organizations.

Linked evidence
  • CALPIRG Students's work uses research, litigation, public education, policy advocacy, or electoral engagement to contest stronger institutions through civic channels. [11]
Good Deal
?
Credit for unusually fair value: durable quality, fair pricing, low lock-in, and clear customer surplus.
1 / 3

CALPIRG Students's public-facing work can give people research, organizing help, consumer protection, environmental benefit, or civic capacity without ordinary purchase lock-in.

Calibration notes

Comparative anchor: Public Interest Network and adjacent liberal activist infrastructure calibrated across network parent, canvassing arm, policy advocacy, research, student, recruiting, community-support, and electoral organizations.

Linked evidence
  • CALPIRG Students's public-facing work can give people research, organizing help, consumer protection, environmental benefit, or civic capacity without ordinary purchase lock-in. [12]

Confidence Basis

Confidence Basis

Confidence is computed from the evidence trail and review state, not typed into the profile by hand.

High 80/100

18 verified linked claims 18 direct axis claims 0 disputed claims 18/18 components covered

This confidence label measures the source-backed evidence trail. AI-scaffolded scores remain tentative until human review.

Claim confidence 16/20

18 verified linked claims

Source quality 12/18

Best source per verified claim, weighted by institutional reliability

Direct axis-specific claims 14/18

18 direct claims across 18 active components

Dispute load 12/12

0 disputed claims on this entity

Recency 10/10

Newest accepted timestamp: May 13, 2026

Reviewer status 7/12

Human-reviewed components score higher than AI scaffolding

Component coverage 10/10

18/18 evidence-bearing components have direct support

Evidence State

Evidence State

Profile stateAI draft / human-pending
VerificationUnverified
ConfidenceHigh confidence (AI)
ThoroughnessDeveloped (AI)
Correction routeUse “Challenge this rating” for factual errors, missing counterevidence, source problems, or calculation mistakes.
Company responseCompany representatives can submit source-backed corrections; payment never changes scores or reviewer authority.

Claims and Sources

Claims are the evidence record. Each claim needs a source link, axis category, status, confidence level, and timestamp before it can support a score.

* Tentative scaffolding score. Not human-checked or final.
1CALPIRG Students's public record identifies it as a nonprofit, advocacy network, recruiting organization, student group, research center, or electoral advocacy organization rather than a worker-owned or user-owned cooperative.

Ownership Verified High confidence Human-reviewed

2CALPIRG Students's public materials do not show binding democratic control by ordinary workers, donors, canvassers, students, constituents, or affected communities.

Governance Verified Medium confidence Human-reviewed

3CALPIRG Students's operating model converts donations, dues, student fees, volunteer labor, campaign work, public attention, or research into advocacy capacity.

Extraction Verified High confidence Human-reviewed

4CALPIRG Students's worker-power record is evaluated against public descriptions of staff roles, recruiting pipelines, canvassing work, union activity, or NLRB/labor records where available.

Labor Sovereignty Verified Medium confidence Human-reviewed

5CALPIRG Students's mission or services address public goods such as consumer protection, environmental health, democracy, education affordability, or pollution cleanup rather than ordinary private consumption.

Solidarity Unemployed Verified High confidence Human-reviewed

6CALPIRG Students's advocacy, research, organizing, or community-support work can shift some problem-solving costs away from isolated individuals and toward organized public action.

Loss Bearing Fidelity Verified High confidence Human-reviewed

7CALPIRG Students's conduct is evaluated as advocacy-market conduct: recruitment, canvassing, donor acquisition, student-fee funding, policy pressure, research publication, and public campaign framing.

Market Conduct Verified High confidence Human-reviewed

8CALPIRG Students's core output is advocacy, research, organizing, recruiting, electoral support, or community training rather than a physical consumer product.

Product Integrity Verified High confidence Human-reviewed

9CALPIRG Students's scale and network position determine whether its campaigns create broad public benefit, concentrated institutional control, or both.

Scale Integrity Verified High confidence Human-reviewed

10CALPIRG Students's advocacy challenges corporate, governmental, or institutional power in public policy disputes, which can create some civic space for dissent.

Openness To Dissent Verified Medium confidence Human-reviewed

11CALPIRG Students's work uses research, litigation, public education, policy advocacy, or electoral engagement to contest stronger institutions through civic channels.

Constitutional Spirit Verified Medium confidence Human-reviewed

12CALPIRG Students's public-facing work can give people research, organizing help, consumer protection, environmental benefit, or civic capacity without ordinary purchase lock-in.

Good Deal Verified Medium confidence Human-reviewed

13CALPIRG Students's own materials describe policy advocacy, lobbying, candidate support, public-pressure campaigns, or citizen mobilization aimed at changing public rules.

Policy Capture Verified Medium confidence Human-reviewed

14CALPIRG Students's model recruits, trains, bills, or mobilizes students and young organizers, making youth-culture and early-career capture a direct axis-specific concern.

Youth Capture Verified Medium confidence Human-reviewed

15CALPIRG Students's model includes recurring donations, student-fee pledges, membership fundraising, or contact acquisition that can outlast the initial moment of consent.

Subscription Capture Verified Medium confidence Human-reviewed

16CALPIRG Students's public materials do not give a complete plain-language map of governance control, related entities, fund flows, staff power, and constituent consent.

Accountability Opacity Verified Medium confidence Human-reviewed

17CALPIRG Students's mission framing can bind staff, students, donors, and volunteers to a moralized activist identity as well as to specific practical public goals.

Identity Capture Verified Medium confidence Human-reviewed

18CALPIRG Students's public language often presents a contested political program as public interest, fairness, science, democracy, or nonpartisan necessity rather than as an explicit ideological standpoint.

Ideological Disavowal Verified Medium confidence Human-reviewed

Alternatives

AGOOD54 tentative score Child Care Aware of America nonprofit childcare resource and referral organization · same market AGOOD52 tentative score Boys & Girls Clubs of America nonprofit youth-development federation · same market AGOOD51 tentative score YMCA of the USA nonprofit youth, childcare, fitness, and community-services network · same market BQUALIFIED48 tentative score Common App nonprofit college-application platform · same market AGOOD57 tentative score Khan Academy nonprofit education platform · Global

Competitors

AGOOD54 tentative score Child Care Aware of America nonprofit childcare resource and referral organization · same market AGOOD52 tentative score Boys & Girls Clubs of America nonprofit youth-development federation · same market AGOOD51 tentative score YMCA of the USA nonprofit youth, childcare, fitness, and community-services network · same market BQUALIFIED48 tentative score Common App nonprofit college-application platform · same market DEXTRACTIVE32 tentative score National Student Clearinghouse nonprofit education-data and verification organization · same market DEXTRACTIVE29 tentative score ETS nonprofit educational testing and assessment organization · same market DEXTRACTIVE14 tentative score Bright Horizons public employer-sponsored childcare and education company · same market DEXTRACTIVE14 tentative score College Board nonprofit college-admissions and assessment organization · same market

Help Improve This Profile

Submit source-backed evidence or challenge a specific claim, source, axis value, or calculation below.

How This Page Is Maintained

Evidence comes in through contributors, is checked by verifiers, and is synthesized by reviewers. Founder authority remains narrow and visible; scores recalculate when verified claims or the rubric change.

Civic Note

Incorporation, limited liability, market access, and other institutional privileges are public grants. Good Companies Directory treats those privileges as conditional on accountability to workers, users, communities, and the public.

Submit evidence for CALPIRG Students Add one source-backed fact for review.

Challenge this rating Point to a specific score, claim, source, or calculation problem.

Audit Log

Recent public changes for this company or group. The full audit log is part of the Transparency record.

No company-specific audit entries have been published yet.

View Full Audit Log