Whst does Crowds on Demand pay for protesting
Executive summary
Crowds on Demand pays people who work for its campaigns at variable rates that depend on the task, location and urgency: reporting and the company itself place hourly work and back-office tasks in the $25–$30 per hour range, while live-event protest roles are paid in “the low hundreds” per assignment or “under $500” per day, with some outlets summarizing a $100–$500 per‑day spread [1][2][3][4][5][6]. Exact fees scale with logistics, role, and client budgets and the firm positions protests as a purchasable PR product rather than a flat per‑person rate [7][3].
1. What the company advertises and charges clients
Crowds on Demand markets itself as a full-service “crowds for hire” and advocacy firm that sells protests, rallies, phone‑banking and other campaign services to clients, offering custom quotes that can range from under $20,000 to six‑ or seven‑figure budgets depending on scope, speed and services—language the firm uses on its website and quote materials [7][6]. CEO Adam Swart describes organizing a protest as “like buying an ad,” signaling that client invoices cover planning, logistics and personnel rather than a simple headcount fee [3][7].
2. What workers and reporting say they actually receive
Multiple journalistic reports and watchdog summaries converge on two pay bands: routine remote or phone‑banking tasks commonly start at about $25–$30 per hour, while attendance and speaking roles at live events typically pay more, usually in the low hundreds of dollars per person for a day’s work [1][2][8][6]. NewsNation quoted a self‑identified contractor saying the company’s day rate is “under $500,” and The Hill and Fox reporting relay Swart’s public statements that protest compensation is “typically in the low hundreds,” without producing a public rate card [4][3][9].
3. How that translates into total campaign costs
Independent cost analyses and industry summaries show how per‑person pay is only one line item: urgent or large‑scale protests attract premiums for travel, staffing, signage, permitting and campaign management, so a buyer’s total bill can scale quickly beyond per‑person rates into five‑ or six‑figure territory [6][7]. Thepricer and similar aggregators model per‑person payments in the $100–$300 range for in‑person roles while noting that bespoke bids and outlier proposals can push totals much higher [6].
4. Rules, nondisclosure and who they hire
Public reporting indicates Crowds on Demand often requires contractors to sign nondisclosure agreements and sometimes recruits genuine activists for issue‑aligned assignments; watchdog profiles say contractors have reported hourly wages of $25–$30 and that the firm typically does not publicly name clients [1][2][7]. Swart has publicly framed the company as nonpartisan and emphasized legal, peaceful work, but he has also declined to disclose specific client lists to preserve business relationships [3][1].
5. Conflicting claims, misinformation and limits of available reporting
Coverage contains a spread of figures—some outlets quote $25–$30 per hour, others report $100–$500 per day, and a later NewsNation claim put the day rate “under $500,” reflecting variation by role and time; public sources do not produce a single, company‑published rate card, so precise standard pay rates for every assignment cannot be confirmed from available reporting [4][3][1][6]. Claims that every protester in any given event is paid or that Crowds on Demand always supplies the majority of attendees are not established by the cited sources; the company and reporting instead emphasize customized contracts and a mix of paid performers and genuine supporters depending on the brief [7][2].
6. Bottom line: what “pay for protesting” usually means in practice
“Pay for protesting” in the Crowds on Demand model typically means contractors receive modest hourly pay for remote advocacy work and higher, variable per‑assignment payments for in‑person protest roles—commonly characterized in reporting as low hundreds per person per assignment or under $500 a day—while clients pay a bundled fee that covers staging, personnel and management [1][2][3][4][6]. The exact numbers depend on assignment type, geography and urgency, and public documentation stops short of a definitive published rate card, so any single figure should be understood as a representative range rather than a universal rule [6][7].