In 2003, there were about 1,586 regional, national, and international organizations within the state. Among business or professional organizations with headquarters in Louisiana are the Federated Pecan Growers' Associations of the US and the Louisiana Historical Association, currently in Lafayette; the National Rice Growers Association at Jennings; and the Federal Court Clerks Association and the Southern Forest Products Association, both in New Orleans. Blue Key, a national honor society, has its headquarters in Metairie. The American Bone Marrow Donor Registry is based in Mandeville.
State and local organization for the arts include the Acadiana Arts Council, the Louisiana Division of the Arts, the Louisiana Preservation Alliance, the New Orleans Jazz Club, the North Central Louisiana Arts Council, and the Northeast Louisiana Arts Council.
Civil rights groups represented in the state include the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Urban League. Especially active during the 1970s were the local branches of the American Civil Liberties Union, the Louisiana Coalition on Jails and Prisons, and its legal arm, the Southern Prisoners Defense Council, and the Fishermen's and Concerned Citizens Association of Plaquemines Parish, which organized a campaign against the continued domination of the parish by the descendants of Leander Perez, a racist judge who wielded power there for 50 years until his death in 1969.
The Invisible Empire, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, is headquartered in Denham Springs.