ACORN's priorities included: better housing and wages for the poor, more community development investment from banks and governments, better public schools, labor-oriented causes and social justice issues.

[6] There are currently ACORN affiliates in Cameroon, Canada, Czech Republic, England,[7] France,[8] Honduras, India, Ireland, Italy, Kenya, Peru, Scotland,[9] Tunisia, United States, and Wales.

[7][10] In the US, ACORN suffered a damaging nationwide controversy in the fall of 2009 after James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles secretly made, edited and released videos of interactions with low-level ACORN personnel in several of their offices, leading to several investigations by state officials that concluded the videos were inaccurately portraying the personnel as encouraging criminal behavior.

The settlement created a $72 million foreclosure avoidance program to provide relief to household borrowers who were at risk of losing their homes.

[32] The Hudson County Superior Court struck down the ordinance on the grounds that it violated the New Jersey Constitution's Equal Protection clause, and a state statute prohibiting towns and municipalities from enacting firearms legislation.

[33] In 2009, ACORN advocated allowing homeowners delinquent in their mortgage payments to remain in their homes pending a government solution to the housing foreclosure crisis.

[36][37][38][39][40] In May 2009, six ACORN employees in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty to charges of a combined total of 51 counts of forgery and other violations while registering voters during the 2008 election cycle.

[50][51] In April 2011, ACORN entered a guilty plea to one count of felony compensation for registration of voters, for which they were fined $5,000,[52] but did not concede that the law was constitutional.