The activation of rural aging resources aligns with the evolutionary patterns of aging and facilitates the achievement of a win-win situation between elderly care and development. However, it encounters cumulative obstacles stemming from organizational dilemmas, cognitive dilemmas, and opportunistic dilemmas. Drawing on structuralization theory and through an analysis of cases from Hubei, Chongqing, and Hebei provinces, this study constructs four interconnected mechanisms through which social organizations activate rural aging resources within the interplay of theory and practice: integration and absorption, sense-making, advantage transformation, and interconnected feedback. Leveraging rules and resources, social organizations organize rural elderly individuals, shape positive perceptions of aging roles as an internal driving force, create opportunities to facilitate the value transformation of rural aging resources across multiple functional dimensions such as welfare, economic benefits, and governance, and demonstrate interconnected effects of concurrent welfare production and the growth of village communality. This research systematically examines the internal mechanisms through which social organizations activate rural aging resources, offering practical insights for the development and utilization of rural aging resources.