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Please note: The AGO web site is no longer being updated. As time goes on, it is increasingly likely that links to external sites may no longer be correct. We apologize for any inconvenience.

 

AGO Suspends Operations

June 21, 2004

Dear AGO members and friends,

It is with great sadness that we, your board of directors, write this letter. Effective immediately, Alternatives to Growth Oregon is suspending operations indefinitely. We take this action, obviously not because AGO has fulfilled its mission, but because we no longer have sufficient funds to continue. Our situation is akin to a small business failing due to inadequate capital.

AGO was launched in late 1999. Shortly thereafter, the economy slowed and the stock market bubble burst. After 9/11, most nonprofit organizations suffered declines in new member recruitment and giving from existing members. The impact was that many of the foundations that we anticipated funding from were unable to help. This limited our ability to fund program work, as well as efforts to broaden and deepen our funding base to a sustainable level.

Recently, several foundations that previously funded AGO indicated they were not able to continue. Foundation giving levels are still severely depressed as a result of the sluggish economy. Compounding this shortage of resources has been the unprecedented assault on the environment by the Bush Administration and Congress. Foundations and donors have had no choice but to concentrate their funding on mostly defensive efforts. AGO's big-picture and very-long-term mission lost out to the more pressing short-term needs of organizations coping with these unprecedented assaults.

The irony is not lost upon us: AGO's short-term ability to continue its long-term mission to move Oregon toward a sustainable economy was harmed by the "slowdown" in Oregon's economy. Rather than racing down the road at 100 miles per hour, the Oregon economy has slowed to 99 mph. Rather than seeking alternatives to growth many political, business and civic leaders are determined to ignore the results of past practices and simply speed up the economy.

AGO never had a large staff to begin with, so program cuts were not an option. Nor did we exist long enough to develop an endowment that could sustain us. AGO weathered the economic conditions for as long as we could, but can do so no longer.

Like you, we still strongly believe in AGO's mission:

To leave succeeding generations of Oregonians a more economically prosperous, environmentally healthy, and socially just State by encouraging progress toward a sustainable society, and discouraging growth focused on increased population and consumption.

We sincerely hope AGO members will continue to support that mission by remaining active and involved in the affairs of your communities and our state.

As board members, we couldn't have asked for better staff. Existing staff members Sarah Bidwell, Chuck Adams and Richard Reid have served AGO with distinction, as did our former executive directors Sarah Sameh and Candice Guth.

Words fail to express our sincere appreciation to you, AGO members and donors, for your support. We also want to thank the foundations that did take a risk on an organization that had a mission unlike any other.

AGO has left behind a legacy of successes including: a dramatic increase in public awareness of the true costs of growth, the compilation of a significant body of research materials and reports documenting those costs, and dissemination of that information to elected and appointed officials, non-profit organizations and volunteer activists throughout Oregon. And finally, AGO leaves behind a large group of concerned citizens who will continue to advance the conviction that to prosper Oregon need not depend upon continued and unending growth in population and consumption.

AGO's infrastructure (computers, office, furniture, etc.) is being given to the Environmental Education Association of Oregon whose mission is to promote a sustainable environment through education. Living Within Limits, AGO’s education program, and all accompanying materials are being given to the Columbia Group of the Sierra Club, our partner in this project. Our web site, www.AGOregon.org, will remain on-line, but will no longer be updated. It contains an archive of the documents we have produced, in the hope that others will use them to carry on AGO's mission.

Northwest Environment Watch has graciously agreed to extend membership for you in their fine organization for the remainder of your AGO membership term.

NEW's mission is to promote an environmentally sound economy and way of life in the Pacific Northwest. Founded in 1993 by Alan Durning, Northwest Environment Watch is an independent, non-profit research and communication center based in Seattle. All of us at AGO have been highly impressed with NEW's work and have cited their literature extensively. We hope you will renew your membership with them when your transferred AGO membership expires. NEW will be contacting you shortly.

The forces that led to the creation of AGO—unsustainable growth in consumption and population and their effects on everything from wilderness to congestion—have not changed. There is no doubt that our mission will again take organizational form when the time is right. Oregonians will not sit still for what is happening and will again go directly to the roots of the problem, rather than battling or containing the symptoms. Whether that will take the form of a resurrected AGO or something new we cannot forecast. All of us—board and staff—will continue our commitment to keep Oregon Oregon, albeit in different ways. In the meantime, we encourage you to do the same.

Thank you again for your support.

For Oregon,

Andy Kerr Chair	Tom Coffee Vice Chair	Betty McArdle Secretary	Brian Beinlich Treasurer
David Johns Board Member	Lewis McFarland Board Member	John Baldwin Board Member	Jeff Rogers Board Member

 

Please note: The AGO web site is no longer being updated. As time goes on, it is increasingly likely that links to external sites may no longer be correct. We apologize for any inconvenience.

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