March 23, 2010 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Acorn, the community-organizing group, announced on Monday that it will fold within several weeks, and close all state affiliates and field offices by April 1.
The organization has suffered criticism and falling revenues since last fall, after video footage emerged showing some of its workers advising conservative activists who were posing as a pimp and a prostitute seeking ways to hide their criminal activities.
That incident and others led Congress to cut off federal money to Acorn, which stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. The Internal Revenue Service dropped Acorn from its Voluntary Income Tax Assistance program, and private supporters cut back on donations.
Without federal funds, Acorn’s national budget dropped from $24-million in 2009 to $6-million in 2010.
In February, the Brooklyn district attorney’s office concluded that Acorn employees shown in the video had not taken part in any criminal behavior.
‘McCarthy Era’ Attacks
In a statement released Saturday, one day before the group’s board voted to close the organization, Bertha Lewis, Acorn’s chief executive, said the group had “faced a series of well-orchestrated, relentless, well-funded right wing attacks that are unprecedented since the McCarthy era.”
“For Acorn as a national organization, our vindication on the facts doesn’t necessarily pay the bills,” Ms. Lewis said.
The statement released by the group on Monday said Acorn would be “developing a plan to resolve all outstanding debts, obligations, and other issues.”
Many of Acorn’s more than 30 state chapters had already reorganized under new names. Calls to several chapter offices were not answered on Tuesday morning.
Acorn drew on its 400,000 members to lobby for liberal causes, such as raising the minimum wage or adopting universal health care. The group also registered hundreds of thousands of low-income voters, but Republicans accused the group of fraud in registering voters.
John Atlas, a public-interest lawyer and author of a forthcoming book about Acorn, said Tuesday he expects that 17 of the state chapters will receive enough private support to be able to reorganize and carry on similar work under new names and better management systems. He expects some national affiliation to emerge among the survivors.
“One of Acorn’s strengths was that it could operate on a local, state, regional, and national level,” Mr. Atlas said. “That’s what made it unique from any other community-organizing model.”
