December 31, 2014 A message for all the past and present supporters of Invisible Children

Whether you slept outside with us in 2006 at the Global Night Commute to protest the use of child soldiers, rallied in the streets of DC for the passage of a bill that would make it U.S. law to capture Joseph Kony, surrounded Oprah Winfrey’s studio in Chicago to get the LRA story on the news, attended one of our 15,000+ film screenings or a Fourth Estate Conference or just saw one of our films online for the very first time: you are Invisible Children.

We announced in December of 2014 that Invisible Children would be downsizing the bulk of our U.S. programs and operations at the end of 2014 to prioritize our political advocacy and central Africa programs through 2015.

When our three founders got on a plane with a camera in 2003, they never imagined that the story they found would lead to this incredible journey. And sitting here eleven years later, we cannot believe how much we’ve been able to accomplish with all of you. But despite making incredible progress towards our mission, it was difficult to fund the breadth of our work we developed.

So based on financial projections, we have decided that the best decision was to shut down the media and mass-awareness efforts in the U.S. and to focus all remaining funds (and future fundraising) on the execution of our most essential programs. At the same time we also decided to hand off ownership of our Ugandan programs and offices to regional partners.

Because of this decision, things look a lot different. We don’t visit school in vans, we aren’t making new videos or selling t-shirts. We aren’t hosting major awareness events, benefit concerts, or grassroots fundraisers. We moved out of our San Diego office and the majority of our staff moved on, including our executive staff.

What exists now is a lean, experienced team doing the hard work in the trenches on Capitol Hill and in the heart of central Africa, maintaining the critical programs that are protecting communities targeted by the LRA and helping those in captivity safely find their way home.

We know that the momentum we all have created can still be a powerful force, with or without the walls of a building. We believe in the integrity of this movement and that your commitment will endure with or without a trending hashtag. So, we are back where we started out, a bunch of littles in a ragtag posse, volunteering to act when called upon.

And we won’t lie, it hurt to let go of the parts of our work that we did. But we are so proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish together: a 92% reduction in LRA killings in the last 3 years, 1.8 million displaced people returned to their communities, 2,659 people abducted by the LRA returned to their families in the last four years, 11 Ugandan schools rebuilt, 6,000+ Ugandan scholarships awarded, 3.7 million pledges delivered, two bills passed through U.S. Congress, and so much more. Your voice and work has made (and continues to make) all the difference, and we are forever grateful for your choice to join us in this journey.

We hope that you are proud of the decision we made. We believe it is the best way forward to support an end to this conflict.

Every dollar we raise this year will enable us to continue this work and responsibly handover our programs to local community partners in 2016.

We’re not quitting, because we won’t stop until every captive man, woman, and child is out of the LRA.

Peace,
Invisible Children