December 31, 2014 To Invisible Children supporters past present and future

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. mass mobilization programs and operations at the end of 2014 to prioritize our political advocacy initiatives and central Africa programs in 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 has become increasingly difficult to fund the full breadth of programs and operations we developed over the years.

So based on financial projections, we have decided that the best and most responsible decision was to redirect resources away from our media and mass-awareness efforts in the U.S. and to focus all remaining funds (and future fundraising) on the programs that are most critical to our mission, in light of the current dynamics of the LRA conflict. At the same time we also decided to hand off ownership of our Ugandan programs and offices to in-country 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 have moved on to new things, including our executive leadership.

What exists now is a lean, focused team of our most experienced staff, doing the hard work in the trenches – on Capitol Hill and in remote corners 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 an office building. We believe in the integrity of this movement and that your commitment will endure with or without a trending hashtag. So in many ways, we are back where we started out, a bunch of littles in a ragtag posse, committed to seeing an end to LRA violence. Except now we have 10 years of knowledge and experience with the LRA conflict, trusting relationships with community leaders, huge political gains, and some incredible, life-saving programs in the region under our belt.

We won’t lie, it hurt to let go of really special people and programs in the U.S. 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