Western Progress

Behind Closure, a Muddle of Fickle Donors, Poor Management

By Robert Struckman, 10-16-08

Even as Colorado State House majority leader and Western Progress board chairwoman Alice Madden said she’s in the process of nailing down the large donors necessary to reopen the doors of the progressive think tank with offices in Missoula, Denver and Phoenix, questions remain about what caused it to unexpectedly close earlier this month.

“We’re re-organized and ready to get funding,” Madden said in a lengthy telephone interview. “It might take a couple more weeks. Frankly, I want to make sure we have enough.”

Madden declined to name the backers, saying discussions with them were ongoing and sensitive.

All week, since NewWest.Net broke the news of its closure, founder and former U.S. Rep. Pat Williams in Missoula has characterized the nonpartisan nonprofit’s setback as temporary. As for why its 10 employees have been working at home without pay? “I don’t know what to call it. A reneging?” Williams said.

Williams and Madden, both Democrats, and others said liberal donors remain eager to fund organizations like Western Progress to counter the well-established constellation of well-funded rightwing think tanks such as the Cato Institute, which had in 2006 an annual operating budget of about $19 million, according to its most recent tax documents.

Still, it’s a difficult time to be looking for donors to give new money.

“It’s tough, because everywhere you go, people are worried about the economy,” Madden said.

“This possible shutdown comes at a time when progressivism is on a significant comeback,” Williams said. “We’re several years into it in the Rocky Mountains, a region which has a long progressive history. We’ve just had a 20-year rightwing hiccup. We were trying to help restore the progressive policies of the West that was, and is again.”

Until last June, most of Western Progress’s annual budget came from two individuals who gave $500,000 apiece.

“Private money is wildly fickle,” Williams said, adding that both donors had committed to giving for three years. Western Progress has only been open about 18 months, and it only began operating independently this year. Previously, it operated as part of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for American Progress, which has spent some $21 million in 2005, according to its taxes.

One of Western Progress’s two big donors was Pennsylvania engineer, entrepreneur and philanthropist Hansjörg Wyss, who declined to comment for this story.

Wyss has a nonprofit foundation, although he funded Western Progress from his own money, said Wyss Foundation director Molly McUsic. That distinction didn’t impede McUsic three years ago from visiting Missoula to tout Wyss’ involvement with the group.

As for why Wyss initially gave such a significant gift and why he stopped, she said, “Honest to God, I don’t have any idea what he was doing…. I would not take a one-time gift as a sign that he didn’t think it was worthwhile.”

Apparently, it’s not that Wyss has been cowed by the weak economy. This month, he granted $125 million to Harvard University for a bioengineering center. It’s the largest gift in that university’s flush history.

About Wyss, Madden said little, except to venture that the philanthropist’s interest in the West seems to have diminished.

Williams and others also said Western Progress, aside from suffering at the whims of its backers, ran into trouble because of a management failure.

When asked to elaborate, Williams said the organization’s leaders failed to maintain good relationships with the primary funders. When pressed for more details, Williams said he didn’t have any. 

Madden, who joined the group’s board in June, said her role was to help fix the institute’s looming financial problems by raising money and cutting costs. She and others began looking for new donors, even as the national economy weakened and foundations and philanthropists curtailed giving.

On the subject of Western Progress’s leadership, which worked in the Phoenix office, Madden said little, except to say the organization’s costs were too high. She also said the strengths of Western Progress lay in its Montana and Denver offices of Western Progress, she said.

“The people in Missoula get it,” she said. “We want to keep the folks in Denver.”

Both Madden and Williams said the troubles at Western Progress have no bearing on the political need for the institute or the willingness of liberal donors to support left-leaning organizations to counter conservative thinkers in the war of ideas.

“My assessment is there is no big picture meaning in this,” Madden said. 

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