The nonprofit group 1000 Friends of New Mexico is shutting down its operations after more than a decade of working for “sustainable development and equitable growth,” finding itself a victim of hard financial times and the competing demands for its supporters’ dollars.

Gabriel Nims, who has been executive director of the group for two years, said the downhill slide started several years ago but gained momentum in recent months. “We just couldn’t get the support quick enough that we needed,” he told NMI. “We’ve been raising money all along the way, but not enough to sustain us.”

1000 Friends formed in 1995, but its efforts really took off a few years later, Nims said. The group was headquartered in Albuquerque, but its stated goal was to promote policies and actions “that respect New Mexico’s people and places by offering long-term models for growth that improve the region’s economic vitality.”

The small staff worked on a range of issues, including climate change, transportation, housing and economic development. It had a strong voice in the debate over the controversial use of tax increment financing to fund development around the state. One of its larger efforts, the New Mexico Water Project under the direction of Conci Bokum, is hoped to continue under different auspices, Nims said.

1000 Friends will be sorely missed, said Anne Stauffer, policy analyst for New Mexico Voices for Children. “I think it’s a huge loss,” she said. Her group worked closely with 1000 Friends on the broader issues of state tax policy and “smart growth,” she said. “They were a really helpful resource in terms of understanding some of the many issues involved.”

The 1000 Friends office shut down in September. Its board of directors will continue to meet after the official shutdown at the end of October and will consider reorganizing under a different model to remain “impactful,” Nims said.

The group once had an operating budget of more than $500,000 a year, but fund-raising efforts couldn’t keep pace with expenses, Nims said. “We knew what we were up against six months ago,” but the combination of political campaign fund raising and the failing economy worked against them, he said.

“Folks were using their dollars for political campaigns or to fill their gas tanks and there wasn’t enough left” to keep groups like 1000 Friends afloat, Nims said. “Had we had another six months or so, I think we’d have been able to do all right. But things weren’t falling into place quick enough for us.”