February 28, 2010 — The Massachusetts chapter of the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now—part of the national ACORN nonprofit which came under fire last fall in connection with allegations of illegal schemes, and which subsequently was vindicated—has split off and renamed itself the New England United for Justice.

The move in Massachusetts, which involved creation of a new 501(c)(3) organization, follows similar actions in New York and California, according to reports in The Christian Science Monitor and The Nonprofit Quarterly, while national ACORN continues to exist.

Although Massachusetts ACORN offices had existed in Boston, Brockton, and Springfield, it is not known if they will continue under the new organizational structure. However, there was no immediate way to contact the New England United for Justice and websites for Massachusetts ACORN were not functioning.

ACORN had been the nation’s largest grassroots organization of low and moderate income families working on neighborhood improvement campaigns, with more than 400,000 member families organized into more than 1,200 neighborhood chapters in about 75 cities across the country.

Following reports last fall of improprieties, including videos of ACORN staffers offering advice to a woman and a man posing as a prostitute and her boyfriend, former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger conducted a management review of the national organization. He found that ACORN staffers had not broken any laws.

Among the recommendations included in Harshbarger’s 47-page report were that ACORN should:

• Return its organizational focus to its core competency – community organizing and citizen engagement empowerment, with related services.
• Develop a simplified national organization and board structure consisting of just two entities – a 501(c)(3) for charitable, non-profit fundraising, advocacy, and education with a majority of independent members, and a 501(c)(4) for support of ACORN community organization and political activity, with at least one-third independent members.
• Continue to implement the comprehensive internal governance program and strategy, including internal controls, compliance, and codes of ethics, designed to educate and guide staff, volunteers, and board members, that was recommended and has been adopted within the past year.
• Recruit an independent ethics officer and/or independent inspector general.
• Hire an appropriately qualified and experienced chief operating and financial officer, comptroller, and in-house auditing staff.

Critics, including many conservative political commentators, harshly criticized ACORN in connection with the alleged misdoings and subsequently condemned Harshbarger’s report.

Until the controversy over the videos, 10% of ACORN's funds came from federal government grants. In September, Congress blocked previously approved funds from going to ACORN, according to the Associated Press.