ACORN is not dead. That’s the message from ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis, who issued a letter to supporters on Friday saying that “ACORN is alive” despite its plan to close all its local chapters.

In the morale-boosting letter, Lewis wrote that the work of the community activist group “has literally changed our country and exceeded expectations.”

Lewis went on to explain that as ACORN grew into a major political force in America, it left itself “open to legitimate criticism from our allies and vulnerable to slanderous attacks from our corporate-funded opponents.”