PopEd in WI, 2019

Our Mission and Goals

Population Education staff and educators at a leadership institute for new volunteer trainers

Mission Statement

Overpopulation threatens the quality of life for people everywhere. Population Connection is the national grassroots population organization that educates young people and advocates progressive action to stabilize world population at a level that can be sustained by Earth’s resources.

Organization Overview

Membership Based

Founded in 1968, Population Connection (formerly Zero Population Growth or ZPG) is the largest grassroots population organization in the United States! Population Connection works at the intersection of demography, health and human rights, and sustainable development. We have more than 40,000 members and hundreds of thousands more supporters and participating educators working together to build a more sustainable future for the planet and all its inhabitants.

Our public outreach informs Americans about the challenges population growth poses for efforts around poverty alleviation, women’s empowerment, natural resource availability, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and biodiversity preservation. And when people are informed about population challenges and take them to heart, they tend to act in ways that advance efforts toward population stabilization, whether by voting in support of progressive family planning programs and funding levels, making thoughtful and informed choices about their own family size, or educating their communities and networks about population challenges.

Major Programs

  • We develop K-12 curricula and secondary education materials for teachers and professors so they can easily incorporate population studies into their classes. These materials are teacher-tested, and many of them are available at no cost!
  • We lead grassroots outreach efforts to college students across the country to motivate them to take action on behalf of marginalized communities and our beleaguered planet.
  • We keep our dedicated members and supporters up to date on population research, news, and trends through our quarterly magazine, regular virtual events, and newsletters (sign up here!).
  • We work with newspapers and other media outlets to include population growth in their coverage of other major global challenges.
  • We support 19 small organizations in Latin America, Africa, and Asia that are working to increase access to public health and family planning services, remove barriers to girls’ education, and protect wildlife in biodiversity hotspots.

People

Board of Directors

Our Board of Directors is made up of dedicated demographers, professors, teachers, medical professionals, lawyers, non-profit leaders, and more. Board members meet three times a year and volunteer their time throughout the year to ensure that our finances are in order and that our programs are operating at the highest level possible. If you are interested in learning more about Population Connection board membership and whether you might be a good fit, please contact us at info@popconnect.org!

Staff

Population Connection staff come to the organization from all regions of the U.S., from Maine to Hawaii, and from all types of professional backgrounds, from working on Capitol Hill to teaching in K-12 classrooms to cooking for one of the finest restaurants in the DC area. We are a diverse bunch, but we all share one thing in common: our passion for protecting the planet through population stabilization. If you share that passion, consider a job with Population Connection! You can find open positions here.

Teacher Trainers

Our Population Education (PopEd) program is the only one of its kind in Northern America, and we couldn’t reach the 3 million K-12 students who benefit from our lesson plans without our network of teacher trainers. These essential volunteers lead workshops for other educators and pre-service teachers to familiarize them with PopEd curriculum materials. They hugely augment the outreach that our staff is able to do, and we truly couldn’t do what we do without them.

Activists

Our activists help us make our mark on Capitol Hill by contacting their members of Congress about important legislation that impacts population trends, and by motivating others around them to do the same. We engage activists from all over the country, and we have a targeted, in-person presence in six congressional districts: Phoenix, AZ; Tucson, AZ; Manchester, NH; Las Vegas, NV; Columbus, OH; and Lehigh Valley, PA. Learn about our policy priorities here!

Members

Our 40,000 members are the heartbeat of the organization. Without them, Population Connection wouldn’t exist. The organization is funded entirely by individuals and a few small family foundations that share a commitment to population stabilization for the sake of people (present and future) and the planet and its wondrous biodiversity. Our members are environmentalists who understand and care about the long game — they know (and want everyone else to know as well!) that without population stabilization, any efforts toward environmental protection or sustainable development are futile. Knowing that our rapid population growth is outrunning all good efforts to improve the lives of the poorest people on Earth and to preserve the planet for future generations, our members dedicate their time and resources to achieving zero population growth through human-rights-based means — namely, through access to voluntary family planning for all who currently have an unmet need. If you share these concerns and want to work toward a solution that benefits everyone, everywhere, please join us as a new member!

Philosophy

Our Core Values

  • Effective: We hold ourselves accountable to achieving and communicating clearly defined goals and metrics.
  • Inclusive: We create an open, collaborative space where all stakeholders, including staff, partners, beneficiaries, and supporters are and feel respected, have a sense of belonging, and are able to achieve their potential.
  • Thoughtful: We have a nuanced understanding of the connections between population, health, and the environment and carefully consider the well-being of each other, our global community, and the living planet.
  • Purposeful: We passionately advocate and educate to foster a better, safer, less crowded world for future generations and for the natural world.
  • Rights-based: We uphold sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice so that people everywhere can live meaningful lives free of coercion and rooted in their own choices.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice (DEIJ)

A commitment to DEIJ is at the heart of the organization’s mission and programming. Population Connection advocates on behalf of the most marginalized people in the world: women and children in low-resource settings. The organization also looks out for its employees by offering generous leave, outstanding insurance, competitive salaries, and a supportive working environment. Read more about our DEIJ commitments here.

If women are not educated, empowered and given free access to contraceptives and abortion services, Homo sapiens have no chance at a sustainable future. We all need to acknowledge that 8 billion humans overwhelming the planet is a ticket to catastrophe. Population Connection is the only organization that I know of which passionately spreads the truth of population reality. Thank you. Peace. David S. High, Population Connection Member