The Clean Elections Institute closed its office, shut down its Web site and stopped issuing paychecks to staff members after an emergency fundraising effort came up short.

The nonprofit group is now using volunteers to continue advocating for the state's public campaign finance system.

In December, the Clean Elections Institute's director Eric Ehst implored supporters of Arizona's Clean Elections system to give cash to help the organization offset the loss of a $50,000 donation from the Piper Fund, a Massachusetts-based group that last year told the Clean Elections Institute it did not have the money to contribute.

Apparently, that effort was unsuccessful.

Now the Clean Elections Institute is led by Bart Turner, president of the organization's board of directors, and Anne Eschinger, who has served with the League of Women Voters and now heads up the Clean Elections Institute's action fund.

Eschinger said the group has not ceased operations.

"I don't like the term closed down," she said. "Everything exists about the office except the physical space."

Ehst could not be reached for comment April 8.

But in a previous interview, Ehst said defending the 1998 Voter Protection Act was the group's first priority. The act requires a three-fourths legislative supermajority to amend voter initiatives, and it outlines that any changes must further the purpose of the original initiative.

The Voter Protection Act serves as guardian to the Clean Elections Act, an initiative also passed by voters in 1998 that ushered in Arizona's system of publicly financed campaigns for candidates running for legislative and statewide offices.

The Piper Fund has sponsored successful campaign finance reform efforts in Arizona, Connecticut and Maine, served as the Clean Elections Institute's sole national provider in 2008.