The Alternatives for Washington program was an effort in social planning sponsored by the Washington State Office of Policy Planning and Fiscal Management (OFM). Several departments at Washington State University assisted with conducting meeting, collecting responses to opinion polls, and producing media presentations. These included Cooperative Extension, which maintained the records described below, along with the Social Research Center and Radio-Television Services. Other members of the WSU faculty participated in various of the study groups and committees formed to carry out work of the program.

The first phase of the Alternatives program was largely an opinion-collection program. It featured many open meetings and mail surveys. The questions concerned matters such as "quality of life," the desirability of rural vs. urban settings, development of suburban areas, air and water pollution, population growth, public social services and so on. A second phase involved another series of public meetings and polls. It was directed at costs and trade-offs.

The results of the program were somewhat general and inconclusive. People wanted growth and environmental quality with a government that was less costly and easier to understand.

The program began in early 1974 and ended early in 1977.