I want to take a moment to say thank you for your extraordinary support during the 2008 Matching Grant Challenge (and always!), and to update you on how we are doing, and welcome you to our 30th Anniversary Year in 2009! As our generous and committed partners, we want to stay in contact with you and let you know how and what we are doing, particularly during these economically challenging times.

First, thank you for another amazing Matching Grant Challenge! While we are about $70,000 behind our goals for the first six months of the year, an amount we will make up with a variety of budget cuts, we are deeply grateful, amazed and relieved to tell you we met our Matching Grant Goals. And, we were introduced to 939 new donors who raised $111,875 for Sisters during the new donor match! Thank you again to the Rose E. Tucker Charitable Trust, the Collins Foundation, Willamette Week Give!Guide and each of you, the astonishingly generous individuals and businesses who clearly gave their all to make sure December was a very good month.

Now we are in January and things feel much different. The pulse of the month is much slower than normal. Normally we do not have to ask for your support at this time as holiday gifts continue to come in. Usually in January we can just invite you to Winterfolk, our Martin Luther King Celebration, and prepare for Operation Cornbread. While we are hopeful for needed changes and the promise of a new future, we are worried about this year and we know many people are feeling the pinch of the times.

Yes, 2009 is already showing itself to be quite the challenge. We anticipate fewer services & supports for our Sisters’ community – the men, women, youth and children experiencing homelessness and/or extreme poverty. In the community, we also see financially stressed businesses and individuals, including leading non-profits providing essential services and solutions. The basic health of our community and our infrastructure is at risk. And we weren’t too robust going into this, as over 1,500 people were already sleeping on the streets every single night in Portland, Oregon and 15,000 students in Oregon alone identified themselves as homeless.

It is in these times that the work of Sisters is ever more important, providing not only hot, nutritious meals for $1.50, barter work, hospitality & livable wage jobs, but working on root causes and long-term solutions to stem the tide of growing homelessness and poverty.  We couldn’t do this work without your support – thank you for keeping it going and believing in community and systemic solutions.

There is really good news! While we are all stretched, it only takes a little from all of us to make it all happen. Sisters is blessed with over 18,000 people on our mailing list, an awesome number and a powerful consensus for good. If everyone on our mailing list who was able donated $30 for our 30th Anniversary we would be financially secure not only for 2009 but heading into the future.  We know not everyone can and many of you already give in many diverse ways- thank you!

Please click on the link to the right, mail a gift in, or stop by and donate to our 30th Anniversary Fund and help us raise the needed support to weather this crisis and keep our work strong. $30 from EACH of those of US who can possibly spare it, is all it takes.  I will be the first and make a $30 donation today.  Won’t you join me?  We are ceaselessly grateful for what you all make happen everyday – thank you!  And many thanks to the foundation and community leaders who are leading the way during this time and insisting that we will not make cuts that harm the most poor and vulnerable in our community. Your leadership and voices are very much appreciated.

With gratitude,

Monica Beemer, Executive Director
Sisters Of The Road
(503) 222-5694 ext. 19

Please donate $30 to our 30th Anniversary Fund today and help us raise the needed support to weather the economic times and keep strong in our work – thank you!