Building for the Long Haul
Sisters of the Road has never been shy about breaking from the mold with intention. 2025 saw our Board taking the time to do right, reforming the organization to stem burnout and bolster sustainability.
The story goes that before Sisters of the Road was founded, Genny Nelson, who was a social worker by trade, did an informal survey of folks in the Old Town community, asking them: “What do you need?” The responses were things like, “we need a place that’s safe,” and “we don’t want charity, my money is as good as anyone else’s and if I don’t have money maybe I could scrub some dishes,” and “I want to get a meal without having to listen to a sermon.” This was the genesis of the Sisters café: an open hand to our community.
This time last year, the Board found ourselves in that same position of slowing down and asking our community, “What do we need to do next?” The resounding answer was to get back on our feet and move in the direction of re-opening a “third space,” a place where our poor, unhoused, and marginally housed neighbors are welcomed in as full participants and contributors. But first came finding a new staff team. Here, too, we wanted to slow down and be intentional.
In short order, our all-volunteer Board of three rewrote the job description for our Executive Director, deciding now was the perfect time to break the mold. The Center for Effective Philanthropy found in 2024 that 76% of nonprofit leaders said staff burnout was impacting the organization’s ability to achieve its mission, and 33% of leaders said they were very much concerned by their own burnout. In trying to make Sisters’ Executive Director position sustainable we reexamined expectations. The salary was set to no more than twice the hourly rate of our lowest-paid employee and we made it clear that this new Executive Director will work no more than 40 hours each week. In the nonprofit world, this breaks with accepting burnout and churn as the cost of doing business. Yes, there will always be more work to do, but we want to do it well, sustainably, and for as long as it is needed. We believe we can support our staff just as much as we support our community.
Now came hiring this new Executive Director and rehiring our Systemic Change Team. Key to ensuring success was involving our community. We assembled a panel of interviewers including staff, board members, and former Roadies — members of our organizing arm for customers of the café. Together, our candidates were asked to prepare answers in each of six areas of focus, including everything from systemic change to staff relationships to executive leadership. We could not be more proud of the team we’ve assembled.
Our new Executive Director, Nicki Dardinger (they/them), brings two decades of nonprofit leadership, development experience, and a rare synthesis of strategic planning, staff management, fundraising, and communications expertise to Sisters. JJ Jones (they/them) is our new Systemic Change Director, and we’re excited to have them asking some big questions about how we can participate in larger coalition-building work in Portland while centering our unhoused and poorest neighbors’ roles in meeting their own needs. We also hired Katie Sponagle (she/they) as our Community Organizer. Katie bring a long history with Sisters as an embedded intern during her academic programs. Fresh from her Masters in Social Work, she has been absolutely indispensable in completing our Finding Home survey project.
Our staff team also includes Elias Olson (they/them), who joined the team in October as our Director of Development and Communications bringing a wealth of experience in relationship building, communications, and grassroots fundraising. Together with Sisters’ Communications Specialist, George Bonoan (they/them), they will be building and strengthening relationships with the thousands of people who are part of the Sisters movement and who make financial gifts in support of our community organizing and systemic change work.
It’s been amazing watching our new team dive into the work and make it their own, reconnecting with community partners where the relationship needed some tending, and bringing new relationships with them. As we prep and plan for the next chapter at Sisters of the Road, we are hopeful and excited about what we’re working on next.
