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Street Roots, the nonprofit organization and newspaper that’s best known for contracting with houseless people to sell weekly editions of its issues on local sidewalks, is asking for money amid what it explains is a budget crunch.
The organization says it’s looking to raise $288,000 by Sept. 30 as part of an “emergency fundraising campaign.” It’s already raised another $312,000 from private donors since June, Street Roots said.
Street Roots cited a number of factors that led to cash flow problems: moving into a new headquarters in Old Town late last year but not having the cash flow to cover operational costs; what the nonprofit called “optimistic hiring and program expansion decisions made without the financial infrastructure to support that growth”; inadequate grant and donor monies; and leadership turnover.
The highest profile turnover happened late last year when Kaia Sand, the longtime executive director of Street Roots, went on leave for undisclosed reasons and resigned shortly after. At the time, the Street Roots Board of Directors declined to answer questions about Sand’s departure.
The board brought in an organizational consultant named Rebecca Nickels to serve as interim executive director while searching for a permanent one. It appears the search is still on.
In a document Street Roots shared with WW about its funding campaign, Street Roots did not name Sand directly but did describe more in depth what it called “the exit of key leadership staff” last year.
“After listening and learning more, we recognized that necessary checks and balances were not in place and understood that leadership decisions needed to be made with more oversight from the Board,” the document reads, adding that the board is “currently drafting an Executive Limitations policy that will provide clearer oversight of and guidance to the new Executive Director.”
Sand’s departure dovetailed with Street Roots’ move to a gleaming new headquarters in Old Town, aided by a $1.1 million grant from the Portland Clean Energy Fund, a climate tax on large retailers. But now, Street Roots is saying it’s unable to cover operational costs at the new building.
“This was highly ambitious, and although we secured enough funds to move into the building, we did not reach our overall goal to cover operational costs, putting our cash flow at risk,” Street Roots said in a public document about the fundraising effort.
Nick Bjork, the chair of the board, tells WW that some “unanticipated, significant one-time costs last year” also ate into Street Roots’ cash reserves. One such example was the additional staff hired to help with expanding programming when Street Roots moved into its new building. “We have since cut those new roles as we worked to focus on our core services,” Bjork said.
Bjork says the other one-time liabilities “have been paid and aren’t expected to come up again.”
The newsroom’s editor in chief, K. Rambo, said in a statement: “The Street Roots newspaper provides a vital source of information for Portlanders who believe powerful people and institutions should operate with transparency and accountability. At a time when investigative journalism on behalf of marginalized communities is vanishingly rare, losing this award-winning newspaper would be devastating for readers and vendors alike.”
