Lindsey Norlander Looks Beyond the Dress – Oregon Business

Dress for Success Oregon Executive Director Speaks
about the organization's commitment to supporting women and gender diverse people in the workforce and beyond.

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Dressing for Success in Oregon The organization was founded in 1999 in a Portland-area garage, becoming the seventh branch of an organization that began two years earlier in a New York City church basement. As its name suggests, the organization has provided and continues to provide clothing to women who need something to wear to a job interview or a new job. But the reach of the national and local organizations has expanded far beyond that, to provide job training and development, networking opportunities, financial education and access to other resources, including at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic new laptops and internet access for clients who suddenly found themselves working from home but without the right technology to do their jobs. The organization has served more than 30,000 clients over 25 years. A DFSO spokesperson says that in 2022, 73% of customers surveyed were receiving welfare, but two years later, only 36% of respondents were still receiving welfare.

Lindsey Norlander became DFSO’s executive director in February, after six years with the Oregon affiliate and 11 years with the organization overall. She began working at Dress for Success Houston as a volunteer manager in 2014. In 2023, Norlander moved to Oregon; she worked as a DFSO volunteer and store manager, director of programming and community engagement, and interim executive director before taking on the role of permanent executive director. Prior to working with Dress for Success, Norlander consulted with nonprofits on fundraising and grant writing. Norlander’s experience also includes a stint teaching English as a second language in Thailand and serving as a liaison with a Thai orphanage, working with potential adoptive families.

Oregon Businesses I met with Norlander this spring to talk about the wide variety of clients DFSO serves, the different needs they bring and what's next for the organization.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

You said Dress for Success started in a garage in Tigard. Is that the whole organization or just the Oregon branch?

We were the seventh branch. The first Dress for Success organization started in New York City, in a church basement. Nancy Lublin, a woman, inherited $5,000 from her great-grandfather. She went to a local church and asked the nuns who worked there what the greatest needs were. It turned out to be the economic disparities that women faced. It’s expensive to get a job, and you have to be able to show up for that interview and be taken seriously. We now know that’s not the whole story. There are many ways and social factors that go beyond just clothing to get and keep a job. But those are the factors that really prevent people from keeping their jobs.

How has the pandemic affected your work? You mentioned that people still associate your organization with formal wear, but most so-called office workers are working from home and can wear pajamas if they want, as long as they look decent on a Zoom call.

We were one of the first social service agencies in the state to go virtual in 2020. We knew that female-dominated industries were really being hit hard [by COVID]: retail, hospitality, education. During this time, our clients were saying, “I don’t need work clothes, I need internet access, or I need a computer, or I don’t know how to work on Zoom, or how to apply for a job online?” Since then, things have evolved. We started using a hybrid approach, much like other social service agencies, so everything we do in person, we also offer online. We’ve been able to support more women from different backgrounds. The number of single parents who have been able to benefit from our workforce development program has increased because they can cook meals at home for their children while, for example, listening to a financial advisor through our virtual programming. The cost of living in Portland and inflation have had a real impact not only on our clients, but also on our donor base. We've had to be strategic in how we support our clients in terms of the programs we offer and in reprioritizing complementary services. We've also had to be very strategic in how we think about fundraising.

To get back to your question, often when I'm doing personal shopping, which I don't do often anymore, I'll ask if I can buy a pair of yoga pants and a blouse. But we support all sectors. The most interesting request I've had was about a year ago when someone got a job in human services. She was doing non-emergency work, where her supervisors asked her to dress in street clothes, but she needed to be seasonal and be able to run if she had to. So she would try on street clothes, flats, and literally run around; that's what she needed. We see a lot of clients coming in for uniforms and non-slip shoes. It's also really interesting to see the trends based on the time of year. From January to March, we see a lot of temporary work in financial institutions because of tax season. In the spring, we see an influx of clients moving into trades and census work. Then, at the end of the year, we see a lot of need for seasonal work in retail. This helps us adapt and think deeply, each year, about what donations are needed.

Do you have storage space beyond this?

No.

So you have to be very careful about what you bring.

It can be challenging because I think the way our building is set up is that you don't see the warehouse, you don't see the back-up inventory, and we're at capacity. We're not set up like other nonprofits like Goodwill, which have hundreds of employees processing clothing. The same people who schedule volunteer groups to process clothing are the same people who process clothing for us, who work with our corporate teams, who work with our retail partners. So we have a pretty solid 40 hours, and we've been able to do that because of our incredible volunteer base. But we have to be very strategic about what we ask for and what we can accept, just based on the capacity of time and space.

You mentioned that inflation and the rising cost of living in Portland have really affected your donors and clients.
How has this impacted your customers’ demands?

Some of the stories I hear are like, I just got a new job, I make $24 an hour, my rent is $1,700 or $2,000. I have two kids. That leaves me with very little money at the end of the month. So you have to meet the basic needs of the kids, and then you have to ask yourself, does that parent have access to personal care products? Are they prioritizing buying food for themselves? So we know that has a direct impact on our clients' ability to take care of themselves. It's everything from shampoo, conditioner, feminine hygiene products to transportation.

What are the upcoming plans for Dress for Success, both in terms of anticipated needs and projects?

Our goal is to continue to meet the needs of our clients and continue to see the 1,000+ women that we serve each year and the most effective ways to help them look for work, stay employed, and find good-paying jobs. One of our short-term goals this year is that as a 501(c)3, we obviously can't share our political views, but what we can do is empower people to vote. So in 2020, we registered 170 new voters. We know that Multnomah County has this new filing system. So we have a voter registration workshop planned for the summer and a demystification of this new filing system. A lot of our work is about defining your own success and empowerment. So what success means to one of our clients may mean something totally different to someone else. So the question is how can we help prioritize all the resources and information they need to be able to find the path that's best for them.

What do you do when you're not at work?

I have a baby, so it takes up all my time. I'm an hour away in Timberline, and I ski a lot. And I have a border collie, because having a baby doesn't give me enough time. So I run around Mount Tabor a lot with my stroller and my border collie. I like to be outside.

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