After Latest Affiliation, Growing Senior Living Nonprofit Evertrue Plans Next Chapter

More than a year after a growth spurt that made it among the largest senior living nonprofits, EverTrue is still growing and planning its next act.

The St. Louis-based organization in November completed its affiliation with the St. Andrews Resource for Seniors System, putting its two life plan properties, six affordable housing properties and a 55-plus community, along with programs and services under the EverTrue banner.

EverTrue now operates 15 life plan communities in three states.

In 2026, EverTrue will build on its momentum and seek to grow within its existing footprint, CEO Adam Marles said. He is looking to improve quality of service delivery across EverTrue’s many brand lines and embrace the technology and data analysis to bring insights into clinical and lifestyle aspects of operations.

A year of integration, momentum building

The idea for the affiliation came “very naturally” following a meeting between leaders of both organizations, according to EverTrue CEO Adam Marles. The conversation centered on “realities” of existing senior living operations, proximity of both groups and mission alignment.

“As those conversations developed, we came to the realization that there was a really strong opportunity here to do more and better serve older adults in the greater St. Louis area,” Marles said in a recent interview with SHN.

Last year, EverTrue rebranded from its longtime name of Lutheran Senior Services to reflect its evolution for a new generation of customers.

If you ask Marles, the most challenging aspect of any affiliation is integrating new rosters of talented staff into a new organization. EverTrue onboarded over 400 St. Andrews staff in its affiliation with the organization.

“We want and need our team members to feel a sense of belonging to our mission and our values,” Marles said. “We’ve felt a sense of excitement and optimism for a future as a combined organization and we want to build on that momentum.”

EverTrue seeks to learn from leadership in any affiliation to infuse best practices and boost collaboration.

Getting staff onboarded and trained is a critical way that EverTrue can improve operating performance at those communities, Marles said. Through staff from new organizations collaborating with existing EverTrue leaders, it creates an environment built on transparency, communication and “learning efficiencies for best results,” Marles added.

“We’ve learned a lot from our past work and we’re getting better at doing this integration work,” Marles said.

EverTrue conducted focus group sessions with incoming St. Andrews staff to understand frontline community dynamics, needs and challenges, with results of that process “dramatic” in the past Diakon affiliation.

Marles sees these changes in improving performance and improved resident and team member satisfaction scores happening over the course of 2026, as integration of technology platforms continues.

During the course of any integration of a new organization joining the fold, Marles said supporting staff that play critical roles in onboarding new staff and in other aspects of the transition must be protected against burnout.

“We have to look very carefully to make sure that those people are not getting overloaded and we provide them with additional support as necessary,” Marles said. “We want to make sure that we are thinking very holistically about well being both for people we serve and for the people who are doing the work.”

Priorities in operations for 2026

As new demand for senior living continues to remain strong, EverTrue must also work to maintain its bench strength, Marles said, seeing opportunities in 2026 to improve retention and recruitment of staff. This is an effort to optimize the team member experience, he added.

Across all service lines, Marles said EverTrue must remain “nimble” in 2026, focusing on the evaluation of service lines and offerings to ensure effectiveness in a senior living environment that is changing as new residents bring new ideas and desires with them.

“We’re trying to think about capacity and to think about the long-term there,” Marles added.

Those long-term plans will include collaboration and partnerships with organizations, similar to how the organization has affiliated with other organizations over the past two years.

“We’re looking for who we can partner with to enhance the work that we’re doing in operations on a day to day basis,” Marles said.

That could include working with area schools, including colleges and universities or finding other nonprofits to collaborate with, all in the name of enhancing the lives of older adults in EverTrue communities or within reach of home-based services.

Infusing AI-supported technology and tools into operations is also a priority, with EverTrue creating a data science team to distill insights across departments to improve community life. For example, EverTrue’s data science team used AI to aggregate employee engagement surveys, resident dining surveys and identified “particular trends” to improve operations and guide strategy.

“I think the big question mark for me right now is what’s too much too soon, and how do we stay focused and not and not try too many things at once,” Marles said. “We want to make sure that we’re systematic and strategic about the use of AI.”

EverTrue will also continue to expand its home and community-based service offerings as demand for home-based services remains strong, Marles noted. But the EverTrue “Anywhere Care” programs “have to be more than the traditional trio” of home help, home care and hospice to be successful, Marles said. To educate older adults and families, EverTrue launched a phone-based service that connects people with qualified social workers to advance next steps for home-based or community-based services.

With home health, home assistance in daily activities and hospice programs now serving families and older adults across the St. Louis region, the Anywhere Care platform is now an “ecosystem of connected” services in 2026.

In 2026, Marles said the industry must continue to “focus on the well-being” of older adults, and urged operators to think about managing change as the industry evolves. “The way that we’ve always done things is not going to work in the future,” Marles said.

“As a field, we all need to be thinking about how to change our approaches—because not only are the demographics going to be overwhelming, but the expectations are going to be so much higher from the people we serve. So we must be very open to re-examining our approaches.”

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