Latest news with #SanFranciscoParksAlliance
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
San Francisco families outraged to learn $3.8M in donations meant to build playgrounds were allegedly misused
The San Francisco Parks Alliance (SFPA) — a nonprofit foundation established to 'create, sustain and advocate for parks' — has abruptly shuttered amid a media and legal firestorm over alleged mismanagement involving at least $3.8 million in donations. That leaves donors like Nicola Miner — whose Baker Street Foundation donated $3 million to the SFPA several years ago — 'speechless.' She gave the SFPA that money to support construction of two neighborhood playgrounds. Thanks to Jeff Bezos, you can now become a landlord for as little as $100 — and no, you don't have to deal with tenants or fix freezers. Here's how I'm 49 years old and have nothing saved for retirement — what should I do? Don't panic. Here are 6 of the easiest ways you can catch up (and fast) Nervous about the stock market in 2025? Find out how you can access this $1B private real estate fund (with as little as $10) 'I wanted a park here, that was what our money was for,' Miner told CBS News. But the parks never materialized. Instead, she learned that the SFPA — an arm's-length fundraising partner of San Francisco's Recreation and Parks Department — funneled nearly $2 million of her foundation's donation to cover general operating expenses. 'The money was not for general operating expenses. And so I just feel a real sense of betrayal,' Minser said. 'The fact that they took money away from families, I'm speechless.' The San Francisco Standard reports that top employees at the SFPA got bonuses despite a 'massive deficit', and the nonprofit spent more on 'swanky galas' and fundraising events than it made. 'You would never, in a million years, give a bonus under these circumstances,' Joan Harrington, a nonprofit ethics expert at Santa Clara University, said. Read more: Want an extra $1,300,000 when you retire? Dave Ramsey says — and that 'anyone' can do it In the wake of the allegations, San Francisco's mayor froze the organization's funding in May, and City Attorney David Chiu launched an integrity review into the nonprofit. Subsequently, The San Francisco Standard reported that the SFPA was abruptly 'winding down,' leaving donors and partners empty-handed. Just days afterward, the San Francisco Government Audit and Oversight Committee subpoenaed the organization's former CEOs and its board treasurer after they failed to show up at a committee hearing. Some donors may be left wondering how they could be let down by such a prominent and politically connected organization. It's a reminder that a prominent name is no guarantee of continued success or appropriate management — and the prudent approach to committing funds is to perform thorough due diligence. To help with this process, the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society (Stanford PACS) has published 'The Stanford PACS Guide to Effective Philanthropy,' with questions that donors should try to answer before making a commitment. For example: Does the nonprofit comply with tax regulations? Are its donations earmarked for a specific purpose (like a playground)? Are the donations restricted or unrestricted? How does the organization track and report restricted donations? Restricted donations have conditions on how those funds are to be used, while unrestricted donations can be used for anything related to the nonprofit's mission. Stanford PACS also publishes the Philanthropist Resource Directory, which can be a helpful resource early in the due diligence journey. Several third-party websites are also available to help with this process. For example, GuideStar aggregates information about U.S. nonprofits registered as 501(c)(3) organizations and categorizes them based on the amount of information they self-report. It also publishes IRS Form 990 tax returns, which are filed by 'tax-exempt organizations, nonexempt charitable trusts and section 527 political organizations.' GiveWell researches and recommends charities working in global health and poverty alleviation 'that save or improve lives the most per dollar,' while Charity Navigator rates more than 225,000 nonprofits based on their 'cost-effectiveness and overall health of a charity's programs, including measures of stability, efficiency and sustainability.' The Stanford PACS guide also suggests looking at which organizations have received grants from respected foundations such as the [Gates Foundation] ) or Ford Foundation — both of which have searchable grants databases — and talking to people who've contributed to the organization or worked with it. Donors can also consider a Donor Advised Fund (DAF), an account that allows donors to give to charity, receive an immediate tax deduction and recommend grants from the fund over time. Donating a large amount of money to a charity is a big commitment — and even supposedly reputable organizations can run into trouble. So time spent on due diligence is time well spent. Rich, young Americans are ditching the stormy stock market — here are the alternative assets they're banking on instead Robert Kiyosaki warns of a 'Greater Depression' coming to the US — with millions of Americans going poor. But he says these 2 'easy-money' assets will bring in 'great wealth'. How to get in now This tiny hot Costco item has skyrocketed 74% in price in under 2 years — but now the retail giant is restricting purchases. Here's how to buy the coveted asset in bulk Here are 5 'must have' items that Americans (almost) always overpay for — and very quickly regret. How many are hurting you? Like what you read? Join 200,000+ readers and get the best of Moneywise straight to your inbox every week. This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
San Francisco Chronicle
05-06-2025
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
How a San Francisco nonprofit scandal hurts quirky neighborhood park projects
After years spent transforming a San Francisco hillside once littered with trash into a lush community garden, a group of Portola neighbors hired a contractor this spring to turn the drab concrete steps cutting through the landscape into a colorful tiled stairway. The Steps to Wisdom project reimagined the public path leading up Goettingen Street as one reminiscent of the beloved Moraga Steps, a tourist destination on the other side of town. The vibrant steps now greet visitors with inspirational quotes. 'Leave the world more beautiful than you found it,' one reads. But as the contractor completed the $91,000 installation this week, a grim reality set in. The San Francisco Parks Alliance, the nonprofit that the neighbors had trusted to safekeep their community funds, had fallen into a deepening financial pit that ultimately forced its collapse Tuesday. Now the neighbors don't know how they will pay their debts. 'It's quite distressing,' said Phillip Hua, an artist and member of the Goettingen Street Neighbors, who is owed $15,000 for designing the stairs. Hua and his neighbors are far from alone. More than 80 community groups that used the Parks Alliance like a bank to channel and safeguard their money learned this week that the nonprofit would wind down its operations and liquidate its remaining assets through a process akin to bankruptcy. The Parks Alliance and its predecessor entities were close allies of the city for decades, helping funnel private donations to public causes and advocate for bond measures to improve parks and open spaces. In recent years, the alliance was involved in an array of projects, from renovating playgrounds to opening up schoolyards to children on the weekends to hosting outdoor movie screenings and other free events. The nonprofit also acted as a fiscal sponsor for dozens of small community partners like the Goettingen neighbors, charging them a small fee to manage their books and collect donations on their behalf so that the often volunteer-led groups didn't need to hire financial staff or become nonprofits on their own. Now that the Parks Alliance has folded, it's not clear how the city and the community groups that worked with the nonprofit will fill the void created by its departure. The scandal comes at a difficult time for San Francisco's finances, as Mayor Daniel Lurie and city supervisors work to close a massive budget deficit. At the parks department, officials are looking to charge residents to reserve tennis courts and park their cars in Golden Gate Park. Since at least last summer, the Parks Alliance had confided in a select few about its cash-flow problems, asking major donors for last-minute cash injections to help it survive. Word of its potential demise reached as high up as the city's top parks official, Phil Ginsburg. But what many say they did not realize — until after a change of leadership several months ago — was that the Parks Alliance had misspent millions while trying to stay alive. In late April, the Chronicle revealed through a leaked email from Parks Alliance leadership that the nonprofit had misused at least $3.8 million earmarked for specific projects to pay for its operating expenses as its revenues from city grants and other sources declined. The new Parks Alliance CEO, Robert Ogilvie, tried to save the nonprofit through a final burst of fundraising in recent weeks, but the organization ran out of money to continue operating. The nonprofit laid off the last of its employees and its board members resigned. All across San Francisco, people who volunteer their time and labor to make the city more beautiful are now left waiting to see whether the Parks Alliance will return the money the community groups had saved up at the nonprofit over the years. The collapse has delayed at least one long-awaited project, stalled ongoing maintenance on public spaces and jeopardized payments to community members and contractors who footed bills or completed work. It also resulted in layoffs for one paid group that maintains the urban forest on Mount Sutro. 'All these groups were working to improve our city, most of them are unpaid volunteers,' said Jennifer Serwer, a Potrero Hill resident whose plans to build a new public stairway were postponed by the crisis. 'For [the Parks Alliance] to just mismanage itself, it's very painful.' As of last month, the Parks Alliance had an estimated $4.6 million in outstanding obligations, including $1.7 million it owed to its community partners and their service providers, according to an email from its board chair, Louise Mozingo, to a donor. At the same time, the nonprofit had just $1.6 million in remaining assets, including $620,000 to use on its operations. It's possible that the community partners who used the Parks Alliance as a fiscal sponsor could receive just pennies on the dollar through the liquidation process. 'The likelihood is that there is no money left to be shared,' said Rasheq Zarif, whose neighborhood group had saved up $100,000 in an account at the Parks Alliance to use toward maintenance and repairs at Buena Vista Park. Also left in the lurch is the city of San Francisco. The Parks Alliance owes the Recreation and Park Department between $1.1 million and $1.7 million across various partnerships, according to estimates from the city and the nonprofit. Those obligations include private funds the Parks Alliance collected on behalf of the city as part of the development of the India Basin Waterfront Park project on the southeast shoreline. The Parks Alliance also signed a contract promising to pass on $3.25 million to the Port of San Francisco for improvements at another major project, Crane Cove Park. However, the nonprofit only paid the city an initial $975,000 before deciding to shut down. The unpaid amount does not appear to be included in the Parks Alliance's $4.6 million figure. City supervisors Shamann Walton and Jackie Fielder were expected to seek answers Thursday from the city parks department and the port at a hearing about the crisis. But the hearing was delayed, because Walton is seeking to subpoena several former Parks Alliance leaders to testify at the hearing at a later date. Meanwhile, at the Goettingen Street tile stairway, neighbors are preparing to hold a celebratory ribbon-cutting for their project on Saturday — even as they contend with lingering questions about its financing. The origins of the project trace back more than a decade. Frustrated with what had become a dumping ground for condoms, needles and other trash, neighbors in the Portola landscaped the hill near Goettingen and Dwight streets. Then, in 2021, the city awarded the neighbors a grant worth up to $157,000 through the Parks Alliance to tile the stairs. Community members hoped that adding an artistic element to the graffiti-covered stairs would make the area more of an attraction and deter blight. Supporters also raised more than $70,000 in donations. They allowed donors to choose inspirational quotes on tiles and asked for contributions during Zoom yoga classes. The Parks Alliance held all of those donations for the group as its fiscal sponsor. Neighbors hoped to use the funds to pay for the tile installation and maintain the steps and surrounding hillside for years to come, said Hua, the artist who designed the project. 'Now all of that is in jeopardy,' Hua said. 'We don't know what is going to happen with the funds that we have worked so hard to fundraise for.' Ruth Wallace, the project manager for the Goettingen steps initiative, said she asked the Parks Alliance to pay the $91,000 owed to the tile contractor just before Memorial Day. A Parks Alliance staff member told her the nonprofit had received the request and would try to do something about it, Wallace said. Then the organization stopped communicating with her. In a frustrated email to the Parks Alliance and Lurie on Monday, Wallace recounted her desperate efforts to get clarity from the nonprofit. 'I have been calling your offices last week and this week to find out how and when you expect to pay our very deserving vendors,' Wallace told the Parks Alliance. 'I have left voicemail after voicemail as more and more extensions have been disconnected.' The city had not yet released $116,000 to the Parks Alliance for the tile project from the grant. It's unclear how the Goettingen neighbors will be able to receive those funds, since Lurie paused the flow of city funding to the nonprofit and the organization later closed. 'It would be a shame to let this hillside now go to the wayside and have time and weathering just take it over and slowly degrade this thing we worked so hard to create,' Hua said. Jen Kwart, a spokesperson for City Attorney David Chiu, said in a statement that the city is 'working with granting departments to analyze any current grants with remaining balances and will develop a path forward.' Across town from the Goettingen steps, at a small commercial strip along Ocean Avenue, Kath Tsakalakis and her neighbors relied on the Parks Alliance to turn an underused parking lot into a plaza five years ago. Today, residents often use the space to sip coffee at tables that sit atop pavement painted with a giant red octopus. The plaza has hosted events such as a recent 'spring hop' that featured rabbits and a candy hunt to entertain children on Easter weekend. But Tsakalakis's group of volunteers has suspended its events, which drew customers to nearby businesses in the Lakeside Village corridor. Street lighting maintenance, power washing, trash pickup and graffiti cleaning have been halted as well. Tsakalakis said the Parks Alliance owed about $12,000 to small businesses in the area and another $12,000 to her because she has been paying for many of the plaza-related expenses herself and seeking reimbursement later. 'We can't keep the street clean. We can't keep, literally, the lights on,' Tsakalakis said. 'Because I can't keep asking small businesses to do more repairs or work when I have no way to pay them, and they're owed a lot of money. So I think there's a lot at risk.' Even after accounting for the outstanding expenses the Parks Alliance never covered, Tsakalakis said her group should have had another $16,000 in its account with the nonprofit. The number would have been higher if not for the Parks Alliance's well-publicized problems, she said. 'I had applied for grants, but who's going to give money?' Tsakalakis said. 'People who were going to give us money are not giving us money because of the Parks Alliance.' Serwer, of the Friends of Potrero Hill Recreation Center, feels like one of the lucky ones, even though her group had about $18,000 saved up at the Parks Alliance it may never get back. She had just completed a fundraising campaign to build a new public stairway near 22nd Street that would help connect Potrero Hill to the Dogpatch. But after the financial crisis burst into public view, the Parks Alliance agreed to return $55,000 in donations that two donors had just contributed for the project. Serwer has since found a new fiscal sponsor to shepherd the project through. While she hopes to begin construction this fall, she said the project could be delayed until early next year. At least the new fiscal sponsor will charge less to manage her books. 'We're extremely lucky,' she said. 'We're landing in a better place.'
San Francisco Chronicle
09-05-2025
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
Imperiled community groups band together to save S.F. Parks Alliance. Is it too late?
Community groups that depend on the San Francisco Parks Alliance to manage their books are hoping it isn't too late to save the financially troubled nonprofit from collapse. Rather than cut ties with the alliance, a group of nearly 20 organizations that use the prominent nonprofit as a sort of bank came together this week to try and keep it afloat. Calling themselves the Community Partner Network Advisory Committee, the organizations sent a letter to the alliance's governing board, urging it to be more transparent about the nonprofit's financial situation and to commit to a plan for keeping it solvent. The committee is under the leadership of Ildiko Polony, executive director of Sutro Stewards, and Rasheq Zarif, president of the Buena Vista Neighborhood Association. Both organizations worry that the alliance mismanaged the funds they amassed at the nonprofit. 'We want to know how much runway is left for the SFPA,' Zarif said. 'The fear that I have is that the mismanagement went on for too long, and that it is beyond the point of no return. The hope is that with us working with them, we might be able to catch this in time to turn it around.' The Parks Alliance is a fiscal sponsor for nearly 90 community groups that use the organization to collect donations from their supporters and funding from other sources. These partners go to the alliance to pull out their cash when they need it to care for the city's prized open spaces. They do everything from restoring playgrounds to maintaining well-trodden trails, work that San Franciscans may assume is done by the city. But for more than a year, the alliance has kept some of its partners waiting months to get reimbursed for payments as low as $100, indicating that the nonprofit has a cash-flow problem, at the very least. The delayed payments have raised concerns for some of its partners that the alliance mismanaged their money and may not be able to pay them back. Each year the alliance receives millions in donations on behalf of its partners, according to the letter. But the committee said it has determined that the alliance's restricted trust, where the donations are deposited, has been 'effectively depleted.' 'You have the fiduciary and legal responsibility to address the challenges head on,' reads the letter to the board of trustees. 'We need transparency, accountability, and effective governance from you in order for us to remain community partners.' The alliance and its predecessor organizations have worked closely with the city for decades to improve its parks and open spaces. It recently underwent a leadership change with longtime CEO Drew Becher resigning in February. Its new leader, Robert Ogilvie, has said he is optimistic that he can keep the alliance afloat through downsizing and fundraising. One board member, Jim Lazarus, previously told the Chronicle that the alliance brought in outside accountants who determined there was 'no corruption' inside the organization and that 'restricted money was being used for restricted purposes.' But the newly formed committee is not content. It wants to know how much the alliance owes its partners in outstanding expense reimbursements, and how much of the restricted trust 'has been depleted with non-trust related expenses or over-reimbursements.' Louise Mozingo, chair of the alliance's board, said in an email Thursday that the board was committed to working transparently with its partners to stabilize the alliance. She said she was working hard and heartened by the support offered in the letter. 'We appreciate their letter and their partnership, and our mutual commitment to re-establishing trust between our organizations,' Mozingo said. Ogilvie declined to provide numbers Thursday on the alliance's financial situation. 'Our first obligation is to communicate directly with our partners regarding our financial situation as it affects them,' Ogilvie said. 'We will be doing this in a collaborative way over the next weeks while working to stabilize the organization.' Lazarus previously said the board is committed to paying its financial obligations. Polony, of Sutro Stewards, is worried that the crisis might cost her and her staff their jobs, if the alliance can't make payroll. Unlike with other groups sponsored by the alliance, her staff is employed by the alliance, though her organization operates independently. 'I've been consumed by this,' Polony said. 'There's a lot at stake.' The Sutro Stewards is focused on habitat restoration and trail maintenance at Mount Sutro. Its employees and volunteers help native plants thrive in the region and keep trails level for bikers and hikers. The organization is primarily funded by UCSF, which owns the land. It has five full-time and three part-time employees, as well as two paid interns, Polony said. Polony said her organization has considered cutting ties with the alliance. The group had trouble getting reimbursements about a year ago and more recently struggled to get timely financial reports from the alliance. She is concerned that her group may not be able to access the hundreds of thousands of dollars it should have at the nonprofit. But splitting off from the alliance would create new problems, since its finances are entangled with the nonprofit. And if the alliance dissolved, the Stewards would at least have to temporarily halt its operations. 'I need them to survive,' Polony said. Another group that signed onto the letter is the SF Urban Riders, a volunteer organization that has partnered with the alliance for more than a decade. The riders are a mountain biking advocacy group that maintains trails around Laguna Honda Hospital. Like other groups, the Riders have had trouble getting reimbursed. They have five-figures saved up at the alliance and also have five-figures worth of outstanding reimbursements, according to Riders chair, Matthew Blain. The Riders have considered finding a new fiscal sponsor, but have determined that staying with the alliance makes the most sense. 'The current status is very worrisome,' Blain said. 'My hope is that it as an organization continues because it's been a useful partner.' The advisory committee is calling for the board to share its short-term plans for meeting its financial obligations and its cooperation in setting a long-term plan for sustainability. It's unclear what that might look like, but Zarif laid out some options under discussion that would amount to significant reform for the alliance. Those changes could include a new governance model, changing how financial reports are disclosed or replacing board members. The committee is in the process of recruiting more of the alliance's partners to its ranks. Zarif said the board has been receptive to its letter so far. 'The main objective here is to of course get the SFPA to be trusted and supportive of the communities that rely on it in San Francisco again,' he said. Polony is also optimistic. 'There is a piece of me that is excited about where this could lead us,' she said. 'In great existential challenges, there always is opportunity.'
San Francisco Chronicle
04-05-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
S.F.'s 22-year-old free movie tradition has been canceled
Sundown Cinema, a decades-old outdoor film series, has been canceled this year due to the ongoing financial struggles of its organizer, the San Francisco Parks Alliance. Layoffs and other difficulties have plagued the nonprofit organization for months, prompting them to pull the plug on the free outdoor screenings just ahead of its usual summer season. The annual event series has been held at parks around the city since 2003. 'We do not currently have staff on board to produce Sundown Cinema,' SF Parks Alliance CEO Robert Ogilvie told the Chronicle. 'For us to be able to afford to have the staff to do it, we would have to have the right level of funding.' Sundown Cinema programming typically begins in May, running through the early fall. Last year's lineup featured seven screenings including 'Labyrinth' (1986) at Glen Park, 'Selena' (1997) at Dolores Park and a special cut of Bay Area archivist Rick Prelinger's 'Lost Landscapes of SF' (2024) and at Duboce Park. It was created by the San Francisco Neighborhood Theatre Foundation in 2003 under the name Film Night in the Park, and the organization joined forces with the alliance in 2019 to rebrand and broaden its audience. Each event costs around $40,000 to produce, according to Ogilvie, who has been serving as CEO of the organization for two months. He said that the SF Parks Alliance used to receive more grant funding from the city, which helped offset costs. 'That has dried up as the city struggles with its own budget deficit,' Ogilvie said, adding that they also used to have around five or six activation staff on hand that helped out with Sundown Cinema, among other events. 'As of the end of April we do not have any,' he added. A total of eight staff members were let go at the end of last year, and another six were laid off last month, as a result of the nonprofit's financial woes, leaving the organization with only 13 paid employees, four of whom work part-time. The SF Parks Alliance serves as a fiscal sponsor, helping to fund projects and events at parks so that these small groups, such as the Buena Vista Neighborhood Association and North Beach parks group, don't need to hire accounting staff or obtain nonprofit status on their own. A recent Chronicle report found that the organization has been struggling to reimburse several community organizations that it helps to fund, which has led it to divert funds from staffing to better support these partners. Just last week, the San Francisco Film Festival partnered with the SF Parks Alliance for a packed pre-season screening of 'The Fog' (1980) at the grassy Civil War Parade Ground as part of the San Francisco International Film Festival. 'Despite the fact that it was April, hundreds of people showed up and celebrated being in the park together until late in the night,' SFFilm's Executive Director, Anne Lai, told the Chronicle. 'So it's particularly sad to learn of the cancellation of the rest of this year's series. … We wish the leadership team much fortitude with hopes that the series will return next year.' Noise Pop has also partnered with the SF Parks Alliance to promote Sundown Cinema via advertising on DoTheBay. Representatives confirmed that the event platform's partnership with the series ended last year. While it's unclear if any of Sundown Cinema's previous sponsors plan to take the reigns of the beloved tradition, Ogilvie hopes that this is just a temporary setback for the SF Parks Alliance, and said they are viewing it as a pause with the hope that they can bring it back for future seasons with enough fundraising. 'I am absolutely hoping to be able to resume,' he said. 'I came here to try to get this organization on a sounder financial footing so that we can do all the great things that we have done for San Francisco.' Loyal attendees of the San Francisco film series can get one last fix at the previously announced June 7 screening of 'Wicked' during the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, which is set to proceed as planned, without the alliance's help.
