For more than five months, San Francisco’s Black community saw a dream deferred.
A dramatic scandal led ex-Mayor London Breed to freeze funding from Dream Keeper Initiative, a city program aimed at uplifting Black organizations.
Now some of those funds will flow once again. But with a catch.
The program will hit the reset button, accepting new proposals from nonprofit groups to obtain funding, Mayor Daniel Lurie announced Friday morning.
The intent is to have a fresh start.
The relaunched Dream Keeper will face ramped-up financial scrutiny intended to prevent the misuse of funds that previously plagued the program. An evaluation panel will review contracts to prevent conflicts of interest, and new standardized criteria will be used for all contracts.
The city will fill grant proposals up to $12 million annually for three years. Dr. Jonathan Butler, president of the San Francisco NAACP chapter, said it’s a small but sorely needed investment.
“I want the city to do right by those who are actually doing the good work, and not allow past mistakes to overshadow the many organizations doing great work in our community,” he said.
Alarm bells rang last fall after The Standard reported that Sheryl Davis, then-director of the Human Rights Commission, authorized contracts for a nonprofit led by a man she shared a home with, James Spingola. Davis later resigned, but the scandal continued to unfold.
On Thursday, it was revealed that Davis benefited from Dream Keeper funding to partially pay for her son’s college tuition.
Breed’s move to freeze Dream Keeper funds rippled through Black-led groups that mentored students, helped first-time home buyers, and boosted arts programs, which feared layoffs and even closure.
The Black community led silent protests of the Board of Supervisors in their chambers and rallied on the steps of City Hall, calling for the funding to be reinstated. Many felt betrayed, saying groups that played by the rules were punished alongside those that erred.
Programs continue to see their funding pulled by the city. Out of more than 100 organizations funded, fewer than 20 are still receiving Dream Keeper funds, according to the Human Rights Commission. Some organizations that had received Dream Keeper award letters from the city saw those letters rescinded this week.
With Lurie pressing the reset button, new criteria will govern which groups are selected for grants. Multiyear grants will depend on performance, the funds will be awarded only to programs serving San Francisco residents, and only nonprofits will be given grants, whereas before individuals and businesses were allowed.
The fiscal malfeasance came in part from a lack of infrastructure to handle large amounts of funding, even though the programs had expertise in helping the community, according to the Human Rights Commission.
To address that, Lurie’s relaunched Dream Keeper will come with new funding to support small nonprofits that don’t have the staff to manage large funding commitments, helping them build out their infrastructure.
“Our residents need to feel the benefit of every dollar our city spends,” Lurie said in a statement. “Effective organizations who are doing critical work in the community also need transparency and clarity from the city on how we are supporting them.”
The funding comes at a time when diversity, equity, and inclusion programs across the U.S. are shuttering under the directive of President Donald Trump. Joi Jackson-Morgan, CEO of the 3rd Street Youth Center & Clinic, said Dream Keeper funding is especially important in light of Trump’s directives and the city’s looming $840 million budget deficit.
“I really thank Mayor Lurie for making this commitment and addressing the needs of the Black community,” Jackson-Morgan said, especially with “what’s happening nationwide, the attack on communities like ours.”
“The uncertainty with different budget cuts,” she added, “it’s scary times.”