Questions are swirling over the future of the Parks Alliance, the nonprofit whose city funding was halted this month after allegations that millions in contributions meant to improve San Francisco’s green spaces were misused.
But signs that something was amiss with the organization’s finances stretch back to last year, The Standard has learned, deepening the mystery of how the Parks Alliance continued receiving city money as it failed to live up to its promises of transparency.
The Parks Alliance has not provided a completed financial audit that was due in 2024, a document it had agreed to produce yearly as part of a monitoring program set up after the nonprofit was linked to a citywide corruption scandal in 2020.
The controller’s office, which oversees the city’s finances, told The Standard it issued the Parks Alliance a corrective notice last fall after the audit for fiscal 2022-23 was reported as missing.
In response, the Parks Alliance submitted a draft version of the document covering financials from July 2022 to June 2023 and said it would hand over a final version “as soon as it is complete,” the controller’s office said. That allowed the group to avoid being placed on a watch list of problematic nonprofits that present “increased risk to public funds and client services due to serious fiscal or programmatic concerns.”
The Parks Alliance’s CEO, Robert Ogilvie, told The Standard the document is being finalized and will be made public soon. He did not provide a reason for the delay. The nonprofit is still legally required to hand over the completed audit to the city controller and the Recreation and Parks Department.
The group was put under additional monitoring after being tied to former Public Works director Mohammed Nuru, who pleaded guilty to fraud charges in 2021 after officials found that he had directed donations to Parks Alliance accounts in a manner that could have enabled corruption. The Parks Alliance was not accused of wrongdoing.
On Friday, Mayor Daniel Lurie paused the nonprofit’s contracts, which totaled more than $1 million for projects such as the Detroit Steps in Sunnyside and a Glen Park mural.
The mayor’s directive comes after the city nearly handed over more funding to the Parks Alliance as recently as this month.
In February and March, a city panel gave the nonprofit a high rating of 95.5% during an evaluation for Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development grants, as first reported in The Standard’s political newsletter, Power Play. The $40,000 contract to host outdoor movies was nixed at a May 14 public meeting after reports of financial trouble surfaced.
Former Board of Supervisors president Aaron Peskin, a longtime critic of the Parks Alliance, believes the nonprofit was able to avoid suspicion until recently because of its influential donors and board members.
He also blamed Phil Ginsburg, general manager of the Parks Department.
“This is an organization that, in the minds of city overseers, kind of is on probation,” Peskin said. “The whole reason all of these rules and oversight came to be was because of the Parks Alliance’s original sin,” he added, referring to the Nuru scandal. “So the fact they are being cut extra slack and being treated like everyone else ignores this is tantamount to a repeated offense.”
Ginsburg did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for the Parks Department deferred to the controller and the nonprofit. Parks Alliance board chair Louise Mozingo declined to comment.
The missing audit is the latest bad news for the nonprofit, which has worked closely with the Parks Department to help neighborhood groups raise money for projects at the city’s recreational spaces. The Parks Alliance was a regular draw for San Francisco’s political and philanthropic elite.
This month, the district attorney launched a criminal probe into the organization after it emerged that $3.8 million of donor money was allegedly used to cover operating expenses, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Recently disclosed documents also show that the nonprofit, under former CEO Drew Becher, handed out bonuses to top managers who were earning six-figure salaries even as finances were crumbling, The Standard reported.
According to the most recent financial disclosure report filed with the Internal Revenue Service, the group’s recent fundraisers lost more than $250,000, and contributions and sources of revenue have plummeted.
Becher, who resigned in February, did not respond to a request for comment.
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly described Recreation and Parks General Manager Phil Ginsburg’s affiliation with the Parks Alliance.