Small community groups that relied on the San Francisco Parks Alliance for neighborhood projects are infuriated that they could lose tens of thousands of dollars of their own funding amid the nonprofit’s sudden downfall this week.
Neighborhood organizations that parked their funds with the Parks Alliance say that in the last year, it became difficult to get reimbursed for project payments as small as $100. Getting answers from Parks Alliance staff members, they say, became nearly impossible.
Others told The Standard they were outright misled about payments to their vendors, raising questions about whether the Parks Alliance’s financial issues crossed the line from mismanagement to something more serious.
“It was a total fraud,” said Jolene Yee, a member of Friends of Franklin Square, one of dozens of community partners that relied on the much larger and more established Parks Alliance as a fiscal sponsor. “They’re stealing bake-sale money.”
The Parks Alliance was one of San Francisco’s most prestigious and politically connected nonprofits before it abruptly shuttered amid allegations of fiscal misconduct that have prompted outrage and a wave of investigations into the reported misuse of funds.
The nonprofit served as an umbrella organization for a coalition of community partners that raise funds for the city’s parks, funneling millions toward projects such as murals and trail maintenance. At the time of its collapse, the city had more than $1 million in active grants with the nonprofit.
Yee said she became concerned when a vendor alerted her in March that a deposit for a Friends of Franklin Square event had not been paid. When Yee reached out to the Parks Alliance, she was told that the vendor had received the money, she said. Only after prodding the Parks Alliance again did Yee convince its staff of the missing payment.
In the meantime, Yee paid the deposit with her credit card — and she may never get the money back. The Parks Alliance still hasn’t provided Friends of Franklin Square with $2,500 in unpaid reimbursement requests. In total, Yee said, the Parks Alliance is holding $148,000 from donors to Friends of Franklin Square.
Kath Tsakalakis of Friends of Lakeside Village found herself in a similar situation.
She was contacted in March by an artist who had helped with graffiti removal in the neighborhood and had not been paid the promised $800.
Tsakalakis said financial records provided by the Parks Alliance reported that the artist had been paid. Confused, Tsakalakis contacted the nonprofit to resolve the matter. Staff promised to pay Friends of Lakeside Village’s bills through March but never followed through, she said.
Like Yee, her organization has not recouped its money.
Tsakalakis said her organization is owed $26,000 from the Parks Alliance — $12,000 of which is her own money.
“They’ve left all of us high and dry,” she said. “I have never seen anything with this lack of integrity.”
While the Parks Alliance may have ceased operations, its problems are far from over.
The organization faces a criminal investigation by the district attorney, and the city attorney is conducting a probe to determine whether public money was misused. An individual familiar with the criminal inquiry said investigators are trying to determine whether the nonprofit’s financial troubles were merely mismanagement or amounted to fraud or embezzlement.
The district attorney declined to comment.
Last month, Mayor Daniel Lurie cut off public funding to the Parks Alliance after news broke of the district attorney’s investigation.
In the weeks preceding the organization’s closure, allegations surfaced that the Parks Alliance used millions of dollars of restricted donor funds to pay for its own operating expenses.
CEO Robert Ogilvie announced that the nonprofit would shut down through a legal mechanism known as an Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors process. The arrangement designates an assignee to negotiate with parties that are owed money from the Parks Alliance.
As of May 12, the nonprofit had assets worth $1.6 million, of which $1.2 million is cash, according to Ogilvie. The organization’s website is still online, but the staff and board member pages have been taken down.
Ogilvie did not respond to a request for comment.
Phil Ginsburg, general manager of the SF Parks and Recreation Department, wrote in a report Thursday that the Parks Alliance owes the city $1.1 million. Of that, $823,652 is from funds the city held with the nonprofit, while the remainder is from grant agreements. The Parks Alliance “must fully reimburse any and all funds owed to the Department,” Ginsburg wrote.
Community groups say they have not received guidance on how, or whether, they can expect their money to be returned. The assignee overseeing the nonprofit’s closure did not respond to a request for comment.
On Thursday, city lawmakers announced a subpoena of the Parks Alliance in an effort to compel testimony from former leadership and produce financial documents.
“Their funds were held in trust,” said Supervisor Shamann Walton, who is spearheading the subpoena. “And now those funds may be gone.”
Walton plans to compel testimony from former CEOs Ogilvie and Drew Becher, as well as board treasurer Rick Hutchinson. Becher resigned in February as rumors of financial mismanagement spilled into public view.
Supervisor Jackie Fielder has also called for an audit of the Parks Alliance’s relationship with the parks department, which relied heavily on the nonprofit’s fundraising.
“I will do everything in my power so that the leaders of the Parks Alliance are held responsible,” Fielder said Thursday.
Signs that something was awry with the nonprofit’s finances date back at least one year, when the Parks Alliance failed to produce a required audit after it was linked to a 2020 corruption scandal involving former Public Works director Mohammed Nuru. As the organization’s finances started to go downhill, the Parks Alliance paid bonuses to its top managers.
On Thursday, roughly a dozen volunteers from the Parks Alliance’s former partner organizations gathered at City Hall to demand that lawmakers correct the situation. The volunteers said they want the partnership that the Parks Alliance offered to continue in some form with another fiscal sponsor, and for their funds to be returned.
“The way that the dissolution of our fiscal sponsor, the Parks Alliance, happened has not allowed us to continue our work,” said Ildiko Polony, executive director of Sutro Stewards. “The city needs to show real leadership.”