San Francisco Parks Alliance (SFPA), a 53-year-old nonprofit that acted as a fiscal sponsor for roughly 90 neighborhood organizations devoted to parks and open spaces, ceased operations in June, amid accusations of mismanaging at least $3.8 million in donations. Months before it closed SFPA notified one of its major donors, Nicola Miner, a Baker Street Foundation (BSF) board member, that it had trouble to paying its bills.
The former nonprofit’s financial malfeasance is the subject of multiple investigations, including by the San Francisco City Attorney, San Francisco Board of Supervisors (BoS), and City Controller’s Office.
“We can’t discuss any investigative tactics we may use,” said Jen Kwart, City Attorney communications director, “…but criminal law enforcement has more tools to access financial records compared to civil law enforcement.”
“I tried to call out some of the issues with San Francisco Parks Alliance years ago,” said District 10 Supervisor Shamman Walton.
Walton’s concerns were prompted in 2021, when Drew Becher, then SFPA Chief Executive Office, sent a letter to District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan threatening to withdraw $2 million in donations for a $3 million renovation of the Richmond Playground, at 18th Avenue and Lake Street.
Becher’s hostility was caused by BoS discussion about the SkyStar Wheel, then sited in Golden Gate Park. SFPA had worked with San Francisco Recreation and Parks (RPD) and the Historic Preservation Commission to install the Ferris wheel in 2020. Chan and former District 3 Supervisor Aaron Peskin opposed its relocation to the Waterfront. Both voiced concerns about SFPA and its financial affairs. Becher told Chan she had to retract her statements about SFPA for the nonprofit to release Richmond Playground funding.
“I began scrutinizing everything SFPA did. I was usually thwarted by Phil Ginsburg, the general manager of the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department. He would tell me, “Stop. There’s nothing to see,”” said Peskin.
In 2020, it was discovered that Mohammed Nuru, then head of Public Works SF, had moved close to $1 million in donations from municipal contractors into a SFPA account. Nuru used these funds at his discretion, including to pay for staff parties.
According to Ginsburg, RPD wasn’t aware of financial stress at SFPA until June 2024.
“A donor forwarded a message from then-CEO Drew Becher, noting that SFPA was “cash poor” and facing a “dire cash flow shortage.” In response, I wrote to the Parks Alliance primarily to ensure funds held at SFPA for the benefit of RPD (were) secure and to request a formal update on Parks Alliance finances,”” Ginsburg wrote in a letter to Walton.
At a June 2024 meeting, Becher said the nonprofit was laying off staff and trying to raise non-restricted funds to address emerging deficits. Becher never disclosed that restricted funds were being used to cover SFPA’s operating expenses.
In January 2025 Ginsburg asked Becher for additional financial information. He emphasized the need for SFPA to fulfill agreed-upon reporting requirements and called for timely payments to vendors and friends’ groups. In February RPD learned Becher was no longer working at SFPA. Ginsburg then followed up with SFPA’s new CEO, Robert Ogilvie, who promised to investigate RPD’s concerns and report back.
In April 2025, Ogilvie admitted to RPD that SFPA had been using restricted funds to cover its operating expenses. Ginsburg passed Oglivie’s message on to the Mayor’s Office, City Attorney, City Controller and BoS President Rafael Mandelman. RPD then notified SFPA that it was pausing its collaboration until the nonprofit fully repaid funds owed for projects and programs and complied with financial reporting standards. RPD stipulated that restricted funds in SFPA’s possession be held separately and used solely for their intended purpose.
In June, SFPA’s Board hired Jigsaw Advisors LLC, a Lafayette firm that specializes in institutional reform to wind up the nonprofit’s affairs and disperse remaining funds.
According to Ginsburg, RPD had 11 fundraising agreements with SFPA for municipal parks and open spaces, including the Commemorative Bench program and Lisa & Douglas Goldman Tennis Center in Golden Gate Park. As of May, SFPA owed RPD an estimated $1,124,608, of which $271,000 was earmarked for India Basin Waterfront Park, $75,468 for Golden Gate Park Concourse.
Between 2024 and 2025, Rec and Park sought answers from SFPA about delayed financial reporting, inconsistent documentation, and incomplete replies to requests. During the period RPD didn’t share its unease with other Alliance clients, such as the Port of San Francisco.
“In response to our concerns, SFPA informed us that they had changed financial systems and brought in a new CFO. While these issues were frustrating, the explanations provided led us to believe SFPA’s challenges were administrative in nature. RPD staff met with SFPA staff often throughout 2024 and early 2025 to continue to address and resolve these issues,” said Ginsburg.
According to Paul Jasper, senior counsel at Perkins Coie LLP’s San Francisco office, who often represents parties in assignments for benefit of creditors (ABC), aside from claims for unpaid taxes, governmental entities like City or Port aren’t entitled to be repaid before neighborhood organizations.
“All parties that are owed money should retain sophisticated counsel to review their claim agreements,” said Jasper. “They should also file claims in a timely manner. If they do not do that, they could lose the ability to file a claim.”
In California, an ABC process isn’t court-administered, but rather an agreement between the debtor and creditors.
Contractors – individuals or businesses hired to make improvements – can assert mechanic’s liens against the property for which they provided services if they’re not paid for their work. A court can then force the asset to be sold to pay debts. However, all the subject properties consist of municipal parks and open spaces, likely immune from being unloaded. Neighborhood organization board members aren’t generally personally responsible for such debts.
SFPA’s closure has forced organizations that aren’t 501(c)(3) nonprofits to find new fiscal sponsors to accept tax-deductible donations, as well as secure liability insurance. RPD requires insurance coverage for events such as planting trees or Easter egg hunts on municipal property.
Cathryn Blum, who leads Carolina Green Space (CGS), said her organization wasn’t affected by SFPA’s closure because it shifted its fiscal sponsorship in 2023 to Greening Projects.
“While working over the years with SFPA, they kept switching my primary contact with them…after I’d just gotten that person “up to speed” on the CGS project, which I found frustrating. In addition, the amount they charged, 15 percent, to handle the fiscal details seemed high. When I met Jorge (Romero-Lozano, executive director and founder) of Greening Projects, I liked that he himself is a civil engineer,” said Blum, who added that Greening Projects charged just 12 percent. “I find him (Romero-Lozano) to be very honest, responsive and knowledgeable. (I) am happy that we are working together.”
Many organizations formerly served by SFPA have joined the Community Partner Network (CPN) to organize press conferences and meetings with Mayor Daniel Lurie’s office and the BoS. CPN members share information about potential fiscal sponsors, SFPA investigations, and the claims process.
RPD’s April intervention effectively halted Friends of Potrero Hill Recreation Center’s (FOPHRC) progress towards building the 22nd Street staircase. In June Jigsaw Advisors asked FOPHRC to submit any claims by December 1, 2025. Other former SFPA clients include Connecticut Friendship Garden, De Haro Street Community Project, Friends of Esprit Park, Friends of Franklin Square Park, Pennsylvania Street Garden, and Tunnel Top Park, at 25th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue.
“Friends of Potrero Hill Recreation Center, which is dedicated to building a trail stair between Connecticut and Missouri Streets on the hill leading up to the recreation center, appears to have lost $18,000, due to SFPA’s actions,” said Jennifer Serwer, a FOPHRC member.
FOPHRC is confident it’ll recover owed monies through Jigsaw Advisors or new donors. The stolen funds amount to less than three percent of total trail stair costs; construction is scheduled to start late this year or early next. The Dogpatch & NW Potrero Hill Green Benefit District (GBD) is now FOPHRC’s fiscal sponsor.
Keith Goldstein, Potrero-Dogpatch Merchants Association president, donated $27,500 to FOPHRC earlier this year. After he was alerted of SFPA’s financial issues by media reports, he asked SFPA to return his donation, which it did. He subsequently contributed the funds through GBD.
“As the treasurer for Avenue Greenlight, a nonprofit that offers grants to merchants associations and community groups, I also OK’d many grants to a variety of community organizations throughout the City through SFPA,” said Goldstein. “These grants were not for organizations in Dogpatch and Potrero Hill. These organizations are among those trying to get the donated funds back from SFPA.”
Goldstein has heard there are philanthropic efforts to “make whole” all the organizations who worked with SFPA.
“That’s encouraging. It’s just outrageous that the staff did not know what was going on and the Board did not demonstrate proper oversight. I’m on the board of many organizations and it’s clear to me from reviewing the budgets whether we are running in the red. It seems to me that the Board’s actions were beyond negligent,” said Goldstein.
According to Jolene Yee, Friends of Franklin Square Park board member, SFPA cost the group $148,406. In addition, Friends owes $2,500 to contractors.
“It’s very painful. Now we don’t even have money to provide snacks to volunteers for park clean-up days,” said Yee.
Crane Cove Park, owned by the Port of San Francisco, suffered the largest loss. Of the $3.8 million that SFPA owes the Port, roughly $3.25 million was supposed to pay for a “Tot Lot,” “Rigger’s Yard,” and a dog run at the park. According to CBS News, $3 million of the $3.25 million came from BSF, a San Francisco-based nonprofit established by Bob Miner, the late co-founder of Oracle. BSF board members include Mary Miner, Bob’s widow, and the couple’s children, Nicola and Luke Miner.
“Construction bids came in below the engineer’s estimate, so the Port expects the total cost to complete the project will be $2.515 million. After taking account of the $975,000 already paid by Parks Alliance, that would leave $1.54 million in funds owing to the Port under the grant agreement,” said Eric Young, Port of San Francisco communications director.
In 2019, the Port Commission authorized a Memorandum of Understanding with SFPA to solicit at least $6.4 million to complete work at Crane Cover Park. SFPA was to receive 11 percent of all monies raised to cover campaign costs.
Miner was one of at least two people who shared information about SFPA’s financial problems with the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office last spring. Her statements helped initiate the City Attorney’s criminal investigation into SFPA. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, SFPA emailed Miner to acknowledge that it had improperly spent $1.9 million of BSF’s donation on operating expenses.
The BoS SFPA investigation, conducted by the Government Audit and Oversight Committee, focused on Rick Hutchinson, who served as SFPA’s treasurer between 2023 and 2025, Becher, who was SFPA’s CEO from 2017 to mid-February 2025, and Ogilvie, SFPA’s CEO from mid-February to June.
During the July BoS GAO hearing, supervisors, led by Walton, asked questions about SFPA’s operations. They received few answers. When Walton asked Hutchinson whether his duties included reviewing SFPA’s Form 990s, Hutchinson responded that was the responsibility of SFPA’s audit committee, of which he wasn’t a member. Hutchinson added that although he chaired SFPA’s finance and investment committee, he didn’t ask any questions or raise any concerns privately or at board meetings about the organization’s tax returns. Similarly, Becher and Ogilvie indicated they didn’t notify neighborhood organizations or the City that SFPA was operating in deficit until June 2025.
“My understanding is that the last five years of your [Becher’s] seven-year tenure, the Parks Alliance lost a significant amount of money every year…with net assets going from almost $30 million in 2019 to negative half a million by June of last year,” said Walton.
The hearing revealed that Justin Probert, SFPA’s former chief operating officer, never logged into the organization’s financial software during his tenure, with no oversight by Becher or Hutchinson. Becher and Ogilvie indicated that SFPA only attempted to explain its financial situation to major donors.
Walton, who previously directed a nonprofit, was incredulous that Becher was unaware of SFPA’s monetary problems.
“The IRS Form 990s, the informational tax forms that nonprofit must file annually, tell the story. These forms reveal SFPA lost a significant amount of money every year for the last five years,” said former supervisor Peskin.
Peskin asserted that RPD should have shared information with neighborhood organizations to alert them about SFPA’s financial situation.
“Every year, the City received and reviewed SFPA’s Form 990s. For the past five years, it has been aware of SFPA’s year-after-year losses. Most of the neighborhood organizations are unincorporated groups of citizens. Why didn’t the City say or do something to tell these groups, “Your fiscal sponsor is running in the red. What happened to your money?” ” asked Peskin.
“Moving forward, I’d like to see SFPA officials held accountable and for the City to work to continue to honor our role as advocates for public space, make bureaucratic processes more friendly for community-initiated projects, and ensure City funding is available for our parks and open spaces,” said Ildiko Polony, executive director of Sutro Stewards, a former SFPA client.
“The neighbors of Franklin Square Park and the entire City benefits from our clean-ups and efforts to get a bathroom for soccer players. These are benefits driven by the community that came about through countless volunteer hours advocating and fundraising for our park. This is democracy in action driven by grassroot efforts of neighbors who love San Francisco,” said Yee.
Mark Steensland 
Stephanie Lam 
PV Staff