Scandals Immediate San Francisco To Tighten Up Guidelines for Nonprofits

San Francisco dishes out greater than a billion {dollars} yearly to nonprofit organizations, however the metropolis’s oversight of these {dollars} has been the topic of rising scrutiny within the wake of scandals.

On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors handed a invoice requiring nonprofits receiving metropolis funds to submit tax and governance paperwork confirming their nonprofit standing and to designate the town administrator as the only real collector of such data. The invoice, which was sponsored by Supervisor Ahsha Safaí, handed unanimously.

“This ordinance is a primary step in direction of cleansing up nonprofit oversight,” stated Safaí at Tuesday’s assembly.

The Normal reported in January that final yr San Francisco companies gave greater than $25 million in taxpayer {dollars} to nonprofits that had been blocked by state regulation from receiving or spending funds. The revelation steered widespread issues within the oversight of grants and contracts for such teams.

The standing of dozens of nonprofit organizations had both been revoked, suspended or tagged as delinquent by the state Legal professional Basic’s Workplace previous to the payouts. As of December 2022, the town had lively contracts with practically 140 nonprofits that had did not adjust to state registration necessities.

The Normal launched its investigation of city-funded nonprofits after the United Council of Human Companies, a corporation offering houses and shelters for homeless folks within the metropolis’s Bayview neighborhood, was referred to the FBI and the District Legal professional’s Workplace for what officers described as a sample of extreme mismanagement.

The Normal subsequently discovered that the Legal professional Basic’s Workplace had suspended United Council’s nonprofit standing, that means it was not permitted to solicit donations or function as a charity in California.