In its final months of existence, the San Francisco Parks Alliance failed to share news of its dire fiscal state with the community organizations it served, trying instead to prevent its collapse, former leaders of the disgraced nonprofit told San Francisco supervisors on Thursday.
Instead, the Parks Alliance prioritized alerting large donors, leaving the community groups that it fiscally sponsored in the dark.
“We had great fear, which proved to be correct, that if funders and donors realized the depth of issues that we were still uncovering, they would dry up all fundraising,” former treasurer Rick Hutchinson said. “That’s exactly what happened.”
The Parks Alliance, which raised and spent private money for public projects related to parks and recreation, essentially served as a bank for community organizations. It is being investigated for misspending at least $3.8 million earmarked for specific parks’ projects on other expenses.
Organizations for years have accused the Parks Alliance of withholding their money, but the accusations came to a head last month when the city cut off money to the Parks Alliance after the San Francisco Chronicle revealed the scale of its fiscal crisis to the public.
In a four-hour hearing Thursday at the Board of Supervisors Government Audit and Oversight Committee, former Parks Alliance treasurer Hutchinson and former CEO Drew Becher said they had no knowledge of years of money mismanagement by the Parks Alliance until May or June of 2024.
Former CEO Robert Ogilvie, who joined the organization in February 2025, when Becher left, was also present. They were compelled to appear today by subpoenas.
Supervisors Jackie Fielder and Shamann Walton sponsored the hearing, with supervisors Danny Sauter and Stephen Sherrill in attendance.
During questioning, Walton handed Ogilvie a balance sheet that indicated that the Park Alliance currently owes San Francisco community groups $5.4 million. Ogilvie confirmed that the number is “at least that.”
Over the last decade, the Parks Alliance each year received millions of dollars from donors. By the end of last year, it had negative $500,000 in net assets.
The San Francisco District Attorney’s Office and the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office are also looking into financial mismanagement by the Parks Alliance, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Walton called it a “betrayal” in his opening remarks, emphasizing the effect on neighborhood groups and local park stewards. Many of the supervisors’ questions focused on whether the Parks Alliance was aware that it was spending restricted funds meant for other uses.
When pressed by supervisors to explain the internal processes of the Parks Alliance, Hutchinson failed to clarify how restricted and unrestricted funds were organized, or whether they were in separate bank accounts.
Becher said that in his role as CEO, he did not see any reports that designated restricted or unrestricted funds until after June 2024, when the organization realized it was in the midst of a financial crisis.
Its community group partners were taken aback by the alliance’s seemingly sudden insolvency. The Parks Alliance acted as the fiscal sponsor for its partners, meaning donors could make a contribution for a specific partner through the Alliance.
Generally, a fiscal sponsor like the alliance charges a small fee for its services and the remainder of the donation goes to the intended organization. However, many organizations failed to get the donations intended for their projects.
“We were never informed of the financial crisis,” San Francisco Port Director Elaine Forbes told the supervisors during remarks. The port worked with the Parks Alliance throughout 2024 on a project at Crane Cove, and came up almost $2 million short. “We’re left holding the bag.”
The former board members repeatedly implicated Justin Probert, the Parks Alliance’s finance officer, in the mismanagement of the organization’s funds. Probert was terminated in February 2024 for issues with “management style,” Becher said, that were unrelated to finances.
Probert may not have had a clear view of the finances. Becher said that, as CFO, Probert never logged into the Parks Alliance’s financial software.
Walton drilled into Becher for also not understanding his former organization’s finances. The back-and-forth between supervisors and former Parks Alliance personnel often grew tense, with Becher’s lawyer eventually cutting off questioning.
“You expect this board to believe that if this was all the CFO, you had no responsibility?” Walton asked. “I am perplexed that anyone would be able to be in the CEO position for as long as you were and have no knowledge of this financial situation.”
Upon Becher’s resignation in February of this year, the Parks Alliance owed hundreds of thousands of dollars to the community organizations whose funds it held.
Hutchinson said that, on realizing its dire financial situation in June 2024, the organization was focused on preserving its relationship with donors. He appeared to think that keeping the financial catastrophe secret would buy some time for the organization.
“There was concern that … being very public about what was going on would speed up the collapse of the organization,” Ogilvie said. He was aware of the organization’s financial issues and its misuse of funds when he joined in February 2025.
Hutchinson said that any community groups that had funds that flowed into the Parks Alliance after June 1, 2024, were paid back. When pressed by Fielder, however, he could not name a single specific organization.
During public comment, representatives from community groups across San Francisco disputed Hutchinson’s claims, mentioning that they had ended their contracts with Parks Alliance but were still owed thousands or tens of thousands of dollars. They described a year of asking for their money and going unheard.
“We’ve lost $100,000 that was donated by residents over the past decades,” said Leslie Wong of the Buena Vista Neighborhood Association. “This is like depositing $100,000 in a bank then the bank saying they don’t have it anymore.”
The Government Audit and Oversight Committee moved to continue investigating alleged fiscal mismanagement by Parks Alliance finances in future meetings.
I have supported Alta Plaza Park with small but regular donations over the past years, but stopped when articles began appearing in the Chronicle about The Parks’ Alliance financial “opacity” several years ago. These articles raised concerns about the Parks Alliance well before 2024. Red flags were waving all over the place, but there was never any follow-up by anyone as far as I can tell. I think it would be worthwhile to see what other similar quasi-governmental organizations are collecting money from small neighborhood groups and for what purpose. There is clearly very little oversight, despite all our commissions and committees, etc.
It is incredible that Drew Becher could stand before the Board of Supervisors and claim no knowledge of the interworking and finances of his non-profit. His names are on the checks and he handed out the employee bonuses. Please keep following this story.
Scammers! Ginsburg and the rest of them should be thrown in jail like everyone else.
LINKS TO ENGARDIO? YES.
Where did the money go? Are there any records of expenditures? Who was writing the checks? How were donations attributed to the various organizations processed? Was someone just carrying the money around in a paper bag and accidentally left it on a MUNI bus? They put it in their sock? Does the Alliance have a Board of Directors? Clearly these people had no understanding of managing for risk. What a shame.
Keep up the great work!
Love your reporting. It’s informative, non-political, timely and oh, so appropriate to important information about my neighborhood. Thank you for keeping me informed.
Thanks for reporting
The grift from nonprofits has gone on way too long here
Week after week , another nonprofit is revealed to have been mismanaged and taxpayer monies and others money has been stolen
Time to stop supporting all nonprofits until there are very strict laws and rules
In SF the nonprofit industry has contributed nothing to show for the billions spent .
Mandatory jail time for many years for all.
They have ruined it for all
No second changes
Only fools and idiots would support organizations that give the money to big salaries and yet showup year after year with their bs .
Really tired of the slick power points and group that shows up at city hall to support this fraud .
Evidence based success indicates almost all are self serving
Let them whine when the funding dries up
Game up and over
it was really weird, I was on another neighborhood social media app where Park Alliance came up regarding Sunset Blvd five years ago. I said follow the money then and another poster said Park Alliance was legit. I wonder if any of these people will face the court as you arrest others of color for their “non profit.”