Mayor Daniel Lurie has created a new director-level position to oversee the city’s efforts to raise private funds for public programs like homelessness services and downtown revitalization.
Cynthia Wong will be the city’s first Director of Strategic Partnerships, a role that further cements the mayor’s commitment to public-private partnerships.
Wong has worked in philanthropy and investment since 2008, most recently as the head of strategy and operations at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the foundation established by the Facebook billionaire and his wife, a doctor, focusing on science, health and education.
Wong is also the treasurer for SPUR, the urban policy think tank that Lurie has collaborated with.
Wong said she was “honored to step into this role at a moment of momentum for the city — fueled not just by City Hall, but by business, philanthropy, and community leaders investing in our future.”
Public-private partnerships, which often involve using philanthropic funds on joint programs with the city, “have the power to bring together the best of government, industry, and community resources to tackle complex challenges more effectively than any sector could alone,” she said.
The new position is itself funded through such a partnership, namely a $700,000 grant from Tipping Point, the grant-giving nonprofit founded by Lurie that is still close to the administration. The grant will fully fund the position for two years and pay for half of the third year.
Wong would “align the growing number of public-private partnerships around programs and services that deliver results,” said Sam Cobbs, who succeeded Lurie as the CEO of Tipping Point in 2020. She will focus on three priority areas: Housing and homelessness, economic revitalization, and “government effectiveness,” according to the job description.
Lurie has turned to public-private partnerships frequently in his first 12 months on the job.
He has already raised around $50 million for his Breaking the Cycle initiative, a fund for city behavioral health and homelessness programs. The Downtown Development Corporation, a nonprofit organization founded by allies of the mayor that hopes to revitalize San Francisco’s core, has raised another $60 million.
“We’re bringing together leaders from across industries and sectors to go all-in on San Francisco,” Lurie said in a statement.
Some are wary of the city’s deeper commitments to using private money, however, worrying that the interests of large donors could influence policy.
“I’m all for true no-strings-attached philanthropic giving, but I get nervous when billionaires start paying for positions in the government,” said Aaron Peskin, former president of the Board of Supervisors.
A similar debate arose last fall when Supervisor Rafael Mandelman proposed legislation that would allow supervisors to ask for donations to preferred causes, so long as they get permission and report any funds they collect.
While some supervisors argued that the money could be directed to entities in need, others worried it introduced opportunities to buy a legislator’s good graces.
City officials must publicly disclose payments made to the government or a nonprofit at their request.
So far, Lurie has courted philanthropy to support his priorities. “Breaking the Cycle” funds were used to expand the shelter system, add more medical resources to existing shelters, and offer apartments to rent to people that Lurie had banned from living in RVs.
The city also plans to use money from Breaking the Cycle to repair its permanent supportive housing and to provide drug users with long-acting addiction medications.
The Downtown Development Corporation, meanwhile, has used some of its funds to pay for power-washing of streets, downtown ambassadors, and loans for businesses to do capital improvements.
Before the group was set up, the city received $3 million for street cleaning from Avenue Greenlight and Crankstart, funded by billionaires Chris Larsen and Michael Moritz, respectively.
The city has also received private dollars for other causes, including $9 million for a surveillance unit for the police department from Ripple Labs, founded by Larsen.
What a coincidence this comes out a day after Lurie’s opposition to the CEO tax. https://missionlocal.org/2026/01/sf-ceo-tax-lurie-supervisors/
Of course the ultra-rich, like Lurie and his buddies, prefer philanthropy to taxes. They decide how much to pay. They get a veto on how it’s used. For the rest of us, taxing the rich is better than philanthropy and we shouldn’t be fooled by this for a second.
How’s about raising taxes on private money for S.F.? There’s no such thing as a strings-free philanthropic billionaire.
And why is the mayor against the billionaire’s tax state proposition? Probably because his rich tech buddy Chris Larsen has his own competing and very misleading proposition that would undo it if it passes.
“Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.
How about just tax the rich?
“There is another, much larger, version of “private public partnership, whereby the public supplies the funds and the privates get the profit. i suspect this will also be the outcome herei
Why not cut to the chase and just let the crypto swindlers write the new San Francisco Charter in the blockchain?
One must admire the Lurie administration for its creative leadership.
By removing obstacles to gift giving, it appears to strategically kill two birds with one stone.
First, it might impede the Trump administration from invading the city to enforce “order” (whether it exists here or not). In effect it says: “Look, we have our own resources to clean up the city, and we can do it without anyone’s help!”
Second, it might reduce the rising public clamor for getting the wealthy to pay their fair share of taxes.
In essence, Lurie and his team want the “tech bro’s” to cough up and pay for the “favor” Trump granted us by not sending National Guard here.
What is wrong with this?
First, since when did Trump honor any of his agreements?
Second, most people aren’t fooled by charity which inevitably allows favoritism and comes with strings attached.
Although some will conclude Mayor Lurie’s “heart is in the right place”, he is a quisling and no hero.
If he were a hero, he would utilize his authority to lead his city today into a general strike in solidarity with workers in Minneapolis who are being oppressed by a fascist federal government.
He and his charitably-minded friends would pull out all stops to support and defend all the people who live here. He would declare that San Francisco is America’s number one “Sanctuary City”!
Like Trump is only in office because Democrats collapsed politically by severing connection to working people, in favor of cozying up to Wall Street and the Pentagon, Lurie is only in office because progressives collapsed politically by severing connection to working San Franciscans, in favor of cozying up to developers and conservative mayors in favor of the care and feeding of nonprofits and public sector unions.
It is time for us to stop putting those signs in our windows that maintain this charade.
This will definitely not result in a massive bribery scandal in 2-3 years.
Warren Hellman’s greatest contribution …
For me, it was the creation of an Office of City Economist.
SF’s top financier loved numbers and was offended when they were abused.
Made his own predictions more iffy which was bad for business.
So, he never believed Willie’s figures and paid for his own.
Got tired of paying and put the Economist position on the ballot under the Office of Controller who was most trusted in local government and I think was Ed Harrington at the time and transitioned smoothly into the Ben Rosenfield era for some 16 years with first choice for the economist position, Ted Egan well into his second 10 year term at the moment.
So, with straight arrows Egan and fresh vet off the City’s biggest pile of numbers heaps (the Health department), Greg Wagner just kicking off a 10 year term as Controller and the addition of a third independent money cop (the new Inspector General position) you can just plug in some honest algorithms to follow the money as some guy once said in a garage somewhere.
Ms. Wong and the Mayor would be smart to discreetly run donors through this friendly Controller’s Office Triad and their gauntlet of algorithms that will be able to sort out those rare birds trying to launder cocaine or counterfeit crypto currency.
Raise money for my SF Million Dollar Trash Lottery and it will not only end up paying for itself and making a profit, but will leave City streets clean cause the Public’s purchase of the Safety Tips fancy tickets will have both Trash Picker and Public winning tickets increasing in value as the drawing nears with no new cost to the City other than tickets.
Got that ?
As a candidate, Lurie liked it too but after a few months on the job he told me that he didn’t need a Lottery cause he already had thousands of pickers but those are mostly for an hour somewhere and DPW and Recology is now clashing over whether they have to pick up the different colored trash bags of Room 200’s currently favored outfits.
Now, where was I when I interrupted myself ?
Looking out my window after midnight Friday looking down 2 blocks at a mixed pile of green and one orange trash bag o SW corner of Julian and 14th street across next to the Armory where the trash I gathered there 14 hours ago is now being searched and scattered by the Homeless cause Recology and DPW said it ain’t their trash.
Vote for Police Chief !!
h.
Go! Go! Go! I think that successful tech companies should be matched with small businesses in hospitality, so that they help us stay afloat at a time when we are all drowning in debt.
Brilliant move by Mayor Lurie, Director of Strategic Partnerships. He has the relationships and is willing to leverage them for the betterment of the City. Such an innovator! Bravo, Mayor Lurie! Proud San Franciscan! Paul McLain-Lugowski