San Francisco, CA – San Francisco Black community nonprofit board leaders, executives and staff are gathering for a discussion and workshop regarding crisis conditions at a growing number of community organizations that face increased scrutiny, budgets cuts and dwindling services.
The community convening is sponsored by the San Francisco Black Community Restoration Institute (SFBCRI), a non-profit thinktank supported by retired Black nonprofit executives. The gathering is scheduled to take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Thursday, June 20, 2024, at Saint Paul of the Shipwreck Church at Jamestown Avenue and Third Street in the Bayview District.
“Black Community Nonprofits: Navigating a Complex Environment,” is the theme for the event.
“We understand and know that nonprofits are a vital part of the community infrastructure – from churches to community housing to community centers to job training sites and more,” said Institute Board President Perry Lang. “Our nonprofit organizations face a current and brewing crisis that demands our collective attention, “said Lang, who is the former Executive Director of the Rafiki Coalition for Health and Wellness, formerly the Black Coalition on AIDS.
“There is a gowing arena of discontent, suspicion and demoralization on Black CBOs as a result of the kinds of scandals that have been proliferating in the news continuously,” said Institute Board Member Deidre Epps Miller, former Director of the Southeast Health Center in San Francisco.
According to news reports, at least six Black-led community nonprofits have come under criminal investigation and another half-dozen have unceremoniously lost funding under a cloud of suspicion. San Francisco politicians have called for greater oversight, including the possible creation of an inspector general’s office to investigate fraud, waste, abuse and misconduct in city government and its nonprofit contractors.
At the same time, the latest Citywide Nonprofit Performance Audit suggest city departments are complicit in the crisis by pushing “different reporting requirements, different monitoring requirements and the decentralized collection and use of misaligned performance data.” The report also stresses that “some performance measures are not aligned with a CBOs capacity.”
“The overall bureaucracy and financial management of these agencies is certainly crippling them,” said Gerald Harris, the Institute Vice President. Mr. Harris has served on the Boards of both Central City Hospitality House and the Commonwealth Club of California.
“Another issue is that funding sources are drying up…there is a scramble for resources, a scramble to meet the criteria necessary to be successful in a bidding process,” said Institute Treasurer Larry Chatmon, former Senior Contract Manager for the San Francisco Human Services Agency.
Kim Shine, former Executive Director of the Bayview Hunters Point Foundation for Community Improvement and Institute Corporate Secretary said “The change in demographics is one of the key issues our community is struggling with right now. Even though the level of need hasn’t changed, our community is shrinking. How do we better share and leverage the resources that we have?”
In preparation for the discussion and workshop, the Institute recorded a Zoom video, excerpts of which are electronically posted and will be used at the event to anchor the conversation and underscore issues outlined in a community position paper about the crisis. To see the video or register for the event, please visit SFBCRI.org.
“This is really a time of crisis and, in times of crisis, it is important to come together and find solutions together,” said Leslie Eveland, an organization development consultant to the Institute’s Board.
The discussion and workshop are expected to produce recommendations going forward for both individual nonprofits and the city.
Board Member Jimmy Loyce, a former nonprofit executive director, and Deputy Director of the SFDPH, cautioned the group to be careful not to gut community leadership under the guise of DEI (Diversity Equity and Inclusion). “We must pay more attention to cultivating community talents and skills and less to outsourcing community services.”
