Rec-Park director knew well in advance of major nonprofit problems—and did nothing

Almost a year before the San Francisco Parks Alliance imploded, senior staff at the Recreation and Parks Department, including Director Phil Ginsburg, knew that the organization was in a financial crisis and stiffing community groups, records obtained by 48hills show.

In fact, Ginsburg spent almost six months, between June 2024 and December, 2024, trying to find out why the Parks Alliance wasn’t paying its bills.

But over the course of the fall, 2024, and early spring, 2025, Ginsberg never told the mayor, the supes, the city attorney, or other agencies impacted by the Parks Alliance meltdown that the crisis was happening. He didn’t take that step until April, 2025—at which point some of the money owed to community groups was gone.

Documents obtained under the California Public Records Act show that in June, 2024, Ginsburg wrote to Parks Alliance Director Drew Becher to say that he was worried the organization was not on solid financial footing:

While we haven’t spoken directly about this topic yet, it has now come to my attention through several outside parties that the San Francisco Parks Alliance is experiencing a cash flow shortage that may be challenging its capacity to operate. I am writing to ensure funds held at the Parks Alliance for the benefit of the Recreation and Park Department are secure and to request a formal update on Parks Alliance finances. In particular, I am requesting information on funds held at the Parks Alliance for RPD-SFPA partnership projects (including India Basin and LetsPlaySF!) along with the status of funds from the RPD-SFPA Commemorative Bench Program.

Through this email, I am asking you and your team to please work diligently with my staff to confirm invoices paid and balances remaining on: 1) LetsPlaySF! so we can plan for the final design and construction work on the Program’s last three playgrounds and 2) India Basin so we can ensure vendors and contractors are being paid and we have a better sense of available resources to invest in Equitable Development initiatives moving forward, some with imminent and consequential funding deadlines.

As Joe Eskenazi reported at Mission Local, Ginsburg appears to have been making sure his department—but not other small nonprofits or other city agencies—kept their money before things fell apart.

But it wasn’t just one meeting or one email. Ginsburg pursued the Parks Alliance all fall and into January. In a Jan. 22, 2025 email, Ginsburg told Becher:

Although you stated in your response to that email that you believed the teams were working together and SFPA was in the process of providing the requested information that has not happened. I am concerned both because Parks Alliance is not disbursing funds and making required payments or providing contractually required reporting to the Department. While we work together in partnership, the lack of information on projects up and down the organizations and the failure of SFPA to comply with terms of agreements we negotiated together is troubling. I have outlined some of the issues below and ask that you send a reply with answers to these questions by WHAT IS A REASONABLE DEADLINE? MID FEB?

That email suggests that Ginsburg was willing to keep working with the collapsing nonprofit despite obvious and serious financial issues—and was offering a generous time frame for the group to respond.

We are not talking about minor issues. From the email:

REPORTING – India Basin: The last report we received for India Basin was through end of March/Q3 for FY24. We reviewed that large spreadsheet and, on October 16th 2024 sent the attached letter to which we have received no response. In addition, throughout this year, we have reached out for information on quarterly expenditures and not received any response. Thus we are missing quarterly reporting from Q4 of FY24 and confirmation that FY24 has been financially closed. To date, no reports regarding expenditures for Q1 of FY25 and Q2 of FY25 have been provided. I would note that per our India Basin grant agreement, Exhibit A, Sec 6: “Quarterly reports will be due to the Budget Committee within 45 days of the close of each calendar quarter summarizing all expenditures.” In addition to the language in the grant agreement, each partner agreed to provide a monthly expenditure report by the 15th day of the following month for informal budget tracking. SFPA has not submitted any reporting to date.

More:

PAYMENTS – Friends Groups: I would note payment problems with three fiscally sponsored groups, The Friends of Dolores Park, the Friends of Allyne Park and the Friends of the Dahlia Dell. For Dolores Park and Allyne Park, RPD sent requests for updates in on December 17th and followed up on January 10th. The January 10th email included a request for guidance on any paperwork needed by SFPA to release the funds. Neither of these emails received a response. Specifically on these two projects: Allyne Park: Funds were raised as of September, but RPD staff did not have specific instructions on what was needed to release the funds. First an invoice was requested and then staff were told it wasn’t needed. In the interest of moving the project an invoice was sent on January 10 to SFPA leadership with no response as of January 22.  Dolores Park Projects: On October 15th Friends of Dolores Park leader Nancy Madynski emailed SFPA and RPD staff approving a plan to use the $49,000 remaining in the to reimburse RPD operations for trash receptacles and replenishing playground sand, to address lighting issues, replace a water fountain, and paint the playground’s bridge. Repeated requests from RPD to understand the timing of the release of these funds or any next steps. On January 15 RPD staff asked SFPA staff if an invoice was needed and SFPA staff replied that “Yes, invoices for these would be great.” We will send an invoice this week and request an update on when funds would be transferred.

The Parks Alliance collected money from neighborhood and community groups, many of them small, that wanted to fund park improvements. Since the alliance was a nonprofit, donations were tax deductible. Ginsburg and his staff routinely directed community groups to the alliance.

But as a “fiscal sponsor,” the alliance was by law required to keep those funds protected for the purpose the groups donated; the money couldn’t go to overhead expenses (beyond a modest commission). Instead, it now appears, the group was diverting money to its staff and management operations.

Lots of small community groups are now wondering where there money went, and if they can ever get it back, now that the Parks Alliance has folded.

The records show a long list of complaints about Parks Alliance payments reaching Ginsburg and his staff, as early as the fall of 2024.

But nothing happened. There is no indication that anyone at Rec-Park called the city attorney or the district attorney. As of January, 2025, Ginsburg was referring to the Parks Alliance as a valued partner.

Tamara Aparton, a spokesperson for Rec-Park, said that Ginsburg had no idea there was any financial malfeasance until April: “I think you can appreciate the difference between a nonprofit showing signs of post-pandemic cash-flow stress and discovering it was misappropriating restricted funds. In fact, a cash-flow shortage can imply the opposite—that funds remain intact but are not readily available. When Phil learned the issue was misappropriation, he immediately alerted the City Attorney, Mayor, and the Board president.”

Restricted funds are supposed to be readily available at all times; cash flow problems could impact the staff, but the funds community groups raised should be set aside. The fact that they weren’t should at the very least have raised concerns at Rec Park.

By the time Ginsburg sounded the alarm, a lot of money was gone. I asked Aparton if Ginsburg ever suspected anything was wrong before April; I haven’t heard back.

Ginsburg has worked with the alliance in the past on what can only be called dubious political goals. When Sup. Connie Chan dared to raise questions about the alliance in 2021, the group, with Ginsburg’s knowledge, threatened to pull funding from a park in her district.

From the supes hearing on the issue:

Peskin said that Ginsburg was “deeply involved and inextricably linked to this nonprofit” and the behavior of the organization “is conduct unbecoming. … it is outrageous … the answer is to take responsibility.”

Walton wasn’t buying Ginsburg’s argument, either. He said: “I don’t believe that the Recreation and Parks Department had no role (in the letter). Director Ginsburg, it seems likely that you act on behalf of the Parks Alliance quite often and it’s inappropriate.”

The records suggest that Ginsburg at the very least let the process drag out for months, while money was apparently being diverted away from its proper use.

Sup. Jackie Fielder, who has been pursing the issue, told me that “it’s shocking. Community groups had no idea, we had no idea, until the alliance imploded.”

Sup. Connie Chan told me that “this is a question for Mayor Lurie and the city attorney to determine the responsibility of department heads. What are their obligations to the city and the community?”

Good questions.