Massive corruption revealed in SF nonprofit scandal
Image from award-winning The Grifters (1990), in which the clever techniques of conman Roy Dillon (played by John Cusack) are lovingly revealed.
SF's Dream Keeper initiative—which took over $120 million from the San Francisco Police Department and “redistributed” it in the form of grants—is found to be a hotbed for large-scale grift, according to the exceptional Voice of SF.
Just over a year ago, I warned that the Dream Keeper Initiative, a plan to take over $120 million from the San Francisco Police Department and “redistribute” it to the Black Community in the form of grants, was ripe for grift and cronyism. Co-sponsors Mayor London Breed and Supervisor Shamann Walton made no bones about their pet project being a “the first step toward reparations” (in fact, Walton said the amount was “still far too low”). When they hired their friend Sheryl Davis, head of the Human Rights Commission, to also run Dream Keeper Initiative, it was a recipe for disaster, which has played out over the past several months in the media. While Davis and her second-in-command Saidah Leatutufu-Burch, who met her husband, Percy Burch, while working under Walton at the troubled Young Community Developers (in fact, Walton officiated their lavish wedding), have resigned, the grift continues. Board of Supervisors president Aaron Peskin called a hearing about the improprieties at Dream Keeper, but the hearing became a lovefest on how they could distribute the grants more quickly.
One thing is for sure: Breed and Walton (and perhaps the city) didn’t want you to see exactly where the money went. They coded the grantees as “suppliers” and buried it deeper than a dog with a bone from the House of Prime Rib. Fortunately, we were able to crack that code to present taxpayers — who never agreed to Dream Keeper — with a complete list of exactly what they got for their millions. As writer Sanjana Friedman pointed out recently, Dream Keeper is likely illegal under state and federal law. “Following landmark decisions in federal court, the legal landscape has shifted decisively against public and private programs that offer preferential treatment to those of a given race, sex, or other protected characteristic. Though the most recent decisions focused on race-based affirmative action in college admissions and privately funded programs, they open all federally funded programs to potential lawsuits based on the same legal logic: that the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibit identity-based discrimination,” Friedman wrote. It turns out, Breed, Walton, and Davis gave preferential treatment not only to those of a given race,” but also those of a “given sex, or other protected characteristic.”
When looking at Dream Keeper recipients, a clear pattern of political pandering and “friends with community benefits” emerges even via smaller grants. For example, Marvellus Lucas received $50,000 from Dream Keeper’s San Francisco Arts Commission funds “to support a series of five comedy show events with the theme “Healing through Laughter.” Walton, who is termed out as supervisor of District 10, is trying to start a new career as a stand-up comedian. A quick glance at his social media pulls up numerous shows he’s participated in with his friend Lucas under the moniker Healing through Laughter, but that’s not all. Lucas and Healing through Laughter are fiscally sponsored by New Community Leadership Foundation, which received $2,362,282.
Other Walton favorites dialing for Dream Keeper dollars, many of which I exposed in 2020 as part of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission Community Benefits pay-to-play scheme, include Young Community Developers ($5,695,684) and Urban Ed Academy ($1,364, 905) — both tied to Walton’s now-disgraced mentor Dwayne Jones — Bayview Hunters Point Community Advocates ($1,370,000), and the Bayview Opera House ($2,425,000).
Mayor Breed also handed potentially illegal millions to gender-based causes to curry potential political favor. In May of this year, Breed announced the appointment of Honey Mahogany as the new director of the Office of Transgender Initiatives, which came with a high six-figure salary. Mahogany, a respected, politically active figure in the LGBTQ+ community, helped create the San Francisco Transgender District, which received $1,610,070 from Dream Keeper. Another $975,000 went to Transgender Advocates for Justice and Accountability, which is part of the mayor’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development.
Friends of the mayor did well, too: the African American Art and Culture Complex, where Breed got her start under mentor Willie Brown, took in a whopping $5,388,750 — even after the organization violated state law by receiving millions of dollars in city funds while being legally barred from doing so. A 2023 story in the San Francisco Standard pointed out that the organization was listed as “delinquent” on the state’s Registry of Charitable Trusts, and records showed they failed for years to “renew their registration, pay fees, and submit forms documenting revenue and spending with the state Attorney General’s Office.” The nonprofit ignored filing requirements or had its registration renewals rejected for incomplete information and underpayment from 2018 until the Standard exposed the problem. It’s entirely likely Breed helped bring them into compliance so they could receive Dream Keeper Funds. Co-executive directors Melonie Green and Melorra Green are not only close friends of Breed’s, but the twin sisters live next door to her.
Who got the biggest grants? Collective Impact, which is run by Davis’s alleged live-in romantic partner (though both deny it), James Spingola, comes in at number two, raking in $10,402,538. Just prior to her resignation, Davis threw a party at one of Washington, D.C.’s swankiest hotels and took two trips to Martha’s Vineyard in 2023 and 2024, where she and other Dream Keeper recipients, including Collective Impact, were frequent paid sponsors. The largest single grantee was SF New Deal ($11,400,000).
Individual nonprofit awards are dwarfed, however, by the nearly $20 million that went to title companies for the Dream Keeper’s Downpayment Assistance Loan Program, or DALP, which provides a $30,000 “wealth building grant” and a $500,000 deferred second loan with zero interest and no monthly payments required. While DALP eligibility requirements don’t specifically require that DALP participants be Black, applicants are given priority if they live in one of four HOPE SF public housing developments, receive Section 8 housing vouchers, or were “displaced due to an earlier city redevelopment project.” As Friedman pointed out in her assessment of the legality of such programs, “Dream Keeper money itself predominantly goes to programs serving Black residents, and the city has a separate DALP aimed at the general population. So, it’s reasonable to infer that admission to the Dream Keeper DALP is effectively race-based — a straightforward violation of Prop. 209.”
Read the whole thing here.
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