SF Nonprofit Linked to Human Rights Commission Bribery Scandal Faces Shutdown

A San Francisco nonprofit accused of bribing a city department head is being forced to consider closure this fall as officials seek to cut off its city funding for five years, its attorneys said.

Collective Impact, a Western Addition-based nonprofit, was suspended from receiving city funding in October after media reports uncovered that its executive director, James Spingola, had been living with the head of San Francisco’s Human Rights Commission, which had awarded it millions of dollars in grants over the previous five years.

The scandal led to HRC Executive Director Sheryl Davis’ sudden resignation last September and sank confidence in then-Mayor London Breed’s signature Dream Keeper Initiative, an offshoot of the commission that funded grants benefitting San Francisco’s Black community.

City Attorney David Chiu’s office laid out new details of the alleged corruption in court documents filed Monday, ahead of an administrative hearing next week at which attorneys for Collective Impact plan to argue to restore the nonprofit’s eligibility for city funds. Chiu’s office is seeking to extend the funding ban for five years.

If that were to happen, attorneys for Collective Impact said in their own filings, the nonprofit would likely have to shut down all of its programs by October.

In this week’s filings from the city attorney’s office, Chiu doubled down on allegations that Davis and Collective Impact had an unethical relationship, revealing new evidence showing that her relationship with the nonprofit she previously led goes much further than sharing a home and car with its executive director.

“Collective Impact repeatedly violated state law, the San Francisco Municipal Code, and

the terms of its various grants,” Chiu wrote in the pre-hearing statement. “It misappropriated public funds to provide gifts to Davis and her son. Davis then made funding determinations that favored Collective Impact.

“Collective Impact is an irresponsible contractor that should be debarred for the maximum period of time,” he continued.

Chiu’s office initiated the debarment proceedings against Collective Impact in March, alleging that Spingola failed to disclose his personal relationship with Davis and that the nonprofit bribed Davis in exchange for city funds.

Before taking over the Human Rights Commission in 2016, Davis was Collective Impact’s executive director from 2011 to 2016. At the time, Chiu said she was also employed by the San Francisco public defender’s office.

Though she left Collective Impact before starting at HRC, Davis continued to sign official documents on behalf of the nonprofit through February 2017, according to the city attorney’s office.

Court filings said that she is still a signatory on Collective Impact’s bank account and that the nonprofit has a corporate credit card in her name to this day.

Chiu also alleges that over a period of five years, Davis and Spingola — who have lived together since 2016 — signed six grant agreements topping $6 million on behalf of the Human Rights Commission and Collective Impact, respectively. During that time, neither disclosed their relationship.

Around the same time, Collective Impact is accused of paying more than $19,000 in graduate school tuition for Davis’ son, $18,400 to support her personal work, including marketing a personal book and podcast, and thousands more to treat her to luxury accommodations and flights.

To pay for a trip Davis and Spingola took to a Martha’s Vineyard conference where she was a keynote speaker, the nonprofit falsely billed expenses to an Educational Pathways grant awarded to Collective Impact through the city’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development, according to the city attorney’s office. The terms of the grant expressly barred spending on conferences and travel.

While Chiu argued that Collective Impact should be disbarred over the repeated bribery allegations and ethics concerns, the nonprofit said in its own filings ahead of next week’s hearing that it fills a critical role in the community, and needs access to city funding to continue that mission.

“Collective Impact, which began as a community-based nonprofit provider of a small afternoon program for roughly 40 elementary and middle schoolers, grew into its current role as one of the most respected and beloved Black-led organizations, serving the needs of hundreds of traditionally underserved youth and families in the Western Addition,” its pre-hearing statement reads.

Attorneys Lauren Kramer Sujeeth and Si Eun Amber Lee wrote that since Collective Impact’s city funding was frozen last fall, it has spent $2 million privately funding summer programs for 125 students. They said if the nonprofit were to lose city funding for five years, it would be forced to close.

“Even with funding from non-city sources, Collective Impact anticipates a complete shutdown of its programs by October 2025, which will undoubtedly have an injurious effect on many Western Addition youth and families,” the brief reads.

They also said the city attorney’s office would not be able to meet the “willful misconduct” standard required for debarment.

The hearing is scheduled to begin on Monday.