In FY22, the City and County of San Francisco contracted with over 600 nonprofit providers, at a cost of $1.4 billion, to deliver a wide range of safety net services, from family support services, homelessness and housing services, and senior services, to veteran’s services and workforce development services. Our annual report and accompanying dataset detail the financial and operational health of selected organizations from this larger group of 600+ nonprofit providers that fall into the citywide monitoring pool.
In FY22, 12 city departments funded 192 nonprofit contractors in the Citywide Nonprofit Monitoring and Capacity Building Program (Program). The nonprofits that were monitored either receive City funding above a certain funding threshold, receive funding from multiple departments, or were selected based on a risk assessment. Nonprofits that did not meet criteria to be included in the Program’s monitoring pool are monitored by individual funding departments themselves.
The program is designed to minimize duplication of effort and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of fiscal and compliance monitoring for both nonprofit contractors and City departments, which formerly performed these functions individually and without shared standards. The overall goal is to ensure public funds are spent in alignment with the City’s financial and administrative standards, and to equip nonprofit contractors with tools to ensure strong, sustainable fiscal operations. In addition to nonprofit monitoring, we accomplish this goal through training workshops and individualized coaching services for nonprofit contractors.
Highlights from the report:
- At the close of initial monitoring, 155 contractors (88%) were in conformance with all standards.
- As in prior years, the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development has the highest number of contractors in the joint monitoring pool, closely followed by the Human Services Agency, Department of Children, Youth and Their Families, and the Department of Public Health.
- Based on FY22 monitoring activities and events that identified potential fiscal management and organizational concerns, two contractors were placed on elevated concern status, indicating the presence of outstanding issues that need additional attention: Bayview Hunters Point Foundation for Community Improvement and HomeRise (formerly Community Housing Partnership).
- Based on FY22 monitoring activities and external audits, two contractors were placed on red flag status, indicating more severe challenges that need to be closely monitored and rectified: PRC and Baker Places, Inc., and United Council of Human Services.
“As we continue our transition back into full-scale fiscal and compliance monitoring, the Controller’s Office will maintain our focus on continuous improvement of this program that monitors the health of the organizations delivering some of the City’s most critical services,” said Controller Ben Rosenfield. “The City needs to continue to strengthen programs to both support the organizational strength of these organizations while also monitoring their financial health and performance of the work they are contracted to provide.”
The FY22 monitoring cycle began and ended later in the year, due the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent impacts to staff capacity to resume full-scale monitoring activities. The FY22 annual report represents the work of City staff, department monitors, and nonprofit contractors to return to our fiscal and compliance monitoring practices in fuller capacity. The FY22 dataset, available online, includes a list of the contractors in the FY22 monitoring pool and their monitoring results, including type of monitoring and any findings.
The Citywide Nonprofit Monitoring Program is one component of an array of nonprofit support and oversight services provided by the Controller’s Office. These programs include facilitating the monitoring program, assisting nonprofits with tools and training to improve their practices, assessing and auditing select nonprofit organizations, and evaluating the policies and practices city departments use to manage the performance of nonprofit contactors. Recent Controller’s Office audits and reports have recommended practices to improve nonprofit services through improvement of wages for nonprofit workers, more comprehensive department management of contractor performance, policy changes to ease the administrative burden of doing business with the City, and detailed audits of select nonprofit organizations.