Nonprofits and NGOs

Brush with Fate

Scrounger's Art

A Time to Kill

The SPCA is struggling to finance a new hospital, and one way to save money is to speed up euthanasia.

Kiva's Microloans Underwriting Cockfighting in Peru

The SPCA is struggling to finance a new hospital, and one way to save money is to speed up euthanasia.

The Vice Hotel

One of the largest city-funded Care Not Cash hotels was allegedly run as a home for extortion, drug dealing, and other vices

Do-Gooders, NIMBYs, and Other Insects

The fight over a proposed butterfly museum shows how nonprofits and neighborhood groups are driving this town buggy

The Affordable Housing Disaster

How a cozy alliance of government bureaucrats and nonprofit developers spends tens of millions of dollars building almost no housing for the poor

Bunco Squad

Police brass can't account for a rogue vice operation

Profiteers of a Privatized Safety Net

Clueless administrators are letting disabled Social Security recipients get ripped off

Report Warns S.F. Nonprofits Could Wither and Die Due to Lack of Funding. S.F. Organization That Wrote Report Withers and Dies Due to Lack of Funding.

Now this is ironic!Those looking for an example of irony not involving diabetics being flattened by insulin trucks will be disappointed. No, it was not an example of irony when the city's Institute for Nonprofit Organization Management released a hefty report warning that the San Francisco's nonprof ... More >>

Adjust Your Television

The YouTube-ification of public-access TV in S.F. is about to begin – and the old cast of kooky cable programmers doesn’t like it one bit.

Organ Donor Network Thankful Bay Bridge Woes Didn't Force Them To Leave Hearts in San Francisco

'I left my heart, in San Francisco. High on a hill, it calls to me...'​The Bay Bridge's long weekend closure -- which could have been longer -- may have killed your commute. The people at California Transplant Donor Network, meanwhile, are thankful, however, that it didn't literally kill someone. ... More >>

Feast With a Chef Dream Team (and Support CUESA) at Sunday Supper

cuesa.org​Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture (CUESA), the non-profit organization responsible for the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market and its associated educational programming, will host its largest annual fundraiser in October. Attendees of this year's "Sunday Supper" will sit i ... More >>

List: Saving journalism

cuesa.org​Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture (CUESA), the non-profit organization responsible for the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market and its associated educational programming, will host its largest annual fundraiser in October. Attendees of this year's "Sunday Supper" will sit i ... More >>

The Bridge School Benefit

cuesa.org​Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture (CUESA), the non-profit organization responsible for the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market and its associated educational programming, will host its largest annual fundraiser in October. Attendees of this year's "Sunday Supper" will sit i ... More >>

The Worst-Run Big City in the U.S.

Spend more. Get less. We’re the city that knows how.

KQED Bolts Bay Area News Project; Employees Wonder What the Hell Just Happened

KQED, for reasons unknown, has bailed out...​Earlier this month, we wrote about how the birth of the nonprofit, Warren Hellman-funded Bay Area News Project was coming along more slowly and sloppily than anticipated. Now, to stretch the gestation analogy, there have been complications -- and one of ... More >>

Bay Area News Project Editor, CEO Introduce Themselves

​Out-of-work Bay Area journalists, start your resume engines. The Warren Hellman-bankrolled Bay Area News Project moments ago announced it has inked a CEO and Editor-In-Chief and is looking to hire "about 15 full-time journalists by the end of the year." According to newly installed EIC Jonathan W ... More >>

Should Sugar Daddies Save Journalism? Bay Area News Project Editor Weighs In -- Again

​As journalist Jim Barnett pointed out earlier today, Bay Area News Project's new editor-in-chief, Jonathan Weber, wasn't always a fan of nonprofit news-gathering. In fact, just last year, Weber said that the idea that nonprofits were the future of journalism was a "cop-out." Weber, then helming t ... More >>

Haiti Benefit Roundup Pt. 3: Afro-beat, Shoegaze, Dubstep, & Punk Unite

Kalbass Kreyol​It's heartening to see that neither the media attention nor the outpouring of musician support for Haiti fundraising has dropped off in the weeks since the earthquake hit. Here's the latest batch of shows with proceeds going to non-profits working to rebuild Haiti.The Red Devil Loun ... More >>

Friendly Skies: City contractor's cozy relationship with S.F. Rec and Park chief

Kalbass Kreyol​It's heartening to see that neither the media attention nor the outpouring of musician support for Haiti fundraising has dropped off in the weeks since the earthquake hit. Here's the latest batch of shows with proceeds going to non-profits working to rebuild Haiti.The Red Devil Loun ... More >>

City Employee Put On Leave After Allegedly Threatening Nonprofit Director

​A city worker has been placed on indefinite administrative leave after allegedly penning a series of e-mails to a nonprofit director, threatening him, his loved ones, and his staff, SF Weekly has learned. Santiago "Sam" Ruiz, executive director of Mission Neighborhood Centers, confirmed that he r ... More >>

Chocovision: Time-Lapse Art from Michael Recchiuti

We're pretty mesmerized by "Eat the Paint," a creative project by artist Mark Alsterlind and chocolatier Michael Recchiuti for the nonprofit organization Food From the Heart. The eight-hour process of composing edible art has been time-lapsed into less than four minutes. No stranger to playing wit ... More >>

Starved Budget Kills Subsidies for Cartoon Museum, School That Trains Pornographers

​Barbara Garcia, the tough-talking deputy director of the city's Department of Children, Youth, and their Families, was quoted in Friday's Chronicle saying it's no more Ms. Nice Gal for San Francisco nonprofits who don't produce a good bang for their taxpayer buck.A new city report however su ... More >>

Northern California Is Turning into Northern Italy

​Barbara Garcia, the tough-talking deputy director of the city's Department of Children, Youth, and their Families, was quoted in Friday's Chronicle saying it's no more Ms. Nice Gal for San Francisco nonprofits who don't produce a good bang for their taxpayer buck.A new city report however su ... More >>

Sounds Dangerous

​Barbara Garcia, the tough-talking deputy director of the city's Department of Children, Youth, and their Families, was quoted in Friday's Chronicle saying it's no more Ms. Nice Gal for San Francisco nonprofits who don't produce a good bang for their taxpayer buck.A new city report however su ... More >>

Now there's an 'iPhone of Nightclubs' T-Shirt (Pic)

You may have seen the funny-ass 'iPhone of Nightclubs' slogan that went up on the marquis of the Red Devil Lounge. Well now, you can buy the slogan on a club T-shirt:​

Purple Haze Deconstructed

You may have seen the funny-ass 'iPhone of Nightclubs' slogan that went up on the marquis of the Red Devil Lounge. Well now, you can buy the slogan on a club T-shirt:​

Taste Local Cheese for the Holidays (and a Good Cause)

​For obvious, if college-humor, reasons, our favorite of the twelve days of Christmas has always been the eight maids a-milking. Egg nog and Santa's glass of milk always have a place in the holiday celebrations, but why can't we include dairy in its more awesome and solid forms? The

As Interim Mayor of S.F., Ed Lee Can Shake Things Up

​For obvious, if college-humor, reasons, our favorite of the twelve days of Christmas has always been the eight maids a-milking. Egg nog and Santa's glass of milk always have a place in the holiday celebrations, but why can't we include dairy in its more awesome and solid forms? The

Sizzle & Fizzle: Highs and lows from the last week in S.F. music: R.I.P. KUSF 90.3 FM Edition

​For obvious, if college-humor, reasons, our favorite of the twelve days of Christmas has always been the eight maids a-milking. Egg nog and Santa's glass of milk always have a place in the holiday celebrations, but why can't we include dairy in its more awesome and solid forms? The

S.F. Fraudsters Fueled 2008 Financial Collapse

If only feds had listened back in 2006.​America's financial crisis had roots in fraudulent schemes to rope immigrants and other disadvantaged borrowers into loans they could never repay. And federal regulators knew of this problem as early as 2006, when abusive lending practices were the subject o ... More >>

S.F's Chinese New Year Parade Has Become a Hotbed of Controversy

If only feds had listened back in 2006.​America's financial crisis had roots in fraudulent schemes to rope immigrants and other disadvantaged borrowers into loans they could never repay. And federal regulators knew of this problem as early as 2006, when abusive lending practices were the subject o ... More >>

Reboot: New App Helps Us to 'Unplug" From Technology

there is an app for this​It's a sad commentary when we need an app to remind us to "unplug" from technology.In a bicoastal effort, two nonprofits are asking San Franciscans to dump their cell phones, computers, and iPads for one day this weekend and get back to the good old days of live conversati ... More >>

Civic Center Becomes Kids' Bowling Alley for The Day

Matt SmithNow if only public bowling were available inside City Hall.​Jumpstart, a nonprofit that places college student instructors in lower-income preschools, took over San Francisco's Civic Center Thursday, setting up outdoor bowling and other games and giving nursery school children their firs ... More >>

Brokeback Festival: How Financial Mismanagement Marched Pride to Brink of Disaster

Matt SmithNow if only public bowling were available inside City Hall.​Jumpstart, a nonprofit that places college student instructors in lower-income preschools, took over San Francisco's Civic Center Thursday, setting up outdoor bowling and other games and giving nursery school children their firs ... More >>

Can Hackers Change the World?

changing the world, one hacker at a time ​We already know what harm hackers can cause. But what good can they do?San Francisco's Change.org, a online activist platform, is challenging local hackers -- designers, coders, and programmers -- to put their talents to good use and build philanthropic ap ... More >>

Your Rags to Their Riches: Donated Clothes May Fund International Fugitive

changing the world, one hacker at a time ​We already know what harm hackers can cause. But what good can they do?San Francisco's Change.org, a online activist platform, is challenging local hackers -- designers, coders, and programmers -- to put their talents to good use and build philanthropic ap ... More >>

Alms Day: Hundreds Beg for Nonprofit Funding at City Hall

Matt SmithA festive Alms Day at City Hall​In this year's iteration of an annual ritual, hundreds of workers and beneficiaries of the public agencies and nonprofits that serve San Francisco's needy mobbed City Hall Friday. They all hoped for a chance to speak at a special Budget and Finance Committ ... More >>

What Happens When (and If) State Parks Close

Matt SmithA festive Alms Day at City Hall​In this year's iteration of an annual ritual, hundreds of workers and beneficiaries of the public agencies and nonprofits that serve San Francisco's needy mobbed City Hall Friday. They all hoped for a chance to speak at a special Budget and Finance Committ ... More >>

Competition and Financial Concerns Force Clinics to Merge

​Haight Ashbury Free Clinics (HAFC) and Walden House merged early this month, prompted by financial concerns and an overabundance of nonprofit healthcare services serving the same population. Besides saving money for both clinics, Jeff Schindler, director of Community and Government Relations, say ... More >>

Good Scout, Bad Boy: Examining the Virtues of Leland Yee

​Haight Ashbury Free Clinics (HAFC) and Walden House merged early this month, prompted by financial concerns and an overabundance of nonprofit healthcare services serving the same population. Besides saving money for both clinics, Jeff Schindler, director of Community and Government Relations, say ... More >>

Roller Derby Girls Robbed at Gunpoint

Rolling on ... ​Police are investigating a brazen crime where two members of the Bay Area Derby girls league were robbed at gunpoint after a bout earlier this month.  On the evening of July 9, the two members had packed up the money the league had raised from the event that night and drove ba ... More >>

Gross Profit: Money Given to Clipboard Kids Rarely Makes It to Nonprofits

Rolling on ... ​Police are investigating a brazen crime where two members of the Bay Area Derby girls league were robbed at gunpoint after a bout earlier this month.  On the evening of July 9, the two members had packed up the money the league had raised from the event that night and drove ba ... More >>

Mayoral Candidates' and Ethics Commission's Complaints Are Self-Serving, Bogus

Seriously, dealing with these brick houses is "unworkable"​Given the chance to complain to whatever newspaper covered the land of fairy tales, the Big Bad Wolf would probably remonstrate that houses of bricks were too cumbersome to be blown down -- even with much huffing and puffing. Given the cha ... More >>

This Thanksgiving, Learn Mary Risley's Beautifully Profane Way to Cook Turkey

In a wonderful instructional that has garnered over 10,000 views in the past two days, San Francisco's Mary Risley cuts out all the crap you've ever heard about making turkey for Thanksgiving. After decades of experience on the topic, the proprietor of Tante Marie's Cooking School and head of the n ... More >>

Get Your Delicious Holiday Shopping Done at the La Cocina Gift Bazaar!

​What: Third Annual La Cocina Gift Bazaar Where: Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts When: Fri., December 9, 5-9 p.m. Cost: Free The rundown: Shop local this holiday season by buying all sorts of delicious goodies at the La Cocina Gift Bazaar. It's very food focused (yay!), with over ... More >>

Mary Risley Is Back With More Awesome and Profane Cooking Advice

"Young people listen to you if you say fuck!" That's Mary Risley's assessment of the viral success of her Thanksgiving video after being recognized in public for her YouTube achievement. "Just Put the F*cking Turkey in the Oven" has garnered more than 120,000 views since November for the head of ... More >>

Think Locally, Shop Creatively

"Young people listen to you if you say fuck!" That's Mary Risley's assessment of the viral success of her Thanksgiving video after being recognized in public for her YouTube achievement. "Just Put the F*cking Turkey in the Oven" has garnered more than 120,000 views since November for the head of ... More >>