Collective Impact used City funds to benefit former HRC Director Sheryl Davis instead of the vulnerable children and families who were the intended recipients of City funding
SAN FRANCISCO (March 20, 2025) — City Attorney David Chiu announced today that he initiated debarment proceedings against, and immediately suspended, Collective Impact, preventing the nonprofit from bidding on or receiving new City contracts or grants. Collective Impact received City grant funding to provide programming for vulnerable youth and families in San Francisco, but an ongoing, joint audit and investigation by the City Attorney’s Office and the Controller’s Office revealed that Collective Impact spent City funding on gifts to former Human Right Commission (HRC) Director Sheryl Davis and aided and abetted Davis in violating various conflict of interest laws.
Collective Impact has paid tens of thousands of dollars to support Davis’ personal business ventures, her travel, and her son’s education. Prior to being HRC Director, Davis was the Executive Director of Collective Impact, and she shares a home and a car with the nonprofit’s current Executive Director, James Spingola.
“Collective Impact has received more than $27 million in City grants since 2021 to provide support to our City’s most vulnerable,” said City Attorney David Chiu. “Our communities deserve these resources, and we cannot allow public monies to be diverted for personal benefit and self-promotion. All City employees have a responsibility to ensure that public funding is used as intended to deliver high-quality public services.”
“Public dollars should tangibly and positively impact communities. Misusing grant funds for individual gain — or for the benefit of a select few — doesn’t just take away resources from the people in need,” said Controller Greg Wagner. “It erodes the confidence of those doing important work and unfairly casts a shadow on the organizations that are genuinely making every dollar count. Our residents deserve accountability.”
Background
Collective Impact is a California nonprofit corporation based in San Francisco that has contracted with multiple City departments, including HRC. Since July 2021, Collective Impact has received over $27 million in City funding.
The grant funding Collective Impact received was intended to benefit vulnerable San Francisco youth and families. Instead of spending the grant funds as authorized, Collective Impact directed tens of thousands of those grant dollars to benefit the former Director of HRC, Dr. Sheryl Davis.
Before leading HRC, Davis was the Executive Director of Collective Impact from 2011 through 2016, and she created much of the nonprofit’s programming. Davis lives with and shares a car with the current Executive Director of Collective Impact, James Spingola. Neither Davis nor Spingola disclosed their cohabiting relationship despite Davis and Spingola signing seven agreements between HRC and Collective Impact that awarded millions of dollars to the nonprofit.
Collective Impact spent public money to promote Davis’ personal business ventures and pay for first class upgrades on her travel. These gifts include marketing expenses for Davis’ book; talent booking for her podcast; first class airfare to promote her book and podcast; and luxury accommodations.
Because Collective Impact has received funding from HRC continuously since at least 2019, Collective Impact is a restricted source of gifts for all HRC employees. HRC employees cannot legally accept gifts from Collective Impact regardless of the amount or whether the gift is reported. Collective Impact ignored this prohibition, and between 2022 and 2024 gifted thousands of dollars to Davis and two other HRC employees.
As a result of the gifts to Davis, she had a financial interest in Collective Impact and was precluded from making any governmental decision regarding Collective Impact for one year after receiving the gifts. Davis nonetheless repeatedly made decisions that benefited Collective Impact, including signing grant agreements and approving disbursements of grant funds. Throughout this process, Collective Impact willfully aided and abetted Davis in violating conflict of interest laws.
Collective Impact also submitted improper claims for reimbursement from the City. For example, Collective Impact sought reimbursement from the City for more than $19,000 to pay tuition for Davis’ son to attend graduate school at UCLA. Collective Impact invoiced the City for a $49,999.99 payment for Davis, Spingola, and others to attend a 2023 conference in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, when the grant explicitly excluded funding for travel and conference expenses.
Collective Impact also spent more than $75,000 in City funds in 2022 and 2023 on stipends to its own employees, including its Executive Director and CFO, as well as at least five City employees. Collective Impact invoiced a City grant for the cost of many of these stipends even though the stipends for City employees were illegal payments and the stipends for Collective Impact employees were ineligible because performance bonuses are expressly prohibited.
In September 2024, Davis resigned from City employment. HRC and the Office of Economic and Workforce Development later terminated their contracts with Collective Impact. The Controller’s City Performance Unit placed Collective Impact on Tier 3 monitoring status, which indicates severe fiscal or programmatic concerns and is the “highest risk” category for nonprofit grantees. Audits of HRC’s non-contract payments and all grants to Collective Impact from four City departments are ongoing.
Debarment and Suspension
Debarment is an administrative enforcement procedure that authorizes the City to ban contractors from applying for or receiving City contracts or grants for up to five years. Individuals or business entities are to be debarred upon a finding of “willful misconduct” with respect to any grant or contract.
Today’s filing describes Collective Impact’s actions constituting willful misconduct and lays out the grounds for debarment:
- Collective Impact violated the Municipal Code, because it gave prohibited gifts to HRC employees.
- Collective Impact bribed Davis and aided and abetted Davis’ conflicts of interest in violation of the Campaign and Governmental Conduct Code.
- Collective Impact submitted a false claim for ineligible conference expenses.
- Collective Impact invoiced payments for ineligible expenses in violation of grant terms.
- Collective Impact unlawfully paid City employees in violation of the City’s ethics laws in the Campaign and Governmental Conduct Code.
Along with the Counts and Allegations seeking debarment, City Attorney Chiu submitted an Order of Suspension against Collective Impact. The Order of Suspension is effective immediately and prevents the nonprofit from receiving City funding. The suspension will be in place until the debarment proceeding is resolved.
The Order of Suspension and Counts and Allegations Seeking Debarment against Collective Impact can be found here.
The list of entities unable to participate in contracting with the City and County of San Francisco is posted here.
Tips
Any member of the public may report allegations of improper or illegal public activity to the City’s Whistleblower Program at sf.gov/whistleblower-program. That program, administered by the Controller’s Office, often partners with the City Attorney’s Office on investigations.
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