San Francisco Study Center — since 1972

About Us

San Francisco Study Center was founded in 1972 at the rise of neighborhood power here and across the country. Community organizers needed technical assistance to get the data to frame their goals and City Hall updates to inform the evolving neighborhood groups. We showed them how to research public records and helped them understand San Francisco’s budget. Study Center explained how they could get their piece of the public pie. And, clearly, they did.

Study Center’s mission, then and now, is to help nonprofits succeed. That assistance has taken the form of breaking news from City Hall, one-to-one public records training, producing technical handbooks, annual reports, newsletters and comprehensive special reports on foundation’s community initiatives.

Study Center’s mission has evolved from our City Hall newsletter and book, “Understanding San Francisco’s Budget,” to our first fiscal sponsorship in 1975, to today’s focus on comprehensive fiscal sponsorship and serving as fiscal intermediary for city-funded programs largely in health, behavioral health, housing and community development.

Study Center Press has been editing, publishing and distributing attorney Gregory Colvin’s “Fiscal Sponsorship: 6 Ways to Do It Right” since its first edition in 1993. The third revised and expanded edition, with co-author Stephanie Petit, was published in 2019. A blueprint for proper practice, the book has transformed fiscal agency into fiscal sponsorship, professionalizing the field in the process. 

Fiscalsponsordirectory.org connects projects with a database approaching 350 fiscal sponsors nationwide. Study Center launched the site in 2008 and maintains it as a free resource for projects and sponsors throughout the nation. In addition to profiles of sponsors, the Directory is the go-to site for news and features showing fiscal sponsorship in action. A steady stream of stories puts a face on fiscal sponsorship, shows it in action, explores its many parts and illustrates its benefits.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Richard Livingston, President, Administrative Director, EXIT Theatre

Reiko Homma True, Vice President, former Director, S.F. Community Mental Health

Tina Tong Yee, Secretary, former Director, Cultural Competence and Client Relations, S.F. Behavioral Health Services

Ben Kutnick, Treasurer, former Finance Director, S.F. International Airport

Hazim Elbgal, Vice President, San Francisco Branch Manager, City National Bank

Eric Eldon, Managing Editor, Tech Crunch

Jeanne Kwong, former health educator, S.F. Behavioral Health Services

Stas Margaronis, shipbuilder and business journalist, co-founder S.F. Study Center

Jim McWilliams, former advocate, San Francisco Mental Health Clients Rights Advocates

STAFF
Administration and Finance
Geoffrey Link, Executive Director

Jaden Chen, Finance Director

John Nuñez, Bookkeeper

Leonor Vera, Human Resources, Compliance Coordinator

Linda Kuo, Accounting Clerk

Irene Soriano, Administrative Assistant

Editorial & Graphics
Marjorie Beggs, Senior Writer and Editor, Directory Manager

Lise Stampfli, Art Director and Photographer

In Memoriam Study Center board and staff honor the memory of John Burks, former Board President, colleague and friend, chair emeritus, S.F. State Department of Journalism, 1937- 2021.