Arrested SF Nonprofit Chief Also Ran a Richmond Charity. It, Too, Had Questionable Spending

Updated 10:45 a.m. Thursday

The arrest of the former executive director of a shuttered San Francisco police-affiliated nonprofit, who is accused of misusing over $700,000 of the organization’s funds, has brought renewed attention to her past and resurfaced questions about how she got the job in the first place.

Before she led SF SAFE, Kyra Worthy headed a nonprofit in Richmond that also appeared to spend all of its money and allegedly left a similar trail of unpaid bills and mismanaged funding in its wake.

Then, she was hired to lead SF SAFE, where prosecutors said she took control of a decades-old organization with $300,000 in reserves and millions in incoming funding, leaving its assets depleted and its operations shut down.

Worthy, 49, now faces 34 felony charges related to the alleged theft and misuse of funds.

Here’s what we know about Worthy’s career before, at, and after SF SAFE and what the scandal means for the San Francisco Police Department.

For Richmond

Before being named SF SAFE’s executive director, Worthy was affiliated with another now-defunct nonprofit for seven years. She began working as a community organizer with For Richmond, which received much of its funding from Chevron in 2012. From 2013 to 2016, Worthy was the organization’s executive director and sole paid employee.

According to tax filings, the nonprofit received an influx of $1,360,000 in 2012 and then reported spending more than it earned every year between 2013 and 2016. At the end of 2016, the organization’s net assets were $50,000 in the red.

For Richmond, whose stated goal was to “unite the city of Richmond, California and make meaningful difference in the city,” according to its tax filings, reported funding the purchase of police cameras, supporting the opening of Santa Fe Union Park and working with the West Contra Costa Unified School District to connect kids with science enrichment programs and visits to historically Black colleges and universities. None of For Richmond’s tax filings were completed, audited or reviewed by an independent accountant.

Multiple news outlets have reported that the Contra Costa County school district wrote in a September 2017 letter to Worthy that For Richmond had failed to supply promised services and falsified invoices to the district. It alleged that the nonprofit breached three of five contracts between the groups and owed the district more than $230,000.

The district terminated its contract with For Richmond and demanded repayment.

SF SAFE

Just a few months later, Worthy was hired as the executive director of SF SAFE, a community violence prevention organization that works closely with SFPD.

The senior director of SF SAFE’s board told the San Francisco Chronicle in January that the board was aware of the school district’s allegations when Worthy was hired, but they were unable to be substantiated by SFPD. He also said SF SAFE did not have the district’s 2017 letter to Worthy and “would not have hired her” if it did.

In her five years at SF SAFE, Worthy is accused of having misspent more than $700,000 in funds.

The nonprofit’s misspending first came to light in January following a city audit of SF SAFE’s use of an SFPD grant during a nine-month period in 2023. The city determined that SF SAFE had misspent more than $80,000 on lavish gift boxes, a trip to Lake Tahoe and other expenses deemed ineligible or excessive.

The audit prompted Worthy’s firing and the shutdown of SF SAFE.

The San Francisco district attorney’s office also launched a wider investigation, ultimately leading to Worthy’s arrest on Tuesday. Among the charges are allegations that Worthy submitted fraudulent invoices, mirroring accusations levied against her by West Contra Costa Unified during her time at For Richmond.

Concerns were first raised over SF SAFE’s spending in 2023, Diana Oliva-Aroche, SFPD’s director of policy and public affairs, told supervisors during a hearing in February. In June 2023, the department received reports from “confidential sources that had been concerned about not receiving subcontracted payments,” she said.

The Police Department, which awarded a five-year, $5 million grant to SF SAFE in 2018, did not routinely conduct oversight of the organization’s spending of the funds, according to the audit.

What comes next?

Worthy was released on $100,000 bail on Tuesday night. On Thursday morning, she had her arraignment delayed to Sept. 9.

The charges against Worthy include the misuse of funds totaling more than half a million dollars from the Office of Employment of Workforce Development that should have been paid to two city-contracted organizations affiliated with the Latino Task Force, a group of Mission District-based nonprofits. In March, the group announced that SF SAFE owed it $625,000 for training services.

Worthy is also accused of spending over $100,000 of the organization’s funds for personal use, including rent in 2018 and more than $90,000 spent on a home healthcare worker for her parents in North Carolina in 2019 and 2020, leading to a charge of grand theft by embezzlement.

Additionally, she faces 24 felony counts of wage theft against SF SAFE employees related to allegations that she stopped withholding and paying $80,000 in workers’ payroll taxes between September 2023 and January 2024, when the organization closed.

An affidavit supporting Worthy’s arrest shows that she repeatedly stole and misspent nonprofit funds during her time at SF SAFE, ultimately leading to the organization being unable to meet its financial obligations, the DA’s office said. Even as the nonprofit was running out of money, the affidavit alleges, she spent lavishly, including over $350,000 on gift boxes in 2022 and 2023 and nearly $50,000 on catering for a holiday party with an open bar and prime rib carving station.

How the investigation will affect SFPD is unknown, but Police Commission Vice President Max Carter-Oberstone said the department will have to reckon with how the alleged misspending was allowed to happen.

“I think there’s still a lot of unanswered questions about SFPD’s role in this,” Carter-Oberstone told KQED. “It has some hard work ahead of it in terms of exactly what happened and implementing any changes that need to be made.”

The Police Department will also have to figure out how to continue the services SF SAFE was tasked with providing, including operating a network of public safety cameras. Police Commissioner Kevin Benedicto said that while the cameras were still operating, how SFPD accessed and used the information was in limbo.

SF SAFE was also responsible for community outreach efforts. Benedicto said he is focused on ensuring the roles of the nonprofit, which has operated for more than 47 years, are either assigned to another community partner or absorbed into the department’s duties.

KQED’s Alex Hall contributed to this report.