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Questions About Oakland Promise: If It Wasn’t a Nonprofit, What Was It? What Happened to the Money for Scholarships for Kids?

Published

7 years ago

September 12, 2019

Questions continue to surface about the organization and accountability of “The Oakland Promise,” Mayor Libby Schaaf’s signature initiative that has raised millions of dollars since 2015 to help low-income families “to triple the number of high school graduates who …complete college by the year 2024.”

Though the promise’s lofty goal is widely popular among Oakland residents, that support has not silenced demands for full transparency about what the legal status is of this organization is—which has operated out of the Mayor’s Office — and how it is spending public money and resources.

Oakland Promise is now widely perceived as a nonprofit organization — but that has not always been the case, at least until recently.

The organization was not listed as one by Guidestar, a website designed to provide “the highest-quality, most complete nonprofit information available.” Nor was Promise registered as a nonprofit with the State Attorney General.

According to an email to the Oakland Post on Aug. 29, 2018, Oakland Promise was described by its backers as a “public-private effort” backed by four organizations: the City of Oakland, the Oakland Unified School District, the East Bay College Fund and the Oakland Public Education Fund.

Since July, however, Oakland Promise has become a nonprofit, merging with the East Bay College Fund and taking over its nonprofit status, according to the East Bay Times. Mialisa Bonta, president of the Alameda Unified School Board and wife of Assemblyman Rob Bonta, has become the organization’s CEO, taking over the leadership from David Silver, who is a city staffer in the Mayor’s Office.

Another question surrounds what has happened to the money the city gave Oakland Promise to set up college saving accounts for children.
A copy of a Public Records Act request forwarded to the Post asked for information about the total of $1,150,000 that the city budgeted in 2015 to Oakland Promise for these savings accounts.

But according to the city’s Finance Department on Aug. 16, “The city has not yet made payments on behalf of Oakland Promise from funds earmarked for this program in the adopted budgets for 2016-17, 2017-18 (and) 2018-19. The requested documents (canceled checks) do not exist.”

Council President Rebecca Kaplan explained in an email why she has asked City Auditor Courtney Ruby to audit Oakland Promise.
“Many people have been asking the questions I sent to the auditor, and many members of the public — even the League of Women Voters — have expressed concern about the Oakland Promise funds. It is perfectly reasonable for anyone to want to know where the money is. This is large amounts of tax-payer funds that were promised to be used to set up college savings accounts for each Oakland kid, as they enter kindergarten.” “We want to know where the money is, and where the college savings accounts are — which were supposed to be set up each year, starting in 2015,” Kaplan said. “By now, they should have grown a lot if they had been set up as promised and as funded in the City of Oakland budget, for the Kindergarten to College Program.”

Asked about Kaplan’s request for the audit, the Mayor’s Office replied, “Kaplan wants Oakland taxpayers to fund her petty political vendetta masquerading as an audit. And tragically she’s targeting the Oakland Promise — a program started by the City of Oakland to send low-income kids to college with scholarships and mentors. She needs to immediately withdraw this taxpayer funded political score settling because it hurts taxpayers and kids.”

Responding, Kaplan said, “The Mayor’s Office says I’m asking for tax payer money, but that is flatly false. I am not requesting any money. I have asked our independently elected City Auditor for help getting information about where the college savings accounts they promised for Oakland youth are. The auditor is paid a regular salary.”

The Alameda County League of women Voters (LWVO) expressed concerns about Oakland Promise when Mayor Schaaf and the Promise organization backed Measure AA last November, which would have created a $198 parcel tax to provide funding for Oakland Promise for 30 years. In its voters’ guide, the League took a neutral position, saying, “We found it unclear how moneys in the Oakland Promise Fund would be spent.”

Measure AA won more than 50 percent of the vote but failed to pass because it needed a two-thirds majority. That ruling is now being challenged in court, and according to observers, the case may take three years and end up at the state Supreme Court.

According to its website (Oaklandpromise.org), the organization consists of four programs:

• Brilliant Babies, “a college savings account seeded with $500 as an early investment and source of inspiration for [parents] baby’s bright future,” according to Oakland Promise;

• Kindergarten to College, which “Open(s) an early college scholarship seeded with $100 for all Oakland public school kindergarten students;”

• Future Centers, which creates college and career advising center on middle school and high school campuses, replacing services lost by the public schools as a result of cutbacks;

• College Scholarships and Completion, which provides $1,000 annual scholarships to students going to community colleges and up to $4,000 a year for students attending four-year colleges.

Questions that remain to be answered are how many $500 accounts have been set up through Brilliant Babies; how many $100 scholarships have been established through Kindergarten to College; how many Future Centers have been set up and how many hours of support they have provided to students; as well as how many community college and four-year college scholarships have been awarded.

During the years before Oakland Promise became a nonprofit, the Oakland Public Education Fund served as the organization’s fiscal sponsor. The Ed Fund can share budgetary information, such as IRS Form 990, audited financial statements, Form 1023 and all correspondence in relation to the production and completion of this document, including an IRS Determination Letter — according to Maggie Croushore, director, development, of Oakland Promise.

By deadline, the Post had not received that data nor an answer questions about the cost that Public Education Fund charges to serve as Oakland Promise’s fiscal sponsor and numbers of students and families served by the programs.
Promise staff said they would meet with the Post next week.

Croushore told the Post that during the three years, 2015-18, the Oakland Promise spent a total of $19.9 million or 94.7 percent of its budget on program costs ($11.3 million) and scholarships and saving accounts ($8.6 million).

During that time, the initiative spent $1.1 million or 5.29 percent on administrative expenses. Total revenue during the three years was $33.5 million. However, now that the Oakland Promise has become a nonprofit, costs of administrative overhead could potentially increase if most the organization’s 47 employees are paid out of the budget instead of being provided without cost by the City, OUSD and other agencies.

In an email to the Post, Schaaf spokesperson Justin Berton said:“The nature of the Oakland Promise has always been a collaboration with OUSD and community partners to send underrepresented kids from Oakland to college with scholarships, mentors, and the life skills to end patterns of generational poverty and institutionalized racism.”
Oakland Promise has sent more than 1,400 Oakland kids to college, seeded more than 500 ‘Brilliant Baby’ scholarships and worked tirelessly to support Oakland families, said Berton.
For more information, go to Gene Hazzard’s website: www.cleanoakland.com

Ken Epstein

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Related Topics:Libby Schaaf Oakland Promise rebecca kaplan

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Oakland Mayor Pushes Charter Overhaul to Clarify Roles in City Government, Increase Accountability and Improve Service Delivery

Under the proposal, the mayor would serve as Oakland’s chief executive, overseeing city departments, implementing policy, proposing the annual budget, and managing day-to-day operations. The measure would also give the mayor veto power over legislation and the budget, though the City Council could override a veto with a two-thirds vote.

Published

2 weeks ago

May 17, 2026

Oakland Post

Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee. File photo.

By Oakland Post Staff

Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee is backing a sweeping proposal to restructure Oakland’s government, arguing the changes would make City Hall more accountable and improve the delivery of basic services like public safety, homelessness response, and infrastructure repairs.

The charter reform measure, introduced April 7 and co-sponsored by Oakland City Council President Kevin Jenkins, would ask voters in November to approve a “strong mayor, strong council” system designed to create clearer lines of authority inside city government.

The City Council, meanwhile, would maintain legislative authority by adopting ordinances, approving budgets, conducting oversight hearings, and confirming key mayoral appointments. The proposal would also create an Independent Budget and Legislative Analyst Office to provide nonpartisan fiscal and policy analysis for councilmembers.

“I’ve spent months listening to Oaklanders across every neighborhood about what they expect from their city government,” Lee said. “The Charter Reform Working Group’s engagement made clear that residents want a system where there are no questions about who is responsible for delivering results on public safety, homelessness, infrastructure, and basic services.”

Jenkins said the proposal would strengthen both executive leadership and council oversight.

“I’ve long believed Oakland works best when residents have clear lines of accountability and a government structure that aligns responsibility with results,” Jenkins said.

The proposal follows recommendations from the Mayor’s Charter Reform Working Group, co-facilitated by the League of Women Voters of Oakland and SPUR.

Over five months, the group conducted more than 60 interviews, held 14 public meetings across Oakland, and engaged more than 750 residents while reviewing governance models used in other cities.

“The process of engaging residents across Oakland surfaced the governance clarity Oakland needs,” said Sujata Srivastava of SPUR. “The Charter Reform Working Group has produced a thoughtful set of recommendations that if adopted could strengthen accountability and improve service delivery across city government.”

Polling cited by the mayor’s office suggests voters may be open to the changes. A February 2026 poll by the East Bay Polling Institute found 64% of voters support adopting a strong-mayor system. Separate polling conducted by the Oakland Chamber of Commerce and David Binder Research found support ranging from 61% to 63% among likely voters.

The measure is scheduled to be heard by the City Council Rules Committee on May 21. If approved by the council, it would appear on the November 2026 ballot, where Oakland voters would have the final say.

Oakland Post

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Activism

The Ladies of Delta Sigma Theta Hold Day of Advocacy at the Capitol in Sacramento

A member of the “Divine Nine,” Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., was founded on Jan. 13, 1913, at Howard University in Washington, D.C. The organization was established by 22 women who sought to shift the group’s focus from social activities to public service, academic excellence, and social activism.

Published

2 weeks ago

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Oakland Post

Sen. Laura Richardson (D-San Pedro) presents a Senate resolution to the Delta Theta Sigma Sorority Farwest Region at the State Capitol on May 4. Photo courtesy of the Senate Rules Committee.

By Antonio Ray Harvey, California Black Media

On May 4, members of the Farwest Region of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., convened at the California State Capitol for the organization’s 23rd annual Delta Days in Sacramento.

The two-day advocacy event brings together chapters from across California to engage directly in the legislative process, connect with lawmakers, and advocate for policies impacting Black communities.

Members of the sorority were honored on the Senate floor by Sen. Laura Richardson (D-San Pedro), who is also a member of Delta Sigma Theta.

Richardson welcomed the Farwest Region during the presentation of a Senate resolution recognizing outgoing Regional Director Kimberly Usher for her leadership and service.

“In addition to the Far West Region, we are led by a fearless leader, regional director Kimberly Usher. She has now served her full term of what’s allowed,” Richardson said. “We are going to be having our regional conference, but we wanted to give it to her here, officially recognizing her service.”

The resolution was co-authored by Richardson and fellow members of the California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC) and Delta Sigma Theta, Sen. Akilah Weber Pierson (D-San Diego) and Assemblymember Rhodesia Ransom (D-Stockton).

Usher has served in the leadership role since 2022.

“We are founded on sisterhood that is deeply rooted in scholarship, service, and social action,” said Weber Pierson, a member of the Gamma Alpha chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.

“Today, we continue a legacy of empowering communities and upholding the high cultural, intellectual, and moral standards established by our founders over a century ago,” she added.

Oakland Post

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Activism

Rep. Kamlager-Dove Introduces Bill to Protect Women in Custody After Reports Detailing Miscarriages and Neglect

The Pregnant Women in Custody Act would expand safeguards beyond the federal prison system to include women detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Office of Refugee Resettlement. The proposal follows reports of pregnant women being shackled, denied medical care and suffering miscarriages while in immigration detention.

Published

2 weeks ago

May 17, 2026

Oakland Post

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By Bo Tefu, California Black Media

Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA-37) on May 7, reintroduced updated legislation aimed at strengthening protections and healthcare standards for pregnant and postpartum women held in federal custody, including in immigration detention facilities.

The Pregnant Women in Custody Act would expand safeguards beyond the federal prison system to include women detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Office of Refugee Resettlement. The proposal follows reports of pregnant women being shackled, denied medical care and suffering miscarriages while in immigration detention.

The legislation builds on a bipartisan version previously passed by the House during the 117th Congress. The updated bill includes new standards for healthcare access, mental health and substance use treatment, high-risk pregnancy care, family unity protections and increased federal oversight.

“Proper pregnancy care is a human right, regardless of your immigration or incarceration status,” Kamlager-Dove said in a statement. “It’s unacceptable that there are virtually no legal safeguards for pregnant women in federal custody.”

The bill would also limit the use of restraints and restrictive housing for pregnant women, improve data collection on maternal health in custody and require additional staff training and enforcement measures.

Supporters of the measure said the legislation is intended to address long-standing concerns about maternal healthcare and safety in detention settings, particularly for Black women and low-income women who are disproportionately impacted by incarceration and health disparities.

“Pregnant women in custody should never be subjected to dangerous and inhumane treatment that threatens their health, dignity, or the well-being of their babies,” said Patrice Willoughby, chief of policy and legislative affairs for the NAACP and a longtime public policy and government affairs strategist, in a statement.

A 2021 report estimated there are about 58,000 admissions of pregnant women into U.S. jails and prisons each year. Kamlager’s statement also cited a recent investigation by NBC News and Bloomberg Law that identified allegations of severe mistreatment or medical neglect involving at least 54 pregnant women or families in county jails between 2017 and 2024.

Federal policy under the Department of Homeland Security restricts the detention of pregnant, postpartum and nursing immigrants except in extreme cases. However, the agency reported that ICE deported 363 pregnant, postpartum or nursing women between January 2025 and February 2026, including 16 recorded miscarriages during that period.

The bill is cosponsored by several House Democrats and backed by organizations including the NAACP and the Vera Institute of Justice.