The proof is always in the pudding, if only we’d get our faces out of the dinner plate long enough to look at what we’re digesting.

The last five tax returns SAP filed with the IRS paint a disturbing picture. “Direct Public Support,” a measure of donations made by private individuals, has plummeted as a percent of SAPs total revenue stream by 10% since tax year 1999 ended in June 2000, as if the donating public has finally wised up and stopped donating to an out-of-control agency.  This is the same two-year period in which Darlene Weide, SAPs Executive Director has held the post as person-in-charge. That under her stewardship public support has plummeted speaks volumes.

Between tax year 1996 (ending in June 1998) and tax year 2001 (ending in June 2002), SAPs fundraising expenses tripled, climbing to $182,840, while the amount of money actually brought in from its fundraising “appeals” has plunged in one short reporting period — between the years ending in June 2001 and June 2002 — by nearly $150,000, suggesting that the charity-donating public has lost confidence in SAPs leadership and mission under Weide’s so-called leadership.

During Weide’s leadership, SAPs reliance on government grants to keep itself afloat has soared by 10% between June 2000 and June 2002, and SAP now perilously depends on 88.4% of its revenue from government resources, rather than having expanded its funding mix to less tenuous funding sources driven by shifts in the way political winds blow and peter out.

While SAP disingenuously claims its workshops are not funded using federal funds, it cannot assert that its provocative programming is funded with so-called “private funds,” (since SAPs “public support”revenue stream has fallen to a mere 11% for the period ending June 2002) as the San Francisco AIDS Foundation likes to assert whenever accountability advocates question how SFAF funds one program or another.  That SAP claims its programming is largely funded by San Francisco’s General Funds — as if City taxpaeyer’s don't care how their tax dollars are spent — and it can do whatever it likes in providing various on-the-fringe workshops, is troublesome precisely because SAP ignores that fact that City taxpayer’s are no more happy with how their funds are mis-spent than is the federal government

A preliminary analysis of SAP’s tax returns …  (Check back for an update on 9/22/03)