Our pitch is simple: We need donors like you.
We don’t rely on ads. We don’t have corporate owners or backers. Since we began accepting tax-deductible donations, the generosity of our readers has helped us pay our talented contributors to dive into San Francisco housing, homelessness, streets and transit, schools, and more, all while the city continues to change in fundamental, unexpected ways.
The Frisc puts all its efforts into facts, context, and analysis to help you navigate our city’s changes and crises. But we need your help.
If you still need more information, this FAQ might help:
I see that you’re an affiliate of Independent Arts & Media. What’s that?
Independent Arts & Media is our fiscal sponsor. Through its nonprofit 501(c)3 status, we’re able to ask folks like you for donations that you can claim as tax-deductible. IAM sends you a note acknowledging this and everything.
What impact have you had?
A lot. Just a few examples:
- Once COVID-19 hit, The Frisc was the first outlet to raise the alarm on the lack of a cohesive plan to move homeless people into hotels.
- A Frisc special report analyzed city data and showed that SF’s specialized Navigation Center shelters do not attract more crime, despite neighborhood fears. One year later, a once-controversial Navigation Center was granted an extension with the blessing of neighbors — thanks to better data.
- We have consistently exposed misinformation, including the de Young Museum’s fake grassroots campaign, in the fight over JFK Drive, the Golden Gate Park garage, and other street closures.
- We’ve long held the city’s $1B homelessness department accountable. In spring of 2022, we published an investigation of the department’s no-bid contract spree and the controversial nonprofit reaping an outsized benefit. Seven months later SF voters, demanding more accountability, approved the first-ever homelessness oversight commission.
- Sup. Aaron Peskin tried to place rent control on the ballot, touting two studies to boost his proposal. We revealed that the studies actually concluded that rent control doesn’t lead to more housing — the opposite of what Peskin was claiming. Peskin soon withdrew his proposal.
We have also brought to the fore issues of race and class affecting our city’s public schools, and have put a spotlight on local and bureaucratic obstacles to better transit and safer streets. As one post put it, “it’s the bureaucracy, stupid.”
What are your politics?
The Frisc is independent and nonpartisan. We don’t endorse officials, candidates, or ballot measures. We do believe in and advocate for a more inclusive, affordable, and accountable city, where people get to work and school safely, start businesses fearlessly, and go about their lives with dignity and respect. Even before COVID, San Francisco was falling short of those goals. Help us keep fighting for a better city.
OK, but why should I donate?
You are a concerned San Francisco resident, or you’re outside looking in, trying to make sense of our changes and crises. We want to help you understand more, engage more, and help shape a better place for each other.
There aren’t many publications devoted 100 percent to San Francisco. Since we launched in 2017, we’ve covered the city’s most pressing issues — housing, homelessness, safe streets, schools, and so on. Everything we do focuses on the bigger civic picture, celebrating all that we share in this unique town.
Still have questions? Email our editors Alex Lash (alex@thefrisc.com) and Anthony Lazarus (anthony@thefrisc.com) and ask us anything.
Most important, please support us. Thank you!