Historically, nonprofit organizations providing local social services were fragmented. Neighborhood, ethnic and service distinctions kept nonprofit providers from exercising a civic voice commensurate with their contribution to the City. Major policy decisions involving the future of San Francisco and its human services system were made without significant input from organizations providing services to our most vulnerable residents.

In December 1997, a group of nonprofit executive directors met to discuss a coordinated human service response to several proposed legislative initiatives affecting the nonprofit community. They recognized that no forum existed to direct an organized nonprofit response to pressing public policy issues, nor to brief elected officials on policy ramifications in the health and human services community. This meeting marked the genesis of the San Francisco Human Services Network, founded by Bruce Fisher, Executive Director of Huckleberry Youth Programs, and Ann Lazarus, (now former) CEO of Mount Zion Health Fund.