Former Nonprofit Operations Director Pled Guilty To Embezzlement Charge

SAN FRANCISCO—Athena Harven, a former San Francisco nonprofit director of operations in the Sunnydale Neighborhood, who was at the center of an embezzlement controversy for Together, United, Recommitted, Forever, or shortened to TURF, caused the organization to be closed down in 2019. Its mission was to provide job training to the marginalized, assist in crime reduction through resource matching and accessing education, training, recreation and advocacy.

Harven wrote at least 102 unauthorized checks from the nonprofit’s bank account to herself, which totaled $241,000. She forged the executive director’s signature on many of those checks, which she indicated on the memo line for ‘payroll taxes’ or other legitimate businesses. She created a fake email address, posing as a California Economi