A nonprofit organization led by a close associate of California’s First Lady will receive $20 million in taxpayer money through Governor Gavin Newsom’s newly announced diaper giveaway program, raising fresh questions about the tangled financial relationships surrounding the Newsom family.
Baby2Baby, the nonprofit tapped to distribute “free diapers” to families leaving hospitals with newborns, is co-led by CEO Norah Weinstein. Weinstein sits on the board of Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s own organization, California Partners Project. The connection means millions in public funds will flow through an organization with direct ties to the governor’s wife.
Newsom announced the initiative with fanfare, billing California as the first state to provide free diapers to newborns leaving hospitals. The program promises 400 diapers to every family with a new baby. But the numbers tell a different story than the governor’s press release.
“400 diapers will last a family with a newborn approximately five weeks,” noted Brittany Hughes of the Media Research Center. That’s a little over a month of diaper coverage for a program costing $12.4 million this year alone.
The math gets worse. Only 400 hospitals are participating in the program, though California has more than 500 hospitals statewide. Families outside those participating locations won’t see any benefit from the tax dollars funding it.
Hughes pointed to the overhead costs that come with routing public money through a nonprofit rather than simply lowering taxes. Baby2Baby’s CEO earned $240,000 in 2024. “Instead of lowering taxes and letting families keep their own money to buy essentials like diapers, California takes their money, pumps it through a ‘nonprofit’ that has overhead,” she explained.
This is far from the first time questions have swirled around financial benefits flowing to organizations connected to Jennifer Siebel Newsom. The New York Post reported in late August 2025 that her Representation Project nonprofit, which promotes radical gender ideology, received donations from companies that lobbied her husband’s administration.
The arrangement doesn’t stop there. Siebel Newsom also controls Girls Club Entertainment LLC, a for-profit film company. That company pulled in $150,000 from the Representation Project in 2024, effectively moving nonprofit dollars into a for-profit entity she controls.
The Representation Project hosts an annual gala called “Flip the Script.” Among the regular attendees are high-dollar donors to Gavin Newsom’s political ambitions, creating a web of connections between the First Partner’s charitable work and the governor’s campaign fundraising.
“These types of connections certainly appear unseemly and raise some serious red flags,” Michael Chamberlain, director of Protect the Public’s Trust, told The Post at the time.
California families struggling with inflation and the high cost of living might appreciate five weeks of free diapers. But they might also wonder why the state couldn’t find a more straightforward way to help them, one that doesn’t involve routing their tax dollars through organizations connected to the governor’s inner circle.
The Newsom administration has not addressed questions about why Baby2Baby was selected for the program or whether other organizations were considered. The connection between Weinstein’s role at Baby2Baby and her position on the board of the First Partner’s nonprofit remains a point of concern for government ethics watchdogs.
For a governor who has positioned himself as a champion of transparency and good government, the diaper program represents another instance where public money and private relationships intersect in ways that demand scrutiny.
