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1. PODER has office space in San Francisco’s Mission District, where staff members and volunteers work. The organization uses its website and social media to keep its supporters and community members updated on programming and activities. 

2. Their website details and circulates various Resources and Media helpful in sharing and managing their programs and activities. They are also useable to track data and measure impact following the publicized success.

PODER is funded through grants, foundations, and generous donations from philanthropic donors. Some foundations that have financed PODER include Building Equity and Alignment for Environmental Justice Fund, YO! California–Youth Organize California, City, and County of San Francisco, Department of Children Youth & Their Families – Youth Empowerment Fund, Libra Foundation, among others.

PODER is a community-based organization that a Board of Directors governs made up of community members, staff, and volunteers. Among the team, there is a suite of Coordinators and Organizers who work on specific campaigns and distinct areas to further the mission of PODER.

“PODER’s mission is to organize with Latino immigrant families and youth to put into practice people-powered solutions that are locally based, community-led, and environmentally just. We nurture everyday people’s leadership, regenerate culture, and build community power.”

1. There are a few events that shaped the evolution of PODER over the years. Notably, PG&E proposed the development of a power plant in the Mission District. Through community organizing, direct action, and legal advocacy, PODER successfully blocked the construction of the power plant.

2. PODER began to focus on promoting clean energy and climate justice in the Mission District. PODER was successful in getting solar panels installed on low-income housing developments. 

3. PODER has also established partnerships with academic institutions such as the University of California, Berkeley, where research is conducted to collect data regarding the social determinants of health within the local low-income Latinx and Chicano communities

PODER was founded in San Francisco’s Mission District, a predominantly Latinx and Chicano neighborhood historically marginalized and disenfranchised by systemic racism and economic disinvestment. The community also became a point of high concentration for industrial and commercial businesses. These shifts also contributed to the community's environmental pollution and health hazards, leading PODER’s founders to unite and organize for their community’s right to clean air, water, healthy food, and sustainable jobs.

PODER was founded in 1991 in San Francisco’s mission district. It is a grassroots organization that works to create a space where people-powered solutions are instrumental to the profound environmental and economic inequalities facing low-income Latino immigrants and other communities of color in San Francisco. In its early years, PODER relied on organizing and community education as direct actions to achieve its goals. The early structure of this organization consisted primarily of volunteer work with a small core of staff organizers and their support.