FAQ

Founded in 2007, Pogo Park is a community development corporation based in Richmond, California. Pogo Park transforms blighted, neglected, and little-used city parks in one of the Bay Area’s toughest inner-city neighborhoods–Richmond’s Iron Triangle–into safe, beautiful, and green public spaces for children to play and the community to come together.

We are a community development corporation and a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

We are funded by foundations, individual and business donors, and our for-profit enterprise, Pogo Park Products. Some of our biggest funders are The California Endowment, Chevron’s eQuip Richmond, and the San Francisco Foundation.

Our strategy for sustainability is to diversify Pogo Park’s income streams. Working closely with Pogo Park’s board of directors, we adopted a long-term financial sustainability plan titled “⅓, ⅓, ⅓.” This title reflects our goal to generate 1/3 of our income from foundations, 1/3 from donors (both business and individual), and 1/3 from earned income.

We are also actively strategizing to increase our sustainability by acquiring land for public use. A parcel of land adjacent to Harbour-8 and the Richmond Greenway was recently purchased by The Conservation Fund to help support the organization through new revenue streams.

When you donate to Pogo Park your dollars flow directly into the Iron Triangle. Donations pay the salaries of the Community Development Team, and are used to purchase art supplies, gardening tools, and other items that support the programming that Pogo Park offers free of charge to children and parents in the community. 

Pogo Park offers free activities at Elm Playlot Tuesday–Friday on a drop-in basis. Advance registration is not required. Pogo Park also offers free lunches and snacks to all children in the Iron Triangle when school is not in session.

Pogo Park has won the following awards and distinctions:

2017 Community Leadership Award – San Francisco Foundation
2017 Nonprofit of the Year Award, Richmond Chamber of Commerce 
2016 Woman of the Year – State of California Assembly 
2015 “Success Story,” California State Parks, Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan (SCORP) 
2014 Winner – Google Impact Challenge 
2014 Sui Generis Award – Sui Generis Foundation 
2014 Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition – U.S. Congress 
2013 Certificate of Recognition – City of Richmond 
2012 Local Hero Award – Comcast 
2012 Woman of the Year Award – California’s 14th Assembly District 
2010 Jefferson Award for Public Service – Jefferson Award Foundation 
2010 Best Playground “Best of the Bay” – San Francisco Magazine 

Sign up here to take a tour of Pogo Park. Come one come all!

The park at Elm Playlot is staffed Tuesday–Friday from 9am to 5pm by members of our Community Development Team, who keep a watchful eye on the park so that it is safe for children to play and for families to visit.

Read our calendar of events here.

Start by reading through our “Top Five” articles in the press, which you can find here.

Pogo Park works shoulder-to-shoulder with residents of the Iron Triangle community. The Community Development Team is a group of residents from the neighborhood who run our two Pogo Parks. Team members work in the park and/or are trained to build and design park structures and amenities. Over the years we have hired and trained over 20 local residents to work as park designers, supervisors, food servers, community researchers, meeting facilitators, conflict resolution mediators, and first aid providers, and to participate in all facets of park development and construction.