BigMoneySF: Explore the major players paying out to remake San Francisco
“After rocking, my next favorite activity right now is San Francisco politics,” wrote developer Nick Podell in 2022, praising advocacy efforts during the city’s contentious redistricting saga.
“For the first time in the 40 years that I’ve lived in the City,” Podell continued, “there is a large coordinated centrist/moderate movement to take on Progressive power.”
He should know: Podell, who has real estate interests in the Mission and throughout the Bay, is president of Neighbors for a Better San Francisco Advocacy, a “social welfare” 501(c)(4) organization that has poured millions into local campaigns over the past few years.
The nonprofit has used its deep pockets to fund redistricting advocacy, to help secure results like the Chesa Boudin and school board recalls, and to support media organizations sympathetic to its political aims. It has already spent hundreds of thousands on upcoming 2024 ballot measures; it is likely to spend hundreds of thousands more.
A smörgåsbord of nonprofits and PACs are already spending big in 2024. Some were active during the last election cycle, like GrowSF and TogetherSF Action. Others, like Abundant SF and the Committee to Fix SF Government, are new groups run by some familiar faces.
