Arena Community,
Last year, we took advantage of 2019’s lighter election calendar to build a West Point for Democratic campaigns — an effort to recruit, train, and place senior campaign staff for 2020 and beyond.
We are committed to building the most robust and diverse talent pipeline the Democratic party has ever seen. And it’s all completely free or low cost because we think that if Democrats want to win, they need to draw talent from all backgrounds and all corners of the country.
As we head into the new year, I wanted to take a moment to share how the pipeline is working thanks to your help. If you like what you see, consider making a donation — anything you can spare will go directly to these programs.
Part 1: Arena Academy
Here’s how we do it. Over the course of five days, we train current and aspiring senior staffers across seven immersion tracks taught by experts in each field. About half of all trainees receive scholarships, many of which also cover the cost of a flight and hotel.
Arena Academy grads are mostly women and people of color, and about half receive scholarships.
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Part 2: Arena Careers
After attendees graduate, we help place them on campaigns through Arena Careers, an online matching system for progressive talent that anyone can join. Since our August launch, 2,276 people have joined, including 99 employers who’ve posted 422 jobs.
Even though it’s only been a few months, Academy grads have been hired by nearly every major presidential campaign, not to mention the races up and down ballots across the country.
Arena grads are staffing 80% of the campaigns appearing on stage on Wednesday.
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Part 3: Arena Toolbox
Finally, given that many campaign staffers can’t take off to attend an Academy, we wanted to offer online resources for just-in-time training solutions. That’s why we launched Arena Toolbox, a collection of free guides, tutorials, and downloadable templates for progressive campaigns.
Arena’s most popular tools have been downloaded over 6,000 times.
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Our goal is to scale up in 2020 by training significantly more staffers and moving them through a talent pipeline that gives newcomers the professional knowledge and connections to meaningfully transform politics on the left. Help us accomplish this important work by sponsoring a full or partial scholarship to train the next generation of progressive campaign staff at no or low cost to students.
Thanks for all you do,
Ravi Gupta, Arena Co-Founder
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