As part of your Arena Academy application, you will select your first and second choice tracks. Read the descriptions below to learn more about each track and decide which fits you best. If you’re not sure how your skills best translate to a campaign, check out our Campaign Skills Translator tool to plug in your current skills and see what jobs they match with. 

Campaign Manager

Campaign Managers are the chief strategists and the heart of every campaign. They work alongside amazing candidates. They manage a team to achieve victory come Election Day. This track walks through every part of a campaign — from launch to the last counted ballot. At Academy, expert strategists guide you through crafting a pathway to victory, budgeting, fundraising, communications, and more. You’ll gain the skills and knowledge to pull it into a winning campaign plan in each session. Then in the Arena Cup, you will put your new knowledge to work by leading a team with members of other tracks to build a winning campaign plan during a 24-hour competition. This track will help you take that next step in becoming a confident leader in campaigns. Applicants for this track should have prior campaign experience or relevant transferable experience.

Communications

Communication staff play a central role in crafting a campaign’s core messaging, running the press shop, and directing the rapid response. In Arena’s Communication track, you’ll learn how to tell your candidate’s story and the story of what’s happening on the campaign to the press. Arena believes that great communications professionals are excellent storytellers and calculated strategists. This track will give you the fundamentals to develop a holistic communications plan. Then, with your new comms know-how, you will join members from other tracks to craft a winning campaign plan in the Arena Cup, a 24-hour competition. Whether you’ve worked on a campaign before or have transferable skills from another industry, this track will give you the practice and the tangible skills you need to help campaigns communicate their message.

Data

Data staff on campaigns manages systems and develops analyses that help reach voters. The work of data staff can ensure that resources and know-how make the biggest impact.  Arena believes that data should be actionable and drive people-focused campaign strategies. The data track teaches the necessary technical skills to analyze large data sets in an electoral context. This is an immersive experience where you will get an opportunity to write code (maybe your first line of code). As a part of the Arena Cup, a 24-hour competition, you will work with a team to incorporate analysis that informs a winning campaign plan. This track gives foundational knowledge for how campaigns work with and use data. This track is perfect for data practitioners looking to break into data within electoral politics. This track is also great for data-minded campaigners in non-data roles looking to level up their data know-how.

Digital

Digital allows us to reach voters in places they gravitate to in online spaces. Depending on the campaign, digital roles can take on different focuses or specializations. This track emphasizes building your strategic skills in paid media, running a paid media program, making creative for paid media, and evaluating if paid media is successful. The track highlights owned media, digital fundraising, digital reporting, and running email programs. You also get an opportunity to integrate digital as a team member crafting a campaign plan in the Arena Cup, a 24-hour competition. You leave this track with new technical skills and frameworks for thinking about and running effective digital programs to win elections. 

Fundraising

Campaign fundraising staff are usually the first hired before a launch and last on payroll at the end of a campaign. Fundraising directors and assistants are some of the most in-demand roles in campaigns. The reason? This team raises the money that powers all other aspects of campaign operations. Fundraisers are often hired even before campaign managers. Arena believes in a relationship-based approach to fundraising. Through that lens, we cover the strategy and details of a successful finance department.  This track teaches you how to cultivate donors, manage call time, make a strong fundraising ask, and raise money online. In the Arena Cup, a 24-hour competition, you will also get experience working in a team to develop a fundraising plan and timeline. This track will help you understand how fundraising can help build winning campaigns.

Organizer

Organizers are the face of a campaign in the community. Organizers connect to voters online and in person. They create teams of dedicated volunteers to scale and amplify the campaign’s efforts. This track will teach you the skills you need to be a successful culturally-competent organizer in a digital world. You’ll learn how to develop and manage teams of volunteers to amplify the campaign’s message and move voters to the polls to vote for your candidate. Through the Arena Cup, a 24-hour competition, you will see the development of campaign strategy. You will work alongside an Organizing Director to develop a plan to recruit volunteer teams. Many campaign professionals get their start as organizers on campaigns. The best organizers come from all walks of life and bring a deep passion for their community to this work. The organizer track is a great place to start if you’re new to politics.

Organizing Director

Organizing Directors are both compassionate people managers and goals-driven data nerds. Organizing Directors set the strategy for the organizing program. They lead teams of organizers and volunteers to meet goals. This is oftentimes the largest department within a campaign. This track is for you if you want to step into a role managing the organizing program of a campaign. You’ll learn how to target voters, set goals, and manage a team of organizers to register, persuade, and turnout voters. You will work alongside other team members through the Arena Cup, a 24-hour competition, to develop a strategy and an organizing plan as a part of a larger campaign plan. Applicants for this track should have served at least one cycle as an organizer—on a campaign or in any advocacy, electoral, or community-based organization.

Candidate

(offered at select Academies)

Putting your name on the ballot is a huge step. As a candidate, you lead with vision and are the face of the campaign. In smaller local races, as a candidate, you take on more responsibilities in planning and executing your campaign. 

Run Academy is a unique opportunity to see the inner workings of a campaign.  Expert strategists guide you through pathway to victory, budgeting, fundraising, communications, and more.  You will also learn from past candidates and current elected officials about the hurdles they overcame on the way to Election Day. At Academy, candidates learn alongside future campaign managers, communications, data, digital, organizing, and finance professionals. You might even hire some of the staff you meet at the Academy. 

Candidates whose names are on the ballot in 2023 and 2024 will get the most from this track. This training will be particularly helpful for candidates “doing it all” themselves.  This training is not an endorsement of any candidate or campaign. Candidates who complete this program will not be endorsed by Arena.

Arena Academy culminates with the Arena Cup, a 24-hour campaign simulation in which participants compete to create the best campaign plan. Trainees join an interdisciplinary team made up of members from each training track and receive an imaginary candidate, district info, and challenger. It’s a hands on and fun opportunity to put new skills into practice.

How to Partner with Arena Academy 

Do you work on a progressive campaign or allied organization and manage or support staff, interns, fellows, or students who would benefit from attending Arena Academy? Email [email protected] to begin a conversation about whether your organization is eligible for partnership. 

Sponsor Arena Academy 

Arena Academy is comprised of 200+ current and future leaders in Democratic politics. Participants will work at all levels of campaigns, many overseeing teams, budgets, and strategies on battleground races up and down the ballot, all across the country.

Sponsoring Arena Academy is a prime opportunity to showcase what you have to offer and shape our participants’ understanding of how you can help them win. This is your chance to get the word out about your organization, services, or products to key decision-makers in the coming election cycle. If you are interested in learning more about Academy sponsorship options please email [email protected].