2023 Annual Report
One day, every decision made by elected officials will start with the question—
what is best for the country?Why us? Why now?
What’s the urgency of our mission? We often hear the familiar refrain, "There’s more that unites us than divides us." Yet as the gulf of mistrust between Americans grows wider by the day, it begs the question: What exactly is the “more” that unites us?
For much of our history, it’s been the stories we’ve told about ourselves. That America was a nation of destiny; a beacon of liberty immune from the threats of despotism and decline to which others have fallen. The shining city on a hill.
If the instability of the last few years has taught us anything, however, it’s that those stories are mere drafts of a yet unfinished manuscript. Cultural, economic, and political upheaval have dimmed the shining city’s glow and imperiled its place atop the hill. American democracy, and the principles that sustain it— self-government; equality, justice, liberty for all— are neither certain nor guaranteed. They are vulnerable and must be defended by every new generation.
For the last eight years, New Politics Leadership Academy has been forging this generation’s armor. While few could have anticipated the degree to which bad actors would be willing to undermine the public’s trust, Americans are beginning to understand, now, what has always been our guiding vision: the key to protecting and preserving American democracy is through servant leadership.
Our Timeline
The Servant Leader Journey
In all of our programming, our underlying goal is to encourage servant leaders, those who routinely and naturally put community over self, to engage more deeply in politics and step up as political leaders. Our nonpartisan community encourages people from across the political spectrum to connect over a service mindset in order to build the capacity to collaborate and the commitment to delivering results.
Our Programs
Guiding Servant Leaders on Their Political Journey
We've meticulously curated a suite of leadership programs, all with one goal: to pave the way for servant leaders from both sides of the aisle to re-enter public service through politics.
Let's walk through the journey:
Our commitment is unwavering:
from the first inkling of political interest to the day they’re sworn in office and beyond, we're there every step of the way.
How do we fill our programs?
We commit to finding the right people.
Outstanding programming is only one half of the NPLA equation. What good is a model of leadership development without a leader to mold, afterall? That’s why bold and proactive recruitment strategies are so crucial. Our Recruitment Team is the bridge that connects our community of servant leaders to the start of their respective journeys into political leadership.
Click on each icon to learn more about how we innovated our recruitment this year.
Through these strategies, we're not just recruiting;
we're reshaping the future of servant leadership in America.
Year of Innovation
Transformational leadership requires a willingness to try new methods. For us, that means we focused our efforts this year on innovation. We looked to improve our existing systems while exploring new ways of addressing the evolving needs of our community of servant-leaders. The injection of new staff had the added benefit of energizing us to think more creatively, take risks, and explore new opportunities. Here’s what we came up with:
Direct Mail Campaign
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In 2023, Development and Recruitment partnered to try something new with direct mail messages and marketing. Using a generous restricted grant for this purpose, we explored options that would allow us to:
Test our messages with a servant-leader audience
Use a state or regional filter that would allow the scale of the project to achieve some level of message penetration, impact, or reach
Do a series of pieces instead of a one-off approach
Incorporate a free response piece to see what people may share if given the opportunity
After close consultation with a direct mail expert firm, we chose Arkansas veterans who voted in 2020 with mailable addresses as our target for this experiment. As of this writing, the series of 4 pieces are designed and in the process of being mailed. Over time we will be able to discern if there is an uptick in applications, meeting requests, web traffic, etc from Arkansas.
Partner Learning Lab
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In 2023, building off the conviction that partnerships are how we will be able to reach more servant leaders more quickly with the current resources, we knew that one-sided asks were not going to be effective or align with our values.
Throughout the year we iterated three times on a short, virtual, experiential session in which a partner org’s team can wrestle a key question they are facing using some of our programmatic methods and modalities. The model provides a service, a chance to learn by experiencing instead of being told or reading materials only, and allows us to sharpen our pitch.
Elected Leaders Program
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This program ran for the first time this year with an in-person summit in New England. The program evolved from our experiences working with servant leaders and helping them transition into elected leaders. We first offered a toolkit and process for hiring and building their initial teams. We have since learned and seen the need for ongoing political leadership development. No other organization offers continued leadership development that helps elected leaders build their skills to serve their communities. We created the Elected Leaders Program to fill that gap and intend to run it in other regions nationwide for state and local electeds.
One Day Answering the Call
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Seven years in, we continue to innovate around our core programming. This year, we piloted a one-day ATC program that allowed participants to complete all the reflections in dialogue over the course of a single Saturday. ATC usually involves five two-hour sessions that occur once a week over the course of five weeks. While that approach allows lots of time for reflection and processing, we know that some participants find it hard to commit to that model. Our one-day approach compresses the curriculum into a single day in an effort to make it more accessible for some participants. It’s a new take on the model, and interest in this approach to the program was high. We’ve learned that it is possible to engage participants in some transformational reflection in a condensed timeframe, and we are excited about how best to leverage and expand this new approach in 2024!
Our Team
Staff Highlights
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STEPHANIE, Platform Manager
What values do you feel our community (or ecosystem or candidates) especially embodied this year?
Courage, curiosity, consistency
What is your favorite thing about our team or work in 2023?
How collaborative everyone has become over the years. Sharing leads, helpful tactics, and what they do in the workplace. While I know not everyone has to get along for an organization to function, it's been a huge plus to see how well everyone works together, how pleasant it is to be at work, and how joyful our in-person retreats have become.
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LUCY, Director of Programs
Thinking back on 2023, what is the thing you're *most proud* of achieving yourself or as part of your team at NPLA?
Piloting programs to complete a full pipeline of programming, start to finish, for servant leaders. From considering running for office to being an elected official, we've got a program for that.
If asked about your work by a stranger, what is the one thing you would tell them about NPLA?
We're pro-democracy -- our country and communities will function more democratically when we the people in charge put service first.
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CRISTINA, Director of Partnerships + Growth
Thinking back on 2023, what is the thing you're *most proud* of achieving yourself or as part of your team at NPLA?
Increasing women representation! Fall 2023's cohort has the highest number of women applicants and enrollees we've ever had.
What are three words you would use to describe our culture?
Collaborative, nimble, and intentional
Our Budget
Our strategy and goals remain ambitious because we're committed to breaking down every barrier to entry in the political arena. We need your help to ensure we can continue to reach thousands more across the country who will put people over politics.
In order to scale our impact, in 2024 we need to raise $3.2 million.
All donations to New Politics Leadership Academy are tax deductible. You can donate online below, via check, or transfer stocks. We’re deeply grateful for your consideration.