A big-tent, values-driven platform building career and talent infrastructure for the progressive ecosystem — led by BIPOC, LGBTQI+, and women leaders. This document compiles the organizational basics and the four core programs that anchor GAIN Power's mission to power the people who power democracy.
GAIN Power is the career and talent infrastructure for the progressive ecosystem. We connect democracy workers with jobs, build community across organizational silos, and invest in the people who power democracy \u2014 from campaign field organizers to nonprofit executives to civic technologists.
We are a big-tent, values-driven platform. Our leadership is majority BIPOC, LGBTQI+, and women. We operate across three legally separate entities — a for-profit LLC, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and a Super PAC — united by a single mission: power the people who power democracy.
The progressive movement’s largest and longest-running job board — connecting democracy’s workforce with the organizations that need them.
The GAIN Power Career Center is where the progressive movement hires. Every campaign, nonprofit, union, PAC, party committee, and advocacy organization in the country turns to Jobs That Are Left when they need talent. With up to 5,000 job postings annually, we are the connective tissue between democracy’s workforce and the organizations that need them.
Yet this infrastructure runs on a skeleton budget. Demand from both job seekers and employers far exceeds our current capacity. We need investment to scale the platform, add staff, and build the technology that will serve the movement through 2026 and into 2028.
Every corner of the progressive ecosystem hires here. We need to scale to meet the demand.
The movement-wide post-election unconference — where democracy’s workforce gathers to debrief, innovate, and rebuild.
RootsCamp is unlike any other event in progressive politics. There is no pre-set agenda. Attendees show up and build the program together — pitching sessions, claiming rooms, driving the conversation. It is the only space where a campaign field director, a nonprofit ED, a union organizer, and a digital strategist sit in the same room and figure out what went wrong and what comes next.
We ran RootsCamp 2025 at the Maritime Conference Center near BWI, January 23–25. We raised and spent approximately $350,000 — and it wasn’t enough. The biggest cost is travel and accommodation scholarships: ensuring that the talent who most needs to be in the room can actually get there. That is the equity work. That is also what makes RootsCamp different from every other progressive conference.
The next phase: local and regional post-election debrief events. Smaller RootsCamps in battleground states, within weeks of election day, where local organizers and campaign staff can process what happened before institutional memory disperses. A national RootsCamp feeds the movement. A network of local RootsCamps transforms it.
A national RootsCamp feeds the movement. A network of local RootsCamps transforms it.
Celebrating the unsung heroes of democracy work — the annual awards ceremony and expo for the progressive professional community.
The Powerful IDEA Awards is the progressive movement’s premier recognition event. Each year, we celebrate the innovators, doers, and dedicated leaders whose work powers democracy — and who are almost never recognized by mainstream awards or media. The event features a full democracy expo, networking, and a celebration that reminds everyone in this field why the work matters.
In 2024, staff from DCCC, Human Rights Campaign, Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, Open Society Foundations, and Blue Leadership Collaborative were among those honored. This is the event that makes the invisible visible.
This is the event that makes the invisible visible in the progressive movement.
Coaching, career fairs, trainings, and tools that help democracy workers grow — at every stage of their career.
Democracy workers are professionals. They deserve the same investment in their careers that any other industry makes in its workforce. GAIN Power’s professional development programs provide that infrastructure — from resume reviews and 1:1 coaching to quarterly virtual career fairs to trainings on the skills that matter most in campaigns, nonprofits, and advocacy organizations.
Virtual Career Fairs are a particular standout: employers host booths, meet talent, and hire — all online, all efficiently. We run multiple VCFs per year at peak hiring moments. Single booth: $500. 10-booth packages: $4,250. Timed entry exclusives: $2,000. These events serve both job seekers and employers, and they scale.
Democracy workers are professionals — they deserve investment in their careers.