Marginal Victories: career advising and opportunities for U.S. democracy preservation & political work

By Annika Burman 🔸 @ 2026-07-20T14:33 (+51)

TL;DR: Marginal Victories is a new initiative to provide 1:1 career advising, opportunities, and resources for people exploring high-leverage U.S. democracy preservation and political work. Built by impact-oriented people doing pro-democracy work, the early MVP is now up at marginalvictories.org. Fill out the 10-minute form now to receive these resources as they become available over the next few weeks. 

Why this should exist 

Over the past year, through 1:1 conversations I’ve had with people working on U.S. democracy, I’ve grown increasingly convinced that this work is tractable. If I hadn’t had these conversations, I doubt I would have come to the same conclusion — most organizations in this space don’t post about their work online due to its sensitive nature, and as a result, it’s hard to find examples of people breaking into this space and quickly getting results, even though there are plenty of success cases. 

Our goal with Marginal Victories is to create a pathway for people considering transitioning to work on U.S. democracy and politics to get plugged into this field and hear about high-leverage opportunities they can get involved with. If all goes well, we will have more talented, impact-minded people working on this cause area. 

Who is this for

You’ll probably get value from this if you’re: 

• Considering whether or not you should start a career, or transition into, working on U.S. democracy preservation/politics
• Actively looking for roles in this space, especially if you don’t know what orgs are doing impactful work
• Looking to start a new project relating to U.S. democracy or politics — we have a database of expert-generated ideas and can potentially help you get resourced

What resources will be available and when

Advising

The primary offering of Marginal Victories. We expect actual advising calls to start within the next month, but you can register your interest when you sign up today. 

If you’re interested in becoming an advisor (i.e., taking a few advising calls per month/week, possibly for an hourly rate), please fill out this form. 

Other resources

• Job/opportunities board - ready now! Roles relevant to your career stage and skills will be sent to your inbox monthly. 
• Cause prioritization arguments - ready to share next week; if you have remaining uncertainties, you can express interest in an advising call for this purpose.
  • If you have additional recommendations for what resources to share, submit them to this feedback form. 
• Ideas for new projects - If you think this might be a good fit for you, we recommend expressing interest in an advising call. We have existing ideas for projects that should exist, but we’re also open to hearing yours. 

In the future, we may also set up the options to access donor advising, recommended resources for building context, networking, volunteering opportunities, and more. Open to suggestions! 

What we’d love from you

1. Fill out the form to access the resources: marginalvictories.org
2. Let me know if you encounter any issues via the feedback form. 
3. If you’re working full-time in U.S. democracy preservation/politics and you’re interested in serving as an advisor for even 1 hour/month, please fill out this form. 

Thanks! 

Annika + Marginal Victories Team