What is the Kairos Fellowship?

The Kairos Fellowship is designed to build the next generation of leaders of color in the field of technology, digital campaigning, and online organizing. The Kairos Fellowship is an eight-month, paid, on the job, full-time Fellowship. Through the program, Kairos invests in Fellows with training, mentorship, and strategic support. This year, Kairos will match and place up to 18 fellows with power building national and state organizations where Fellows will work mostly on issue advocacy campaigns. Upon completion of the eight-month program, you may be offered a permanent position with the organization. Historically, 80% of Fellows have been offered a permanent position.

When does the fellowship start?

The 2019 Fellowship begins on September 3. A requisite for acceptance and participation in the Fellowship is attendance of all in-person trainings—no exceptions. The bootcamp and first in-person meeting will be from September 9 - September 20, 2019. The second and final in-person trainings are still to be determined but will likely be in early and mid-2020. The fellowship covers all costs associated with travel, meals, and materials for the trainings.

What compensation do fellows receive?

We match Fellows with partner organizations who then hire the Fellow to join their staff as a full-time employee. We recommend each organization pay Fellows $50,000 annually plus full benefits such as medical, dental, and any other benefits the organization offers to its full-time staff. Ultimately, the final decision about salary is between the Fellow and the partner organization. We encourage each Fellow to negotiate their desired salary directly with the organization upon receiving an offer.

WHAT SUPPORT CAN FELLOWS RECEIVE FROM KAIROS?

We believe in thorough leadership development, political education, and training as core components to long-term power-building. Our 8-month intensive curriculum is designed to teach you the Kairos model of online organizing, which is rooted in racial and gender justice. For the duration of the 8-month program, the support Fellows can expect from Kairos includes but is not limited to:

• Training in resiliency practices, digital security and design principles, analytics and data management, political education, digital campaign strategy and online organizing, narrative and communication strategy, coding, and product development and design.

• Two to three in-person retreats and trainings. One is a bootcamp-style training led by expert campaigners to get you ready for your job placement.

• Ongoing webinar trainings, speaker series, and exposure to the for-profit and nonprofit technology and online organizing sector through weekly cohort calls.

• Support from both an experienced supervisor at your placement and a Kairos mentor who is a leader in the field of technology, digital campaigning, or online organizing to actively coach and support you throughout your fellowship.

• Connection to a wide network of talented campaigners and digital leaders of color.

• Peer support through the Kairos Fellowship cohort.

How do I apply?

We are accepting applications from April 1 to April 26. If you are a field organizer, union organizer, community leader, or movement builder who wants to work on digital strategies and campaigns to build power at the local, state, and national level, then this is the program for you!

Submit your application today! You do not need to submit your résumé to apply.

What IS KAIROS LOOKING FOR IN A FELLOW?

Candidates must possess deep ties to communities of color, a passion for social justice, a commitment to disrupting anti-blackness, trans-phobia, and structural violence in all forms, a proven practice of upholding the values of principled struggle, the ability to hold the hard truths and realities of the world we live in while finding joy in what’s possible, and a love for the internet and its vast potential for building power and increasing civic engagement.

Candidates must be 100% committed to building across movements, and understand the need for multiracial organizing as a practice of liberation. Preference will be given to candidates with two or more years of field, union, or community organizing experience.

We also have a particular need for candidates who have a passion for using data and analytics.

If this sounds like you (or even if this sounds somewhat like you), please apply.

Read about our alumni to get a sense of the folks who have previously participated in our Fellowship program.

Which organizations are participating in the fellowship?

Kairos partners with leading power-building organizations that are aligned with our racial justice framework and working at the national or state level on issues of working people and communities of color. Specifically, we partner with organizations interested in working locally, in collaboration to integrate campaign strategies, and that want to scale up to build more power.

We are in the process of finalizing our 2019 Partner organizations. We will have the final list of 2019 Partner organizations by mid-April.

Some of the groups that have participated in previous years include Daily Kos, MoveOn, 18 Million Rising, SumOfUs, OUR Walmart, Sierra Club, Fight for the Future, Win Without War, Democracy for America, BYP100, and MPower Change. Learn more about partner organizations.