Why I Do What I Do

Every member of the NPC team was asked to write a quick post about "Why I do what I do." Our VP of Operations, Angie Schiavoni, is up first...

When I was 14, I met former Senator Bill Bradley (D-NJ) at a book signing for "Time Past, Time Present." From that moment on, I knew I wanted to work in politics. I started volunteering for political campaigns when I was 16 and was writing op-eds for Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) at 19 as an intern on the Hill. By 20, I was a press assistant in the Iowa Caucus presidential primary for Senator Bradley himself. After college, I did a string of local and state-wide campaigns.

I loved the passion and energy of the fast-paced campaign world. But after a couple of years of working grueling hours with no health care benefits and barely enough money to feed myself, I decided I needed more stability. I moved to D.C. and started working for established progressive organizations.

I became quickly frustrated with the prevalent D.C. mentality that until you “pay your dues” in Democratic politics, you are supposed to be treated poorly, paid nothing, and thrive on passion alone. I also realized that job “stability” is often directly correlated with the level of bureaucracy within an organization and has an inverse relationship with the level of innovative thinking that is encouraged.

I met Kirstin Falk (NPC’s founder and CEO) in 2002 at my first job in D.C. and we instantly connected. She possessed the rare combination of characteristics that allowed her to be a visionary but also understand the importance of execution. I followed her to another organization in 2003 and we both left D.C. at about the same time after a disappointing 2004 election.

When Kirstin moved to San Francisco to start NPC, I took an opportunity in Amman, Jordan to build a CSR and development program for a local woman-run events company. I also did some volunteering with the National Democratic Institute (NDI) to help women parliamentary candidates learn how to do campaign fundraising in an extremely challenging fundraising environment. I loved working in the Middle East because there was so much opportunity and optimism and I really felt like one person could make a huge difference.

A year later, Kirstin asked me to move to San Francisco and run the operations of her new company that focused on helping people understand the impact of their political giving while at the same time helping organizations be more effective. I was thrilled. This was pretty much the only job I could think of that would bring me back to working in U.S. politics because it sought to fundamentally change the game for the progressive movement.

Now, I feel extremely lucky to get up every day and be excited about going to work because I am passionate about what I am doing here at NPC. With so much craziness going on in the world, it’s often easy to give up and feel powerless. At the end of the day, NPC is about giving people tools to feel like they have the power to change the world.

They always say that the most successful entrepreneurs build products to fulfill their own needs; I’ve gotten to do that here at NPC. I was ready to give up my passion of being in politics because changing the world just seemed too daunting, but now my whole job is to make sure that one person can make an impact.