The Government Affairs team is a team of dedicated public policy advocates who lobby US Congress and the Administration to promote pro-LGBTQ+ federal legislation both domestically and abroad. The GA team tracks legislation, monitors Congressional hearings and coalition meetings, and runs events focused around Capitol Hill and other partnerships. They also prepare the Congressional Scorecard, which ranks members of Congress based on their record of passing Equality legislation. We look for interns who have:

• Working knowledge of and interest in learning about the US Federal Government (Congress and Administration);
  
• Enthusiasm for and an interest in learning about the role of policy advocacy regarding LGBTQ+ issues;
• Dedication to the LGBTQ+ equality movement and intersecting issue areas, including but not limited to:
  
• Racial Equity, Disability Justice, Gun Violence Prevention, HIV/AIDS, Reproductive Rights, Non-Discrimination and Hate-Crime Protections, and Global Human Rights;
• Strong attention to detail and proficiency in Excel, Google Sheets, and data tracking;
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment on multiple projects at the same time.
  

HRC’s Legal Department represents the organization on cutting-edge issues before all three branches of the federal government, state and local governments, as well as before our membership and the media. The Department specializes in legislative lawyering at both the federal and state levels and provides critical assistance to LGBTQ groups and allied legislators in pursuing positive legislative developments and defeating legislative attempts to deny full equality to the LGBTQ community. The Department monitors and seeks opportunities to engage in ongoing litigation to advance non-discrimination in the courts and push back against the expansion of religious refusal bills. Legal Interns are integral parts of these teams, which are comprised of attorneys, program managers, and law fellows. The Legal Policy intern will:

• Assist in managing the priorities and projects of the Legal Department
  
• Provide legal referrals for external litigation requests
  
• Assist in the tracking and cataloging of HRC priority legislation
  
• Prepare and proofread political correspondence
  
• Assist in the production of the Municipal Equality Index and the State Equality Index
  
• Coordinate with interns in other departments for assignments

HRC’s Campaigns and Organizing team is composed of more than 30 staff based throughout the country who are focused on building political organizing capacity within the LGBTQ+ movement – at the individual, community, state, and national levels. The team mobilizes equality advocates nationwide to activate grassroots support for federal, state, and local legislative priorities and deliver wins for pro-equality candidates at every level of the ballot. Our investments in grassroots organizing in recent years have contributed to expansive electoral victories that help to defend and advance the LGBTQ+ movement. The Campaigns and Organizing Intern will:

• Engage with HRC members and supporters in grassroots activism by participating in in-person and virtual mobilization events such as phone banks and text banks
• Work with in-state staff to track progress on key legislative efforts
• Perform internal data integrity checks to aid in volunteer recruitment and list building
• Draft and help distribute targeted membership communications
• Research and track electoral and legislative volunteer mobilization events from across the movement

The Communications team at the Human Rights Campaign spearheads the organization’s media relations, working alongside our other departments and programs in order to spread HRC's work and voice across the country. By creating strategic communications plans and engaging with reporters, the Communications team helps shape the messaging around the LGBTQ+ community and furthers the organization's mission to achieve full equity and equality for all. We also:

• Creates strategic communications plans for HRC's work and rapid response moments
• Drafts press releases, statements, quotes and media advisories and shares them with relevant stakeholders and reporters
• Monitors news outlets and social media to identify opportunities for engagement
• Pitches important HRC projects, launches, events and interviews with our spokespeople on relevant topics
• Maintains existing press contact databases and identifies new contacts to add to our lists
• Drafts speeches and other written content for executive staff
• Tracks press pick up on HRC and LGBTQ+ related news and catalogs press hits

HRC's Digital Communications team manages a wide variety of HRC's online properties, including www.HRC.org, associated microsites, and social media platforms. The Digital Marketing internship is an opportunity to gain valuable digital marketing experience and learn more about HRC’s award-winning digital and social media strategy. Some of the ongoing tasks for this internship include drafting language for various social platforms and scheduling content; researching LGBTQ-related trending topics; and assisting in the ideation and implementation of long-term social media campaigns. The Digital Marketing team is responsible for:

• Researching daily trends, stories, and relevant topics on social media and news outlets.
• Drafting social media language.
• Providing input to digital campaigns and subsequent rollout plans.
  
• Updating to HRC.org as needed.
  
• Posting timely and relevant content on online properties.
  
• Assist in editing and producing blog posts & measuring analytics
  
• Organizing and mapping content.
• Leading research projects to help create strategic digital plans and to update HRC databases.

The Design team within the Brand & Creative department at the Human Rights Campaign is responsible for the organization’s print and digital design needs. Some ongoing tasks for this internship include researching photos/artwork for use in marketing collateral and publications, working closely with the design team to explore and execute creative solutions to elevate issues related to the LGBTQ+ community and reach broader, more diverse audiences. Some additional tasks include:

• Creating rapid-response graphics for social media
• Editing/updating existing designs for various projects
• Creating graphics for digital/print reports or the HRC website
• Creating or updating Canva templates for use across the organization
• Assisting in the organization of digital assets

We look for interns who have:

• Some proficiency in the Adobe Creative Suite and a willingness to learn
• Passion for HRC and the work we do

HRC’s award-winning Video team illustrates the fight for lived and legal equality. We support the political, programmatic, and membership work of the organization, and convey the emotional weight of the struggle to the rest of the world. Our team:

• Produces work that reached almost 30 million viewers on social media in 2022 alone, and thousands more through dinners, television, and in-person events.
  
• Produces over 700 videos per year.
  
• Touches on political fights: SCOTUS, state legislative efforts, and federal hearings.
  
• Works with our events team to capture high-profile celebrities at our events.
  
• Partners with programmatic leads across the organization to film everything from health equity to school safety, to emerging transgender leaders.

We look for interns who can:

• Demonstrate a passion for and background in video production.
  
• Update and maintain archives and footage catalogue, including metadata.
  
• Caption and reformat videos for multiple social media platforms.
  
• Create captions and thumbnails for HRC’s YouTube page.
  
• Assist in producing video content, including pitching, writing, recording, editing, captioning, and delivering files.

The heart of the Human Rights Campaign is its membership — over 3 million members and supporters strong. They make our critical work for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer equality possible. The Membership Team engages with members and supporters in a number of ways to advocate for equity, fairness, visibility and representation for LGBTQ+ people and to raise funds to fuel our mission. It is responsible for the following:

• Advocacy: We ask members and supporters to contact elected officials and federal agencies to support pro-equality laws and policies and guide them through the process of doing so.
• Fundraising: We raise money to support HRC and HRC Foundation programs through email, direct mail, SMS messaging, street canvassing, and phone banking to current and prospective members
• Direct Response: We monitor current events for rapid response moments, informing the membership of critical news and developments pertaining to the LGBTQ+ civil rights movement
• Cultivation: We foster good relationships with our membership by welcoming new members and sending acknowledgment and thank-you letters, postcards, emails, and, phone calls
• Member Services: We provide best-in-class customer service to members, supporters, and donors, helping to resolve membership, payment, and, premium-fulfillment issues and to address messaging and policy concerns with a critical eye toward problem-solving and relationship-building.

The Communities & Volunteer Relations (CVR) at HRC helps to achieve LGBTQ+ equality by keeping HRC strong, funded, and fighting through our management of an impactful volunteer leadership program. We empower the volunteer leaders in 32 steering committees across the country to engage and expand support for our mission locally. The CVR supports the work of our national network of volunteers by:

• Providing coaching and training for our Board of Governors and Steering Committee Co-Chairs in developing team culture and leading the Steering Committee
• Partnering with the Volunteer Engagement Co-Chairs to attract, engage, develop, and retain volunteers locally and mobilize them in pursuit of HRC’s organizational objectives
• Creating leadership development programs and resources for volunteers to grow their skills in leadership, ambassadorship, fundraising, and diversity, equity, and inclusion competencies
• Guiding Steering Committees in setting and reaching their annual programmatic goals

The HRC Consumer Marketing team oversees all merchandise created on the online shop, Provincetown store, and other departments. Our online retail store promotes HRC branded merchandise, brings in new HRC members, and puts a face on the fight for LGBTQ equality. The Consumer Marketing Program:

• Has produced election, heritage month, and protest merchandise.
  
• Creates and monitors ads across Meta, Google, and TikTok.
  
• Is a leading source for new HRC members.
  
• Generates rapid response merchandise that emphasizes HRC’s stance on current events.

HRC's Major Gifts team is responsible for identifying, recruiting, and stewarding donors who give $5,000 and above annually to the HRC. The Major Gifts program has more than 1,000 members, whose annual pledges help to fund the work of the HRC Foundation, the community and education-focused branch of the Human Rights Campaign. The Major Gifts team works to make sure these committed individuals have a strong and lasting relationship with the HRC. In addition, Major Gifts members enjoy special benefits, such as complimentary tickets to dinners, as a result of their membership. The intern on this team primarily interacts with the Major Gifts team but will also get experience with various projects tied to HRC’s Planned Giving and Foundation Relations teams. Major Gifts is pivotal to the work of HRC Foundation and gives us the ability to focus on lasting relationships with some of our biggest contributors.

HRC’s Federal Club is an industry leader when it comes to mid-level giving programs within non-profit organizations. Our generous donors provide the resources that help fuel HRC’s nationwide legislative and advocacy work. The Federal Club program:

• Funds HRC’s political work, fieldwork, and electoral work, and helps keep the lights on at the organization
  
• Hosts exclusive area leadership briefings, social events, and activities with other HRC Federal Club members and leaders
  
• Utilizes our Federal Club Co-Chairs as the faces of the local Federal Club to engage with our current members and help the board of governors in recruiting new Federal Club members. Federal Club Co-Chairs are a backbone for local HRC communities

HRC's Online Strategy team helps our community make history for LGBTQ+ equality through the development and execution of online advocacy and fundraising campaigns via email, paid social recruitment and text messaging. Our Digital Organizing, Advocacy, and Fundraising Intern will gain valuable hands-on experience in digital communications and have a direct and lasting impact on our movement for LGBTQ+ equality. Some of the intern’s ongoing tasks will be the daily development of email communications and related engagement collateral, analysis, and reporting for HRC’s various national and local online campaigns; troubleshooting HTML coding for HRC email communications and other online strategy projects. The Digital Organizing, Advocacy, and Fundraising Intern should:

• Have familiarity and interest in the latest technological aspects of email communications, notably experience in HTML coding.
• Desire to learn industry-leading tools and strategies
• Assisting with editing and producing graphics
• Assisting in measuring analytics
• Organizing and mapping content

Membership is the lifeblood of the Human Rights Campaign – our members are the reason we can accomplish so much in the fight for full LGBTQ+ equality. The Membership Outreach team is tasked with expanding and diversifying HRC’s membership and supporter base through several key fundraising programs: Pride, Community Events, Honorary Gifts, Athletes for Equality and other special projects and initiatives. The Membership Outreach team:

• Facilitates HRC's attendance at over 200 Pride events nationwide each year
• Raises funds and builds people power through premiere Community Events across the country
• Creates pathways to engage with HRC's work in new and diverse ways, including Gift Memberships and Athletes for Equality
• Supports and uplifts businesses serving the LGBTQ+ community through the Queer to Stay program

The Public Education & Research team uses data and storytelling to foster visibility and positive change in the lives of LGBTQ+ people, across all sectors of public life. Our team endeavors to change the hearts and minds of everyday people and increase the public’s understanding of the LGBTQ+ community in all our intersecting identities. Broadly, we accomplish these goals through work that falls into the following buckets:

• Original quantitative and qualitative research to raise awareness about key issues facing the LGBTQ+ community
  
• Original storytelling and writing, to create allies and advocates who are willing and eager to work in support of and alongside the LGBTQ+ community
  
• Collaborative research and storytelling for other teams across C3/C4, to enable their decision-making, advocacy, and programmatic efforts
  
• Rapid response research and storytelling to provide data and talking points to support HRC’s efforts in addressing emerging and ongoing policy and political needs
  
• In addition, PE&R also maintains more than 100 existing resources, which account for as many as 5.3 million visits to HRC’s website each year -- the largest body of content visited on the site overall.

The HIV & Health Equity Program is committed to using a racial equity lens to end the HIV epidemic and improve the overall health and wellness of the most marginalized Black and Latinx communities by addressing the social determinants of health, socioeconomic factors, and the institutional and structural policies and practices that enforce white supremacy, further disparities, and perpetuate stigma.
The HIV & Health Equity team uses the person's first language to center the person rather than their condition as only one part of the whole person. We also:

• Utilizes storytelling to advocate for, engage, and mobilize communities most impacted by HIV through leadership development and training cohorts
• Collaborates with Community-based Organizations across the country to increase the impact and reach of our work around HIV prevention, testing, and care services
• Advances new sexual health and wellness tools and resources through our bilingual My Body My Health public education campaign

HRC’s Workplace Equality Program is the nationally recognized voice for advocacy, information, and guidance on LGBTQ+ workplace issues. Advancing workplace equality for LGBTQ+ employees means looking far beyond the employee handbook—it means putting policy into practice on the factory floor, in the corporate boardroom and everywhere in between. The WEP envisions a world where all workers can be themselves and make a living without discrimination or stigma.
The WEP team:

• Produces Corporate Equality Index and other benchmarking and public-education tools (Covers 23M employees)
• Conducts direct training and consultation on workplace inclusion
• Develops resources and educational material to help employers advance equality in their own workplaces and beyond
• Works with companies to advance LGBTQ+ inclusive public policy (Business Coalition for Equality Act)
• Advances workplace inclusion abroad with indices in Mexico, Chile, Argentina, and Brazil

HRC’s Welcoming Schools is the most comprehensive bias-based bullying prevention program in the nation to provide LGBTQ+ and gender-inclusive professional development training, lesson plans, booklists, and resources specifically designed for educators and youth-serving professionals. Our program uses an intersectional, anti-racist lens dedicated to actionable policies and practices. We uplift school communities with critical tools to embrace all families, create LGBTQ+ and gender-inclusive schools, prevent bias-based bullying, and support transgender and non-binary students. The Welcoming Schools Program:

• Has impacted over 10.5 million students all over the world through our resources and direct professional development to educators.
• Provides FREE Elementary and Secondary lesson plans, resources, and annotated book lists.
• Donates hundreds of FREE LGTBQ+ Inclusive Books to schools across the nation.
• Coordinates public education events (i.e. National Day of Reading: A Celebration of Stories Supporting Transgender and Non-Binary Youth and Back to School Campaign).

HRC's Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Program is dedicated to promoting individual competencies and collective action, empowering leaders and stakeholders, and building a network of committed individuals in the pursuit of eliminating stigma and enriching the college experience for LGBTQ students and the entire student body. As the only national initiative of its kind, HRC's HBCU Program collaborates directly with HBCUs to establish genuinely LGBTQ+-inclusive campus climates.
The HBCU Program:

• Organizes annual convenings that bring together students and senior leaders to strengthen the capabilities of HBCUs and LGBTQ+ student leaders of color, fostering a sense of community and empowerment.
• Provides valuable consultation and technical assistance to HBCUs, supporting them in enhancing their non-discrimination policies to ensure they are inclusive and equitable for all students.
• Develops impactful public education campaigns that raise awareness about the unique needs and challenges faced by queer students, shedding light on the importance of creating inclusive and supportive campus environments.

Through these strategic initiatives, the HBCU Program actively advocates for meaningful change. By fostering environments where LGBTQ+ students feel safe, supported, and empowered to thrive, the program is committed to eliminating stigma and creating lasting impact within HBCUs and beyond.

Since 2007, ACAF has been dedicated to resource development, technical assistance, and training on LGBTQ+ inclusion for child welfare systems around the country. The program provides professional development to child welfare case workers, supervisors, and administrators. ACAF:

• Implements LGBTQ+ inclusive policies and practices with over 135 child welfare agencies in 36 states that serve more than 1.2 million children and families annually
  
• Creates public education campaigns on foster care and adoption
• Provides professional development to over 10,000 child welfare professionals annually
  
• Engages child welfare leaders in public policy advocacy

HRC’s Health and Aging Program works to advance policies, practices, and culture of the healthcare and senior housing industries to better serve their LGBTQ+ patients, residents, and employees. Our program runs two biennial surveys - the Healthcare Equality Index and the Long-Term Care Equality Index. We also provide resources and training to help healthcare facilities and long-term care and senior housing communities adopt inclusive policies and practices.
The Health & Aging Program:

• Runs the Healthcare Equality Index, which is the national LGBTQ+ benchmarking tool that evaluates healthcare facilities' policies and practices related to the equity and inclusion of their LGBTQ+ patients, visitors, and employees
• Runs the Long-Term Care Equality Index, which is the first national benchmarking tool for LGBTQ+ inclusion in senior housing and long-term care communities.
• Provides resources, training, and technical assistance to healthcare facilities and aging service providers to strengthen their LGBTQ+ inclusion efforts

The Transgender Justice Initiative (TJI) is dedicated to justice for the transgender community and is focused on four pillars that will seek to transform the systemic discrimination faced by transgender people. TJI has several capacity-building programs, which seek to advance the leadership of marginalized transgender people, economic programs focused on providing grants for different needs, as well as live talks focused on the experience of being transgender.
The TJI Four Pillars are:

• Investing in Community Leadership
• Economic Empowerment
• Strategic Communications
• Capacity Building, Technical Assistance, and Training

HRC’s Youth Well-Being (YWB) Program is dedicated to improving the lived experience of LGBTQ+ youth in everyday institutions of daily life – families, schools, after-school enrichment programs, community centers, health and wellness programs, child welfare, and other systems of care. The team works across the Foundation and with several external partners to develop resources, professional development, and policy guidance for youth-serving professionals and organizations focused on youth and their families. Key initiatives of the YWB Program include:

• Time to THRIVE regional summits convening educators, social workers, counselors, and other youth-serving professionals focused on promoting safety, inclusion, and well-being so LGBTQ+ can thrive.
• Project THRIVE provides direct support and technical assistance to 30+ national associations and organizations representing over 5 million youth-serving professionals. The Project THRIVE webinar series provides monthly professional development on best practices to support LGBTQ+ youth.
• Youth Ambassadors, a leadership opportunity for LGBTQ+ young advocates who are interested in helping raise awareness of HRC efforts to improve the lives of LGBTQ+ youth at home, at school, at work, and beyond

The Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Belonging (DEIB) department leads the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging strategy across the organization to facilitate building a diverse and inclusive organization, and works to build competencies in diversity, equity, inclusion, and intersectionality – both internally, and within the broader LGBTQ+ community – that advance the organization’s mission to achieve LGBTQ+ liberation for all. More specifically, the DEIB team: ​

• Is a thought leader for cross-departmental efforts to integrate diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging into everything that HRC does;
• Helps recruit, retain, and engage staff and volunteers that reflect the diversity of our community, ensuring that processes are equitable;
  
• Manages the organization’s Employee Resources Groups, DEI Liaison program, and National Steering Committees, helping to craft an organizational culture of inclusion and belonging
  
• Fosters a deeper understanding of the intersectional challenges facing our constituencies in rapidly evolving landscapes through facilitating interactive trainings for both staff and external partners
• Acts as a key voice within senior organizational leadership and advocates from a DEIB lens