Overview Demographics and Details:
- More than 2, 500 applicants in the nine years total that ONA has run this program.
- Variety of roles, newsrooms, beats and organization sizes represented each year.
- Representation from newsrooms and organizations across the U.S. and around the globe. The 2023 cohort represented five places outside of the contiguous U.S. and 10 states or territories within the contiguous U.S.
Women’s Leadership Accelerator participants call the program “transformational” and turn to each other for support as they work on their challenges throughout the program period, and beyond. We have built a robust talent pipeline of more than 175 professionals that have been a part of this program since 2017, as well as 50 more leaders as part of the 2015 and 2016 cohorts, which ONA co-led with Poynter.
As an industry leader in providing programming to train, coach and support diverse leaders in media, ONA has modeled successful training programs that use a cohort-based training model not only to provide professional development but to create and nurture a supportive community that gives training participants the lifelong peer support they need for success. ONA annually receives hundreds of applicants for the year-long program, and has seen a response of 1,000+ other registrants for other non-cohort Women’s Leadership Accelerator specific programming.
Each of the cohorts we have selected and trained has reported extensive promotions and raises, more positive outcomes in working with supervisors and colleagues, successful launches of new projects and collaborations and new funding support for those efforts, and extensive positive feedback on the impact of the WLA in supporting their efforts, helping negotiation and decision making with workplace challenges and much more.
By supporting the Women’s Leadership Accelerator program and its related speaking series and events, you’ll join a stellar, global group of supporters — including our continuing lead funder Dow Jones Foundation and current supporting funders Tiffany Shackelford Foundation and Ballard Spahr LLP. We seek support from educational programs, nonprofits, technology firms, media companies, journalism fellowships and other brand supporters that help us provide a strong program each year for women in digital media around the world.
Funding levels are customized to your needs, interests and level of impact, and can range from general program support ($50,000-$500,000), event or series sponsorships ($10,000-$50,000) supporting packages ($2,500-$10,000), as well as in-kind/product donations. All levels include WLA promotions as well as an exclusive connection to our growing cohort community.
To discuss opportunities or share your ideas to support the event, contact Head of Strategic Partnerships Hanaa Rifaey at hanaa@journalists.org.