Finance and Consulting in Politics

This summer, I worked as a Finance Assistant at Berger-Hirschberg Strategies' NYC office. Berger-Hirschberg Strategies is a New York and DC-based political consulting and capital fundraising firm co-founded by former DNC Finance Director Stephanie Berger. Since its inception in 2010, the firm has raised over $400 million for its clients, including politicians at all levels of government, nonprofit organizations, and capital campaigns for various other people, organizations, or causes. ​

​In my capacity as Finance Assistant, I worked largely with local politicians in NYC as well as members of the state legislature. This included planning grassroots fundraising events, such as a cocktail meet-and-greet for one of the borough DAs, a drag show for a state senator, and various other events for the four other clients I was responsible for. I was also charged with keeping contacts in the business, legal, and real estate worlds of Manhattan and arranging regular meetings with clients for policy and fundraising discussions; these often would require extensive research on potential patrons, including their giving history and policy priorities, culminating in the production of briefings for delivery to the client before such meetings took place.

Finally, an important part of my work was accounting-related. This was usually as simple as keeping track of client debits/credits, but prior to the July 11th filing deadline, ensuring all client accounts were ready to be reported to the NYS Board of Elections was a crucial and monumental task. I thoroughly enjoyed being surrounded by so many driven and politically engaged coworkers, and the political world in Manhattan is much smaller than I might have expected!​

Internship funded by the Scott and Anne Perper Internship Fund.