Archana Sahgal is a left-of-center political consultant and former Obama administration staffer who currently runs Hyphen, a funding collaborative she founded in 2021. Hyphen is a funding collective that works with left-leaning organizations and foundations to fund campaigns supporting priorities of the Biden administration. ^{1 2}

Until March 2021, Sahgal was a senior advisor at the center-left National Immigration Law Center and was the director of the organization advocacy and lobbying arm, the NILC Immigrant Justice Fund. She also previously worked in the Office of Public Engagement at the Obama White House and for left-leaning groups including George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, the Democracy Alliance, and the NoVo Foundation. ³

Background

Archana Sahgal attended Claremont McKenna College and the University of California, Davis, Law School. She is also a member of the California State Bar. While in law school she completed internships as a law clerk for the Equal Justice Society, the National Voting Rights Institute, and the Asian Law Caucus of Asian Americans Advancing Justice. After law school she was a fellow at the San Francisco Foundation and then shifted her career towards left-leaning funding and grantmaking projects with stints as the director of the Progressive Era Project and the Color of Democracy Fund. She then worked as the civic engagement fund director for Asian American/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy followed by a brief five-month stint as the director of External Affairs in the Office of the Assessor-Recorder of the city and county of San Francisco. ⁴

Career

Open Society Foundations

From 2010 to 2015, Sahgal worked for the left-leaning Open Society Foundations, which is largely funded by George Soros, where she managed a national grantmaking portfolio that distributed over $10 million annually to 30-50 left-leaning nonprofit organizations. ⁵

Obama Administration

Sahgal joined the Obama administration’s Commerce Department from the Open Society Foundations where she was the director of the Office of Advisory Committees and Industry Outreach and oversaw committees including the President’s Export Council, the U.S. Investment Advisory Council, and the President’s Advisory Council on Doing Business in Africa. ⁶ She then went to work at the Obama White House Office of Public Engagement as the office’s Senior Associate Director where she led outreach to “labor groups and progressive organizations.” ⁷

Nonprofit Consulting

Following her time in the Obama administration, Sahgal consulted for the Democracy Alliance during the 2016 election and consulted for the NoVo Foundation where she launched the Collective Future Fund. ⁸

Archana Sahgal then worked for the National Immigration Law Center where she led its advocacy and lobbying arm, the NILC Immigrant Justice Fund. Her role at the NILC was described as leading the organization’s “work to make Donald Trump a one term president and elect Biden-Harris.” ⁹ Sahgal’s work at the NILC was part of a wide-ranging effort by Democrat-aligned group to mobilize voters for now-President Joe Biden. ¹⁰

Biden Administration

Shortly after Biden’s Inauguration, Sahgal founded Hyphen, a nonprofit funding collaborative that combines the efforts of left-leaning organizations to promote left-leaning grassroot efforts and the agenda of the Biden Administration. Hyphen serves as the anchor of the Biden Administration’s Community Violence Intervention Collaborative (CVIC), which is centered around promoting gun control policies. ¹¹ Left-leaning funders associated with Hyphen’s projects include Arnold Ventures, The Annie E. Casey Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The Joyce Foundation, The W.K. Kellogg Foundation, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Microsoft Corporation, Open Society Foundations, and Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies. ¹²

1. “Home.” Hyphen. Accessed July 15, 2021. https://www.hyphenpartnerships.org/
2. “Archana Sahgal.” Hyphen. Accessed July 15, 2021. https://www.hyphenpartnerships.org/archana-sahgal
3. “Archana Sahgal.” Hyphen. Accessed July 15, 2021. https://www.hyphenpartnerships.org/archana-sahgal
4. “Archana Sahgal.” LinkedIn Profile. Accessed July 15, 2021. https://www.linkedin.com/in/archanasahgal/
5. “Archana Sahgal.” LinkedIn Profile. Accessed July 15, 2021. https://www.linkedin.com/in/archanasahgal/
6. “Spotlight on Commerce: Archana Sahgal, Director, Office of Advisory Committees and Industry Outreach.” U.S. Department of Commerce (Archived). May 24, 2016. Accessed July 15, 2021. https://2014-2017.commerce.gov/news/blog/2016/05/spotlight-commerce-archana-sahgal-director-office-advisory-committees-and-industry.html
7. “Archana Sahgal.” Whitehouse.gov (Obama White House Archive). Accessed July 15, 2021.  https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/author/archana-sahgal
8. “Archana Sahgal.” Hyphen. Accessed July 15, 2021. https://www.hyphenpartnerships.org/archana-sahgal
9. “Archana Sahgal.” LinkedIn Profile. Accessed July 15, 2021. https://www.linkedin.com/in/archanasahgal/
10. “How Dems are mobilizing and persuading voters to GOTV.” Third Way. Accessed July 15, 2021. https://www.thirdway.org/events/how-dems-are-mobilizing-and-persuading-voters-to-gotv
11. “Community Violence Intervention Collaborative.” Hyphen. Accessed July 15, 2021.  https://www.hyphenpartnerships.org/cvi-collaborative
12. “CVIC News Release.” Hyphen. Accessed July 15, 2021. https://www.hyphenpartnerships.org/cvic-news-release