Andy MacDonald

Andy MacDonald
The Fund, Organizing Director

The day I graduated from Cornell with my degree in Ancient Greek History I got in my car to travel west and see America. My hazy goal was to be a ski bum in Colorado, but I needed a job for the summer to tide me over until the first snowflakes fell. I answered an ad in the Boulder Daily Camera for “Activists” and started as a full time canvasser with CoPIRG. That was in May of 1983.

I remember my first night canvassing in Broomfield like it was yesterday. Much to my surprise, behind each door I canvassed were citizens who not only listened to what I had to say, but, in a few cases, even wrote small checks to support the campaign! Talk about a life changing experience.

I went on to canvass full-time for the summer in Boulder before I started directing the same office in August of that year. After a winter of directing the office in Boulder I moved to Boston to work on the canvass as a Field Manager and at the end of the following summer I started as a campus organizer with MASSPIRG. My personal experience learning the skills of citizenship and my work as a director in hiring and training people to canvass convinced me that the most important way to change the world was to recruit and train people to do the challenging and rewarding work of building a movement. I have spent the past 24 years doing just that. I have canvassed in 18 or so states, directed canvass offices in 7 cities, been both a regional director and assistant national canvass director.

I feel strongly about the political and financial value of canvassing, and I think we in the Fund are quite good at it.

I'm pleased to be moderating and posting to this site on occasion but, I still spend most of my time building organizations, winning campaigns, and training activists.

Please feel free to send me questions or comments, and I’ll try to respond in some way or another. That includes any alum out there that feel like saying hello. Looking forward to hearing from you.