Canvassing Works

Alumni, staff and others share their thoughts on canvassing

2007-10-23T08:51:44-07:00

A few of us put together this video about canvassing to share why we think it's a great experience and critical to making social change a reality. Most of the people in the video are folks who have worked with the Fund or people who just know a lot about canvassing and the way we do things. If you've ever canvassed or ever thought about working in a canvass office, this video has a lot of great perspectives that you'll enjoy.

The Fund, Canvassing, and Opposition

2007-10-23T08:51:03-07:00

The Fund has been working to help change America for the better for nearly 25 years. We played a part in helping to win a federal Superfund to clean up toxic waste (1986), a better Clean Air Act to protect our health (1990), protections for nearly 60 million acres of national forests in 2001 (protections recently reinstated!), a law requiring the state of California to generate a portion of its power from renewable sources (2002), and a similar ballot initiative in Colorado (2004) – and this is just the short-short list. We’ve mobilized grassroots political action in the face of powerful special interests, and time and again, we've prevailed. We’ve worked hard, we've been strategic, and we've accomplished quite a bit. I'm proud to have played a role.

Who started the Fund? A few people who were, at that time, working with the Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs). In 1982, most of the PIRGs were college-based groups, with students able to fund small numbers of professional staff to help them organize public interest research and advocacy projects. In many cases, these groups were small and getting smaller, as student activism waned in the years following the end of the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal.

To help revitalize the PIRGs, the people at the Fund figured out how to build a new base of support and funding. They organized and ran door-to-door canvasses, telephone outreach projects and direct mail programs that could reach citizens in communities and enlist their help in the PIRGs’ public interest campaigns.

As the PIRGs grew, the Fund expanded as well, launching joint efforts with new partners beyond the PIRGs. Since 1982, the Fund has helped raise over $400 million for progressive and public interest organizations, including state PIRGs, Sierra Club, Greenpeace, Save The Children, Human Rights Campaign, Southwest Utah Wilderness Alliance, Environmental Action, Toxics Action Center, and Green Corps.

Throughout the Fund’s work, the mission has remained the same. We all know our society faces big problems. We believe our political system can do a better job of finding and delivering solutions to these problems when more people are involved in the political process. Our future, to paraphrase an old maxim, is too important to leave to the few. Organizations that want to influence the political process, in turn, are more vital and ultimately more powerful when they can broaden their base, including their funding base.

The method we’ve chosen to accomplish this goal is to partner with organizations that share our values and our vision: to help them raise money and identify new members who will sign petitions, write letters to legislators or to the editor, become local volunteers or chapter chairs, and continue to support the work of the organization over time.

These members lend their organizations their collective legitimacy and political clout, their grassroots participation, and, if the organizations do things right, their ongoing financial support. What do members get in return? An independent information source, a route to making an impact on the fundamental problems of our time, and a position to identify with – a voice, in all the noise, that speaks for them.

Of course, the more we accomplish, the more the powerful interests we’ve taken on in these fights have tried to undermine our work, damage our reputation, or cripple us tactically. As we used to say in one of our recruitment posters, with adversaries like these, we must be doing something right.

It’s always more surprising, and sometimes more hurtful, when the attack comes from those who seem to share our values and vision for America. Perhaps it shouldn't be. Progressives are notorious for focusing their barbs on one another: When the going gets tough, we don’t circle the wagons; we form circular firing squads.

Here are a few things we know:

1) Canvassing is hard work. A lot of people start canvassing and don’t keep at it. Most of these people – and we’re talking thousands of people each summer – will eventually get other jobs, live in neighborhoods, and answer a knock at the door themselves someday. When they sign up to become members, most will look back fondly on what they accomplished years ago as a summer canvasser. Meanwhile, a smaller group among the thousands who have worked on Fund canvasses– we can specifically document more than one thousand – are still working today in public service and grassroots politics. They didn’t get turned off. They got committed. Of course, canvassing isn’t the only way to engage young people in grassroots activism. But it’s a really good one.

2) We have a positive impact on the people we canvass. After our canvassers meet them, they're more likely to notice that particular issue covered in the media, and more likely to talk to their neighbors about it. And they're more likely to become a member the next time around. And, then, of course, millions of them have been compelled to hand over a check, right there on the spot, to a near-stranger. Many of them choose to keep their relationship with the organization exclusively on those terms---they contribute, and our partners work full-time on their behalf. And, indeed, thousands of members decide to do more than that. They write letters to the editor. They make phone calls and send e-mails to their representative. They directly engage in the democratic process.

3) Sending a young canvasser to your door is less organic than sending your next-door neighbor to talk to you over the fence between your backyards. And make no mistake: The Fund helps groups send young canvassers to your door. That doesn’t stop our partners or another other groups from also trying to organize you and your neighbors to get even more involved, too. In fact, Sierra Club, the PIRGs and many other groups are working to do just that. Organizing is not a zero-sum game.

The Fund staff approach our work as a craft, one that we subject to constant experimentation and improvement. Nor do we take an absolutist view of social change. There are many paths to a better future, and we’re glad when people find new ways to help all of us revitalize our democracy and build a better world.

People who share our vision and our values face myriad challenges in today’s world, including adversaries with far more money and far more control over the levers of power. We're proud that The Fund is helping to level the playing field for the good guys. We intend to keep canvassing, building stronger organizations, winning changes in our society, and training more activists to build more power and win more changes.

What do you think? And what else would you like to know about the Fund (aka FFPIR)? Send your comments, questions and suggestions to me at feedback@ffpir.org.

Great Article in the Rutland Herald

2007-09-05T09:13:03-07:00

Youth activists in Vermont take on climate change

September 2, 2007

By DANIEL BARLOW Vermont Press Bureau

Earlier this year, Ivan Jacobs was washing dishes at Burlington's Blue Star Café and enjoying the regular buzz of free coffee. And then one day he noticed the yellow signs posted on telephone poles around the neighborhood.

"They said, 'Jobs for the environment,'" Jacobs recalled. "And I said to myself, 'Well, I like the environment.'"

And so the 20-year-old took one of those jobs. He began work as a youth canvasser in May for the Vermont Public Interest Research Group, a Montpelier-based advocacy organization, and spent his spring and summer going door-to-door in towns around the state to talk with residents about the hot political issue of 2007: Global warming.

The VPIRG position took the self-described punk skateboarder from his Burlington neighborhood to the side streets of Barre and the legislative halls of Montpelier's Statehouse in July as he watched lawmakers unsuccessfully try to muster the votes to overcome Gov. James Douglas' veto of a major global warming bill spearheaded by Senate Democrats.

"I remember being much younger and being able to walk out on two-foot thick frozen ice in the Burlington Harbor," Jacobs said. "I haven't seen it frozen like that in years and it really shows how global warming is not just a global issue, but also a Vermont issue."

Jacobs' political awareness predates the VPIRG job. When he was 13, he borrowed a video camera from Channel 17 and began making short skateboarding films of himself and friends in Burlington. That first foray into film landed the Burlington native a job three years later with the community television station filming municipal meetings. Jacobs videotaped – and daydreamed and occasionally slept through – meetings of the local school board, city council and development review board.

Jacobs was typically the only member in the audience at those meetings. And he generally thought they were boring, until one day it hit him that the officials were talking about issues that mattered to him, his friends, neighbors and family.

"I realized that real work went on during these meetings," he said. "They were making important decisions and sometimes it seemed like no one noticed and no one was giving them input. The system just doesn't work well under those conditions."

'It's our planet'

The threat of environmental destruction on a global scale has became a rallying cause for many Americans and environmentalists in the last decade, although it has only been in the last several years that it took center stage as a mainstream political issue.

Young people, in particular, have been drawn to the issue of global warming, even though typically it's a demographic that tends not to vote, read newspapers or become involved in local politics.

Vermont activists say global warming may be drawing young people into politics and social activism; the next generation of political leaders appears to be cutting its teeth on saving the environment.

"It's definitely an issue that young people care about right now," said Chris Parmer, a Burlington high school student who founded the Vermont Youth Activism Network, a coalition for activist groups in the state's public school system. "It's our planet and many of us think it is vital to work to save it."

Across the state, global warming groups have popped up in high schools and on college campuses, Parmer said. People his age are learning about state and national politics through the prism of global warming, he said.

He believes teenagers began to pay more attention to politics after President Bush opposed major global warming initiatives, including the Kyoto Treaty. Here in Vermont, Douglas' veto of H.520 – the Democrats' major global warming bill – had the same effect, he said.

"The threat of global warming resonates because we can see and feel its effects," Parmer explained. "This isn't an abstract political issue. It's very real."

Looking for leadership

Moriah Helms has learned to love canvassing.

The 21-year-old Ryegate native, now a senior at Middlebury College, began working for VPIRG in 2005, going door-to-door in Vermont towns she had never visited and talking to complete strangers about global warming.

Her work with VPIRG continued for the next two years, culminating in her job this year as a director at the organization's Burlington office.

"I love getting out to meet people, Helms said, "some of whom I would probably never end up talking to. This has really given me a new respect for the state of Vermont."

Canvassing typically works like this: A van drops several young activists off in a town. They have bikes and maps detailing their routes. And door-by-door, they try to cover as many neighborhoods as possible.

On average, they chat with dozens and dozens of people over several hours. They'll work an area five days a week.

Helms says global warming has become a focal point for Vermont's youth. At Middlebury, which has a long history of social activism, an unofficial student group formed to combat climate change, she said, and is moving faster on projects (even though it has no budget) than the college's official environmental council.

She thinks climate change has become a cause for young people because they can see the effects on the climate and the state's natural beauty. But it has also taken hold because small acts – switching to energy efficient light bulbs, driving less and reducing energy consumption – are easy to achieve and empowering.

"At the same time, we are looking to our leaders for help and guidance," she said. "And in some ways that is what we were doing out there … showing the leadership in Vermont that this is what the people want done."

'People agreed with us'

Anika James, 19, saw firsthand the vastly different attitude that Europeans have toward global warming.

James of Shelburne spent two years as a student at the United World College in Italy, where she studied how education can lead to peace and mutual understanding. It isn't unusual to find Europeans who are well-versed in climate change and to see cars that get 40 miles to the gallon, she said.

James, who will be going to Middlebury College this month as a freshman, said, "They invest in their public transportation system and when they do drive, they use smaller cars rather than SUVs."

When James came back to Vermont earlier this year, she applied what she learned in Italy as one of VPIRG's canvassers. It was a frightening prospect for her at first.

"I like talking to people, but I wasn't really sure if I could walk up to someone's house, knock on their door and talk to a complete stranger."

But it was easier than she thought. Some people didn't walk to talk. Some were too busy. Others agreed with her and VPIRG's position on climate change and were eager to chat statistics and solutions. And then there were the ones who disagreed.

"The people who didn't believe that we contribute to global warming, they wanted to talk about the issue," she said. "But more often than not, people agreed with us."

James agreed that the looming consequences of climate change are bringing more young people into the political process.

She also thinks that former Vice President Al Gore's 2006 documentary about climate change, "An Inconvenient Truth," helped bring the issue into the mainstream. Many young people her age saw the film, she said, and were struck by the immediacy of the problem.

"When that film came out, people really paid attention," she said. "It explained climate change in a way that people understood it."

50 percent by 2028

VPIRG's youth workers took their message straight to Douglas on the morning of Thursday, Aug. 23.

The meeting came more than a month after canvassers walked away from the Statehouse disappointed that their efforts to rally public support around the Democrats' global warming bill did not result in an override of the governor's veto.

For some of the canvassers, the July 11 veto session was their first visit to the Statehouse and their first time seeing Vermont's citizen Legislature at work. During this first meeting between the state's youth activists and Montpelier's political power base, hundreds flocked to the Statehouse and a person in a polar bear costume stalked its historic halls.

"Several people told me that hadn't seen that many people there since the civil union debate," said Jacobs. "I think we were disappointed in the outcome, but warmed by the turnout."

Supporters knew that the Vermont Senate would easily override the veto, but that the efforts in the Vermont House would fall short, James said.

"I think we made a difference by our presence," she said. "That was the message."

That day, Helms said she realized that global warming was an issue that could no longer be ignored by politicians.

"Vermonters care about this," she said. "That couldn't be denied."

Several of the young activists arrived unannounced at Douglas' ceremonial office in the Statehouse late that morning to present a petition signed by 5,000 Vermonters urging him to keep his commitment to the issue.

They cited Douglas' 2005 declaration that he would cut the state's greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2028. Meanwhile, his Commission on Climate Change is expected to report back in October on ways to achieve this goal.

"We didn't want him to flip-flop on that promise," Helms said.

Douglas was in a meeting when they arrived. They gave the petition to a member of his staff, and moments later, the governor walked out of his office.

The young activists said hello. And then they asked him to stick to his promise.

"He told us he would listen to the report from the committee," James said.

From Burlington to the Everglades

When Jacobs was reached on his cell phone for an interview for this story earlier this month, he was in Boston at a training session for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, the national arm of VPIRG.

Days later, he was in Florida, meeting with other PIRG workers and learning about an effort to conserve part of the Florida Everglades from development.

"The major reason I'm doing this is because I love canvassing," said Jacobs. "I like getting out there and talking to people."

Jacobs hopes to return to Vermont next summer after working on national environmental issues. The traveling has taught him to appreciate Vermont more. He said he now recognizes how vital the state's town meeting system is, after visiting communities that don't have that traditional outlet for democratic decision-making.

"Real decisions are made at these meetings," he said. "Neighbors sit next to neighbors and debate the issues that are important to the town. That's an amazing thing."

Jacobs is not sure what he'll do in the future. He likes the work with the national PIRG organization. But he also wants to return to Vermont and perhaps study farming and the concerns around the distance between a person's plate and the origins of their food.

If that doesn't satisfy him, he might return to skateboarding videos.

"I still skateboard," he said, with a laugh. "It's still a really cool thing I like to do."

Contact Daniel Barlow at Daniel.Barlow@rutlandherald.com.

Heather Booth, on canvassing & canvassers

2007-03-19T12:02:18-07:00

Heather Booth has worked on elections and social change organizing for over 40 years, starting in the civil rights and women’s movement.

She was the founding Director and is now President of the Midwest Academy, a national training center for social change organizations including Sierra Club, NARAL, United States Student Association and many other groups. She was Co-director of Citizen Action with nearly 2 million dues paying members. She is now a Vice-Chair of USAction working on voter engagement and issues like Social Security and health care in about 30 statewide organizations and nationally.

Heather designed and directed the Democratic National Committee’s Training creating the highly acclaimed campaign training academies, and then was the National Field Director. She was the Field Director for Carol Moseley Braun’s successful 1992 Senate race, directed the Illinois 1996 Coordinated Campaign, the New York Coordinated GOTV effort in 1998, and the 2004 New Mexico Coordinated Campaign GOTV effort, among other races.

In 2000, she was the founding Executive Director of the NAACP National Voter Fund, which helped to increase the African American turnout by nearly 2 million voters.

Since 2004, Heather has been a consultant with groups working to build democracy including MoveOn.org, Campaign for America’s Future, Center for Community Change, Campaign for Comprehensive Immigration Reform, Women’s Voices/Women Vote and others.

Student PIRGs Drive 2006 Youth Vote Turnout

2006-11-10T09:16:36-08:00

It's clearer than ever that strategic & aggressive efforts to get more young people in the political process works. According to PIRG/Fund alum Kathleen Barr of Youth Voter Strategies, "Turnout [in the 11/07/06 election] more than doubled in the 36 precincts where groups like the nonpartisan Student PIRG’s New Voters Project actively turned out this age cohort...The Student PIRG’s registered over 75,000 students to vote and ran nonpartisan GOTV operations on 80 campuses in 2006." For more on youth turnout in the recent election, check out this 11/9/06 news release from the Pew Charitable Trusts and Youth Voter Strategie s.

PIRG '30th Anniversary' Achievements: 1972-2002

2006-11-06T08:00:45-08:00

In 2002, as part of the PIRGs' 30th Anniversary celebration, we catalogued our organizations' policy achievements spanning the three decades. You'll find the results here: Download 30th_anniversary_results.pdf.

Sarah Hodgdon, Dogwood Alliance, Executive Director

2006-10-25T10:29:57-07:00

"I directed four summer canvass offices for the Fund. Quite frankly, I never enjoyed canvassing and did not particularly excel at the art of it either! However, I developed relationships with people who started as activists in my offices and remain in contact with them as peers working towards social change to this day. While my job does not involve canvassing now, I know it has a valuable place in the overall movement."
Sarah Hodgdon

I wouldn’t be qualified to be the Executive Director of the Dogwood Alliance without the skills I learned from Green Corps. Practically every day, I rely on the expertise Green Corps gave me. Dogwood Alliance and the Southeastern forests are better off because of Green Corps.

In Nov. 2002, office superstore chain Staples agreed to phase out paper products made from endangered species of trees, and committed to including 30 percent post-consumer recycled paper content in all paper products. The announcement was a long-awaited victory for me. My organization, the Dogwood Alliance, along with several other Green Corps graduates, had been working toward this goal for two years.

The Dogwood Alliance, a North Carolina-based coalition of more than 70 southern groups, works to preserve forests in the region. Kelly Sheehan, from the Class of 1999, and Robyn Williams Heeks, from the class of 2000, teamed up with ForestEthics' Liz Butler, (Class of 1996) and Bill Holland (Class of 2001) to determine how best to protect those forests.

Our campaign got to work mobilizing citizens to speak out. We delivered 20,000 postcards to Staples' corporate headquarters, and organized a day of action that saw protests in 45 states. We recruited more than 100 businesses to sign on to a letter encouraging the company to improve the environmental quality of their paper.

Our efforts were successful, and the campaign moved on to challenge other chains, including Office Max and Office Depot, to meet or beat Staples' new policy. Green Corps trainees worked to raise the visibility of the campaign, create groups to target the two companies and hold them accountable into the future, build grassroots pressure, and generate media. With just six weeks on the campaign, Green Corps trainees recruited 700 activists, held thirty protests in four key states, generated 500 phone calls, 1,000 postcards, and 228 personal letters into corporate headquarters. Due to the flood of consumer pressure, both Office Max and Office Depot have announced policies to phase out products made from endangered forests.

Seth Kilbourn, Equality California, Political and Policy Director

2006-10-04T15:48:06-07:00

“I can’t think of another organization that invests so much and gives such responsibility to young political activists, often fresh out of school. While grueling at times, my experience as a canvass director for the Fund taught me skills that I carry with me to this day. I wouldn’t trade my PIRG experience for anything because it was the foundation upon which I built the rest of my political career.” Seth Kilbourn

In March 2006, Seth Kilbourn became Political and Policy Director at Equality California (EQCA), a nonprofit, nonpartisan statewide advocacy organization whose mission is to achieve equality and civil rights for all lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Californians. As Political Director, Seth oversees and coordinates the implementation of EQCA’s political, electoral and public policy priorities and activities. He manages EQCA’s legislative agenda and PAC, directs the legislative, communications, coalition building, and field staff functions, and manages strategies for building the capacity of the organization. As Policy Director for the Equality California Institute, Kilbourn manages a statewide public education campaign on marriage for same-sex couples and LGBT equality.

Prior to moving to San Francisco in March, Kilbourn worked for 9 years at the Human Rights Campaign, the country’s largest LGBT advocacy group, in Washington DC. As Vice President for the Marriage Project, he directed HRC’s strategy and advocacy on marriage for same-sex couples. Kilbourn was HRC’s National Field Director for 5 years, leading a team of six field organizers to build HRC’s grassroots strength and presence at the state and local level. Under Seth’s leadership, HRC rapidly expanded its grassroots capacity, launched the HRC Action Center, a web-based network of activists nationwide, and brought an unprecedented level of HRC resources to state-level political work. In the 2004 election, he managed HRC’s $1.6 million campaign to turn out the GLBT and allied vote and the $1.7 million that HRC invested in state GLBT organizations and ballot campaigns to fund polling, message development and on-the-ground organizing.

Kilbourn began his tenure with HRC in March 1997 as a lobbyist, leading HRC's health policy work. Later, as HRC's deputy director for health and family policy, he directed the organization's efforts to ensure a comprehensive, well-funded national response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

National Forest Protections Reinstated!

2006-09-21T13:29:53-07:00

NEWSflash: 60 MILLION ACRES RE-DECLARED ROADLESS
9/21/06

Yesterday, a federal court reinstated protections that U.S. PIRG helped enact in 2001 to protect nearly 60 million acres of national forests from road construction and logging. Federal Judge Elizabeth Laporte found that the Bush administration violated the National Environmental Policy Act, Endangered Species Act and Administrative Procedures Act when it repealed the Roadless Area Conservation Rule in 2005.

U.S. PIRG field work was integral in the adoption of the Roadless Rule in 2001. PIRG generated about half of the 2.5 million public comments submitted in support of the rule, while the Fund canvasses, through our work with Sierra Club and Green Corps, generated a big chunk of the remaining half -- helping to make the Roadless Rule the most popular conservation initiative in U.S. history.

Once the rule was enacted, we fought back when the timber and mining industries tried to roll back protections. President Bush ultimately repealed the rule in May 2005. In the year since the president's decision, we helped ensure that Gov. Schwarzenegger (Calif.), Gov. Richardson (N.M.) and Gov. Easley (N.C.) submitted petitions to the federal government to reinstate full roadless protections in their states. We also helped convince the governors of Arizona, Oregon and Maine to begin their petitioning processes and led the charge for protections in Colorado and Wisconsin.

The Bush administration could still appeal the decision. Until then, the court's ruling is a major victory in our ongoing work to protect our national forests and the clean drinking water, wildlife habitat and recreation that they provide to our country.

Jessica Garrels, Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters Institute

2006-09-19T07:22:20-07:00

“My introduction to politics was the door-to-door canvass I worked on in the summer of 2000 while I was a college student. Every night, rather than working at a sandwich shop or a checkout counter, I was reaching out to citizens by knocking on their doors, talking to them about pressing conservation issues, and asking them to get involved—I was doing something I cared about. Working on a canvass, I developed the dedication, work ethic, and skills that have allowed me to do the work I do today and see statewide victories, like the passage of Wisconsin’s Clean Energy Bill which sets the state’s first renewable energy standard. For me, canvassing was the crash course in grassroots organizing that set the tone for what I do now and will do in the future.” Jessica Garrels

Jessica Garrels joined the WLCV Institute staff in March, 2005. Most recently, Jessica was a Natural Resource Management Volunteer in the Peace Corps on the edge of the Sahara Desert in Niger, West Africa. Jessica grew up in Marshfield, Wisconsin, and graduated from UW-Madison in 2002, with a B.A. in International Relations. She spent a large portion of her college years interning and working for WISPIRG (Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group), which is how she became involved in conservation efforts, public education and outreach, and mobilizing people to have an open dialogue with their elected representatives. Jessica also interned with the State Environmental Resource Center in 2002.