The East Bay Express devoted a large part of its November 3 issue to political canvassing. Sadly, the main article was almost entirely focused on one person's negative experience as a canvass director in 2006. While the negative article got most of the play, the sidebar, "The Art of Canvassing," is a nice profile on the ups and downs of working in grassroots outreach.
The article is mostly a lighthearted take on what it's like to be a street canvasser, but the canvasser and director of the organization profiled, Peace Action West, make some great points about the importance of canvassing, and why we do it:
Despite the seemingly Sisyphean task of getting strangers on the street to hand over cash, it's apparently effective enough that a lot of organizations continue to rely on it for an ample percentage of their fund-raising engines
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The canvassing operation of White's employer, Peace Action West, used to be door-to-door, but recently transitioned exclusively to the streets as a more efficient way for its small staff of roughly six to reach the greatest number of people. Almost all its $2.2 million budget comes from individual contributions, and 12 percent of that revenue is generated on the sidewalk, according to PAW's Communications Director Reva Patwardhan. "The rest comes from our existing membership, and my educated guess is that about 95 percent of those renewing members who give through our phone, Internet, and mail programs originally became members through some form of canvassing," she said.
The article's main subject, PAW canvasser William White, drives home what it's all about for most of us current and former political canvassers:
"...The cool thing about street canvassing is that there really are people walking around trying to figure out how to get involved. It's the catalyst. What we do on the street is give people opportunity to engage in those issues. We politicize people on a day to day basis."
Well said, Mr. White, keep at it!