chapter NINETEEN
Door‐to‐Door and Street Canvassing
Canvassing is a technique that involves a team of people from your organization going door to door or standing on the street requesting contributions for your organization's work. Some organizations also canvass by phone. Most of the principles in this chapter as well as those in Chapter Sixteen on using the telephone apply to phone canvassing. However, this chapter is focused on face‐to‐face interactions with strangers that characterize street and door‐to‐door canvasses. Almost all canvassing was suspended during the COVID lockdown, and many wondered what the fate of this strategy would be once enough people were vaccinated for all of us to be out and about more. Organizations that are bringing back their canvass are generally finding that they are reaching more people and raising more money than they did prior to the pandemic. Many people are still working remotely, meaning that they are home. If the canvasser wears a mask and observes whatever protocols are in place, they find people open to hearing about their organization. A decision to start or restart a canvass should not be taken lightly, as this is a difficult strategy with high staff turnover; however, it is still working and will be effective for organizations that use it properly.
Canvassing is most successful for well‐known state or national nonprofits (or their local chapters) or for local organizations working on an issue likely to be familiar to the people being canvassed—name or issue recognition is key. Canvassing is primarily an organizing and membership development strategy; no organization should undertake a canvass simply to raise money. Canvasses work best when the organization is doing work that directly affects the people being canvassed and the respondents will be mobilized to take other actions, even if just signing future online petitions. Canvassing is often used in conjunction with political campaigns to get out the vote or to drum up support for a candidate or issue. Used in the context of organizing, canvassing can be an excellent strategy for acquiring new donors. If you regularly canvass in the same neighborhoods, it can also be a donor retention strategy.
Door‐to‐door canvasses and street canvasses are similar both in terms of advantages and disadvantages and in terms of organization. Although part‐time or temporary canvasses can be run with volunteers, most canvassing is a full‐time operation involving salaried or commissioned employees who work 40 hours a week and solicit in commercial districts or residential neighborhoods on a regular, revolving basis. Well‐run canvasses can bring in from $50,000 to $500,000 or more in gross income annually. However, they are labor‐intensive and generate high overhead costs that, for most canvasses, absorb between 60 and 80% of the gross earnings. Street canvassing, which is often done by a for‐profit firm on behalf of a nonprofit organization, takes even more of a bite. Like all fundraising strategies, canvassing only works if the organization has both the commitment and the ability to continue to work with the donors acquired through the canvass.
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES
There are three main advantages to canvassing as a fundraising strategy. First, an established, well‐run canvass can provide a reliable source of income for your organization. Second, the volume of personal interaction from the canvassers' face‐to‐face contact with dozens of people each day can bring as many new members as direct mail or online solicitation, and possibly more. Third, canvassers bring back to the organization the public's opinions and perceptions of what the organization is doing. When a canvass is used primarily for organizing rather than fundraising, the money the canvass brings in becomes only one of several results; other goals can include getting petitions signed, encouraging people to vote, educating people about local issues, and reaching people who may not respond to (or even receive) direct mail or online appeals, such as people who have very low incomes or low literacy skills or who are undocumented.
There are also disadvantages to a canvass. If it is done on a full‐time basis, it requires separate staff and office space as well as extensive bookkeeping and supervision of the canvassers. As with a small business, canvass income can be unreliable if the supervising staff is not well organized or not good at managing staff, or if too many canvasses are operating in an area. The canvassers themselves can give the organization a bad reputation if they are unkempt, rude, or unpleasant to the people being canvassed or, again, if too many canvasses are operating in an area and donors become tired of them.
The biggest disadvantage is that when donors find out how little of their money is actually going to the work of the organization, they may become angry and unlikely to renew.
ELEMENTS NEEDED TO RUN A CANVASS
Four elements must be present for an organization to operate an effective canvass. First and most important, the organization must work on issues most people will recognize and be sympathetic to and that have solutions that are easy to explain. The work of your organization can have national impact and your organization might be a branch of a national group but, especially in door‐to‐door canvassing, you must explain how this issue affects the resident directly. (Broader issues, such as saving whales or working on human rights, work well with street canvassing, but are less effective in door‐to‐door canvasses. No one entirely knows why this is; perhaps people in their own homes are more conscious of threats or opportunities for their neighborhood and less receptive to more generalized threats than when they are out and about.)
Second, people must feel that even a small donation will make a difference. Many people make a cash donation to a canvass, but even those who give with a check or credit card will rarely give more than $100. People must feel that their small donation is needed and will be well used. (Street canvassing often focuses on getting people to give monthly, which yields fewer donors but higher annual donations and much longer‐term commitment on the part of the donor.)
Third, people must feel confident about your organization. Their confidence will be inspired by your organization's accomplishments, which must be clear and easy to discuss. Articles about your work that can be printed out and given to people are a major boon to canvassing. A specific plan of action that can be explained simply and quickly and that sounds effective is essential. Some organizations' work lends itself naturally to canvassing because it is on issues of general importance and interest to the majority of people, such as health care for all, lower utility rates, or fixing up public parks. Canvassing on behalf of litigation can work if the suit is easy to understand and if there is a clear “good guy” (represented by your organization) and “bad guy.” Complex regulatory reform or issues requiring historical background, legal knowledge, or patience in listening to a long explanation do not lend themselves to canvassing.
Finally, you must be able to distinguish your organization from any other organization doing similar work without implying any disrespect for the other organization. In some communities where there may be two or more organizations working on similar issues and several organizations canvassing, potential donors become confused and then angry that they are being solicited so often for issues that seem interrelated. People will explain to your canvassers that they just gave to your nonprofit last week, that someone from your organization was just there. No amount of protest from you will change their minds. The only thing that will help is to distinguish what you do from what others do.
All these requirements for a successful canvass, except the focus on local work, are also necessary for many other fundraising strategies, particularly online appeals and phone banks, when the object is to get the donor's attention quickly and hold it long enough to get the gift.
SETTING UP A CANVASS
Your first step in setting up a canvass is to check state and local laws and ordinances concerning canvassing. If canvassing is heavily regulated in your community, it may not be worth the time involved to comply with the regulations. Some communities have tried to stop canvassing operations altogether by enacting ordinances governing what you can say when soliciting and establishing strict qualifications for canvassers, including expensive licensing. Canvassing on a busy street may be regulated differently from a door‐to‐door canvass. If your canvass violates even a minor sub‐regulation, city or state authorities could force it to cease operation, and the episode may bring bad press (as well as financial loss) for your organization. Many of these ordinances have been challenged in court and found unconstitutional, but most organizations have too much work to do to take on costly and lengthy legal battles in this area.
You can learn about state laws governing canvassing from your state attorney general's office, which is usually the office that monitors all rules related to charitable solicitation. Many states publish handbooks on canvassing regulations.
Local ordinances are sometimes more difficult to discover, as several city departments may have jurisdiction over different parts of the canvassing operation. Contact the police department and ask for notification and application procedures for a canvass. Be sure to write down whatever the person tells you and get their name so that if you hear a different story from another police official you can refer to the initial phone call.
Contact the city attorney's office for information regarding solicitation of money for charity. Sometimes the mayor's office has some jurisdiction over these matters. In general, informing as many people in official capacities as possible about your canvassing operation will ensure the least amount of interference later.
Study the Demographics
After making sure that you can comply with the law, you must determine whether your community is a good candidate for a canvass. Remember one important point in assessing demographic data: a canvass rarely does well in affluent neighborhoods, and canvassers sometimes conclude that “rich people” are unfeeling tightwads. Affluent people generally do not make contributions at the door. Their charitable giving is usually done in response to personal appeals or special events. Canvassing operations do best in middle‐ and lower‐income neighborhoods, where giving at the door is more common.
Another demographic item you need to evaluate is whether the population is dense enough per square mile to make it worthwhile to canvass. Canvassers need to be able to reach 80–100 homes per night (assuming a high number of people are not home). This means that there must be enough people in the area and the terrain must be flat enough to allow canvassers to walk quickly from house to house. It is much harder to run a successful canvass in a rural area simply because of the distance between houses and the lack of people. Finally, you need to evaluate whether the area is safe for canvassers. A good canvasser may be carrying $500 or more by the end of the evening, much of that in cash. Canvasses in high‐crime areas (which still can be successful) sometimes send their canvassers in pairs, but this doubles the labor cost. Others have a roving car to check in on canvassers and to pick up their cash.
Street canvassing only works in places where there is a lot of foot traffic: busy downtown areas, malls, busy subway or train stations, farmers' markets, and the like. In that case, the demographic you are looking for is lots of people out shopping, going to restaurants, or heading to and from work. Few people will stop, so canvassers have to be willing to move quickly from person to person until someone agrees to talk with them. The advantage of street canvassing is that it is almost always more successful when done during the day, making it safer for the canvasser and more likely that people will stop and talk. The sheer volume of people going by means a good canvasser will talk with more potential donors than by going door to door.
In any canvassing effort, keep in mind that 35% of the people you are approaching are not donors—they are not giving to you because they are not giving to anyone. Some of these people may be good candidates for petitions but, as you can imagine, fundraising strategies do better when they are aimed at the 65% of adults who give away money.
Hire Staff
If you determine that your area can support a canvass, you are ready to hire canvass staff and prepare materials for them. The staff of a canvass varies from place to place but typically includes several individuals and the following roles.
Canvass Director. This person supervises the entire canvass operation, including hiring and firing canvassers, researching areas to be canvassed and mapping out the blocks that will be canvassed in a certain area over the course of a year, keeping the organization in compliance with the law, keeping up to date on new laws, and planning and updating materials.
Field Manager(s). Each of these staff people transports and supervises a team of five to seven canvassers. The Field Manager assigns their team members to various parts of the neighborhood, collects money at the end of the evening, and trains new canvassers. This person also participates as a canvasser at the site.
Support Person. The support person serves as administrator, bookkeeper, and office manager. This staff person keeps records of money raised by each canvasser, replaces canvass materials as needed, schedules interviews with prospective canvassers for the canvass director, answers the phone, and generally acts as back‐up person for the canvass operation. This person does not canvass.
Canvassers. These are the people actually carrying out the canvass. Door‐to‐door canvassers work from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m.; street canvassers have more flexible hours, but they are still working eight‐hour days five days a week. All canvassers usually have a quota—that is, an amount of money they must raise every day or every week. Their pay is either a percentage of what they raise (commission), a straight salary, or most commonly, a base salary plus commission.
Canvassers must represent the organization accurately and be respectable ambassadors for it. The individual canvasser is often the only person from the organization who donors will see and may well be the only face a donor will ever associate with your organization.
Because the pay is low and the hours long and arduous, there is a high turnover in canvass staff. In the summer, college students help expand canvassing staff. In the winter months, recruiting canvassers is more difficult. High local unemployment may lead to more people willing to be canvassers, but in general canvassing is seen as a fairly thankless task that involves lots of rejection for low pay. There are very few “career” canvassers.
Develop Materials
Canvassers must be equipped with identification badges or licenses required by the city or state, clipboards to carry the materials to be given away—brochures about the organization, return envelopes, and articles about the work of the organization—a way to accept credit cards (increasingly, a card swiper on a mobile phone), and a receipt book for checks and cash.
Many canvassers use a petition to get the attention of the person being canvassed. The canvasser asks, “Would you sign a petition for …” and briefly explains the cause. While the person is signing, the canvasser asks for a donation as well. Canvassers should try to get the gift during the conversation; however, for people who need to think about whether to give or need to discuss it with a partner or spouse, the canvasser should have something to give the prospect, such as a brochure. A brochure should also be given to people making a donation so they can check out your organization online and reassure themselves that you are legitimate. Your website should highlight the same project the canvassers are talking about (see also Chapter Twelve, “Multichannel Fundraising”). It is a common mistake to assume that when people say they need to think about your request they actually mean they are not going to give. Many people do not make decisions on the spur of the moment, and people who need to think about what their gifts will be to your organization may well become some of your more thoughtful donors.
Petitions, brochures, and any license are displayed on a clipboard, which lends a degree of authority to the canvasser. Wearing a T‐shirt with the name of the organization on it is also a good idea: people are more likely to stop on the street or open their doors to someone who looks legitimate.
THE CANVASSERS' WORKDAY
At the beginning of the canvassers' work day, their field manager describes the neighborhood they will be canvassing and relates any new information or special emphasis on issues that they should present to this neighborhood. The crew has a late lunch or early dinner, and the field manager drives them to the canvass site. They begin canvassing around 4 p.m. and end at 9 p.m. when they are picked up by their field manager and taken back to the office. They turn in their money, make their reports, and finish around 10 p.m.
Because canvassing is hard work, essentially involving daily face‐to‐face solicitation with a “cold” list, it is critical that the rest of the organization's staff and its board members see the canvass staff as colleagues and as integral to the total operation of the organization. To help build this support, many organizations require non‐canvass staff to canvass for an evening every couple of months. Further, because many people who don't give at the door may later give online, organizations that note an upward blip in giving after a canvass has been through a neighborhood may want to give each canvasser some kind of bonus, or consider paying skilled canvassers a higher hourly rate as an acknowledgment that they may well have raised more money than the amount they return with in any given evening.
Second only to quality of canvass staff in ensuring the success of a canvass is efficient data management. After each neighborhood is canvassed, an evaluation of the neighborhood should be filed along with the demographic data on that neighborhood that led to its being chosen as a canvass site. These data can then be reevaluated in light of the canvassers' experience. Any special considerations, such as “no street lights,” can also be noted in the evaluation.
Many people worry that theft by the canvassers will be a problem. Theft occurs no more often by canvass workers than by any others. Careless bookkeeping, however, can cost money and can give the impression that money has disappeared. At the end of the evening, both the canvasser and the field manager should count the money each canvasser brought in. The field manager enters the amounts under each canvasser's name on a “Daily Summary Sheet.” The money and the summary sheet are then placed in a locked safe, and the secretary or bookkeeper will count the total again in the morning and make a daily deposit to the bank. At the end of the week, the bookkeeper tallies the total receipts of each canvasser and prepares the payroll. Donor names are entered into the database, with the source of gift noted as “canvass.”
RETAINING DONORS ACQUIRED THROUGH A CANVASS
Donors recruited through a canvass should be treated the same way all other new donors are treated: they need to be thanked, added to the email list, and kept informed about the organization.
Within three months of their first gift, and every two or three months after that for a year, donors originating from a canvass need to receive a solicitation either by mail or email, thanking them for their support and asking for an additional gift or to become a monthly donor. The organization is seeking to move the person from giving to a canvasser to giving directly to the organization. Donors who do not respond to these requests should be phoned, or, if the organization is able to do this, be recanvassed at home.
Canvassers who fail to bring in their quota for more than a week must be retrained or fired. Strict discipline is important in a successful canvass; keeping performance records will help to maintain a good canvass team.
Canvassing is an excellent strategy for community organizing; if done properly it can be a good way to mobilize members and make money. However, there are many pitfalls, and it is neither a simple nor a low‐cost strategy. Canvassing changes the nature of the organization. It doubles or triples staff size and requires office space and additional equipment. Only organizations that have thoroughly researched the pros and cons of canvassing should consider using this fundraising method.