I have been spending some time lately in Denver's Alliance Center as I am pretty much bent upon doing something worthwhile with my life. And while the Center is not the be all and end all of humanitarian missions in Colorado (and, in fact, houses some groups I am pretty unhappy with; by "some" I mean "one" and they are the real subject of this angry "rant" - read "argument") it is a good place to start.
I am currently working for the Fund for the Public Interest in the basement of this building as a databaser. The Fund is like a gang of mercenaries. They are a small office of people and they do the work that no one else wants to do: ask for money. It is a good thing to do, very important. There are so many things wrong in the world and so many people trying to make it a good place and The Fund raises awareness for some important issues and makes money for them. Goodness, yes. Yet I am afraid.
I am afraid that The Fund is far to focused on the making money part and are not taking the "moral high-road" which is short sighted. They have traded long-term support for money now.
The first time I faced their tenancy toward deceit, I thought that it was a mistake. I was living in Gunnison where there are precious few paying jobs and even fewer funds for what I would call "good work". It is a small town. But I was making progress. They are weathering recession better than most because it is easier to make a small umbrella than a 90K hectacre umbrella. They don't realize this and are trying to grow the size of their economy rather than the effectiveness of their economy, but that's a different issue. I interviewed with The Fund and was told I would have a job over the summer in Denver. What's more, my girlfriend got the same message. Stupid me, I then quit looking for other jobs and missed out on being a rafting guide or working for the Coal Creek Watershed Coalition in Crested Butte. Or interning with ORE. All of which would have been the very job I was looking for! Or at least a lot of fun. Instead I said: I have a job.
But when I arrived in Denver, I realized that such status was as tenuous as thread. I did not have a firm position. I was on trial: if I couldn't raise $110, I was not a canvasser.
This makes sense. If you cannot pay your own salary, then no money can go to actual projects. You are hired to make money for the organization, not take money away. There is a minimum and you must meet it quickly. What I am angry at is that they do not make this very clear and now I am stuck in a city 40 times bigger than what I can happily stand. What I think is a mistake: if you make over $110, the rest is commission. if you make $400 not only does Environment Colorado or CoPIRG (who contract The Fund) get more money, but so do you. This makes it too much about the money and not about the cause. You push people harder and harder to donate money at the door. This is where I have fear. That a senior canvasser gets more money because they pressured some "member" to donate more money and they do, but leave the door thinking "Wow. That was... uncomfortable. I didn't like that. You know, I don't think I'm going to donate to them ever again." Next year (or month if they feel like harassing people for a specifically important goal) when some young rookie comes to their door they say instead: "No"
"But--"
"No I'm am not donating today, sorry."
"Can I at least--"
"Thank you." slam.
When I was a canvasser, I felt really good if I got a post-card signed. This would represent support, even if they didn't donate money, they would have voted and with a big stack of citizen support, an elected official will listen. This was a palpable action: it did something specific and important. It is an action, it is what we are raising money for; it is change. While the money is just the funds to keep doing this. I also felt really good if I left a door with a positive impression. Left a little leaflet which explained the group, left with a promise for the person that they would look into it, were really interested, and would probably donate online. They just didn't do this sort of thing at the door.
"That's Alright." I would say, "You know, if you can donate at the door, that is what keeps me out here, and this is a very pertinent issue right now, so we would really, really appriciate your support." But I wouldn't press them. "If you don't feel like you can donate at the door, I understand. I know that people like to do their own research, but the sooner you can give in whatever way you want, or support us in any way--be a volunteer, whatever--the better. Thank you." I would leave thinking that they would do something and liked our group and that was more important to me than extracting $30 from their wallet right then like an oil miner or downright thief.
If they didn't donate with me, or even that year, maybe they would donate next year, for some other rookie, because they remembered me. Because they thought I was respectful and kind and not too pushy and remembered that they forgot to look into it or donate or even if they did remember trusted the group more and would give at the door. And then that new kid can keep his job and perhaps, just maybe, he will be a less pushy canvasser and that will continue.
If there is any lesson to be learned from the successes of the Civil Rights movement in this country it is the long lasting and ever growing power of non-violence and active peaceful work. Here a black man sits in a restaurant and refuses to leave because of some archaic, biased, stupid rule that anyone of his skin tone cannot be served in the restaurant; there a black woman doesn't give up her seat in a bus because they are the wrong race. Here and there they are beaten by policemen for there insolence and all though the ordeal of having their teeth cracked and their bones broken, they never lift a hand in violent retaliation. They allow the beating to occur and do not respond in kind. Their house is blown up, still they are peaceful. Anyone watching such a spectacle cannot hold for long the belief that a black person has any sort of inferiority to any other person anywhere for it must take such strength, such courage, such temerity and bravery to do such a thing that it will move leaders, doctors, the homeless and downtrodden, even, to tears. And soon, as Gandhi would say: "and then you win."
And sexism in the country began a descent at the same time. As an outgrowth. Because such profound work couldn't be contained to any one group of people. And even now, it is that legacy now 50 years old which carries movements for my generation. It has petered out a bit, it needs to be rejuvenated with more of the same, but it is still here a little.
But I do not think that The Fund is on the moral high road. Not most of the time.
There is good that The Fund does: I think they bring in new activists, if they are successful in canvassing. They spread awareness and they do make money. But they also alienate people like me. Because I am a passionate activist, I am just not very good at canvassing and now, because they were unclear--and I am beginning to think they were purposefully unclear just to get us in the office at whatever cost--I and my girlfriend have no job.
Well, I have one now. As a databaser. I do about 10, maybe 13 hours of work a week at minimum wage pouring over the pages of poorely penned numbers from the day before which were made by the canvassers. They spend 5 hours a day filling in these sheets and leave out so much information that I think they should all be databasers before they are canvassers or at least trained in what those little blanks they are filling out really mean -- because most of them have no idea.
I get to listen to them every day give the same spiel to prospective job candidates and they are just as vague with them as they were with me. They say that you will have the opportunity to have an "observation day" as if it is a day to get used to canvassing, get some help and get used to it because the idea of going door to door is understandably frightening for anyone who is not a sociopath. But it isn't so much an "opportunity" as your trial day. If you can raise $50 in an hour and a half, you get to be in training and if you don't raise $110 in one day on one of the next three days, you are let go kindly.
If you are me, they call you back to do database work. But you are no longer respected. I have recieved such a frigteningly small amount of training. Instead of showing me about the office, showing me where yesterdays forms are and giving me the tools I would need to access their computers and their online database and an email which I can send mail to the system with (I tried to contact the company and they refused gmail service. I assume that you have to have an associated email to contact the system administers). In short treating me like a trusted employee. Instead, I am yelled at for going in the office. Because it is private.
Hiding something?
It's annoying for me to work this way and I cannot imagine it is any less annoying for my supervisors. I have to have them set me up every day rather than go about their business and allow me to set up myself and just get to work.
Nope. That would be too foresightful. And The Fund, whatever else they are, are not foresightful. And that is why I am beginning to really not like them. I am treated better as a dishwasher at the Nursing Home in Gunnison. I went around to other groups in the building and had better treatment as a stranger.
And so I am afraid of what will happen to the groups they work with. Environment and CoPIRG. These are important groups which are actually doing the good work. I would rather be there. Fundraising is important, but I am not particularly brilliant at it, I can admit that. I know that.
But is The Fund good at it? Really? And could they admit it.
I want to do a study: I want access to their records. I want to see when people pledge. Make a graph to show their giving and see who got them to pledge, when they ceased being a member, who talked to them last before they ceased being a member. My hypothesis is that the senior canvassers aren't the last person they talk to, but the second to last. That they ruin people's experience, make them annoyed, and they do not donate next year.
Maybe I am wrong, but I still believe that it is important to take the moral high road. Every time. Short term, you may lose, but long term you will have more effect. And more importantly, better effect.
They are already losing me. I would rather work with a different group doing Good Work.
I am currently working for the Fund for the Public Interest in the basement of this building as a databaser. The Fund is like a gang of mercenaries. They are a small office of people and they do the work that no one else wants to do: ask for money. It is a good thing to do, very important. There are so many things wrong in the world and so many people trying to make it a good place and The Fund raises awareness for some important issues and makes money for them. Goodness, yes. Yet I am afraid.
I am afraid that The Fund is far to focused on the making money part and are not taking the "moral high-road" which is short sighted. They have traded long-term support for money now.
The first time I faced their tenancy toward deceit, I thought that it was a mistake. I was living in Gunnison where there are precious few paying jobs and even fewer funds for what I would call "good work". It is a small town. But I was making progress. They are weathering recession better than most because it is easier to make a small umbrella than a 90K hectacre umbrella. They don't realize this and are trying to grow the size of their economy rather than the effectiveness of their economy, but that's a different issue. I interviewed with The Fund and was told I would have a job over the summer in Denver. What's more, my girlfriend got the same message. Stupid me, I then quit looking for other jobs and missed out on being a rafting guide or working for the Coal Creek Watershed Coalition in Crested Butte. Or interning with ORE. All of which would have been the very job I was looking for! Or at least a lot of fun. Instead I said: I have a job.
But when I arrived in Denver, I realized that such status was as tenuous as thread. I did not have a firm position. I was on trial: if I couldn't raise $110, I was not a canvasser.
This makes sense. If you cannot pay your own salary, then no money can go to actual projects. You are hired to make money for the organization, not take money away. There is a minimum and you must meet it quickly. What I am angry at is that they do not make this very clear and now I am stuck in a city 40 times bigger than what I can happily stand. What I think is a mistake: if you make over $110, the rest is commission. if you make $400 not only does Environment Colorado or CoPIRG (who contract The Fund) get more money, but so do you. This makes it too much about the money and not about the cause. You push people harder and harder to donate money at the door. This is where I have fear. That a senior canvasser gets more money because they pressured some "member" to donate more money and they do, but leave the door thinking "Wow. That was... uncomfortable. I didn't like that. You know, I don't think I'm going to donate to them ever again." Next year (or month if they feel like harassing people for a specifically important goal) when some young rookie comes to their door they say instead: "No"
"But--"
"No I'm am not donating today, sorry."
"Can I at least--"
"Thank you." slam.
When I was a canvasser, I felt really good if I got a post-card signed. This would represent support, even if they didn't donate money, they would have voted and with a big stack of citizen support, an elected official will listen. This was a palpable action: it did something specific and important. It is an action, it is what we are raising money for; it is change. While the money is just the funds to keep doing this. I also felt really good if I left a door with a positive impression. Left a little leaflet which explained the group, left with a promise for the person that they would look into it, were really interested, and would probably donate online. They just didn't do this sort of thing at the door.
"That's Alright." I would say, "You know, if you can donate at the door, that is what keeps me out here, and this is a very pertinent issue right now, so we would really, really appriciate your support." But I wouldn't press them. "If you don't feel like you can donate at the door, I understand. I know that people like to do their own research, but the sooner you can give in whatever way you want, or support us in any way--be a volunteer, whatever--the better. Thank you." I would leave thinking that they would do something and liked our group and that was more important to me than extracting $30 from their wallet right then like an oil miner or downright thief.
If they didn't donate with me, or even that year, maybe they would donate next year, for some other rookie, because they remembered me. Because they thought I was respectful and kind and not too pushy and remembered that they forgot to look into it or donate or even if they did remember trusted the group more and would give at the door. And then that new kid can keep his job and perhaps, just maybe, he will be a less pushy canvasser and that will continue.
If there is any lesson to be learned from the successes of the Civil Rights movement in this country it is the long lasting and ever growing power of non-violence and active peaceful work. Here a black man sits in a restaurant and refuses to leave because of some archaic, biased, stupid rule that anyone of his skin tone cannot be served in the restaurant; there a black woman doesn't give up her seat in a bus because they are the wrong race. Here and there they are beaten by policemen for there insolence and all though the ordeal of having their teeth cracked and their bones broken, they never lift a hand in violent retaliation. They allow the beating to occur and do not respond in kind. Their house is blown up, still they are peaceful. Anyone watching such a spectacle cannot hold for long the belief that a black person has any sort of inferiority to any other person anywhere for it must take such strength, such courage, such temerity and bravery to do such a thing that it will move leaders, doctors, the homeless and downtrodden, even, to tears. And soon, as Gandhi would say: "and then you win."
And sexism in the country began a descent at the same time. As an outgrowth. Because such profound work couldn't be contained to any one group of people. And even now, it is that legacy now 50 years old which carries movements for my generation. It has petered out a bit, it needs to be rejuvenated with more of the same, but it is still here a little.
But I do not think that The Fund is on the moral high road. Not most of the time.
There is good that The Fund does: I think they bring in new activists, if they are successful in canvassing. They spread awareness and they do make money. But they also alienate people like me. Because I am a passionate activist, I am just not very good at canvassing and now, because they were unclear--and I am beginning to think they were purposefully unclear just to get us in the office at whatever cost--I and my girlfriend have no job.
Well, I have one now. As a databaser. I do about 10, maybe 13 hours of work a week at minimum wage pouring over the pages of poorely penned numbers from the day before which were made by the canvassers. They spend 5 hours a day filling in these sheets and leave out so much information that I think they should all be databasers before they are canvassers or at least trained in what those little blanks they are filling out really mean -- because most of them have no idea.
I get to listen to them every day give the same spiel to prospective job candidates and they are just as vague with them as they were with me. They say that you will have the opportunity to have an "observation day" as if it is a day to get used to canvassing, get some help and get used to it because the idea of going door to door is understandably frightening for anyone who is not a sociopath. But it isn't so much an "opportunity" as your trial day. If you can raise $50 in an hour and a half, you get to be in training and if you don't raise $110 in one day on one of the next three days, you are let go kindly.
If you are me, they call you back to do database work. But you are no longer respected. I have recieved such a frigteningly small amount of training. Instead of showing me about the office, showing me where yesterdays forms are and giving me the tools I would need to access their computers and their online database and an email which I can send mail to the system with (I tried to contact the company and they refused gmail service. I assume that you have to have an associated email to contact the system administers). In short treating me like a trusted employee. Instead, I am yelled at for going in the office. Because it is private.
Hiding something?
It's annoying for me to work this way and I cannot imagine it is any less annoying for my supervisors. I have to have them set me up every day rather than go about their business and allow me to set up myself and just get to work.
Nope. That would be too foresightful. And The Fund, whatever else they are, are not foresightful. And that is why I am beginning to really not like them. I am treated better as a dishwasher at the Nursing Home in Gunnison. I went around to other groups in the building and had better treatment as a stranger.
And so I am afraid of what will happen to the groups they work with. Environment and CoPIRG. These are important groups which are actually doing the good work. I would rather be there. Fundraising is important, but I am not particularly brilliant at it, I can admit that. I know that.
But is The Fund good at it? Really? And could they admit it.
I want to do a study: I want access to their records. I want to see when people pledge. Make a graph to show their giving and see who got them to pledge, when they ceased being a member, who talked to them last before they ceased being a member. My hypothesis is that the senior canvassers aren't the last person they talk to, but the second to last. That they ruin people's experience, make them annoyed, and they do not donate next year.
Maybe I am wrong, but I still believe that it is important to take the moral high road. Every time. Short term, you may lose, but long term you will have more effect. And more importantly, better effect.
They are already losing me. I would rather work with a different group doing Good Work.
