• We want our canvassers to feel prepared, comfortable, and supported while you’re canvassing, and to feel like you’re part of a community. This means that we:


• Train you intensively in the local context of the area you’ll be canvassing, canvassing skills and techniques, and the script you’ll be using;


• Meet every morning for a kickoff, and debrief together each evening;


• Make sure that staff are available throughout your day canvassing to answer any questions, and support you with any issues that come up.


• Because we invest in you & our community of canvassers, we doorknock for longer days: 6-8 hours a day, depending on the partner organization and where you’re canvassing. We expect all canvassers to doorknock for the full day required in the location you’re choosing.

• In general, our canvassing emphasizes making meaningful connections with people we talk to at their doors.


• However, we rely on our local partner organizations to identify the kind of canvassing and the script that they believe will be most impactful for any given election, and for different phases of an election. We also rely on them to identify the communities they think are the highest priority to doorknock. This means that you might be asked to do different kinds of canvassing - sometimes persuading undecided people to vote for a certain candidate, sometimes trying to convince people on our side to just get out to vote. You may also be asked to talk to many different kinds of people. We will train you in how to do all of this!


• We ask that you remain flexible and trust that your doorknocking work on any given day is part of a larger strategy.

• Nope! Some canvassers do live close by, but many others travel from other parts of the country to canvass with Seed the Vote and our local partners.


• We can help you arrange logistics to make travel as easy as possible, and arrange it so that you can stay in the same hotels as other canvassers.

• For the most part, people don’t tend to ask where we’re from.


• When they do, many of us have had the opposite experience. When we share that we are volunteers who have travelled a long way to talk to them because their vote matters so much, people are often impressed and extra motivated to vote.

• We ask people to cover as much of their own costs as they are able to, so that we’re able to send as many canvassers as possible.


• However, if you’re not able to canvass without financial support, we can often offer assistance paying for all or part of the costs of hotels, rental cars, and travel expenses to get to/from the area we’re canvassing. The level of financial support varies depending on the specific election, how many days you’re able to doorknock, and how much it would cost for you to travel to the place we’re doorknocking. We never ask you to prove financial need.


• If you need financial assistance in order to canvass, you can let us know when you sign up to doorknock. You’ll then have a call with a member of our team who will discuss this with you personally. **All financial assistance must be approved in advance**.


• We generally cannot offer living stipends, or assistance with the cost of food or other expenses.

• Yes! Lots of people join us on their own. You won’t need to doorknock by yourself - we will pair you with a buddy. Our canvassers tell us that they feel welcomed into the bigger STV community even if they come on their own, and many make new friends while canvassing.


• We can also often help you make arrangements to stay at the same hotels as other canvassers, so that it’s easier to connect with others.

• Yes! We encourage you to recruit your friends to doorknock with you. We call these groups of friends “pods,” and we can arrange it so that you can doorknock with people in your pod.

• Yes! Some folks come as part of existing organizations or networks.


• We can work with your group to arrange travel logistics, and to make sure you are able to doorknock together.

• Recruit people you know to canvass. Maybe you can’t go, but can your friends/kids/grandkids/neighbors go?


• Fundraise to help send other canvassers. It can cost around $1,000 for us to send a canvasser for a week. Even if you can’t travel to canvass, you can make sure someone else can go.


• Help out behind the scenes - Seed the Vote is powered by hundreds of volunteers who do a ton of work that makes the doorknocking possible. On the interest form, indicate that you are interested in a “Behind the Scenes” role.


• Phonebank. In many elections, we also phonebank alongside our partners.


• We generally do not textbank or send postcards, as we emphasize the importance of direct conversations with people (in person or over the phone).

Fill out our interest form here to let us know how you’d like to be involved, and we’ll be in touch.