director of environmental services

director

entry level summer intern

environmental protection specialist

non-profit representative

Fund-For-the-Public-Interest

Grassroots organizing is SO IMPORTANT and can be extremely fulfilling!! Door-to-door canvassing in particular is still considered the most effective way to make real legislative change - when we can show politicians that constituents in their districts got DIRECTLY involved in an issue at their doorstep, it really makes them listen. 

I love coming to work each day to see our numbers climb, and experience hands-on the direct impact even a small team can have on really big issues, like tackling plastic pollution. Seeing results firsthand is really satisfying and morale-boosting. The people you work with are freakin' awesome too. Office atmosphere is casual, but professional.

However, working in a canvassing office can be more work than people tend to think. As a completely citizen-funded non-profit, The Fund is serious about keeping top-quality employees, and not everyone is great at going door-to-door talking about money and politics with strangers. There are quotas to meet, but if you're good at communicating, it's typically not hard to exceed quota. If you earn more than quota, you get incentive pay each week, too, so canvassers and field managers can end up making great money. I've seen canvassers that earn between $19-25/hr every week.

It's definitely a team-oriented atmosphere. Everyone - Directors, Field Managers, and Canvassers - will all have shifts going door-to-door, though Directors are only required to go out 1-3 times per week. Actual time spent in the field during is about 5 hours per day during the late afternoon and into the evening when people are most likely to be home. It's a lot of walking around in all kinds of weather, so as long as you're prepared for that it's honestly a pretty simple job.

There's more than just door-to-door, too. There are often events like writing letters to the editor, going to farmer's markets, schools, webinars, and other activities to get involved more directly - if you have your own ideas for events you may get to help make them a reality.

Canvassing is definitely not for everyone, but it can be a great way to get yourself out of your shell and push yourself to be assertive. Training is ongoing, the team and management are great at giving real feedback to help you improve, but it does take a certain finesse to be good at talking to people at their door to fundraise and sign petitions. If you're not good at communicating, working with a team, or talking to strangers it might not be for you. It's also a lot of walking around, so if you aren't very active it can be tiring.

My advice - show up to the Observation day to give it a hands-on try, be full-time if possible, and DONT GIVE UP!!! 
The most successful canvassers and field managers I've seen work 4-5 days per week (or as close to full-time as possible). Quota is a lot more stressful and can be harder to achieve if you only work 2 or 3 days. A lot of people worry about quota during their first week and tend to give up before they've been given enough training to really see themselves improve. Get through your first two weeks to let yourself get the skills you need - it takes time and practice! 

The people here are what make working 45-50 hours per week worth it. Learning and internalized the "rap"/script is the most valuable skill. The important thing is to have a positive mindset and truly believe that you can raise $300+. The work-life balance is very difficult to deal with. Your feet with hurt a lot after the first few days but you get used to it. NEVER forget water. My best nights were when I talked to the most people- not necessarily when I raised $500+ (but that did help). Reaching and exceeding quota is really not that difficult if you believe you can. Bad days happen, but don't make it a habit. Make friends with your directors and field managers, they are there to help you. Turn over is quite high but the core team has some of the most genuine people you'll ever meet. 
Be sure to read your entire contract, and read it well so that no surprises come up. As a long lasting canvasser/FM, I really enjoyed summer 2019 and loved getting to know all the hidden parts of New Mexico. The fourth of july retreat is something that CANNOT be missed, same with camping canvasses-DO THEM, they are great opportunities to get out of central NM and get to know your coworkers better.
The hours are gruesome and non-negotiable, it is a full time jobs 2pm-10pm for core canvassers, more for higher ranking employees. 

While I wasn't one myself, the Assistant Directors and Canvass Director are the worst paid employees in the office. They are paid salary (I think about 28k-30k) for 60+ hours per week- this is one thing that is unacceptable from the Fund. Field Manager's typically make the most money, because they are usually better fundraisers- around $14-20 an hour. Another unacceptable part is that the fund still pays canvassers $7.50 per hour if they fail to reach the minimum standards while the local minimum wage is well over $9.30, this needs to be addressed and is seriously immoral. LIVING WAGES people! The paysheet is complex but can be easily understood- don't be afraid to ask a director or trusted field manager to help you understand how your paysheet works. 

There is a huge stigma against talking about fundraising within the Fund. High fundraising canvassers are praised daily and everyone quickly learns who is raising the most money, I don't like that there is a stigma against fundraising talk in car rides. I think that everyone should be mature enough to not tie their skills or self worth to a number- be careful that you don't fall into that trap. 
Don't be afraid to have lunch on your own, they will encourage group lunches but it is absolutely fine for anyone to have lunch on their own- it is unpaid time after all.
A typical day starts with announcements at 1:45, then lunch right away at 2pm. I've always thought that this early lunch was weird because then there are 8 hours of no official break afterward. When you're out on your own, you can technically take whichever breaks you wish (personally, I would take 5-10 minute breaks every 1-2 hours). It is hard work and it's important to take care of your body.
Try to not go into people's home, it's not only against policy, it is also unsafe, always use your best judgment.

TL;DR It's too good to be true, poor management, low pay, overworked and too many socials. 

The Fund seemed like a good place to work, good cause and good people. However, I quickly learned it was too good to be true. So many things wrong with the company and the people running it I could go all day. They give directors two weeks of training, which consists of about 5 hours of powerpoints per day, small groups and too many socials, in those two weeks they put more stress on memorizing their core values than learning how to do their jobs well. Then the upper management is surprised and upset when directors suck at their jobs. There is a very high turn over rate of directors and canvassers which tells you a lot. 

Poor management/ training: Directors will leave alone for the first day for about an hour with basically no training just the rap you're made to memorize. They will give virtually useless tips and training and expect you to make upwards of $150 in a night. If you fail to miss quota, it's your fault somehow and you have a few days to make it or you'll be fired. Directors are terrible unprepared to do half of their job, they are poor at managing teams and making sure people get paid (many do not until well after they have left). Many canvassers don't stay long due to this and the stupid high quotas. Upper management is very disconnected and don't give the directors the proper training and will belittle directors for any mistakes. they make instead of training them properly. 

Low pay and overworked: Not much to say here but directors and canvassers are extremely underpaid for the work they are doing. Many directors will often make less than a good canvassers despite working from 9:30am to 9:30pm fielding application, taking count of money and deposits, interviewing, hiring and training canvassers as well as canvassing yourself. Most directors make about $800-$1,000 biweekly, depending on where you are you'll most likely be paid at minimum wage with some incentives if you make quota. Canvassers will make minimum wage if you don't make quota and slightly more if you do plus incentive on money made. You are expected to work from 1pm to 8pm "training" and walking around neighborhoods for 4 hours with no break or access to restrooms but they encourage you to drink lots of water lol. They also just recently started paying directors for overtime only after labor laws changed. But they were also looking into ways to not pay people as much. 

Too many socials: This one might just be me but I found the office socials to be very overwhelming. Almost every night there is a social that directors will pressure you into attending despite them being held after the shift at 10pm and many canvassers relying on trains that stop running around that time. I never went to any but the constant pressure to go was annoying like they wanted me to dedicate to them and only them. Many of the directors didn't seem to have much of a life outside of the fund.

Working at the Fund for the Public Interest in Data Entry was not very difficult at all. My responsibilities were to enter donor information collected by canvassers into a secure online database, resolve any problems, such as math errors, and to confirm daily donation figures with the office director. Most of this was done on one of the office computers and with a simple calculator. On many days, completing this work could take an hour or less, leaving me more time for other things. The drawback to this being, of course, less take home pay.

There were other drawbacks, as well. There seemed to be an overall lack of organization in the office. When my employment first began, there was confusion over which of the three office computers I was allowed use for my duties, which wasn't completely resolved for about a month. There were some days when I wasn't able to start my work for at least half an hour after I showed up because the canvassers and directors were still organizing their donation slips, which should normally be finished by the time I arrive. This lack of organization seemed to turn off many newer employees, causing a very high turnover rate for canvassers, thus leading to more disorganization and confusion.

There also seemed to be a bit of a culture problem in the office. Many times I had other employees complain to me about their work, sometimes even their personal lives, while I was trying to complete my work. In my third week of employment, I overheard the two directors at the time loudly gossiping about how they hated their jobs, with one of them saying that they couldn't wait until they could quit. Though I never witnessed this myself, I heard that some canvassers would argue with people when they refused to donate, sometimes escalating to shouting at them. Whether this is true or just more gossip, I'm not sure, but either way it made the culture of the workplace much less enjoyable.

The biggest problem in my opinion, however, was the management of the office, or lack thereof. In the four months that I worked at the Fund for the Public Interest, I worked under seven different people who either were office directors, or who were filling in when an actual director was not available. There was one week where the office was completely closed down because there was no one to act as director when the person in that position suddenly. I was not contacted about this issue, and I did not find out that anything was amiss until I tried to get into the office at the start of my shift and found it locked and empty.

Though I believed that I was working towards a good cause and the shifts fit perfectly in my schedule, the disorganization, bad culture, and inconsistent management outweighed whatever good I believed to be doing, and ultimately caused me to leave.

I will say, the causes that the Fund campaigns for are worthy ones. However, they lure young adults with the promise of high pay based off of their incentive structure. They prey on people who are passionate about the causes that they campaign for. The realities of working here are masked by propaganda and false promises. 
Those realities are you are working for minimum wage, 9 hours a day, out in the elements. They drill their "rap" into your head, which is what you are to recite to each and every door that you knock on. Canvassing for them is a nightmare. You are not allowed to drive to your pre determined neighborhoods, or "turf". Instead, they order you a Lyft, which literally drops you off in a random neighborhood. From there, you are to spend five hours knocking on doors begging people for money. They will not cancel shifts for cold weather or rain, and you are not allowed to work in pairs. Mind you, in the wintertime, knocking at peoples doors when the sun sets at 5:30, so most of your shift is spent in darkness and in the cold, is incredibly unsafe. With nowhere to use the restroom or to gather heat, they literally strand you for hours. 
And not to mention, there's some half witted moron back at the office tracking your every move using the tablets they give you, so should you stray from your turf or meet up with a fellow canvasser, they will see you and "discipline" you when you return to the office. This place is such a joke. They don't even allow for you to work part time if you are not a student. So they pay you minimum wage and demand 9 hours a day from you. And their "incentive pay" structure is a farce to mask how little they pay you for the torture. 
And not to mention, you don't clock yourself in or out, your "manager" does that for you! And they give you no official way to track the hours you've worked, no website or time punch. So it's up to you to keep track of what you've worked and make sure it matches your pay stub. The management here is full of incompetent "leaders" who clearly weren't cut out to be a formidable component in the business world, but smart enough to poorly manage a ragtag group of canvassers and submit to 80 hour work weeks and criminally low pay. They're a joke. 
And, to top it all off, you have daily "goals" they expect you to reach. And if you don't make your goal for two weeks straight, or even more comical, three weeks out of an ENTIRE YEAR, you're fired. Which is comical because with a turnover rate at nearly 90%, I can't fathom how they can comfortably fire anyone who's chosen to put up with their nonsense.  If this were volunteer work, I may feel differently. The only positive aspect to working here were the coworkers, who were friendly and for the most part intelligent. You can bond in your misery together, whilst encouraging each other to run away from this cult-like place. It's barbaric and insane. 
DO. NOT. WORK. HERE.

I worked for the Fund for about 2 years. During that time you are expected to work around 70/hrs a week during the summers trying to run your campaign office, and around 50-60 during the rest of the year. Most of your focus is on fundraising and enabling others to do so. You start out believing you may just make a difference but you end up feeling like a grunt. There are opportunities to advance outside of the Fund and its bleakness with it's many partner groups but you'll be lucky if you last long enough because of the burnout you will experience. 

Your support system within this group is subpar but I don't really think its managements fault. Management tries their best but they're set up for failure because the organization is run on such a shoestring budget. The Public Interest Network's board doesn't seem to really care about any of their staff.

As far as compensation they do offer benefits - 401k match, health insurance are a few that come to mind that I wish I would have taken advantage of. But they changed my pay multiple times during my employment and make no mistake they will do whatever they can to pay you as little as possible all in the name of "social change".

It is a rare paid opportunity to work on environmental and public interest issues. Some of the people you work with are incredible with their commitment to these issues. Unfortunately, there is a streak of moral superiority and grandstanding at times from management and endless rationalizations for the craziness of this job that make you feel like you're the problem.

I'd recommend taking this job if you are VERY extraverted, are committed to social issues, don't mind asking people for money, can tell a good story, and don't really care about how much you're paid(I thought I didn't but turns out they really tested that). It's definitely a valuable experience for a short amount of time and canvassing is a good summer job for college students. The autonomy of the position is a good chance to build some character, but will take its toll on you.

If you've seen the movie 'swimming with sharks' you understand that life, as tom hanks said in 'forest gump' really is a box of chocolates. You face all kinds of experiences and hopefully learn about who you are.  With every situation, you are sculpted and crafted into who you will become; the truly resilient and strong will be able to sculpt and craft themselves, and move through circumstances, gaining each step of the way, something else to build and grow on.  It's a character core and a mentality, maybe even a personality type.  These are the people who see everything for the potential it has (they can make even the sahara its own special kind of oasis) and sieze it, whatever its condition, because it becomes an opportunity to develop or exercise the skills required to harness and direct it --whatever it is, whatever its condition.  That doesn't mean difficulties don't exist, only that they serve their purpose and are at the very least, instructive.  

So, about the job:  the 1) time frame in the evenings was understandable and 2) location and 3) script and 4) you.  Those were the assets -and they have to be considered assets for you to be able to accomplish anything.  Making it all work was exacting and interesting.  Meeting requirements helps with management relations; there was a workable level of cameraderie.  Going by the numbers requires a certain kind of orientation that makes it easy to taint what we believe; it's a tricky balance to maintain and it showed.  The hardest part was being unable to institute any official practices to address that balance.  The best part was the people.  

There was a lot to learn and a lot of connections to make.  It is good to move on equipped with it all.  It was really good to be able to do this.  Guess we'll see what tomorrow brings. Take care.

Starting with the interview, the people who work at this company are great people with very bright and uplifting personalities. Getting to know you, appreciating you for who you are and what previous experiences you may have had. 

1st day is where you are fully expected to know a rap sheet all throughout. Training is different in technique and difficulty for every group with their trainers. Training with the tablets was specifically difficult, where expectations of remembering how to operate them with ease was very expected from the veteran staff. However, the staff the first day did assists well and lead to my first donation. 

2nd Day, in my own opinion, I believed I was a staff, but maybe I was just being trained this week, and by the next I should be fully prepared to meet quota for the day ($$$). This day no one seemed to be home, but the trainer did tell me it is sometimes like this, and then was left to work the streets on my own. 

Following that session, I was then informed that if I do not meet quota by my 3rd day, I will be discharged. In complete shock, this really had drawn me back and actually confused me more than anything. 

Maybe the term "Entry Level" should be discussed with the recruitment team, and a full 5 day training period should be provided for those who don't meet the immediate expectations of the position. 

Again, amazing people, amazing campaigns, but, integrity, intervention plans for staff performance, and genuine care, will be the frontier of successful horizons for The Fund for The Public Interests!

I'm really glad I worked with the Fund for a year. I worked on issues I cared about and gained valuable leadership experience and skills right out of undergrad which other places couldn't offer. I think this was the key addition my resume needed when I decided I wanted to go to graduate school. I was accepted everywhere I applied, and I think I have the Fund to thank for that. 

Having said that, there is a reason they offer so much responsibility to so many young people. They don't pay you much, and you work ridiculously long hours. It's easy to burn out quickly, and so turnover rate is pretty high. When hired as a director or assistant director, you are asked to commit to one year. I stuck it out for the full year, but it was really tough working up to 80 hours a week. Some people stay with this company for longer and advance to higher leadership positions because they are motivated by the campaigns you work on. Good for them- I don't know where they find the energy!
I will also say that the organization doesn't seem to be open to new ideas or suggestions for how things are run. Upper management is always saying, "This is the way we've done it for years and it works." 

Additionally, there are office directors who will take credit for the fundraising abilities of their staff without providing deserved recognition. There needs to be more accountability for these people, as it is frustrating to witness managers who consistently shirk responsibilities while getting ahead on the work of the people they are supposed to be leading.

First off, I wanna that I actually declined the offer to work for the Fund for Public Interest because of how my experience was with the interview process along with understanding what my observation day would be like. I was lied to about the hours per week when I was interviewed where the interviewer told me that their Boston office is open 9am-5pm on the weekdays. I came to find out two days on last minute notice before my observation day that the typical day would be from 12 or 1 to 10pm which is very non-traditional and not in line with my availability. 

This is ultimately one of the reasons why I decided to withdraw from taking part in the internship in the first place. I think it's very irresponsible for the fund for public interest to make college students especially canvass late at night in areas that may not even be safe or areas that they are not familiar with. Also when I came upon reading the reviews, I was very disappointed to learn that the turnover rate is extremely high and I did not want to end up being one of those people. Not paying your employees during training is very exploitative and the fact that there is such a high demand for meeting a quota puts immense pressure on college students who are just trying to make the best of their summers by being busy. You can't call yourself progressive and then in the same breath exploit students who care about environmental and social issues by paying them barely the minimum wage.  

Overall, I would NOT recommend this job to anyone, especially college students if you want to have a stable emotional or mental health!! 

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