Canvassing is basic fundraising. You need money; you ask people to give it to you. You have a vision of how your congregation’s next year will be better and you have a plan to make it happen. You have a wonderful staff and volunteer community that can achieve the plan, and you have your membership to do the work. What could be easier?

But it isn't easy. A well-run canvass requires a dedicated corps of volunteers and leadership with top-notch organizational skills. Although most canvass campaigns have some component of indirect appeals – like the mailed canvass brochure or a sermon from the pulpit on Canvass Sunday – more than 90 percent of your canvass pledges will come because your canvass organization has conducted an individual, face-to-face solicitation. In the ideal world you recruit 20 percent of your most enthusiastic members who will ask the other 80 percent to renew and increase their pledges to the congregation and get virtually 100% positive response.

Canvassing takes place within a specific period of time, for an annual campaign that is typically during a six-week period. Each canvass has a beginning, middle, and an end, and, like all campaigns – political, civic or advocacy -- fundraising campaigns require extensive planning. It is the planning and organization phase, recruitment and training of volunteers, developing collateral printed materials like brochures and canvass cards, thank you notes and posters that takes several months work on the part of the canvass organization. The more you put into the front end planning phase the greater the likelihood that the six-week period of the actual solicitation phase of the canvass will be successful. The rules of thumb here are: start early, communicate often and in many ways and mind the details.

An old saying in fundraising is "People give money to people." Nowhere is this more evident than in conducting your congregation’s annual every member canvass. This overview of canvass organization will be just that – some questions for canvass leaders to ask, some suggestions about how to get started, and some think about

The following is one of the best case statements for an annual canvass I have come across. It is from the Reverend John Wolf, retired Senior Minister at All Souls in Tulsa, and a UUA Board of Trustees member 1989-93.

"There is only one reason for joining a UU Church! That is to support it. You want to support it because it stands against superstition and fear. Because it points to what's noblest and best in human life. Because it is open to men and women of whatever race, creed, color, or national origin.

"You want to support a UU Church because it has a free pulpit. Because you can hear ideas expressed there which would cost any other minister his or her job. You want to support it because it is a place where children can come without being saddled with guilt or terrified of some 'celestial peeping Tom,' where they can learn that religion is for joy, comfort, for gratitude and love.

"You want to support it because it is a place where walls between people are torn down rather than built up. Because it is a place for the religious displaced persons of our time, the refugees from mixed marriages, the unwanted freethinkers and those who insist against orthodoxy that they must work out their own beliefs.

"You want to support a Unitarian Universalist Church because it is more concerned with human beings than with dogmas. Because it searches for the holy, rather than dwells upon the depraved. Because it calls no one a sinner, yet knows how deep is the struggle and how great is the hunger for what is good.

You want to support a Unitarian Universalist Church because it can laugh...because it insults neither your intelligence nor your conscience, and because it calls you to worship what is truly worthy of your sacrifice..."

How do you turn the dreaming into the doing? Where do you start?

First get a fix on the canvass culture, or the culture of giving, in your congregation. Early on in the process after you have been named as next year’s canvass chair, organize a pizza and coke dinner at your home or the meeting house and invite some past canvassers, past canvass chairs, some board members, and some members who have given over the years but may not have been involved in the canvass organizations past. This is a time to focus on what has been done particularly well in the past, what not so well, what "we would have liked to have tried but didn’t…" Don’t try to do this in a time limited, harried environment when people will be looking at their watches. This is important time for the process to come into focus.

Another idea for hosting a creative thinking session is to invite the canvass organization from a neighboring congregation of similar size to meet with your canvass team. The cross pollination of ideas and energy can be amazing, and your job as canvass chair is to take your people’s potential energy (all their ideas and talents) and turn it into kinetic energy (planning events and asking for money).

After you’ve had your creative thinking session or sessions, it’s time for a critical thinking session, i.e. a meeting, to discuss the organization and actions your committee will need to take to ensure a successful campaign. Below are some ideas to get you started:

• Value your Values – make sure this canvass articulates and honors the values of your congregation. Brag about your accomplishments with one another. Celebrate the community, celebrate RE, celebrate music, celebrate the quality of your worship services or the importance of your social justice work. The values of your congregation should be reflected in everything from the theme you select to the amount you plan to raise and how you publicize the canvass.

• Imagine the Future – how will the congregation be stronger, better able to serve its membership, more comfortable, more accessible, better staffed, safer, or whatever else is in your vision of your community when this canvass raises the pledges of dollars it needs to accomplish its goals? One of my favorite opening exercises is to have the canvass committee imagine what a perfect with a capital "P" canvass would look like. Then we go back and see what behaviors on our part are needed to reach for that perfect campaign.

• S--t--r--e--t--c—h – all campaigns should be for stretch goals because it is the future, the possibilities, the promise of a better place that inspire giving and commitment.

• Innovate – keep on doing what you’ve always done and you will get what you’ve always gotten – only less. If you have always had a dinner kick off event try a brunch this year. Think of ways to do small things more creatively (like canvass cards or special décor in the sanctuary, t-shirts or buttons for canvassers, or …)

• Open windows and doors – create new openings for people to make their pledges. Think for a minute how many ways are available to folks who might make a pledge to your congregation. Only one way? Fill out a canvass card, sign it and hand it back to a canvasser? Open every portal you have available to invite the pledges to come in. Do you have a website? How much of your canvass information is on the web? Can people make their pledge on line? Can they do it at a dinner with friends? Can they do it during coffee hour after services?

• No negatives – starting off a volunteer fund-raising campaign is not the time to provide a platform for people to talk about fund-losers of past years. The language of generosity and success is positive and filled with the expectation of "yes". It’s your job as chair to maintain the tone.

Schedule at least one meeting with your Board and ask them ahead of time to come to the meeting with suggestions from their liaison committees or other contacts in the congregation. If you have a church council, also make a presentation like you did at the board asking for suggestions for canvassers or canvass committee members.

You do not need to be a professional fund-raiser, have a lot of money to give, or know a lot of people in the congregation to be an effective canvasser. To do effective canvassing you need only a desire to help the congregation accomplish one of its most important tasks and a basic understanding of people. The dual role of a canvass organization is to raise the money the church needs to fund its dreams and to build community in the process. Canvassing is an excellent way for new members to get to know more people in the congregation and to learn more about the work of the church.

• Canvass Chair (lucky you, this job is yours already!)
• Mailing List Maven
• Canvass Card Creator
• Record Keeper
• Canvasser Trainer
• Secretary (takes minutes at meetings)
• Team captains
• Leadership Gift Chair
• Writers/photographers/graphic designers and those with connections to these talented folks
• Evaluation: people who can't always attend meetings but are willing to be your analysts can maintain the chronology of an event or campaign, keep all phone numbers of those contacted and involved.
• Volunteer Recruitment (recruit help and keep the communications network alive)
• Publicity: Lots of room in publicity to divide and conquer. The chair determines who needs to know, what they need to know, when they need to know it and how it will be communicated. Everything from the newsletter to the website to posters in the foyer and flyers in the restrooms.
• Budget and Finance: keeps track of expenses and profits. Never has to attend a meeting as long as he or she has a system for handling funds related to the canvass.
• Scheduling: A great job for people who can take time to look at the big picture for an organization - an entire year. They block out all vacations and holidays, conflicting events and weather related impediments to meeting times and assist the committee in targeting certain times for certain activities – especially making sure mailing and newsletter deadlines are circled in RED. If you get your scheduler to begin with a drop-dead date and work backwards you can better plan when to get organized for various parts to the puzzle.
• Training & Production: responsible for making sure all volunteer assignments are clear and that all production crews know what to do and when to do it. For events like your kick-off dinner or brunch, your major donor event, you need a stage manager and a runner. The stage manager knows where coats go, who is bringing the nametags, who is expected, who is important, where the extra whatevers are kept.
• Acknowledgements: the crew responsible for writing thank you notes to every living, breathing individual who contributed in any small way to the campaign.
• Volunteers at Large: those who will show up and work when needed. Have flexible schedules and a willingness to participate.
• Fed-Exers: will pick up and drop off "stuff". Trips to the printer or to the post office to buy stamps. Make a list of all the things that need to be purchased and when. You'll have a huge list of potential errands that volunteers on the periphery can assist with.

First a plug for planning: the canvass organization should be a year round activity not just limited to the weeks of the annual campaign. This doesn't mean canvassing year-round, but rather that the essential components of a canvass organization are working on a year-round schedule so that the canvass itself will go smoothly. Right after your congregation’s annual meeting when the board is elected, the canvass chair should be selected. It’s ideal if last year’s chair serves as co-chair for the current year’s chair.

As to the time of a pledge drive, the real answer is "it depends." There is no doubt that congregations have highly successful fall campaigns. The energy that is ready for harnessing as a new church year begins is inspiring. But the huge downside is that a good fall campaign requires meetings and organizational work during the summer. Furthermore, according to an article on this topic in InterConnections, "a highly successful campaign is often the result of a wonderful church year where people feel good about what has gone on and they develop hopes and dreams for the coming year."

Call our District Consultant for ideas and resources that may be available to your congregation. You don’t have to re-create the wheel to have an innovative and successful canvass because we have lots of wheels out here in Metro New York for sharing with you.