From January 23 to February 3, CPD's Sustainability Initiative, in partnership with Membership Drive, held its first National Canvass Director Bootcamp in Seattle. Our training team worked with canvass directors across the country to develop the skills and strategies necessary to build dues paying membership canvass drives. The programs are designed to generate significant revenue for participating partners and dramatically increase organization membership over the coming years.

Canvass directors from Working Washington, Take Action Minnesota, VOCAL-NY, Make the Road Pennsylvania, and ACCE participated. The trainees spent a week in the field signing up members for our host, Working Washington. They also spent an intensive week in management training, and workshops on messaging skills, recruitment techniques and statistical analysis.

The goal of CPD’s Sustainability Initiative is to develop canvass programs capable of generating 50% to 75% of an organization's operating budget within five years.