Canvass and Mobilization Director

Citizen Action is a statewide grassroots movement organization that fights for political, social, racial, economic and environmental justice. We work at the grassroots to give people a sense of their own power. We collaborate with organizations and coalitions in communities throughout New York to address critical issues at the local, state and federal levels.

Citizen Action is looking to add a Canvass and Mobilization Director to our team. The Canvass and Mobilization Director is responsible for working with and managing Citizen Action’s paid phone canvass team, mobilizing members and volunteers across the state, leading rapid response efforts, and assisting in fundraising and membership recruiting. This position will report to the Managing Director.

• Recruit, hire, train and manage a paid phone canvass staff of 4 permanent part-time canvassers; as well as additional temporary canvassers during certain periods of work. This management includes reviewing and approving biweekly timesheets for the canvassers, onboarding and offboarding paid canvass staff, and recruiting new paid canvassers when necessary.
• Train staff and volunteers on effective phone canvassing, and identify and arrange relevant skills trainings and issue briefings for canvassers.
• Run daily pre-shift canvass team meetings and send post-shift updates to relevant staff
• Set the pace for calling for the canvass team, set clear goals for campaigns, and ensure that these goals are met
• Establish quarterly fundraising and membership renewal/recruitment goals for the canvass team
• Evaluate canvass staff performance and give ongoing feedback.
• Create, edit and train others to create and edit effective canvass scripts and talking points.
• Use NGP VAN to create universes and lists for phone canvassing, and create calling campaigns using Virtual Phone Bank or Scale to Win Dialer.
• Coordinate the creation of outreach campaigns across departments (including phone and text canvassing) within VAN, Action Network, Scale to Win, and New/Mode and support staff in strengthening their capacity to manage outreach assets
• Provide support for data analysis and entry, and report on data for the purposes of programmatic evaluation and grant reporting.
• Work with the Managing Director to strategize and prioritize campaigns to support the organization’s state and federal issue and electoral work.
• Represent the canvass team in organizational spaces, including all staff meetings and calls, interdepartmental meetings, and other campaign planning spaces.
• Serve as the organization’s expert on deep canvassing, including engaging with the People’s Action deep canvass cohort
• Develop and manage volunteer phone canvass teams to engage in rapid response work at the state and federal levels.
• Other tasks as designated by your supervisor.

• Minimum of 3 years of experience as a field or phone canvasser.
• Minimum of 3 years of experience managing staff and/or volunteers.
• A proven track record for training staff and community leaders to canvass
• Experience and ability to manage data using NGP VAN.
• Some experience in electoral organizing.
• Ability to lead with vision, coach, train and supervise a team.
• Work and help set a fast paced work environment that drives organizational outcomes.
• Is used to setting and reaching numeric goals.
• Strong communications skills, including writing effective canvass scripts.
• A clear understanding of Citizen Action’s political goals and strategies.
• Political alignment with Citizen Action of New York
• Valid driver's license and reliable vehicle

A core part of this job is leading through example, working side by side with staff, training and retraining to improve performance to run a purpose driven results oriented team.

• Ability to participate in a team, test new ideas, set the pace for the canvass team and drive toward results.
• Ability to model canvassing best practices and give timely direct feedback to canvassers on their practices
• Centering and cultivating solid relationships, whether with colleagues, Citizen Action of New York members and volunteers, movement or…