Employment Opportunities that Activist Students Should Avoid

In the search for summer employment, students commonly feel drawn to jobs that pay for their efforts in promoting political issues. The word for this activity is canvassing. It's promoted as a way to enjoy the sun, earn money and make social change. These are three things that idealistic, energetic college students tend to thrive on.

The notion that a summer job could cater so well to this demographic seems almost too good to be true. In a way, it is. Before jumping into this field of employment, consider its darker side. The work can be both physically and emotionally draining. Someone enthusiastically partaking in it might find himself or herself exploited for corporate profit.

Walking door-to-door asking for money, a part of a greater hustling scheme, doesn't make logical sense when one has a salary. People answer the door under the premise that the person requesting a donation is a volunteer. For the canvasser, this can make for an awkward moral dilemma.

To inform the supporter of the application of the donation would certainly make them reconsider donating. So one must choose between being effective and being entirely honest. Consider the costs of infrastructure. To have a successful campaign, an organization must pay canvassers, managers, directors, everyone up to the CEO. It must pay rent on office buildings and gas for the vehicles. All materials cost money and countless other aspects add up to a large annual expenditure. Running a non-profit is costly.

Expenses must be cut somewhere in order for the organization to continue functioning. Inevitably the burden is split between the young enthusiastic individuals doing the groundwork for their campaign, and the impassioned supporters and donors to the cause. If you're a canvasser, expect to work several hours off the clock. You probably will have no union, no benefits and no leeway. These high demands can be severely taxing, but are the very foundation of the hierarchy of power that makes the foundation run. All this can make for a difficult working situation.

Don't be surprised to learn that only a marginal percentage of the money you raise will go to your cause. About a third of the funds you raise will go directly to you; another third goes to the infrastructure responsible for allowing you to raise money. Depending on the organization, only twenty to sixty percent of the money raised will actually go to the cause. How many donors, were they to be informed of this, would still give? Why should they? It makes more sense, economically speaking, to make donations directly to an organization than to an outsourced, for-profit, proxy. For anyone seeking an outlet for political passions, it would make more sense to spend time on the local level as a volunteer.

The best advice I can give to someone considering this line of work is... Don't; rather than burn yourself out, only to feel miserable about your two-faced good deeds, get a normal summer job. Do something you hate and know you should hate. In your free time, donate your time to a small local non-profit. Your time will be better spent and the change you create will be significantly more tangible. When someone asks you what you did with your summer, you won't be forced to say, diplomatically, that you panhandled.