PODCAST: Sujatha Bergen Jahagirdar, NRDC
“Canvassing is a ‘bootcamp’ that teaches you how to talk to a complete stranger in a compelling & concise way, while articulating and conveying how (that stranger) can help (make social change). It’s an invaluable training that has served me for decades.”
— Sujatha Bergen Jahagirdar, Policy Specialist, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) & Former Canvasser
There’s no better way to campaign for social change than by doing it face to face, person to person — even in the age of digital media. [Research is proving this. Check out Grasstops’ interview with Vanessa Bohns (http://bit.ly/Bohns-Face-to-Face-Fundraising) The Cornell University professor’s research on Face-To-Face versus Digital was published recently in Harvard Business Review (HBR)]. For this reason, Grassroots Campaigns (GCI) has spent more than a decade recruiting, training, and hiring some of the most talented college graduates to serve as canvassers for progressive causes and socially minded candidates to elected office. But, after campaigning on street corners and front doorsteps across the US, canvassers transition and utilize their acquired skills — in other venues — along their career path.
Where do canvassers go after canvassing? How do canvassers uniquely apply the important skills acquired as a canvasser to more advanced positions in advocacy, campaigns, policy, and social change?
To find out, Grasstops by Grassroots Campaigns (GCI), spoke with a long-time friend of GCI and current Policy Specialist at the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Sujatha Bergen Jahagirdar, at her office in Washington DC.
