Fund for the Public Interest Also identifies as Environment Massachusetts. Don't walk, run away from this organization. Far away. Boston, Massachusetts

I agree with the original report. I was hired as an assistant canvass director in Philadelphia, but never actually took the job. When I initially interviewed in March of 2013, they described the job as mostly training canvassers, with 1 to 2 days of canvassing myself, and then didn't mention anything about my pay or performance rating being tied to canvassing. I'm not all that wild about the environment, and the pay sucked ($24,500 a year), but I figured it was the best I could do in my field. Then they stopped answering my emails for a couple of months. During this time my parents kept sending me links to websites like this one and telling me to back out. I assumed the links were all from disgruntled employees and didn't do anything to look for another job (silly me).

Finally they got back in contact and said that the person I had originally interviewed with had quit, supposedly to take care of her sick father (although now I wonder if she just got fed up with the place). By the time they got back in touch I was just about to graduate from college. About a week after I graduated they sent me an email saying they wanted me to start early. I was initially scheduled to start in late July, this would have had me starting the last week in May.

I couldn't find an apartment on such short notice, but I have a great-aunt in the area who graciously offered to let me stay in her mother-in-law suite. I emailed the Fund to tell them I could take the early position. A few days later, they called and told me that because they were expanding so fast, they no longer had need of an assistant director that early, but they would hire me as a canvasser.

At this point, I started to realize that the websites might be on to something. I told them I would prefer to just start as an assistant director at the original date. I lost contact again for a while, and when I called the office I was supposed to be starting at, they had no idea who I was. At this point, they still hadn't given me a detailed job description, but we started to plan the training session (they send you to Boston for some sort of training for a week and a half).

On July 10, less than three weeks before I was due to start, I got a phone call from the Pennsylvania state director. She wanted to go over the job before I started. As it was 9:00 pm and I was not within reach of a pencil and paper at the time, I said I'd call her back. When I did, she informed me that for the training period, lasting about a month, I would be canvassing four days a week. I would work from 11:00 am to 10:30 pm (note the last train leaves Philadelphia at 10:45) and have a quota that gradually rose from $125 in one day of a three day period to an average of $175 a day. Some of the websites said that people's pay had been docked if they didn't meet the quota, so I asked what would happen if I didn't

It turns out you get fired if you don't make quota. They claimed that the average is significantly higher than the quota, but didn't say what percentage of people make quota. I assume that they don't count people who get fired for not making quota, and that bumps the average up. According to a report by Dana Fisher of Columbia University, that's about 75 percent of the people who initially get hired to canvass. Fortunately, I got an interview for another job that was scheduled after my start date, so I told them I couldn't take the job. I have yet to get any acknowledgement that they received my email.

I would not suggest taking this job unless you are really desperate for work or have independent income combined with an overwhelming hatred of natural gas fracking. Don't relocate for it under any circumstances whatsoever. If I had bought into this any longer, I could well have found myself putting a non-refundable deposit on an apartment only to get fired within a month and have to slink back home. Fund for the Public Interest also advertises as PIRG, Environment America, Environment 'Name of State,' Work for Progress, and the Fair Share Alliance.

For more, see: 

http://ask.metafilter.com/145641/Should-I-take-this-job-from-the-Fund-for-the-Public-Interest

http://www.angelfire.com/indie/fundislying/FundIsLying.html

http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2009/07/-sidewalk-activism-strangling-progessive-politics-one-disillusioned-employee-at-a-time.html

Activism Inc, by Dana Fisher

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2009/07/15/the-liberal-sweatshop.html

http://burnedoutbypirg.wordpress.com/tag/fund-for-public-interest-research/

http://inthesetimes.com/article/2787/do_you_have_a_minute_for