Canvassing involves going door-to-door to local small- to medium-size businesses in your area, discussing with them how mandates have affected them, telling them about Project StandTogether and offering them one of our signs of peaceful noncompliance and nondiscrimination.
We believe that the best way to make real change is to stand together. That’s why we ask local businesses to stand with us in this fight against discriminatory mandates and tyranny. We want to empower everyday people to take a stand, and we want to form a peaceful community of people who support freedom. Not only does canvassing spread freedom in your area, it also allows you to connect with your community and to get to know like-minded, service-oriented people.
So, how do you get started? Let's dive in.
How to Organize a Canvassing Event
Steps:
Form a chapter in your area if you haven’t already. Here is how to do so. Once you have your signs, your volunteer leader and your resources organized, you’re ready to host your first canvassing event!
Pick an area in your city to canvass that has a lot of small businesses within walking distance.
Within that area, select a meet-up location, day and time frame for canvassing. The meet-up location can be a local park, an already-supportive establishment, a parking lot, outside of a restaurant, etc.
Tell one of our volunteer coordinators about your planned event so we can share it on our newsletter and social media. Invite your local telegram group, friends, family and colleagues to come out.
Research what businesses you would like to visit. If possible, find the name or the owner or manager.
Talk to a volunteer coordinator about hosting a Zoom meeting with the entire chapter to go over these steps and best practices and to answer any questions.
Distribute your local resources to volunteers attending. This could be done digitally!
Go out there and do it! Meet at your meet-up location, and wait at least 30 minutes to ensure that everyone arrives. You can choose to go out to businesses together or to split up into groups of two or three. While we believe pairing up is very effective, we don’t recommend going out in groups of five or more. This can overwhelm business owners.
Talk to local business owners, asking them to take a stand and put up our sign of non-compliance. We have a script here that can help, but we think it’d be best if you made it your own and be yourself!
If the business owner is not present or is unsure of what to do, leave them with this flyer. You can print them yourself or send it to them digitally.
If the business owner is responsive, ask them if you can put up the sign for them. Take pictures! Also, ask them if they’d like to join our business directory.
Keep a spreadsheet on what businesses you visited and how they reacted. Here’s a spreadsheet template. Report back to your volunteer leader and to Project StandTogether about how it went.
Optional - Leave businesses a positive review online. If you have never done business there, speak directly to the quality of the owner/manager and staff only, and that they support Freedom, equality, and denounce discrimination. Do not use the words “vaccine” or “mandate” or “comply” as we don’t want any algorithms targeting them.
Some Rules and Best Practices
Signs
The volunteer leader should hand out no more than 10 signs per volunteer pair/group.
Do not leave signs with businesses that are not responsive to our message. If they are unsure about their stance at the moment, ask them if you can come back or give them a call at a later time to discuss putting the sign up.
Do not give signs to random individuals. These signs are for businesses.
Leftover signs should be returned to the volunteer leader.
Location, Day and Time
We recommend picking a location that has many businesses within walking distance.
Pick a day and time when businesses are open, foot traffic is light to normal, and the business owners are probably present.
Communication
Keep constant and clear communication in your local Telegram group.
You may choose to start a new Telegram or a personal group chat for those volunteers that are actually out canvassing. This will help the leader keep track of what businesses were visited.
Leaders should keep an eye on their personal messages and Instagram DMs, as we will share about the event on social media.
Feel free to share your event on social media, but be weary of those who will try to sabotage it.
Businesses and Business Owners
Visit local, small- to medium-size businesses. Large companies or corporate offices are unlikely to be responsive to our message.
Ask for the manager or business owner.
Keep the conversation respectful and non-partisan.
Come prepared to speak about your perspective. Dispel them of their fears. If the business owner is rude or unwilling to listen, leave. While we recommend an open dialogue, we don’t think it would be the best use of your time to stay and try to persuade them.
If you’re not sure how to approach a business owner, check out our script.
Pictures/Video
We recommend taking a group photo that we can share to inspire other volunteers.
Take pictures and/or videos of you putting up the signs with freedom-loving businesses.
If the business owner allows, have them take a picture with the sign as well.
Ready to get started? Email us at hello@projectstandtogether.com if you would like to start a local chapter, or, if you are already a part of one, message us through your Telegram group that you'd like to host your first event.
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