community organizer

organizer

field organizer

outreach worker

organisateur

ACORN Canada

I feel I was working with the employer, who did not lead by example, instead just dictated to me, since my first day of work. I don’t know if she feels her life is more important than my life but I am not here to enable it. I feel we all matter. The employer, has not shown me how effective it is to get a member through her rules and systems. Ever since my first day of work, the employer was never on the field with me, even showing me her system, she kept demanding we followed ( all from my memory). When we have a leader that leads by example there is that connection, empathy, and we are able to relate well with each other with respect. I remember having leaders who were not on the field with me in other organizations in a different province , led us with pure love, they promoted the good in us, and encouraged us. We did extremely well as a team, even people who maybe were the weakest initially or could not perform became top and great performers. We feel people started to believe more in themselves and utilize the gifts God has given us well. They led us by example through their character, it was not about us feeding any ego or needing to assert superiority over others.  We appreciate mutual beneficial and healthy loving relationships, where we are kind, patient, peaceful, good,  joyful, faithful, gentle, and with self control to one another. I refuse to work in an environment that does not embody it. The employer, if you don’t mind go to a leadership school, go and learn how to talk to people. I remember I just came back from the field before 9pm yesterday ( Wednesday June 2026, this week) and you informed me, ‘ you can’t work here if you don’t leave field at 7:30pm to arrive at 8pm to do calls.’ Meanwhile,  that eats into the time I see more people that can also be members. To use work and threaten me- is unacceptable to me. I don’t mind working with you with love, but I have never worked for money in my life. To the employer,?God is my source. I remember I had explained to you about what happened on the field, especially dealing with a donor, who had a friend that was interested. I have not seen from you how practical and effective it is to get a member, enter a home, a donor, on the field before 7:30pm. I remember you informed me to leave at 7:30pm. I remember I was still willing to work with you, with pure love. If the work culture here is based on seniority only and seniors only imposing only their will, if it is not for the collective good. Then what am I promoting to people on the field. Doesn’t that feel hypocritical. I remember promoting fairness, respect, consideration, to people on the field. If acorn refuses to embody it, who is acorn to promote it, to the rest of the world. I remember when you informed me, suddenly oh don’t come to work the rest of week on my first week ( you are not going to the convention anymore) Even after I had brought in a member ( to the glory of God). Still did my best to come to the office based on your time, because you don’t go to the field with me, I was the only one employed that week. I played the understanding game. I feel God’s presence here, so I remember wishing you well. The following week, on Wednesday, after I had prepared myself to come to work, you had informed me not to come to work for the rest of the week, that you were tired from the convention  all done by text. My phone bill was paid and  my phone was working. I remember I did not get a call, so why am I being informed to call you, when I express my absence, due to unfair work culture that conflicts with what we are preaching, advocating outside to people. This is exactly what I am talking about.  Outside is not controllable, they are many effects that occur outside that is out of our control, to ask me to work exactly like you, that I remember being indoors or never coming out with me,  is one I do my best to work on but to use work and threaten me. To threaten to fire me, to the employer that has gone too far. God sustains me, my God does not share his glory with anyone. God is the one that gives me all my abilities. We work with love, and love comes with safety, protection, respect, kindness, trust, hope and perseverance. Money has never saved me from anything, but God has, so my loyalty goes to all that aligns with the Love of God. I am not calling you, because you have not called me, the times you informed me you were not coming to work and I should not come too. If you have refused to lead me by example with love,  please, I do not need your leadership in my life at all for my good and with love. Please I deserve peace of mind. Plus make it make sense to me, I remember promoting events or meetings, I was told by this same employer not to attend. Please everything just started look like control, and not in alignment with the vision and mission of acorn plus what we were promoting outside to people.solution: please we plead with the organizers of acorn, we encourage you all to ensure all leaders have excellent leadership training and character development . Landmark might be a great place for the team, infact they are many out there that are free. 

When I was hired, I was told I will make a difference in people's lives. What they didn't tell me is the job is all about "polarizing" people against each other to create problems. I was initially told that the job would include a 4 week training program followed by a Monday to Friday schedule. The Job was supposed to be all about connecting with people in the community and advocating for changes.

What actually happened was very different. I was offered the job, but when I arrived for training, there were actually 3 of us competing for the job and only the top performer would be hired. The 4-week training program was actually a minimum 6-weeks with the possibility of extension.

Once I got to Ottawa for training, the story changed. The job was included working every other Saturday (89 hours biweekly) which works out to around $18.00 an hour. There is absolutely no work/life balance.

The majority of what I was doing was trespassing in apartment buildings asking poor people to pay a monthly membership fee disguised as advocating for changes. It's more of a high pressure sales job that pushes poor people in membership.

I was having to go into apartment buildings alone asking for entry into people apartments to pitch them on signing up as a member. Very little of the job is actually advocating for changes. All I was doing was making people mad about their living conditions and then having volunteers do a lot of the work for me.

They told me that fundraising is a small part of the job, yet I was door-to-door or phone fundraising half the time.

Working at ACORN is the best environment for making real change in provincially, nationally, and especially locally. ACORN, that is its members who are pushed along, trained, and motivated by you the organizer, are behind many big changes and movements for low-income people, most often around tenant rights (ie New Brunswick now has legislated tenant protections for the first time ever singularly because of ACORN). It’s one of the best organizations for literally fighting back against the injustices of capitalism, albeit in an “apolitical” way. 

These are huge undertakings that are just and noble, but as you can expect, it takes a lot of work which means long and odd hours, good but not enough pay, and many stressful situations. You will learn a lot about yourself and you’ll develop important skills if you stick with it, especially stress management, persuasive communication, digital communication, fundraising, political organizing, working independently and collaboratively, leadership development and so much more. The unique thing about being an organizer is that you’ll learn a bit about nearly every skill. 

Overall, if you’re interested in making social justice changes and understand there’s a challenging, elaborate, and long-term process to achieving that, then this is the job for you!

Do you want to actually hit the streets, meet and organize working-class people and tenants, and win real changes instead of just talking about them? Then this is the job for you. In a given day you might be doing doorknocking roleplays to practice organizing tenants into tenant unions, then doing some data entry and updating lists, then organizing a press hit with CBC and finishing off the day by hitting the streets to talk to real people about how we can fight and win real change with people power. If you put in the work and the energy, it's a job unlike any other in the world, after a few years at ACORN I can't see myself ever doing anything else. 

The job isn't easy, but I was never asked to do anything that senior staff weren't there doing along side me. You really feel like you're part of an amazing team where everyone is fighting the good fight. Frequent travel to in person staff meetings is also an amazing perk, not only is there a real comradery among your coworkers, you get to visit cities all over Canada as part of the work trips 3-4 times a year. Work hard and there's a ton of room for growth, with clear goals and targets needed for promotions that were transparently laid out to me my very first week on the job. 

I've worked at ACORN for the past 5 years (both part time and full time). I started because this is one of the few organizations that uses the word grassroots and takes it seriously. Low income members drive the vision of the organization, sit on our boards, are our media spokespeople, run our meetings/actions etc etc. 

As an organizer, your job is to build up the skills of members you sign up to become community leaders to fight and WIN on issues they care about. What could be more rewarding than that? 

It's certainly not an easy job, we all work really hard and there's a high turnover because outreach is simply not for everyone. This is similar with any canvas/fundraising gig but we like to give people a chance.

All you need to succeed is a desire to do the work and the people who do well advance quickly. There's opportunity for paid travel/training to learn from other organizers, be a part of a small and dedicated team committed to social justice, cost of living/seniority pay increases each year + benefits and a chance to build power for low income people to make real change.

This job can be rewarding- your typical day includes door knocking, making calls, organizing with members, etc. The tactics for membership sometimes make me uncomfortable. For example, you are expected to canvas alone and enter strangers’ homes alone essentially to ask them for membership (money). It may be difficult for someone who is not comfortable with this, especially because 95% of the time, you are asking a low-income person for money.  You are expected to sign a certain amount of members up. Although this job does feel meaningful because you can make tangible change and fight against the inequities of capitalism, the canvassing and door knocking is like 80% of the job. I have developed some useful skills like persuasive speaking, active listening, better communication skills and confidence. But it is a pretty stressful and emotionally draining job at times. Also you really don’t get paid enough for the work you do. I understand its a non profit but its not a liveable wage. 

In the time I spent working at ACORN, I was able to grow both personally and professionally and I am grateful for the opportunities provided to me.

One thing that really stood out was the supportive and collaborative culture. The organization works hard to create a fair and equal work environment. Everyone was always willing to help each other out and work together to achieve our goals. 

The management team was also very approachable and always made an effort to communicate with employees and make sure everyone was happy and productive.

I also appreciated the emphasis placed on training and development. ACORN really values upgrading its employees and provides many opportunities for training and development. I took advantage of several of these opportunities during my time at the company and felt that they helped me to grow and advance in my career.

I work at ACORN.  It has allowed me to be constructive in making the changes I want to see in the world..  Over the years  have been trained up from a young field organizer to running large campaigns and managing the significant organizational power we have amassed.  Getting organized working people into a room with the mayor, or the CEO, or the Minister of Housing, and forcing the powers that be to treat them with respect, is awesome. Where else can you do this?

Pay has gone up since I started in 2005.  $15 per hour for PT and equivalent for the full time organizers.  I have not calculated my hourly wage but I make $52,000 a year.  The executive director / head organizer makes a bit more than that, but not much more.  It's a reasonable salary scale that ACORN's low and moderate income members determines.

Working at ACORN is an exciting and motivating experience. It's rare that you can find a job where you get to dabble in everything. After just a few months you get to be trained on outreach, organizing large-scale events/direct actions, press work, communications, lobbying politicians and more - all with the goal of building power for low income people to make the kind of change they want to see in the world. 

It's hard, demanding work that isn't for everyone - you have to want it. But if you're looking to really make a difference in the world and work with a small dedicated team of like minded individuals, there's definitely no better place. 

- Interview: I was interviewed first over zoom then a second time on site to see what a typical day at work looks like. Super friendly and relaxed.
- Training: there’s training every day, I learned a lot of new skills as an organizer.
- The job: It is all about connecting with people, asking people to sign petitions, signing up new members, inviting people to events, and a lot of phone calls. 
- Management: the nicest people on earth, my leader was fun, organized, collaborative, and very easy to work with.
- Overall: The work that is done is for a good purpose especially when they win campaigns and help people who are struggling. I would definitely work there again.


Top Job Titles	Average salary
Community organizer 7 salaries reported	$43,500 per year
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Field organizer 3 salaries reported	$19.35 per hour
Outreach worker 2 salaries reported	$19.25 per hour
Organisateur 1 salary reported	$40,850 per year

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