Workers of New Canvassing Experience in Portland, Oregon need your help! We're calling on all allies of workers and believers in workers solidarity to sign and share our petition and support our organizing however you can. Join us in the fight against anti-worker union busting corporations and help us protect workers' rights to organize! 

Click here to support our Strike & Legal Fund!  Mutual aid gifts will empower our grassroots outreach campaign, help secure upcoming legal representation needs, and show your solidarity with workers standing up for justice across the globe!

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What do we need?

We the collective workers of New Canvassing Experience (NCE) in Portland, OR, need your help! After informing our employer of our intent to organize and work collaboratively to improve our workplace in the spring of 2025, we experienced a mass layoff and our office was closed indefinitely the very same day. Sign and share our petition to join our call for work-place justice, support our National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) claim, and hold NCE accountable for its anti-worker and anti-workplace organizing actions!

 

Who is New Canvassing Experience and what do they do?

New Canvassing Experience (NCE) is a for profit private corporation that is the largest canvassing and face-to-face fundraising agency in the United States, with an umbrella network that's likely the largest on the planet. NCE holds fundraising contracts with non-profit organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union​, World Wildlife Fund​, Green Peace, The Nature Conservancy, Save the Children, Planned Parenthood, Defenders of Wildlife, and many others. 

Over the past decade, NCE has grown it's reach and for roughly half that time they have been the dominant agency in the canvassing industry. But that growth has come with a track record of long standing anti-worker activity and countless blatant violations of labor law in the dozens of markets where New Canvassing Experience intermittently operates. Described as "the Walmart of Canvassing and face-to-face fundraising," pushing NCE to respect workers and recognize employees' rights to organize will have a profound and exponential impact on the wider canvassing and fundraising industries.

When you meet fundraisers taking donations and signing up supporters in the streets of San Francisco, Philadelphia, New York City, Seattle, St. Louis and dozens of other communities across the country, you’re most likely crossing paths with hard working activists that are employed by NCE or one of their subcontracted for-profit agencies. Until recently, Portland, Oregon was one of the cities where you'd be most likely to meet a canvasser representing the American Civil Liberties Union, WWF, or TNC at a farmers' market, on a street corner, or out canvassing for other important grassroots causes in local communities and just about every other major event in town. NCE works all over the country with affiliates all over the globe, but Portland had long been considered a hub and crown jewel for their operations, with some of the strongest canvassers in the country and most trendy major non-profits finding success and a home in the very special PDX community. 

 

 

("Portland team tea party!"  Canvassers in Portland, Oregon enjoying a moment of levity in the community while representing the American Civil Liberties Union.)

 

The impact made by NCE Workers on Portland, OR Activism

From the time that the 2020 Pandemic Lockdown lifted in Oregon and canvassers were able to return to the streets and work until this past June, the American Civil Liberties Union specifically gained hundreds and thousands of recurring donations from passionate supporters around the greater Portland metro area. Engaged community members standing up for a cause were signed up five days a week all around the greater metro area and in all types of weather by dedicated professional fundraisers, working for New Canvassing Experience and recruiting sustaining donors on the ACLU’s behalf. Those donors’ engagement helped fight countless legal battles with their collective impact, and funded countless pro-bono victories for all of our rights during an incredibly dark time in our country and the busiest time in the American Civil Liberty Unions’ history.

 

 

 

These professionals worked in the streets and elements year round in long-term decently compensated positions, speaking passionately about causes such as protecting trans rights, defending bodily autonomy, and fighting fascism as the American Civil Liberties Union has openly championed. If you’re a resident of Portland, Beaverton, Milwaukee, Vancouver, or a even just a visitor to the Portland Metro Area this summer you may have noticed the farmers markets, street fairs, and sidewalks have recently been a lot less populated by the friendly-faced canvassers for the International Rescue Committee (IRC,) BRADY Campaign, World Wildlife Fund, and the American Civil Liberties Union. And it’s the dedicated team of NCE Portland workers no longer championing their important activism that has left Portland’s streets feeling empty of such vitally important conversations.

 

Who are these canvassers, the united NCE Portland Workers collective?

We’re folks just like you and yours! We are parents, care takers, students, artists, bakers, drag professionals, outdoor enthusiasts, poets, conversationalists, readers, dancers, gamers, and so much more. We live in the greater Portland, Oregon Metro area and we’re united in our love for the communities, neighborhoods, and people we share our home with here. Some of us grew up locally and others found their way to Portland from all around the country. Portland has long been a mecca for all sorts of beautiful weirdos, outcasts, and alternative bohemian radicals, and the individuals on our close-knit workers team here all carry some version of that ethos proudly in our work and lives.

Each of us are passionate activists with a knack for connecting authentically and meaningfully with the people we meet. New Canvassing Experience, in their hiring process and recruiting, is keen at finding folks who are adaptable, motivated, and open to enduring the physical, mental, and emotional demands of being a canvasser and face-to-face fundraiser in the streets of a chaotic city. Our team routinely set records and performed amongst the strongest fundraising markets nationwide in the face of often times very challenging conditions, and NCE collected this group of the strongest canvassers in the country in large part by targeting existing engaged activists devoted to the causes that organizations like the ACLU fiercely fight for. 

With that in mind, there are some other stand out patterns in NCE’s hiring and recruitment tendencies in the Portland, Oregon, office that are important to shed light on for full context around the true harm caused to the NCE Portland workers team. Especially when we’re considering the impact of the choice made by NCE leadership to close the market all together, violently and without warning and in clear violation of legal protections against retaliation. Roughly 50% of the members of the Portland NCE workforce identify as LGBTQIA+. About a 25% identifies as BIPOC/PoGM. Another 30% or more are disabled and, further, approximately 15-25% of the staff was either houseless or newly recovering from houselessness upon being hired by NCE. 

All three of these groups and others represented on our team, and especially those individuals who exist at multiple marginalized identities of intersectionality, continue to be vulnerable at incredibly high rates to houselessness, racism, homophobia, transphobia, and the violence inherent in sudden unjust termination. And statistically, at much higher rates than those who do not identify with these marginalized groups. Still today, many of us former hourly staff members that comprise the collective NCE Portland workers are struggling to financially, emotionally, and mentally recover from the abrupt loss of our positions.

The volatile and unpredictable working environment created by NCE in the months leading up to their eventual anti-organizing retaliatory office closure would leave each and every staff member stressed and worried day to day. Due to the lack of security in our job and absence of any real support we’d been advocating for in our workplace, conditions could be very challenging, but we all loved our work and our team and still envision finding success here together in the future as canvassers in the Portland community again. In coming together collaboratively as an organized workforce, the staff working at the Portland, OR, office were hopeful not only to improve their collective well being inside and consequentially outside of the workplace, but also have more capacity to be more engaged and present during their work days as activists. Many moments have inspired our organizing efforts and our collective solidarity, and in the spring of 2025 we felt positive and energized to do everything we could for each other to create the kind of workplace and community we could all be truly proud of. 

 

 

 

Things We Witnessed  in Our Workplace as Employees of New Canvassing Experience in 2025:

• Consistent disrespect from management in the form of broken policies and promises, a total lack of transparency, and a disregard for NCE’s own mission and vision statements claiming to value employees
• Blatant disregard for local, state, and federal labor law relating to pay, communications, PTO and sick time, and much more
• Change in policy to disempower workers or retro-actively strip employees of promised bonus pay and other earned incentives
• Non-compliance with workplace safety standards especially during inclement weather, and continued disregard for protective policies leading the workforce to eventually file multiple OSHA complaints
• Routine pay check shortage discrepancies especially for earned bonuses and training times, with non-responsive from management eventually inspiring a large number of BOLI complaints against NCE
• Latent and explicit racism and ableism in the form of differing treatment for multiple team members in protected classes, and a long-term lack of ADA compliance paired with targeted refusals around legally mandated workplace accommodations
• Transphobia and anti-first amendment discrimination in the form of illegal policing of staff members’ clothing and gear choices, with an explicit banning of Trans Rights based and LGBT solidarity branded clothing or accessories
• Intimidation, selective firing, illegal surveillance, and other targeted harassments aimed at disrupting organizers and leading to a hostile workplace environment especially for our team members with the most vocal pro-worker voices and those belonging to the most marginalized identity groups
• Total lack of integrity and embrace of generally exploitative behaviors on the part of upper management in all aspects of business relations as we the workers witnessed them, and which NCE replicated in all areas of their treatment and behaviors towards the hourly workforce
• A long standing record of anti-union, anti-worker, anti-organizer, anti-labor, and prejudicial, discriminatory, exploitative brazenly illegal and unethical practices that we couldn’t see continue without organizing collectively and standing up for justice!

 

So where did the NCE Canvassers in Portland, OR go?

On Friday, June 13th, 2025, the workers of New Canvassing Experience in Portland, Oregon came together in a formal public moment as an organized group with a purpose. That purpose was to improve our workplace for everyone, further improve our activism, and build a better future for canvassing together with NCE. To communicate and legitimize our efforts with the leadership of New Canvassing Experience, we the NCE Portland workers presented a basic good-faith letter and signed petition during that morning’s meeting to management and ownership, asking that their efforts not only be recognized but also be engaged with openly in good faith collaboratively and respectfully. 

This concerted activity was clearly and definitively legally protected under the National Labor Relations Act. It should have been a celebratory moment of workers coming together with the management and central leadership of NCE to improve the workplace for everyone working in the Portland, OR, office. And in doing so, as representatives of one of the most successful offices of the largest face-to-face operation in the United States, the Portland team aspired to help make a positive impact on the canvassing industry as a whole. Instead, over twenty canvassers unjustly lost their jobs and primary, or only sources of income less than seven hours later.

 

 

(Caption from New Canvassing Experience Instagram:)("Who’s the best doggo around! This lil cutie loves civil liberties in PDX!!! #portland #aclu #transrights #newcanvassingexperience #nce #fundraising #canvassing.") Sweetest comrade doggo representing Palestine and the ACLU in Portland, Oregon.

 

The letter addressed to local & national management as well as NCE ownership was read by a veteran fundraiser who, just like his peers, was loved and appreciated by every community member he motivated to get involved in the cause he represented. Workers made this bid for collaborative workplace improvement in the face of continued threats made by leadership and recent clearly targeted firings, repeated blatant disregard for protective labor law & workplace safety regulations, abandonment of their own corporate whistle blower protection policies and handbook, workplace favoritism, misogyny, racism, and transphobia, and upper leadership team and company culture that was growing more openly toxic and hurtful daily in the lived experiences and perspectives of the hourly staff. 

Finally, the letter and signed petition requested a meeting with NCE's ownership and highest level management team so that we, the organized workers, could have an opportunity to voice our concerns and begin an open good-faith dialogue around potential positive changes for all working on our team in Portland and at NCE in general. With outstanding labor, safety, and wage complaints filed in reports to agencies like OSHA, BOLI, and the ECOC, and other labor complaints already levied against NCE by many individual workers in Portland as well as the other cities that NCE operates in, a good faith meeting with upper management & ownership would have given workers a place to start to advocate for our safety and basic workplace protections. As well as ultimately give us workers the platform and means to plead our collective case directly to New Canvassing Experience ownership and senior management, in an attempt to democratize the workplace together and improve our unified work in activism.

This letter was signed by nearly 90% of the workers and was sent directly to NCE’s human resources & national level leadership after being read aloud in the morning meeting at the start of the work day on June 13, 2025. By 6:07 p.m. that same day, shortly after everyone’s shift ended, an email was sent to every active member of the hourly workforce in Portland, OR, from the head of human resources on behalf of NCE's national leadership team, announcing the Portland office was closed indefinitely and all future shifts were pulled effective immediately. This was less than seven hours after the workers made their formal ask and announcement of working towards a better workplace. 

 

 

The reason for the closure provided by HR and as quoted directly from their original email announcing closure: “the recent data on office performance are clear that the Portland office is falling short not only of the lofty, but eminently attainable, goals that NCE sets itself, but of the commitments we have made to our non-profit partners, and to any private company’s basic requirement to be profitable. Indeed, this has been an ongoing issue in the Portland office affecting campaigns with various non-profit clients of NCE over recent years.”

With all of the data from 2024 and 2025 ranking Portland consistently as a top office in the country, it’s clear these company provided reasons for closure are painting an inaccurate picture to deflect from the decision to reactively close down operations in an anti-worker and clearly anti-organizing retaliatory fashion. NCE offered no severance pay packages to workers, no clarity around potential re-opening dates, nor any real concrete or evidence supported reasons for the abrupt closure, leaving us workers without support or answers and bearing the hardships of loosing critically financially necessarily and important purpose-driven work.

 

Portland, Oregon Canvassers with NCE's Office Consistently Ranked Among the Best in the Country!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NCE claims in their aspirational mission statement that they commit to “valuing our people (and) living with integrity,” and their website recognizes that “it is the quality of canvasser that makes the difference.” Sadly, the rug pull over-night nature of the office closing in Portland, Oregon, wasn’t the first time NCE has treated employees this way in their recent history as the largest player in the face to face subcontracted non-profit fundraising industry. It is, however, perhaps one of the most flagrant contradictions to their core values and purported vision regarding the value of canvassers and the importance of respecting their dedicated workers.

In a clear violation of NLRB protections and State and Federal labor law, NCE’s actions constitute an affront to workers’ rights, and are a flagrant and targeted retaliatory attempt to fight workplace organizing efforts, discourage unionization, and silence a call for democratization in the workplace. In the months since NCE has closed their Portland office, it has become clear that organized action in defense of workers rights and in opposition to New Canvassing Experience’s retaliatory action and long-standing exploitative anti-worker practices is still immediately necessary.

Please sign and share this petition to support our struggle for workers’ power and justice! And support our Legal & Strike fund however you can. 

Join the NCE Portland Workers' in holding corporations and bosses who stand against organized action accountable! 

NCE claims in their aspirational mission statement that they commit to “valuing our people (and) living with integrity,” and their website recognizes that “it is the quality of canvasser that makes the difference.” Sadly, the rug pull over-night nature of the office closing in Portland, Oregon, wasn’t the first time NCE has treated employees this way in their recent history as the largest player in the face to face subcontracted non-profit fundraising industry. It is, however, perhaps one of the most flagrant contradictions to their core values and purported vision regarding the value of canvassers and the importance of respecting their dedicated workers.

In a clear violation of NLRB protections and State and Federal labor law, NCE’s actions constitute an affront to workers’ rights, and are a flagrant and targeted retaliatory attempt to fight workplace organizing efforts, discourage unionization, and silence a call for democratization in the workplace. In the months since NCE has closed their Portland office, it has become clear that organized action in defense of workers rights and in opposition to New Canvassing Experience’s retaliatory action and long-standing exploitative anti-worker practices is still immediately necessary.

 

Please sign and share this petition to support our struggle for workers’ power and justice! And support our Legal & Strike fund however you can. Join the NCE Portland Workers in our fight to hold corporations and bosses who stand against organized action accountable! 

 

On Friday, 8/15/2025, we the collective organized workers of NCE Portland officially filed an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB.) We are continuing to work towards a just solution for ourselves, by standing up for our right to organize and take action in our workplaces, and by standing firmly in opposition to all companies and corporations in all industries that would choose to jeopardize our rights and our activism in organizing for a better collective future. You can help us find justice NOW by signing below and forwarding this petition to all who stand in solidarity with workers’ rights and collective action!

 

 

We the collective NCE, Portland Workers Demand:

• Reinstatement of every hourly employee to the full terms of their original employment as defined by their written Job Description, conditions, and duties at the time of their termination from New Canvassing Experience, Portland.
• Full reinstatement of employment will be offered to every hourly employee who was terminated on or after 5/1 at the NCE Portland office who chooses to return to their previously scheduled work, reinstating them to the position they held before departure from the company.
• Everyone terminated in the retaliatory anti-worker and illegal office closure of 6/13/2025 will be offered first priority for all new orientation days upon re-staffing first shifts, or other onboarding needs. After initial shifts are offered and filled, every hourly employee including fundraisers, team leads, and trainees with at least one week of service with NCE from 5/1 to 6/13’s office closure will be offered their old jobs, roles, titles, and full pay back.
• PTO, Vacation hours, and all collective incentives and earned bonuses that workers in Portland have not received will also be paid out immediately upon reinstatement of employment. In the case of PTO and other hours that were not paid out to employees at their time of termination, the full original balances plus all accrued time owed will be added to each employee's total “time off” available balance.

 

• Financial reparations or "back pay" in the form of lost wages for all employees who qualify for the above, dating from the time of  departure or termination from the company and extending to the date of resumption of regularly scheduled hours and duties of their original position at New Canvassing Experience, Portland.
• Owed lost wages paid to each employee will be based on each employee's individual hourly earnings in the month prior to their departure or termination, taking into account total average hourly take-home pay plus average bonus commission pay, calculated on a 32 hour work week for all laid-off employees.

 

• Obligatory open public recognition of the terms from the original good faith letter and signed petition presented to NCE leadership by the workers of NCE Portland on 6/13/25.
• Specifically, agreement of the request for a third-party mediated meeting to be held between the workforce of Portland, Oregon’s NCE office at the time of re-opening and the leadership of NCE’s national team including majority owners Martin Leggett and John Jeffries, to be conducted immediately upon re-opening of the office. We intend for this meeting to be in good faith and to lead to a resolution of all of our previous disputes, and set the foundation for a more balanced, positive, and democratized workplace moving into the future together.

 

Thank you for reading, signing, and sharing our petition! Please forward this to all activists and community members who stand with worker solidarity, all community organizations and solidarity groups who may resonate with our story, as well as all trusted press, potential pro-bono legal counsel or other resources, or union and labor organizing related friends and comrades.

 

We the workers worldwide united together for progress will craft a better world. For activists and canvassers, for communities and non-profits, and for all workers at New Canvassing Experience and beyond!