This time of year is all about giving. Whether it’s getting presents for your loved ones or donating to causes close to your heart, generosity is in the air. Neighbours United is a registered Canadian charity (that means you get a tax receipt!) that is making a big impact with our small but mighty team of staff and volunteers. Here’s the top three reasons you should consider giving this holiday season:
1. It’s a polarized world, and we’re finding common ground across politics
If you are feeling sick and tired of nasty partisan politics, so are we. That’s why we go deep – one person at a time – to build support for the energy and nature policies we need.
Neighbours United adapted deep canvassing, a practice for having honest and non-judgmental conversations (on door steps or over the phone) that last about 20 minutes with someone who feels differently about an issue than you might. The deep canvasser shares personal life experiences & helps the other person to do the same. The outcome? 1 in 3 people shift their opinion, and this change lasts.
In 2022, in the heavy industry company town of Trail, BC, after knocking every door in town, and having almost 1200 deep canvass conversations, the public narrative shifted. The city council was able to pass a resolution pledging to transition to 100% renewable energy across community energy use because enough of their residents were no longer conflicted – they wanted a clean energy transition.
Learn more about our deep canvassing successes.
Trail volunteers celebrate
Since this big win, Neighbours United has been looking for new opportunities to use deep canvassing in our work and to train others. Right now we are running three campaigns using deep canvassing to tackle some of the biggest challenges of our time.
In BC, we are building support in mill towns for a law that would prioritize ecosystem health and biodiversity over just making money for the big forestry CEOs. We’re expecting to have built enough support in collaboration with other groups in BC to see the provincial government consider this legislation in spring 2025. Not only are we making a big impact talking to mill town residents on their doorsteps, our volunteers have fun doing it 
Castlegar volunteers getting excited to knock doors
In Coquitlam, one of the fastest growing suburban cities in BC, we’re building support for a municipal bylaw that would require new buildings to be all-electric and not need to rely on gas. This debate is happening right now at the City Council. We’re hoping for a positive response before the end of the year.
Offshore drilling is driving carbon pollution in Atlantic Canada. We’re building support for ending oil and gas exploration in Newfoundland & Labrador. We’re hoping this public support will make this a key issue in 2025 at both the provincial and federal levels.
2. We organized the largest geographic area in North America to commit to 100% renewable energy
Neighbours United’s homebase, the West Kootenays in southeast BC, is home to many cities, villages, towns and regional districts. Over the past eight years, our team used community organizing strategies to engage over 16,000 people in the clean energy transition at municipal level energy use – including electricity, heating and cooling in buildings, transportation, and waste. 14 local governments committed to the clean energy transition. We supported these governments by building a regional 100% renewable energy transition plan, a roadmap for their clean energy transition. Getting the policy passed in Trail, BC, using deep canvassing, was the last stop to achieving this big geographic clean energy sea change.
Learn more about the 100% Renewable Kootenays campaign.
The West Kootenays is the largest geographic area in North America committed to 100% renewable energy across community energy use
3. We’re making a difference across the continent together
We know using deep canvassing as a core campaign strategy works to change community conversations for the long term. That’s why we’ve been sharing our learnings and emerging best practices. While we are regularly running customized trainings for groups across the continents, over the past two years, we’ve had more formal partnership and trained groups in rural, small town, and suburban communities to effectively use deep canvassing to build support for clean energy in their campaigns.
In Alberta, we partnered with Alberta Talks to build support for ending tax breaks to oil and gas companies in key Calgary suburban neighbourhoods in the lead up to the 2023 election.
Neighbours United trains Alberta Talk in the Calgary suburbs to talk about unfair tax breaks to oil and gas companies
We’re working with Ohio Citizen Action to stop the spread of dis and misinformation to get solar farms built across Ohio in rural counties. We’re training them to use deep canvassing to resolve the misinformation and build support.
A rural county in Michigan has the opportunity to revive manufacturing with the prospect of a semiconductor advanced manufacturing site. We trained a local group, Rural Michigan Action Alliance, to have conversations in this divided community to identify community benefits and overcome misinformation.
Deep canvassing training in Michigan
And in Maine, we worked with Our Power Maine to develop a deep canvassing script that built support for taking the private utility and making it owned by the people of Maine.
As more groups approach Neighbours United to build out their deep canvassing programs, we’re rising to the challenge of supporting strategic campaigns.
We have big plans in 2025 and beyond to keep winning key climate, energy and nature policies backed by durable public support. We also want to help even more groups learn our strategies to win their campaigns. If you can make a gift to help expand this work, you’ll make a focused and strategic impact that builds grassroots power. Thanks for considering Neighbours United in your giving.