CALPIRG Reviews

The organizers were over zealous and at the end of the campaign I felt taken advantage of. We were running a campaign on a college campus and they would obviously judge volunteers and interns who chose not to volunteer every waking second of their lives. I literally heard a volunteer say they had to cancel their shift because they had a big paper they had to write for class and the organizer responded with the words, "Well, if that's where your priorities are." Those words on their own are benign enough, yet they were said in a way that obviously judged the student for not choosing to volunteer. At the time I devoted myself completely because I thought the cause was just that important, that we were helping to save the world. Afterwords I wondered why I had let my life get so consumed.

Fundraising (Pledge) drives are VERY HARD and often you'll have to leave your chapter to help another one that did not hit it's goal. You work an 80+ hour week standing on your campus with your interns asking students to chip in money to keep your chapter alive every quarter or semester. During the Summers (70-80 hour work weeks) you have to canvass (knocking on doors or standing on the street) raising money for campaigns. It's great training but very very brutal. You feel like a sales person. There is very poor retention mostly due to long hours and little pay. They start you at less than 30k a year and will keep you there for a while.