Canvassing and Telefundraising

In keeping with Imagine Canada’s Standards Program and best practices for fundraising, our canvassers receive an hourly wage and receive no commission for the supporters they sign up or the dollars they help raise.

Covid-19 update and face-to-face fundraising

After much consideration and careful planning, we decided to relaunch our face-to-face canvassing activities on Aug.19, 2020, starting with a small team in Vancouver. All face-to-face canvassing was previously suspended on March 14, 2020, in keeping with COVID-19 provincial restrictions at that time. We have slowly restarted our campaigns in cities across the country where restrictions have allowed and where public spaces such as restaurants, movie theatres and malls have reopened.

While we rely on our face-to-face fundraising activities as a vital source of revenue for our medical humanitarian operations, we have been very cautious about restarting this activity as the health and safety of both our canvassers and the public is paramount.

All fundraising staff have completed rigorous safety training, are required to wear personal protective equipment and are using contactless payment methods to minimize potential risk of exposure to the virus. Teams must strictly adhere to the social distancing and prevention practices outlined in their respective province or municipality’s public health and safety protocols. This includes frequent hand-washing and regular use of alcohol-based sanitizers, regularly sanitizing materials and tablets, limiting physical exposure and staying home when ill.

The pandemic has presented unprecedented challenges for all of us, and the need to provide medical care to people across the world is as great as ever. We must safely continue to mobilize Canadians to support our work. We understand this is a difficult time for many and only ask for support from people who feel they can do so at this time.

How to identify MSF face-to-face canvassers

You can identify our representatives, who will be on the street, at the mall or going door-to-door, by their photo ID badge and MSF-branded lanyard, vest or shirt. They will often have a laminated brochure or a binder with our logo and information.    

MSF canvassers work with handheld devices (smartphones or tablets) to securely process credit card transactions and capture bank information on the spot, reducing administrative costs and our use of paper forms. All new donors should receive a confirmation email within 24 hours of their donation being processed.

For security reasons, our canvassers are unable to accept cash donations. 

We carry out our fundraising activities across Canada and have slowly reactivated our teams with daily consideration to provincial restrictions. Our teams are active in cities within the following provinces: British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia.

A note on telefundraisers

Questions? 

If you have any questions or concerns, contact our Donor Relations team:

Toll free: 1-800-928-8685

Tel: 416-642-3474

e-mail: DonorRelations@toronto.msf.org

If you would like to learn more about our work, including the relaunch of our face to face fundraising activities, please visit our FAQ page.