Despite what you all think, door to door canvassing is extremely effective and been in use for many decades. The model works. That’s why they use it.
Comments like “well meaning” are a bit condescending. She has done more good than many of us will ever.
Unfortunately, the “why not” is because dishonest people also knock under the guise of being an innocent solicitor/canvasser/petitioner/lost person. A couple of years ago, the sheriff’s office warned us about a version of home invasion where one of the members of the group would engage the homeowner at the front door (pretending to be any one of a number of innocent things) and kept the homeowner talking while the rest of the thieves went around the back of the house, breaking in and robbing the house.
I like my privacy. If the person at my front door is someone I know, of course I let them in. But random strangers that show up unannounced are frankly being rude, they’re unwelcome and could reasonably even pose a threat. I resent it and that’s not a good basis on which to build sympathy for a cause.
I open the door. If it is something sketchy or that I do not agree with, I just say no thank you. We do still get Boy Scouts selling popcorn and local kids selling cookie dough. Now and then we get a political call, like to vote for a candidate or sign a petition. I have given water to Mormon missionaries, but don’t engage them in conversation. If it is something that really strikes me wrong, I’ll call neighbors on the street or even the police (we live in a small town). Many people post on Nextdoor if someone odd knocks.
In our old, Midwestern town, I would open the door to kids who had missed the bus or got locked out of the house and take in escaped dogs. It makes me sad that I don’t get those kinds of knocks any more.
Again, it’s been a successful model for many years. So I guess it’s been a good enough basis.
^I do understand that your D has made a change and that is a wonderful thing!
Most posting are saying they do not feel safe. H thought I was wrong for not opening the door and he opened the door to a young man who was selling cleaning supplies and started squirting our porch with his product. H could not get away and I had to firmly intervene.
The last time H opened the door it was a woman asking for water. H came into the house with her water bottle and filled it. He then could not get away from her as she began ranting about our city’s water supply. I was not involved until he told me about her behavior which indicated mental illness. I called the non emergency number and they responded and found her and resolved the issue (not sure exactly how). The officer came by at 11 at night and gave us the information plus that she was not from around the area and was planning on sleeping in our neighborhood–perhaps hoping to be asked in by someone or in her car. While this might have helped her it was also scary. After she left our lane she parked at the end of it until the officers came. We did not know if she was casing our place or why she was parked within sight of our house.
A long way to say we never open the door and use ring to see who is knocking.
Top of a shared dirt driveway in a sparser area here. We don’t get any trick-or-treaters either! We do get religious canvassers and many many campaign workers in season.
We have dogs. They’re very affectionate and very alert. I want them to let me know what’s going on but would never sic them on someone. The top half of my door is glass. The dogs reach it way before I do, and they’re jumpers. When standing they are both eye-level with an adult, and have dark coats and very white teeth. Quite startling to the person on the porch, but fortunately they’re barking well before they reach the door so some poor soul doesn’t have the shock of them showing up in their faces without some warning. I don’t want to scare anyone.
I screen my calls too. I do actively seek out and initiate efforts and donations on behalf of many important causes, but I don’t want to be approached about them in my home. I just want to control the input to my little world (says the introvert who never liked drop-ins from friends or family either).
Edited, because I mistakenly talked about adults with dark coats. 
Well, I’m going to bow out now, but without me posting, this thread will be fifty people agreeing with each other. Just thought another perspective might be welcome. (And community organizing --what canvassing is, has a long and honorable history.)
One of the benefits of living in the country is that we get no solicitors, ever. But when we lived in MA, we got them frequently. I’d always open the door and find out what they wanted.
If it was JW or Mormons, I’d argue a bit.
If it was people asking for political donations or signatures, or people selling solar panels, I’d decline.
Girl scouts and kids selling stuff for their club/sport/new bleachers at school, I’d buy. But those ex-convicts selling magazine subscriptions made me furious. It always struck me as a make-work ploy. Rather than teaching these young men actual skills, the organizations that employed them would dump them in affluent neighborhoods, warn them that white people might be scared of black ex-cons with tattoos, so they’d better knock once, then leap down a few steps so as not to intimidate those racist homeowners, then launch into some selling spiel for a slew of magazines no one wanted to buy.
Garland- many of us have busy lives and may deal with people all day long. When we come home for the few hours we have, we might want to relax, eat a meal, watch some TV or visit with our spouses. Despite your daughter’s good intentions, many folks don’t want this time to be interrupted by a stranger pushing something- whatever it might be. I’ll muster up a smile and write a check for a neighbor kid, but that’s about it.
At least “no thank you” is better than what one of our neighbors used to do on multiple occasions whenever the neighborhood kids came by with Girl Scout cookies, wrapping paper etc – she always claimed that she’d “just moved the refrigerator in front of the door to clean it.”
Be sure to never give cash. I’ve been told people knocking often just keep the cash themselves.
If I haven’t invited you over I don’t feel obligated to have to hear your spiel.
All solicitations get the same treatment:
Door to door - a polite no thank you
Email - Immediate delete
Mail - into the recycling without even opening the envelope.
Phone calls - hang up.
I look at the ones that come in the mail.
I don’t open my door to strangers for any reason, and I don’t care how wonderful their cause is.
My thinking is “if I want your product or I want to donate to your cause, I will find you. You don’t need to solicit me”.
I don’t really care how well intentioned someone is or how great the cause. If you show up at my home uninvited it’s not my job to assume benign intent until proven otherwise. If you want to educate you can send flyers or set up a booth at the local shopping center. Disturbing me in the middle of whatever I happen to be doing because it’s a time that’s convenient for you isn’t going to make me want to listen to your spiel.
I find these visits intrusive. I think the organizations are banking on the fact that many residents will be too polite to close the door without hearing about whatever cause their people are pushing. I don’t think it’s any different than the tactics used by those businesses that encourage women to sell to all their neighbors and friends. They’re depending on people’s reluctance to appear rude and unfriendly to get their foot in the door. If they weren’t, they’d get to the point (“I’m here to support x cause, here’s some information that might interest you”) instead of trying to engage me in conversation.
I don’t tend to engage either with people coming unannounced to my door . Little kids with a parent in tow looking like they’re selling cookies, popcorn, etc. , I have been known to step outside onto the porch and listen to their spiel (and buy). I got burned by a teenager decades ago selling candy bars by himself and claiming he needed the money up front to deliver. Gave him the money and never got my candy. Lesson learned.
I keep my storm door locked and wave off most people. I have opened to Jehovah Witnesses , political canvassers once in a while long enough to take the info but don’t engage much. I don’t like people coming to my door unannounced, period. And I do have concerns that some young people may be being exploited with some of these door to door things. If I want to give to a charity, cause, campaign, I want to give on my own and without undue pressure from strangers.
I’m seldom bothered by unexpected knocks on the door, despite living in a populated area. We have a very explicit “no soliciting” sign that excludes everyone but friends, family, and girl scouts. It seems to have worked. While we’ve never reported solicitors to the police, we know there are others in our neighborhood who have, so maybe word got around.
Growing up, my parents would never take fundraising stuff to work or ask family/friends. I had to go door to door and beg. I hated it with every fiber of my being. With my kids, I just bought tons of crap I didn’t need so they wouldn’t have to do that.
People don’t regularly ring our doorbell, but if it looks like a kid (college aged or younger) I definitely open the door and try to take pity on them if I can
Older people, it does depend. I do get the safety thing, especially since we live on a main road and have a lot of “characters” walking by. I wouldn’t answer a door for a strange man if I was home alone. But one thing about safety and NOT answering the door… We had a problem in our city with burglaries. And what they did was have 1 person ring the doorbell. If nobody answered, then the friends would break in from back. If someone answered, they pretended to have some bogus reasons for being there
We always buy the fundraisers from our neighbor kids. Our street only has 14 houses. The kids or parents usually call first to let us know what is being sold…and find out when it’s convenient for the kids to come by. I don’t buy from stranger kids.
I think door to door solicitation and marketing is on the decline. Think about the south where there are all gated communities. Or condos where you can’t get easy access. Or just regular neighborhoods where folks are more reluctant to just open their doors to strangers.
Yes in this day and age it’s a safety thing. I went door to door for various school fundraisers etc also as a kid. . In Chicago our local neighborhood watch with our local police department states to not open the door for anyone you don’t know due to uptick of burglaries, crime, etc. I live in a nice area about 6 blocks west of Wrigley Field . The Cubs have paid security car’s driving around helping the local police.
If I am walking my dog later at night it’s not unusual to have one of the car’s pass by, wave or say hello so you know they are around. My area is actually very safe but the times are not.
Most people selling something would go to one of our busy business streets and have better luck getting people to sign all sorts of stuff. Girl scouts are out selling their cookies etc also.