Peter Wood
Peter Wood was hired in Durham, North Carolina by Carolina Action in 1975 to create a door-to-door canvass operation to support Carolina Action’s organizing. The canvass quickly became a significant fundraising tool fueling CA’s expansion statewide, and in 1978, to Atlanta, GA. Carolina Action merged with ACORN in 1979-1980 and Wood became ACORN’s National Canvass Director, managing fundraising operations in a dozen ACORN cities. In 1984, he turned the canvass operation over to Pat McCoy, and Peter began working as the Executive Director of Brooklyn ACORN’s Mutual Housing of New York (MHANY). Peter organized the redevelopment, financing and eventual occupancy of MHANY’s first development of 180 housing units for low and moderate income ACORN members in Brooklyn. This interview may be of interest to those who want to learn about setting up canvass/fundraising operations and managing non-profit low and moderate income housing developments.