Project summary

Connect For Animals is a free, nonprofit platform for people who want to help end factory farming.

We think that most people who care about farmed animals don't have easy ways to get involved in "right fit" advocacy, which results in most of our people power going to waste. Our mission is to find, connect, and empower these people who want to help end factory farming. By doing this, we think we can significantly increase animal advocacy, increase the overall people power of our movement, and reduce veg*n recidivism.

All of our functionality can be found on our website and through our weekly Events Digest email newsletter. Users who sign up can find events, discover animal advocacy organizations, find ways to take action, meet people in their local area, and more.

What are this project's goals? How will you achieve them?

Our vision is that everyone who wants to get involved in the movement to end factory farming can find ways to get connected on Connect For Animals, increasing the overall power of the movement. Here are some of the specific subgoals that we target:

1. Increased awareness of and attendance at pro-animal events: We aggregate pro-animal events from hundreds of organizations and local groups, putting them on our website, sending them out through our weekly Events Digest email newsletter, and making them available for sharing within other communities like the Hive Slack workspace.

2. Increased awareness of and engagement with advocacy organizations: On our website, we have data for over 2,000 pro-animal groups, from international nonprofits all the way down to local vegan and animal advocacy Meetup groups. We feature a different organization in every Events Digest newsletter, and we show people groups that align with their interest and their geographic location. Our goal is for this awareness to lead to greater volunteering, greater action, and greater donations.

3. Increased advocacy: We are starting to aggregate and promote specific actions that people can take to help bring about the end of factory farming. In addition to listing them on our website (a work in progress), we have a new "Featured Action" space in our Events Digest newsletter to nudge people to take action. (The actions are usually related to specific campaigns from other nonprofits.)

4. Increased connection: Connect For Animals users can create profiles and discover other pro-animal people with similar interests or who live in the same area. Although this is a relatively new feature, we will keep expanding it and make it easier for people to find social support, collaborators for projects, and more.

Right now, we are working on (1) expanding our platform (including the upcoming release of a mobile app), (2) growing the number of users (mostly in the US and Canada for now), and (3) creating a solid financial foundation for the organization.

How will this funding be used?

This funding will be used for ongoing support of critical staff and services. We already have funding dedicated specifically to product development, so funding from Manifund will support the rest of the organization's expenses (Executive Director salary, operations contractor, software and hosting expenses, etc.).

Who is on your team? What's your track record on similar projects?

I (Steven Rouk) am the founder and Executive Director. I've been involved in animal advocacy for the last 10 years, working on a variety of projects, including working as a data analyst and researcher full-time at a large international animal advocacy nonprofit (Mercy For Animals) for two years. I have also contributed to EA organizations and the EA community (money, time, research, and ideas).

Connect For Animals is the largest project like this I have undertaken, but there are many projects both within and outside of the animal advocacy space that I have started and had success with. I think the best evidence for my track record at this point is the growth of Connect For Animals over the last 12 months.

We also have (1) an experienced developer who is contracting with us part-time for product development, (2) talented product designers contributing on a volunteer basis, (3) an operations consultant to assistant with bookkeeping and other back office tasks, and (4) a team of talented and dedicated volunteers helping with data management, marketing, and other projects.

Finally our board of directors and advisory board include highly experienced animal advocates and EA-aligned individuals, and our funders also provide important guidance for our work.

What are the most likely causes and outcomes if this project fails?

The most likely cause of failure may be the failure to establish an adequate funding base to support the desired scale of the work. Our work is very different from most types of animal advocacy work, with a less common theory of change, and we exist in a meta/movement building space that can be more difficult to fundraise for.

In the case of failing to establish an adequate financial base for the organization, Connect For Animals would still have positive impact, but it would never fully rise to the level of the desired impact due to lack of funds for staff, marketing expenses, technology expenses, etc., and it may eventually be shut down or continue existing in a minimal state.

Connect For Animals has a sliding scale of positive impact, though—it's not all or nothing. We are already having a positive impact with the work, and will continue to have more of an impact as we grow, regardless of if we ever accomplish the full vision.

What other funding are you or your project getting?

We are supported by grants from a couple of pro-animal foundations, as well as donations from individual supporters.