New research from Faunalytics shows how conservative political values in the United States can align with initiatives to help animals at both the state and national levels. The report identifies which animal causes are most likely to gain support from conservative lawmakers, and offers guidance on how to frame messaging to better influence cultural change and encourage pro-animal actions among conservatives.

Animal protection goals can align with many values important to U.S. conservatives, according to this new research, which included an analysis of 71 conservative values and issues. Faunalytics found that 22 of these values could help animal advocates frame animal issues in ways that resonate across political lines. Key values include health, economic fairness, freedom of speech, and family and community. 

When considering new legislation, Republican lawmakers are often most influenced by economic arguments, such as concerns over taxpayer money wasted on unnecessary animal research. However, conservative priorities like economic freedom and constitutional rights can sometimes conflict with animal protection efforts. While legislation supporting companion animals tends to gain the most support from Republicans, there has also been some backing for bills related to wild and farmed animals, suggesting potential for bipartisan progress.

Key findings and recommendations, including details on how to apply these findings, can be found in the full report: https://faunalytics.org/bridging-u-s-conservative-values-and-animal-protection/

Faunalytics is now hiring a research director! As one of the leaders of our organization, the Research Director is responsible for our Original Research and Research Support programs. Read our job posting to learn more about the position and how to apply. https://faunalytics.org/job-posting-research-director/ 

The nonprofit sector accounts for over 12 million U.S. jobs, and yet access to reliable compensation data is rather limited for social service organizations, especially for niche sectors like animal protection. To help ensure pay equity, new research from non-profit research organization Faunalytics explores salaries, benefits, and attitudes towards pay in the farmed animal protection movement. 

After reviewing nearly 400 jobs from 40 U.S. organizations, the study found that marginalized individuals working for farmed animal advocacy organizations (BIPOC, disabled, or LGBTQ2IA+ people) only earned 85 cents to the dollar as compared to non-marginalized employees. This pay gap was statistically significant, even when accounting for job level and years of experience. Marginalized people are more likely to want to leave the movement for better pay: 45% of them would be open to doing so, as compared to 29% of non-marginalized individuals. 

While this pay gap is not unique to farmed animal protection organizations, this groundbreaking study unearths the data necessary to make improvements for nonprofit employees. The report offers a detailed salary breakdown — which includes salary percentiles by job level and type, organizational revenue size, comparisons to other nonprofit sectors, and more — is a must-read for any leader looking for reliable benchmarks to make informed decisions for their staff.

“This study is critical to ensuring the animal protection movement can become more equitable,” says Dr. Andrea Polanco, lead author of the study, “we can’t create fair pay practices without first knowing how much we pay people in the movement.” The report comes complete with a cost-of-turnover calculator which can be used by non-profit leaders to estimate how expensive it is to replace employees, some of whom might leave jobs for higher pay. Polanco adds that she hopes this report will encourage funders and executive directors to support animal nonprofits in creating salaries on par with the whole nonprofit sector. 

High Impact Professionals is excited to announce that applications are open for the next round of our Impact Accelerator Program (IAP). 

The IAP is a free, cause area agnostic, 6-week program designed to equip experienced (mid-career/senior) impact-focused professionals not currently working at a high-impact organization with the knowledge and tools necessary to make a meaningful impact and empower them to start taking actionable steps right away. 

✅ The IAP is set up to help participants:

• identify paths to impact, 
• take concrete, impactful actions, and
• join a network of like-minded, experienced, and supportive impact-focused professionals.

🗓️ Important Dates

• Deadline to apply: Thursday, September 5 → Apply here
• Program duration: 6 weeks (week of October 28 – week of December 2, 2024)​

📋 Format

• Weekly individual work (2–3 hours). A mix of:
  • Learning: Reading resources on how to think about and prioritize different options for impact
  • Doing: Taking impactful actions, such as developing your own personalized impact plan and taking concrete steps to begin implementing it
• Virtual group sessions (1.5 hours of discussions and coaching)
  • Includes mastermind sessions where each member of the cohort has the opportunity to present their plans, obstacles, and uncertainties and get in-depth, tailored feedback
• 1-on-1 sessions with IAP facilitators
• Extracurricular sessions: The possibility of extra sessions on topics defined by the needs of the cohort (e.g., financial considerations, networking)
• Post-program support sessions: Access additional group sessions in the months following the program to maintain momentum and continue implementing your plan

🚀 Apply now

If you know anyone for whom the IAP could be a good fit, please share this information with them!

Any comments or questions? Please reach out to us via our website.

Faunalytics is now accepting applications for our Content Manager! Our Content Manager is responsible for overseeing and maintaining Faunalytics’ Research Library, supporting other team members with developing and editing public-facing content, and working alongside the Content Director to drive the overall vision and execution of Faunalytics’ content plan. Apply to be our next Content Manager by July 31st!

https://faunalytics.org/job-posting-content-manager/

Vegan author and bodybuilder Robert Cheeke is releasing a book later this month called The Impactful Vegan.

Here's part of the blurb:

Inspired by the effective altruism movement, The Impactful Vegan teaches readers how to audit their impact and follow methods that have been scrutinized, evaluated, and determined to do the most good for animals.

The book has a website here.

Shameless self-promotion If you pre-order or purchase the book from this link 10% of the money you spend will go to Animal Charity Evaluators. None of the affiliate money goes to me. I'm not in a position to be able to donate to ACE, so I came up with this.

It's part of a project I call "Kale Raiser." My affiliate store is here. It's mostly cookbooks, but there are some books about veganism also. The project's website is here. You can follow me on X/Twitter here.

I hope to be able to offer other products in the future, and all of the money I generate will go to ACE!

✴️ Impact Accelerator Program deadline announcement ✴️

At High Impact Professionals, we know how busy working professionals are, so we’ve extended the deadline to give everyone a bit more time to apply to the Impact Accelerator Program (IAP).

👉 A**pplication Deadline: End of day Sunday, May 26 **👈

✅ Program Dates: Free, 6-week program starting the week of July 15

🔀 IAP Differentiators:

• Action-focused: Designed to support you on your journey to a high-impact career by giving you the tools and resources to develop a personalized plan and take concrete action to implement it.
• Participants: Become part of a network of experienced (usually mid-career/senior) professionals who are looking to maximize the positive impact they can have with their career.

🚀 Join the list of IAP participants by applying today.

➡️ More information on the IAP can be found here.

https://preview.redd.it/t3itc5nn8x1d1.png?width=1200&format=png&auto=webp&s=ed4f5afce3e06e344c219b8a2071ab77b9775658

https://preview.redd.it/2u5475wbd6zc1.png?width=1200&format=png&auto=webp&s=ef82910d42c56d3de7e35e45171fdaf802802ba2

High Impact Professionals is excited to announce that applications are open for the next round of our Impact Accelerator Program (IAP). 

The IAP is a free, cause area agnostic, 6-week program designed to equip experienced (usually mid-career/senior) Effective Altruism (EA) aligned professionals not currently working at an EA organization with the knowledge and tools necessary to make a meaningful impact and empower them to start taking actionable steps right away. 

✅ The IAP is set up to help participants:

• identify paths to impact, 
• take concrete, impactful actions, and
• join a network of like-minded, experienced, and supportive EA professionals.

🗓️ Important Dates

• Deadline to apply: May 23 → Apply here
• Program duration: 6 weeks (week of July 15 – week of August 19, 2024)​

📋 Format

• Weekly individual work (2–3 hours). A mix of:
  • Learning: Reading resources on how to think about and prioritize different options for impact
  • Doing: Taking impactful actions, such as developing your own personalized impact plan and taking concrete steps to begin implementing it
• Virtual group sessions (1.5 hours of discussions and coaching)
  • Includes mastermind sessions where each member of the cohort has the opportunity to present their plans, obstacles, and uncertainties and get in-depth, tailored feedback
• 1-on-1 sessions with IAP facilitators
• Extracurricular sessions: The possibility of extra sessions on topics defined by the needs of the cohort (e.g., financial considerations, networking)
• Post-program support sessions: Access additional group sessions in the months following the program to maintain momentum and continue implementing your plan

🚀 Apply now 🚀

If you know anyone for whom the IAP could be a good fit, please share this information with them!

Any comments or questions? Please reach out to us via our website.

Hi everyone! The Faunalytics team is conducting our annual Community Survey, where we evaluate our impact and get candid feedback about our animal advocacy resources. If you’ve ever used our work or are familiar with what we do, we’d be grateful if you could take a few minutes to give us your thoughts here:

https://carletonpsych.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_4YPg7T0JrDyQKV0?src=smred 

Thank you in advance for your help!

The nonprofit sector, including the animal advocacy movement, often uses data and research to improve their tactics to create positive change in the world. Now, Faunalytics has published a research paper that investigates exactly how research is used by animal advocacy organizations. In particular, the report discovers the research needs of advocates, like more accessible material, summaries, and reports on how to effect change. These findings will be of interest to animal advocates, researchers, and those interested in the science of effecting change.

“Advocates are clear about what they need: clear, understandable, and reliable data,” says project supervisor Dr. Jo Anderson, “As this project demonstrates, advocates are the experts on the needs of their organizations, and researchers must work closely with them to create impactful studies that meet those needs.” She adds that she is excited about the five uses of research, as detailed in an accompanying visual explainer, which will help organizations more mindfully plan projects to benefit the advocates themselves.

Key Findings:

1. Research and evidence in animal advocacy can be categorized in terms of five purposes: external legitimacy, internal decision-making, building partnerships, catalyzing action, and identifying problems and solutions.
2. Most organizations and audiences see peer-reviewed publications and the research behind them as the gold standard for rigor. Government and industry research is often seen as biased, but also the basis for the dominant systems and narratives and thus cannot be ignored.
3. Organizations need evidence syntheses that provide a ‘state of the state’ on specific topics, including agreement on key facts and figures when possible, as well as detailed annotated bibliographies, exhaustive literature reviews, or similar extensive summaries of the current state of the knowledge on general topics.
4. The most foundational gaps in the evidence base are related to how to effect change, especially regarding under-researched species and geographies. More social science research and knowledge translation is needed on the impact and efficacy of behavioral nudges on one hand and social movement tactics on the other.
5. Challenges to using existing research include having the time and expertise to translate complexity and ambiguity in research findings into actionable information. More evidence is needed from evaluation and internal data collection about tactics that work AND tactics that do not work to achieve intended outcomes.

As a result of the findings, Faunalytics has decided to enact a few program-wide changes. In 2024, the organization will improve its research strategy by working on agenda-setting in collaboration with other researchers. The organization will accelerate their content by increasing how many external papers it summarizes and publishes and will launch new series to explain the science behind advocacy tactics and how peer-review works in academia. And finally, Faunalytics will expand its reach and accessibility by creating more short-form, visual content with each study to improve its reach.

This report is the latest addition to Faunalytics’ original research collection, which serves to benefit the animal advocacy movement and improve its tactics. A list of upcoming and previous original studies can be found here.