2024 Animal Advocacy Strategy Forum (Rethink Priorities)

Thirty-two participants gathered in May 2024 for this year’s Animal Advocacy Strategy Forum (AASF), an event designed for animal advocacy leaders to connect and strategize.

Among others, participants identified as prominent challenges skepticism from part of the public and from some key decision-makers about plant-based products, tactical issues in corporate outreach work, the movement’s lack of coordination and its lack of focus on developing long-term theories of change.

As a result, five projects to address key challenges faced by the movement were launched, four of which were active as of September 2024 (one was on hold).

AASF participants were also surveyed on their opinions on the state of the animal advocacy movement and the** directions it should take in the future**. 29/32 participants responded to the survey.

State of the movement

• Respondents believed that the most significant problems for organizations in the movement were their lack of coordination and their funding situation (both diversity and total amount).
• The most commonly mentioned external threats facing the movement were: economic and political headwinds (9/29) and insufficient buy-in from the general public and funders (7/29).

Future direction

• Regarding resource allocation:
  • Respondents believed that movement resources over the next five years should be primarily allocated to Asia (Mean allocation=33%) and ‘Western’ countries (32%, or 39% when including Eastern European countries)
  • Hens, broilers, and farmed fish were the three animal groups that received the highest allocations (Mean allocations, respectively 18%, 15%, and 13%).
  • Respondents prioritized targeting businesses (Mean allocation=32%), the movement itself (26%), and governments (25%) over the greater public (17%).
• When asked what types of work the movement should start and stop doing in the next five years, respondents said it should begin doing various movement-strengthening activities (17/29 respondents), and suggested specific actions to stop doing, of which the only recurring one was de-emphasizing veganism (6/29).
• Milestones the movement should attempt to achieve over the next five to ten years were most frequently Policy wins (17/57 milestones submitted) and Internal-facing milestones that concerned areas of improvement for the movement (17/57).
• A majority of respondents agreed that the following types of talent will be increasingly needed over the next five years: Government and policy and/or lobbying expertise, Management, Fundraising, Campaigning, and Expertise on the developing world or specific neglected but populous countries.

Please note that some key takeaways from the event are currently not publicly available due to information sensitivities, but can be provided upon request by emailing elisa@rethinkpriorities.org.