Announcing An Exciting New Chapter For Faunalytics

“What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”
– Jane Goodall

Animal protection has been my passion for as long as I can remember, as natural and important to me as the air I breathe. I started volunteering for animal-related organizations in high school, and as a college student I became completely immersed in grassroots activism. I’d spend my weekends advocating across a range of animal issues, promoting veganism, local wildlife protections, and California’s Proposition 2 (a precursor to Proposition 12), and campaigning against issues like foie gras and puppy mills. Growing up in a small town, I’d only met one vegan in my entire life, and never knew there was an entire movement advocating for animals. I’d found my community, and my purpose in the world became crystal clear.

While in grad school studying Human Behavior (something I was fascinated by but hadn’t a clue how to turn into a career), I knew I wanted my master’s thesis to focus on animals. My advisor supported the idea but his advice was limited. He didn’t know a thing about research related to animal advocacy, and neither did I. I had never heard of Faunalytics (back then known as the Humane Research Council).

I ended up researching something that Faunalytics had already begun studying: what do people think about animal issues, and what demographics and psychographics indicate that someone is more likely to support animal advocacy? Faunalytics’ Animal Tracker focused on just that, but it’d be several years still until I learned about their treasure trove of research on this, and many other topics.

Fast forward to late 2018. I was looking for my next role after focusing on volunteer mobilization supporting California’s historic Prop 12 coalition. A friend forwarded me Faunalytics’ newsletter. I couldn’t believe it – an organization whose sole purpose was animal advocacy research?! I hadn’t just found my community; I found my home.

What We’ve Built At Faunalytics

“Hiring Brooke for the Faunalytics ED role was easily the best decision our board has ever made. The organization is now stronger, better resourced, and more respected than ever, with a staff culture that’s second to none. Brooke is leaving Faunalytics in a wonderful place. As its founder, I’m incredibly grateful and proud of what she and the team have accomplished in the past 8 years.”
– Che Green, Faunalytics’ Founder & Board Treasurer

After working with Faunalytics’ visionary founder and former Executive Director Che Green for over a year, I stepped into the leadership role in January of 2020. And it is with a heart full of gratitude and pride that I can look back and say: leading Faunalytics has been an honor.

We were small and scrappy when I joined the team. With a staff of four and a tiny budget, we made a lot happen with very little. We had two solid programs (conducting Original Research and curating our Research Library), but we hadn’t fully developed our Research Support program. My colleagues karol orzechowski and Jo Anderson helped me plant seeds for what we’d become, and like a flower field in springtime, we slowly started to bloom and grow more and more each year.

We now have a brilliant team of 13 and growing, over 40 dedicated volunteers, and a budget to support a much more robust portfolio of research (though we still have so much room for funding!). We’ve built strong, ongoing partnerships with groups like the Good Growth Co. and Bryant Research to pool resources and expertise to do even more for the movement. Collaboration is, after all, one of our core values.

Over the last seven years we’ve published nearly 60 original studies and analyses that inform and guide animal advocacy. Our research has answered vital questions, like how many animals are slaughtered for food? How many are used in research? How do we stop the wildlife trade? What animal products cause the most days of suffering? What impact do sanctuaries have beyond their walls? What U.S. states are ripe for welfare legislation? How do we effectively engage politicians? Where do most farming subsidies actually go? How do we stop the spread of Big Ag? How do we support advocacy in the Global South? What does the media say about animal ag and climate change? How do we work with environmentalists? What advocacy interventions actually work? Why do advocates leave the movement, and how can we better support them?

These are questions that went largely if not completely unanswered until Faunalytics grew enough to take them on, and every answer we uncover is a sharper tool in the movement’s toolbox.

Meanwhile our Research Library surpassed 5,000 entries, and then 6,000, and we’ve more than tripled our Fundamentals and infographics collection. Our newest resource, the AI-powered Faunalytics Lens, delivers quick access to vetted, synthesized research on any topic our work has covered, in multiple languages, providing advocates with a reliable go-to tool for effective animal advocacy.

Our Research Support program has flourished. Via our Office Hours we’ve provided 1:1 guidance to nearly 800 advocates. Our Ambassador outreach project has introduced our work to over 100 smaller groups who weren’t on our radar (stay tuned for a reimagining of this program, coming next year!). Our symposium Fauna Connections has brought the academic and advocacy communities together. Our RECAP community has built connections among those studying animal advocacy, and now we’re working on a new initiative to create a coordinated, movement-wide research agenda.

We’ve also done much more to expand the accessibility of our resources and inclusiveness of our movement. We launched a translated resources hub. We published our Animal & Social Justice Fundamental. Our research on compensation in the movement found that advocates from marginalized groups earned 85 cents for every dollar that a non-marginalized advocate makes. We created a compensation algorithm to ensure our salaries are equitable. And we created a robust Fundraising Plan that included lifting other organizations up, because we’re all in this movement together.

I am so deeply proud of the impact we’ve made. 97% of advocates say our work is high quality and 83% say our work is either extremely or very valuable to improving animal advocacy. 60% of our audience reports that Faunalytics’ work has helped them reduce suffering and save animal lives, which is incredibly meaningful to us as a capacity-building organization.

I’m in awe of what my team has built. Our organizational culture is like no other – I’ve seen our staff and board support and uplift one another in ways I’ve never seen at any other organization. We established our vision and values together, we reimagined our Theory of Change together, and we set out on a new Strategic Plan together. And all the while, despite the urgency of this work and the horror behind the industries we’re up against, we’ve built Faunalytics with a spirit of collaboration and compassion.

I’m also immensely grateful for the opportunities this position has given me personally. I was humbled to contribute an essay to the book Antiracism in Animal Advocacy: Igniting Cultural Transformation. I had the privilege of delivering a keynote speech at PHAIR’s biennial conference. I’ve shared the stage with advocates around the world, talking about issues in leadership, fundraising, and collaboration. I’ve served on committees and I’ve been invited into rooms with leaders I’ve admired for years. I’ve laughed and danced and cried with other advocates, each and every one inspiring me, every day, to keep going. To say I am proud, to say I am grateful, are understatements.

What This Work Asks Of Us

“Our sector is complicated. On one hand, this work is fulfilling and meaningful and it is a privilege to be able to do it. On the other hand, it can be soul-crushingly stressful. It consumes us.”
– Vu Le, Nonprofit AF

Animal advocacy can be demanding, heartbreaking work. We are trying to change the world and we are up against powerful industries, well-financed corporations, long-standing social norms, and archaic systems and ways of thinking. We are underfunded, and every year billions if not trillions of lives are at stake. We ask so much of our people, and that includes leaders.

At the inaugural Animal & Vegan Advocacy Summit (AVA), Monica Chen (New Roots Institute), Ana Bradley (Sentient), and I took to the stage to talk openly about the challenges that come with leadership. If you weren’t there for our talk, the Tennessee Nonprofit Network’s series on this topic (part 1, part 2) paints a solid picture of the ED experience: “There were moments of intense exhilaration, of course, the kind that comes with knowing you’re making a tangible impact on the lives of others. But those moments were often intertwined with feelings of isolation, of self-doubt, of being utterly overwhelmed by the sheer weight of responsibility.”

After our talk at AVA, we were thrilled to see the formation of The Leadership Exchange (peer learning and support groups facilitated by Sharpen Strategy), as well as more leaders engaging executive coaches to aid their growth. Supports like these are invaluable when it comes to combatting isolation and uncertainty – having a sounding board when navigating particularly challenging situations (often HR-related) is incredibly meaningful.

But still, I’ve seen fellow leaders in our movement quietly leave their roles, one after the other after the other. When I recently looked at LinkedIn profiles of over 20 of my peers who had come and gone during my time in this role, the average ED tenure was just four years. Faunalytics has since published research on the topic of leadership turnover in hopes that boards and funders will do more to support leaders in our movement.

I’m lucky. I’d been an ED before, so I knew what the position would ask of me and I had lived experience to guide me. I’ve had a great team and a supportive board. I’m in a leadership support group. I have an executive coach. Faunalytics’ PTO package allowed me to take time off while grieving a personal loss earlier this year. But even with these supports and the insights that came with them, the weight and responsibility of leadership takes a heavy toll.

“Depleted individuals cannot make the change for a more just world” (SSIR), and one of the most meaningful things boards and funders can do is provide/support paid sabbatical leave policies, with sabbaticals available before burnout has run its course. In addition to increasing well-being in leaders, sabbaticals increase organizational capacity, strengthen board governance, and support succession planning. Get started now (literally right now) by checking out this research and this guide.

This movement, our cause, is a decades-long fight. And I think every advocate deserves to know that if they need to rest, they’re far from alone. So while I couldn’t be more proud of my time with Faunalytics, many things can be true at once: I’m grateful for these last eight years, I love this organization, and I’m also ready for a break and then a change. Rest itself can be productive and life-changing, as it allows us to dive back into this work with our whole hearts. That’s my intention – because this cause is too important, and we have much to do for the animals.

Turning The Page

“Stepping down while things are going well is among the hardest things a leader can do — and the ultimate act of service to their organization and mission.”
– Nick Grono, Freedom Fund

The story doesn’t end here.

I’ve always believed that changes in leadership can be a wonderful thing. New faces ensure an organization’s reputation and success aren’t tied to one person. But more importantly, new leadership infuses fresh ideas and perspectives into an organization. That is what is needed at this moment, because we are on the precipice of a strange new world. The animal protection movement is preparing for a potential influx of funding as we brace for the future of AI and how it might shape our movement. Organizations must remain adaptable, nimble, and creative if we’re to seize this moment.

McKinsey & Company has written about the power of embracing change: “Leading companies today seek to become learning organizations that are continually evolving, exploring, ideating, experimenting, scaling up, executing, scaling down, and exiting across many different activities in parallel. By accelerating change and allowing for positive surprises and innovations to flourish, they consistently outperform those companies that focus instead on always trying to deliver the “perfect” plan.”

It’s because we’re turning the page into an unprecedented new era – and because our organizational health is so strong – that I’m more confident than ever in Faunalytics and our readiness for new leadership. Indeed, the organization is well-positioned to thrive. We have a focused yet ambitious Strategic Plan in place that will time out well with this change. The next leader will start without having to scramble to build a strategy from scratch; they will be able to learn deeply and then dive fully into imagining and actualizing Faunalytics’ future. Our leadership team and staff at large are brilliant and dedicated, the infrastructure of our programs is sound, we’ve improved our ability to capture our impact, and our healthy financial runway will ensure our sustainability during this transition.

It is for all these reasons that I know it is now time to pass the torch. The organization is ready for its next visionary leader. The pages ahead have yet to be written, and I can’t wait to see what happens in the next chapter.

The Story Continues

“The past is written, but the future is left for us to write.”
– Captain Jean-Luc Picard

Faunalytics’ Board of Directors now invites applications for our next Executive Director. If you’re interested in shaping the future of animal advocacy research, you can read the job posting and apply for the position here. We are accepting applications now through October 18th and hope to make an offer in December.

While the Board oversees the search for my successor, my attention will remain focused on ensuring that Faunalytics and our team continue to function at our best. My last day with the organization will be January 15, 2027, and there is plenty to accomplish before then because Faunalytics isn’t slowing down.

It’s bittersweet knowing that the time between now and January will go by in a blink. I’m savoring each moment as I prepare the organization for this change, and also for what comes next in my own career. I don’t yet know where my own story will take me, but I know now that this movement is more than community, it’s my home.

Thank you for the journey. Thank you to each and every advocate (whether you’re an activist, a fellow leader, a donor, a researcher, or a friend) who I’ve had the privilege of working beside these last eight years. I’m so proud to count myself among you and to be part of a movement that gives its all for animals, and will continue to do so, until every cage is empty.

Always for the animals,
Brooke

Note: If you have questions about this change and/or Faunalytics’ current strategy and position, you can reach out to Brooke at [email protected] until January 15th. For questions related to the Executive Director opportunity, please refer to the job posting. Thank you for your interest and support!