Faunalytics’ Research Ambassador Outreach Project: One Year On

At Faunalytics, we believe that animal advocates can achieve more when they have access to clear, trustworthy data. The problem is, many advocates aren’t sure where to begin finding evidence-based insights to inform their work. Furthermore, most research about animal issues — especially farmed animal protection — focuses on the global West. As a result, advocates from major meat-eating regions like Asia and South America may struggle to find insights that apply to the communities they work with.

To address some of these issues, we launched our Research Ambassador Global Outreach Project in 2022. The plan was to recruit a team of passionate animal advocates to deliver customized, up-to-date presentations about animal protection research. These presentations, available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, and Cantonese, have allowed us to empower organizations all over the globe with the best resources available to improve their advocacy. 

Tracking Our Progress One Year Later

Although we originally focused on North America, Latin America, and Asia when the Ambassador Project began in May 2022, in 2023 we expanded our outreach to a worldwide audience. So far, our efforts have been an overwhelming success: during the first year of the project, our ambassadors reached over 560 people from 84 different organizations in at least 27 different countries, and many more have seen the presentations via recordings and social media live streams.

In addition to these impressive data points, we also measured the deeper impact of this project through feedback from the advocates who attended our workshops. We asked audience members to respond to pre- and post-presentation surveys to gauge their understanding and satisfaction of the content. Their insights helped us continue to improve the quality of our presentations. Of the post-presentation survey respondents:

• 94% said they were satisfied with the workshop.
• 95% agreed or strongly agreed that Faunalytics’ research and resources will help guide how they make advocacy decisions.
• 96% indicated that they learned about research relevant to their organization.
• 91% reported that Faunalytics’ research and resources are “very” or “extremely” valuable to improving animal advocacy.

Furthermore, before the presentations, only 11% of people strongly agreed that they understood what Faunalytics does, compared to 72% of people who completed a survey afterward. 

In terms of the resources we offer, our pre-presentation questionnaire found that only 17% of attendees were aware of the existence of our office hours. However, after talking to the ambassadors, 75% of respondents stated that they learned a lot about this resource. The same trend was found with other resources such as our Research Library and Fundamentals, with knowledge increasing from 35% to 72% and 31% to 73%, respectively.

In addition to this overwhelmingly positive feedback, the advocates who participated in the first year of our project also plan to use our resources in the following ways:

• 84% want to be more up-to-date on the latest relevant studies.
• 77.5% plan to use Faunalytics to improve their advocacy techniques.
• 76% will use our tools to improve their advocacy materials.

Although we cannot guarantee that every organization will reach their advocacy goals, we know that a data-driven approach to decision-making is certainly better than “going with their gut,” as 44% of our audience claimed to do beforehand.

Advocate Testimonials

As part of the post-presentation survey, we also asked participants to weigh in on what they felt was the best part of the presentation.  We’re honored to share that the people who attended our workshops felt they gained a lot of value from them.

For example, Wasseem Emam from Ethical Seafood Research said the following about attending the presentation: “It ‘forced’ me to learn about a resource I never ‘bothered’ to check out for myself even if I knew it was out there.” 

Elio Celotto from the Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses said the best thing about the workshop was “The ability to gain a different perspective of how an organization can achieve its goals, as we are often caught in the same patterns that don’t always achieve the best results.”

Lisa Apfelberg from Jewish Veg went further: “What a gift to be walked through the many resources that can be valuable to us and useful to us. Your work is a gift to our community and having this handheld private orientation is so smart of you to do and helps us to learn more and be able to quickly use the resources.”

Informing More Advocates

We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished in the first year of our Research Ambassador Outreach Project! We understand that there is still a long road ahead to equip our movement with the data it needs to be successful. However, if we build upon our targeted approach to outreach, we believe we can make a difference for animals across the globe by equipping countless animal advocates with the most relevant data available. 

If you want to learn the latest insights about animal protection and how to apply them to your work, consider booking a free research presentation for your animal advocacy group or organization! Our ambassadors would love to help you make a bigger difference for animals. Learn more here.