The Faunalytics Year in Review – 2018

It's been an amazing year for Faunalytics, and we couldn't have done it without you. Check out what we accomplished in 2018, and get a sneak peek at what's in store for 2019.

Author: Che Green | Published: December 19, 2018

Photo by Marcio Motta on Unsplash

Simply put, it has been an amazing year for Faunalytics! We completed four major projects and we’re currently in progress on five more. We added more than 200 new research studies to our library along with dozens of in-depth blogs on a variety of topics. We also grew our small team by adding a research analyst and an operations manager to help take our work to the next level.

Thanks to our supporters, staff, and volunteers, Faunalytics has been a leading voice for effective animal advocacy for nearly two decades. We are recognized as a “Standout Charity” by ACE because of our focus on research and building the animal protection movement. We are also a GuideStar “platinum” nonprofit, part of our commitment to transparency.

As we think about 2018, all of us at Faunalytics are proud of what we’ve accomplished. We’re also incredibly grateful for the support that we have received and the progress it has enabled. Whether you’ve volunteered, donated, shared our research, or just been a casual reader, we appreciate you and your work for animals. Together, we’re making a difference.

Keep reading to learn about everything that Faunalytics did in 2018! If you support the essential work that Faunalytics does for animals, please make a year-end, tax-deductible donation of any amount using our secure form. All donations are being MATCHED by a generous supporter through December 31st, up to $15,000 — your donation can be doubled! Monthly donations are also especially powerful to help us plan future studies.

New Studies With New Insights

Faunalytics’ research studies seek to answer the most important questions facing animal advocates and funders. We provide the kinds of data and insights that most animal protection groups lack the resources or expertise to obtain on their own. By focusing on research that helps many organizations and advocates, our work has even more impact. See below for the studies and analyses we completed in 2018 and ongoing studies that will finish in 2019. With your support, we’re finding the best ways to help animals.

Completed in 2018

In August, Faunalytics completed a randomized controlled trial to find ways of describing “clean” meat (from cells, not animals) that could address naturalness concerns and increase acceptance. We found that 66% of people were willing to try clean meat, 46% were willing to buy clean meat regularly, and 53% were willing to eat clean meat as a replacement for conventional meat!
We completed the eleventh year of the Faunalytics Animal Tracker, the movement’s only longitudinal survey of animal-related attitudes and behavior. We covered the results in a six-part blog series; two key takeaways for 2018 were that animal advocacy is a popular and credible cause and that there is strong support for better animal protection laws.
We completed a multi-national “BRIC” study to compare attitudes and behavior regarding farmed animals and veg*ism across five different countries (including the U.S.). The BRIC countries – Brazil, Russia, India, and China — are rapidly increasing their consumption of animal products, yet there is little research for these countries. On the plus side, most BRIC residents favor better farmed animal welfare laws.
About 1% of all charitable giving goes to animal-related causes, which needs to change for advocates to have the resources they need. Faunalytics reanalyzed a dataset provided by the Blackbaud Institute and Edge Research to get a detailed profile of people who donate to animal causes. The results are insightful and have helped us in planning more research on this important topic.

“The research that Faunalytics provides is essential to our understanding of what works best to help animals.”

David Coman-Hidy

President, The Humane League

In-Progress And Planned Studies

The four studies that we completed in 2018 (described above) are just the beginning! Faunalytics has another six major projects currently in progress and we’re already planning our next round of studies for animal advocates. Next week we will publish more details on these studies, but for now we wanted to provide a quick preview.

In-Progress Studies:

Evaluating alternative names for “vegan” or “plant-based” products in a head-to-head comparison to see which names work best with which audiences.
Providing an in-depth look at who donates to animals — including why and how they give — based on results from a representative U.S. sample of animal donors.
Conducting a qualitative study of consumer response to corporate animal welfare commitments to cage-free eggs, based on social media comments.
Gauging the effectiveness of using social norms messaging (e.g., “more people are reducing their meat consumption”) for veg*n advocacy, using cafeteria food purchase data rather than self-reported data.
Understanding why some animal advocates become inactive and how to support people in sustaining their activism, through a new study of lapsed advocates.
Creating a new database and mapping tool for animal-related grants, currently in “private beta” as we refine the tool and add more data.

Planned Studies:

A longitudinal study of new veg*ns and “reducetarians” at multiple time points, looking at which habits, tools, and resources help people stick with the diet change.
By partnering with humane educators of school-aged children, we hope to compare the outcomes of children who receive humane education against a control group.
An experimental study to evaluate different ways of pursuing or presenting corporate animal welfare reform and how the reforms influence consumer behavior.
A look at how much people donate when they have the option of donating just to a farmed animal cause versus donating to multiple animal causes, to understand how donors make decisions about which types of animal causes to support.
In addition to the ideas above, we’re considering an experiment to determine which specific animal issues serve as effective “on ramps” to encourage broader animal advocacy and additional research focused on China.

Learn more about these in-progress and planned studies, as well as our thoughts on how impact guides our research priorities, please visit this new page on our site

Making Sense Of Research

For over a decade, the Faunalytics Research Library has been the movement’s primary source for new research and insight about effective animal advocacy. We curate research from academic journals, governments, businesses, and other advocates, and interpret the results to best help advocates help animals. We all need data to be effective and our library is the place many advocates start.

In addition to research summaries, the Faunalytics library also contains in-depth blogs on a wide variety of effective animal advocacy topics, infographics, data overviews for specific subjects, and more. At a cost of less than 10 cents per reader, the research library is an efficient way to deliver critical information to thousands of advocates every week. In 2018:

Faunalytics identified more than 200 studies, summarized their key implications for advocates, and shared them in our comprehensive research library. Working with a team of volunteer writers and editors, we curate studies on a variety of animal topics to help advocates find ways to be more effective.
We had about 250,000 users visit the Faunalytics research library and website, including animal advocates, students, scholars, and researchers. We also engaged regularly with more than 40,000 followers on social media, including becoming active on Instagram.
We shared study results, library summaries, and other insights with thousands of animal advocates through our weekly and monthly alert emails. These must-see emails summarize the latest and most important research of interest to animal advocates. Sign up here.
Faunalytics produced dozens of infographics for the BRIC and clean meat studies as well as many of our library summaries. Thanks to a talented volunteer, we also launched a series of charts describing United Nations data about farmed animal consumption.
We conducted online chats on Slack and Twitter with researchers and experts on important topics like the cost (in lives and dollars) of animal research, overcoming the perceived unnaturalness of “clean” meat, and Brazilian attitudes toward meat and farmed animals.
We completely revamped our website and library search and filter functions to enable advocates to more easily find the research they need. After conducting detailed user research, we’re also in the process of reorganizing our content.

The Faunalytics research library of animal-related attitude and behavior data was first launched in 2007 and remains an essential animal advocacy resource today. According to our annual community survey, more than 90% of our users are satisfied with our content quality and publication frequency. Additionally, 94% say they would recommend the Faunalytics research library for other advocates.

Animals Need You. You Need Data.

I started Faunalytics almost 20 years ago because I believe that research helps level the playing field. While corporations spend billions of dollars on research, animal advocates have mostly relied on our instincts to choose priorities and build campaigns. Faunalytics helped change that.

Thanks to your essential support and our tireless work, the animal advocacy movement is now more thoughtful and effective than ever before. In more recent years, other groups have also focused on research and joined the call for advocates to emphasize impact, not just outreach.

As we head toward the end of the year and the annual giving season, you’re going to be flooded with donation requests from organizations doing good work. As you think about which charities have earned your support, we hope you’ll include Faunalytics. Please remember that all donations are being MATCHED by a generous supporter through December 31st, up to $15,000. Gift today and double your donation!

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Author: Che Green

Che Green is a former analyst, investment banker, and research manager with experience developing and implementing research projects of all kinds. Che has worked and volunteered for a wide range of animal advocacy groups at both the local grassroots and national levels. He is a consultant for animal-friendly businesses and charitable foundations. Che has a BA in business administration with a concentration in finance; he founded Faunalytics in 2000 to empower animal advocates through research.