Vegan Hacktivists

Out Now! A New Platform That Connects Courses Across Our Movement 🎓 FAST Academy was created to make it easier for you to find the resources you need to enhance your work. From courses and trainings to e-books and more, FAST Academy brings together tools to support your growth in nonprofit animal advocacy. 🤝 Explore a plethora of topics, find resources that fit your needs, and enroll—or even submit a course of your own! Browse FAST Academy and find the course you've been looking for! ♟️ https://lnkd.in/e-HbFm9s

Meet the Vegan Hacktivists: Strategic Initiatives Lead Michael Webermann 🍠 With 15 years of experience in the animal advocacy movement, Michael has held leadership roles as Executive Director of both FARM, the longest-running farmed animal advocacy organization in the United States, and ProVeg International U.S. Most recently, he co-founded AVA. In this blog post, Michael opens up about his approach to choosing roles in animal advocacy, his (possibly surprising!) side job, and the anti-vegan argument he dislikes the most. Curious about how Michael became vegan, why he joined VH, and the project rebrand he’s most excited about? 🔍 Read the full interview with Michael in our latest blog! https://lnkd.in/e2QhaNbS

New! Free Ebook to Start Your Productivity Journey 🔥 Time isn’t something you can conquer (as much as we wish it were!), but it’s something you can learn to manage and reclaim. That’s why we created "Productivity for Animal Advocates," a free ebook that covers the fundamentals of productivity—from mindset shifts to practical tips—while focusing on a tool nearly everyone relies on in their work—email. 📨 We hope this resource helps you reclaim some time and sparks curiosity to discover more techniques you can apply across your workflow. Ready to begin your productivity journey as you help animals? Download the ebook today ➡️ https://bit.ly/49JQtFX

We Went to AFAD 2024. Here’s What We Learned ⤵️ At Asia Farm Animal Day (AFAD), organized by Asia for Animals Coalition and Animal & Vegan Advocacy (AVA) Summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, we connected with advocates across Asia to better understand their needs. As capacity builders, it’s essential for us to understand and work within these contexts, and we’re excited to share what we learned. Here are our top three takeaways from AFAD: 1️⃣ When your advocacy doesn’t seem to “stick,” take a step back and look into your audience’s cultural values, challenges, and the obstacles they face to change. That might reveal something you’re missing. 2️⃣ To create content that resonates, the next time you’re endlessly scrolling on your phone, use it as an opportunity to reflect on what grabs your attention, what doesn’t, and why. Then, apply this to your work. 3️⃣ Blind recruitment often fails to address systemic inequalities, as marginalized groups frequently face barriers to education, training, and work experience—factors that impact their resumes. Asking how someone self-identifies can help navigate that. 💭 Did any of the takeaways surprise you? If so, which one? Let us know in the comments! Learn more about the three takeaways right here: https://lnkd.in/egNf-Sn6 A big thank you to Asia for Animals Coalition and Animal & Vegan Advocacy (AVA) Summit for organizing yet another amazing and well-needed event. ❤️

Squarespace vs. WordPress: We Think the Winner is Clear 🏗️ Swipe through the photos to see which website platform might be the right fit for you and your organization. ⬇️ When it comes to choosing a website builder, there are two platforms that come up in these conversations most often—WordPress and Squarespace. If you're unsure which platform to pick, or if it's worth moving from one platform to another, you're not alone. This is a common question we receive, and we get it. Technology is always changing, and it can be hard to keep up! We hope that this post gets you on the right foot with the decision. Do you already use WordPress or Squarespace? If so, which one? Share your experience below! And if you're interested to learn more about the differences between these two platforms—make sure to read our blog 🤓 👉 https://lnkd.in/e5uDEDEw

Saving the Movement Hundreds of Thousands Through Our Free Services 💚 In 2023, we saved the movement the largest amount of funds in our history. As we continue through the end of 2024, we maintain our focus on leveraging the solid foundation we've built in 2023 to make the animal advocacy space more powerful than before. Want us to save you time and money, so you can put those resources to better use? 💪 Reach out to us and let's chat about ways we can support your work!

More Than 5 Years of Building an Organization: How VH Grew into the Organization It Is Now 🩶 ⬇️ Swipe to read our advice and story. To all who took a leap of faith to build something new: it takes courage, but even more, it takes time. VH started as a modest idea to leverage tech for helping animals and grew beyond our imagination. We’re grateful to work with so many inspiring advocates and organizations, and to support them in furthering their mission to save animals. 💚 Have you faced hardships in your advocacy work? Share how you overcame them in the comments below. 👇

We can’t wait for next year’s AVA Summit already. Here’s why. Going to AVA is like discovering a great vegan restaurant. The second you leave, you think, “Wow, I can’t wait to go back!” With the conference, there are so many experiences at play, that it's hard to put it all in a few sentences. But we tried. Here are our top 3 reasons. ⤵️ 1️⃣ To hype ourselves up about attending more lectures than physically possible and learn from the greats in our movement 🏅 If you’ve attended AVA before, you’ll understand the bittersweet feeling when the program is announced. It’s the defeat of having one physical body, limiting you to one lecture at a time. You truly have to zero in on your time-planning skills to avoid missing your favorite speakers. But it's all so, so worth it. 2️⃣ To meet the incredible people we’ve worked with, and connect with new faces 🌝 Like our colleagues at Faunalytics say, AVA is like a big family reunion. (At least in these reunions you don’t bump into that one uncle you don't remember, who always talks about knowing you since you were a baby! Or do you?) Not only that, but this family extends to new people each year. These connections enrich our work and our lives, and we consistently look forward to those experiences again. 3️⃣ To witness how united, capable, and strong our movement is, time and time again ✊ Each AVA fills our hearts and minds with awe and inspiration, after hearing of all the different, and especially challenging work dedicated advocates like you take on each day. And you continue to not only persevere, but succeed. After leaving AVA 2024, reassured in our strength and steady progress towards a kinder world, we can’t wait for next year's AVA to remark our achievements, celebrate victories, and unite against hardships once again. 🩷 In the meantime, we’re preparing for Asia Farm Animal Day (AFAD) in Hanoi, Vietnam, organized by Animal & Vegan Advocacy (AVA) Summit and the AfA Farm Animal Coalition! Are you planning to be there? 👉 Let us know in the comments. 💡 Read more about the reasons we can't wait for AVA 2025 in our blog! https://lnkd.in/e2vB9-Wu

AI Toolkit: Top 3 Tips on Using AI in Your Work ⬇️ Perhaps you’ve had this thought lingering at the back of your mind that you should start using AI in your work, but you don’t know how, or you’ve tried it a couple of times, and it didn’t exactly pan out. Or perhaps you already use it, but you feel like you could be doing more, or refine the way you do it. By using AI, you can further your animal protection goals, gain confidence in your decision-making and strategy, and save time. It can help you think and plan in your organization, level up your campaigns, and find ways to better engage your volunteers. At the same time, if used incorrectly, AI could also alienate the people that matter and make you lose your human touch or, even worse, the trustworthiness and credibility that you have as an organization. Recently, our Executive Director James Morgan had the opportunity to give a talk on this very hot topic of using AI at the first Vegan & Animal Rights Conference in Manchester, UK. Here are the top tips to leverage AI in your work: 1. Refine your prompt for better results. 2. Automate mundane tasks and save time. 3. Try out paid plans for advanced responses and complex tasks. Planning to try out any of these tips? Let us know in the comments! ✍️ For more tips and examples, head to our latest blog 👉 https://lnkd.in/e9yHshad

The Idea of Transforming the Food System with AI is Gaining Media Attention 🌟 Exciting news: Food Ingredients First, a leading publisher in the food industry, has published an article about the Kickstarting for Good program. Led by ProVeg International and supported by Vegan Hacktivists and Violet Studios, this incubator is drawing attention for its use of AI to promote animal welfare. David van Beveren, Founder & President of Vegan Hacktivists, says: “AI technology is accelerating at a speed that demands for us as a movement to focus on finding solutions that help animals, by incubating and supporting ideas from the global community. Currently, we’re seeing a real gap in both new and novel AI-based ideas and the organizations available to support them.” Sebastian Joy, Founding President of ProVeg, adds: "Kickstarting for Good is dedicated to discovering effective ways to use AI for improving animal advocacy and transforming our global food system. We are excited about our collaboration with Vegan Hacktivists and Violet Studios to drive these changes." Have an AI idea that could help animals and revolutionize our food system? Apply for the 2024 cohort ➡️ https://lnkd.in/e-5mhB74 Applications are open until May 26. Find the article link in the comments!