Episode 574: Effective Business Planning in Animal Advocacy ft. Caryn Ginsberg

Caryn Ginsberg of Priority Visions joins us today to discuss her transition from the business sector into the animal protection arena and how she helps advocacy groups become more effective with their strategic planning to ensure they use their resources in the most effective way possible. She explains her new Corona to Collaboration, Innovation to Inclusion: Issues and Opportunities in Farmed Animal Advocacy report, how she gives a 1,000 foot high view, and why she felt the report was needed. Caryn also shares how she compiled the information, including how she personalized interview questions by whittling down the key themes, takeaways, and trends that came out of the report that reveal possibilities and opportunities in the vegan community.

Caryn works with organizations including the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, The Humane Society of the United States, PetSmart Charities, and Farm Sanctuary, ultimately helping animal protection advocates use strategy and marketing approaches to get better results. Caryn is also the author of Animal Impact: Secrets Proven to Achieve Results and Move the World (she is offering a free digital version to our listeners on Smashwords using code RT32W). Caryn holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, an A.B. in economics/mathematics from Dartmouth College, and an advanced certificate in marketing design from Sessions College for Professional Design.

“The purpose of strategic planning is to help animal advocacy groups to utilize their resources in the best ways to get the most impact for what they have—strategic planning takes both an outward look and an inward look and then [we] choose what’s most important and promising to do.” – Caryn Ginsberg

This Week in Our Hen House:

• How advocates must respect their own authenticity and be true to their own needs in order to stay in the movement for the long-run
• How nonprofits can leverage new food products to spread the message about veganism
• COVID-19 and climate change and how they have created receptivity in savvy businesses and politicians to alternatives to factory farming
• Are people more open to collaboration with different advocacy movements because of these strange and challenging times?
• Diversity, equity and inclusion in the advocacy movement, and what can we do to shine a spotlight on them to enact change
• The most controversial finding in the report and why Caryn was so surprised by it
• The ideas suggested in the report that Caryn felt were the most promising and why
• Why Caryn favors internationalization in animal advocacy, how we achieve it, and what it will bring to the movement on a political level
• How the animal protection movement can use data to be more effective
• Caryn’s advice for someone who wants to understand animal advocacy through a business lens
• How Caryn drives home her message with visuals, and what she learned from the International Forum for Visual Practitioners

Resources:

• Corona to Collaboration, Innovation to Inclusion: Issues and Opportunities in Farmed Animal Advocacy (report summary)
• Animal Impact: Secrets Proven to Achieve Results and Move the World – Get your free digital version at Smashwords using code RT32W
• Faunalytics (email signup at the upper or lower right):A Summary Of Faunalytics’ Study Of Current And Former Vegetarians And Vegans
  
  The Impact Of Replacing Animal Products
  
  COVID-19 & Animals: What The Public Does And Doesn’t Know
  
  Request customized notifications of new studies based on your area(s) of interest
  
  Institute for Humane Education (discussed in the bonus content for flock members to be released Tuesday)
• Visual Thinking Resources (you do not need to be an artist or become a full-time visual practitioner to benefit from these resources):Doodling is Thinking!: 21 Doodle Days: A Visual Learning Workbook 
  
  The Idea Shapers: the power of putting your thinking into your own hands
  
  The Graphic Facilitator’s Guide: How to use your listening, thinking and drawing skills to make meaning

Connect with Caryn Ginsberg:

• Priority Visions Website
• Caryn Ginsberg on LinkedIn

Connect with Our Hen House:

• Our Hen House Website
• Our Hen House on Facebook
• Our Hen House on Instagram
• Our Hen House on Twitter

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This episode is brought to you in part through the generosity of A Well-Fed World. A Well-Fed World provides the means for change by empowering individuals, social justice organizations, and political decision makers to embrace the benefits of plant-based foods and farming. Learn more at awfw.org.

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Don’t forget to tune into Our Hen House’s other two podcasts: The Teaching Jasmin How to Cook Vegan Podcast, and The Animal Law Podcast.

The Our Hen House theme song is written and performed by Michael Harren.