Project Animal Freedom: A Tale of Exponential Growth

Project Animal Freedom is now the largest, most active, and most successful we have ever been. Not only did over 100 people RSVP to our past two virtual events, including a full 124 people for our first annual Vegan Climate Summit, but we have now received 43 leadership applications as part of our Vegan Talent Search since the beginning of the year. You heard correctly: 43 applications! That's one new prospective leader applying to join our team every 2.9 days!

With these accomplishments under our belt, Project Animal Freedom has truly cemented itself as the fast-growing animal rights organization in the entire Midwest, and the value of our stock continues to rise almost every single day. Here are just a few snapshots of our rising stock value:

• Since February, we have reached an average of just over 2,000 people/day entirely organically (that's 60,000 people/month!)

• Our internship program is set to triple to 20 individuals by the end of June, enabling us to further ratchet up the J-curve.

• We are on the verge of publicly releasing several major movement-building projects we have worked on diligently since the beginning of the year.

This level of growth is unprecedented and a sign of much to come, especially as we work to open two more chapters by the end of 2021 and continue adding 3-7 additional chapters across the Midwest to our activist portfolio each year thereafter. We are on track to become the fourth major chapter-building animal rights organization in the entire movement, following in the footsteps of the Animal Save Movement, Direct Action Everywhere, and Anonymous for the Voiceless.

Unlike these preceding organizations, all exceptional in their own right, however, we plan to target the single most neglected region of the US in our collective struggle for more-than-human and human animal liberation: the Midwest. Not only is the Midwest tied in dead last with the South for the lowest percentage of the population that identifies as vegetarian or vegan, but we are also home to a disproportionate number of factory farms, puppy mills, and other animal-abusing institutions, with the states of Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas in particular reeking of the animal abuse industry's putrescence:

Food & Water Watch's Factory Farm Map, with darker areas indicating higher densities of CAFO's. Notice the CAFO supercluster running throughout the Midwest.

At Project Animal Freedom, we have not only claimed our status as the fastest-growing animal rights organization in the entire Midwest, but we have the strategy it will take to transform our organization into one of the top players in the animal rights movement within just 5-10 years—with just one major obstacle hampering our rate of expansion: funding.

Our Human Resources Director may be overwhelmed with the number of new recruits, but our Development Director is relatively underwhelmed. Yes, we have raised 90% of our annual projected budget in the first five months of the year alone, but we are also ramping up spending to sustain our phenomenal growth rate. Even as we crush fundraising and leadership recruitment goals, we deal with the stressful situation of only being 3-4 months away from bankruptcy despite several significant cuts to spending, from downgrading to a cheaper database to forcing our Executive Director to pay out of pocket for nearly all coaching, consulting, and marketing services, all of which have contributed significantly to our rapid upward ascent over the past six months in particular.

We have incredible momentum behind our organization, but only a fraction of the funds we need to sustain continued exponential growth; our fundraising department, despite significantly overperforming since the beginning of the year, still lags behind the rate at which we are adding new leaders and escalating our outreach initiatives thanks to the increased people power we have at our disposal.

This #MovementBuilderMay, we invite you to become a Movement Builder and reap the benefits thereof, from receiving custom stickers to earning the satisfaction that comes with making the world a better place. What are you waiting for? Invest in the future of the Midwestern animal rights movement today!