How To Advocate For Animals As An Entrepreneur Or Business Owner
Entrepreneurs and business owners drive progress and innovation in their industries by adapting to new challenges and creating fresh opportunities. If you are an entrepreneur, you’re bold enough to take risks and create new businesses. If you are a business owner, you’re inherently a leader.
Whether you have an established business or you’re working to create one, you’re resilient enough to overcome obstacles and creative enough to look for solutions. Some businesses are even setting trends, coming up with fresh approaches, and redefining the future in their field. If you own a business, you likely have a deep sense of responsibility and commitment, and you make decisions that affect the future of your business and beyond.
Similarly, every step forward as an entrepreneur requires resilience and adaptability. You are constantly pushing boundaries to solve problems. You think fast when challenges arise, and your ideas bring change to the world around you. This ability to adapt and grow in uncertain environments gives entrepreneurs like you an edge, helping to create lasting impact. Your willingness to embrace challenges and navigate unknowns transforms industries, setting an example of what’s possible when passion meets purpose.
No matter what type of business you have, you can be a leader to many other businesses. By incorporating animal advocacy into your business decisions, you have the unique chance to evaluate how your business can help end factory farming and serve as a champion for nonhuman animals. Even if your business is not focused on farmed animals, it is likely that some of your decisions could indirectly affect them. As a business owner, your voice has an impact, and you can make a difference.
Are you ready to use your unique power and voice?
Let’s talk about how you can get involved and how your business can start helping farmed animals. In this article, we’ll discuss ideas for how entrepreneurs and business owners can integrate animal welfare into their business strategies, creating impact in multiple ways to help end factory farming.
About Connect For Animals
Connect For Animals is a nonprofit platform for people who want to help end factory farming. Animals raised and killed for food account for the vast majority of animals purposefully exploited by humans, and we believe that ending factory farming is one of the most important and urgent issues of our time.
We’re dedicated to helping people find their niche in the movement to end factory farming. You can get started by signing up here: https://connectforanimals.com/sign-up.
How to Get Started
Integrate animal welfare into your business mission
Animal welfare can be a guiding principle that shapes the way your business operates. You can start to support nonhuman animals by clearly mentioning in your mission statement that your company stands up for animal welfare.
If this is a key principle for you and your company, you will want your team to be invested in helping your business achieve its goals while helping animals. Employees may become stronger animal advocates if they aren’t already as they work towards compassionate and ethical goals. Beyond your mission statement, you can organize training sessions or events for your employees to raise awareness about factory farming and animal cruelty. Many people simply aren’t aware of factory farming, and educating your employees can be a big step forward.
You might give examples of your company’s dedication to animal advocacy on your website and social media so people will understand where your business stands in the fight for nonhuman animal rights. You can support animal sanctuaries or animal welfare organizations by donating a part of your profits or making annual donations. You can highlight this activity on your social media platforms and websites, and this may encourage other businesses like yours to do the same.
If your business can’t donate money, you can contact sanctuaries to ask what supplies they need and organize drives throughout the year to donate supplies. If the sanctuary doesn’t mind, you can post photos and videos so that customers can see proof of your company’s animal welfare efforts.
Depending on your business, you can offer some of your products or services pro bono to support sanctuaries or animal welfare organizations. You can check out the collaboration between the tech company Netguru and animal protection organization Sinergia Animal that put pressure on banks to help ban animal cruelty in factory farming.
Consider collaborating with or donating to other organizations that align with your values, like Connect For Animals, which is focused on bringing people together to end factory farming. Supporting causes like this can help solidify your reputation as a business that truly cares about animals.
Don’t be afraid to start small
If your industry hasn’t been associated with animal welfare in the past, start small. For example, if you have a tech startup, you can start by offering some pro bono services to nonprofits helping nonhuman animals, and you can make sure your office cafeteria has plant-based and vegan options for your employees. If you have a car dealership, you can promote cars with animal-free, vegan interiors or pledge to donate a percentage of sales to an animal rights organization in honor of Earth Day. You can highlight these initiatives on social media to publicize some of your progress toward helping to create a kinder future.
Collaborate with other businesses and entrepreneurs
Businesses are often more receptive to collaborating with other businesses than with individuals who care about farmed animals. Big businesses may be more likely to ignore an individual animal advocate, but they could be interested in a partnership with a peer company. If you have a business yourself and approach a company or another businessperson with an animal welfare message, you may be taken more seriously.
Partnering with like-minded entrepreneurs and businesses expands your reach, helping to amplify animal advocacy efforts in the broader business community. You can browse companies that are likely to be interested in partnering by checking directories like Vegan Business Networking.
By joining forces, you can create larger-scale campaigns and initiatives that impact more industries and raise awareness about animal welfare issues like factory farming. Whether through a shared marketing campaign, co-hosted events, or a unified stance on ethical business practices, collaboration allows you to multiply your influence and drive change.
You can even be bold and invite your favorite businesses to collaborate. Perhaps someone you admire might be interested in your efforts to help farmed animals, and your collaboration could kick off an exciting dream partnership. You can cross-promote other brands on social media to get their attention. Consider taking inspiration from the Best Friends Network, which highlights successful partnerships that have helped animals.
Beyond contacting companies online, you can use in-person events, including tailored summits like the Vegan Women Summit, to network and meet like-minded business owners. To discover all the events in your area and worldwide, go here to sign up and find a comprehensive list.
Donation matching programs
Another way to support farmed animals is by encouraging employees or customers to contribute to animal organizations and matching their donations. By offering a donation matching program, your business can double the impact of your employees’ or customers’ charitable efforts, allowing them to know that their contributions are making a difference.
You and the organization of your choice can advertise this on social media, set the amount for the donation match, and see how the community can rally to support the cause. People are much more inclined to donate when they know that their donations will be matched and that the animals will get twice the support.
Integrate animal advocacy into your brand
Today's consumers are more conscious than ever of how their choices affect the planet and nonhuman animals. Making a clear commitment to animal welfare is a powerful way to set your brand apart. Being transparent and vocal about your values will not only help nonhuman animals and encourage other business owners to do the same, but it will also attract like-minded customers who want to support your business. With the right advertising strategies, your business can tap into the power of value alignment to gain more customers.
By integrating animal welfare into your company’s narrative, you can demonstrate your commitment to ethical practices and build deeper connections with customers. If you use your business platform to advocate for better treatment of animals and center your brand around making compassionate choices, you can earn and keep your customers’ trust in the long term.
Encourage compassionate fashion or beauty choices
If your business is in fashion, the beauty industry, or adjacent sectors, there are many ways to align your brand with animal welfare. First, you can take the necessary steps to ensure that your products are always cruelty-free, vegan, and PETA-approved. Make sure you source all materials from other ethical, cruelty-free companies. Research suppliers and vendors to ensure they’re not involved in factory farming or any practices that harm animals. It is important to vet the companies you work with and understand how and where your product is being made.
If you are making a new product, be sure to research and understand how to avoid using animal-derived materials. It may take a bit more time on the front end to develop a product that does not harm animals, but there is an ever-growing demand for cruelty-free, vegan products, so your animal advocacy efforts will be rewarded.
Create special products or services that benefit animal nonprofits
If you don’t know how to combine your advocacy efforts with profitability, you can consider creating specialty products or services. You can choose a particular product to support an animal welfare organization, or a portion of its proceeds could go toward supporting several animal welfare organizations. This approach allows customers to actively participate and know that they’re making a difference by buying from your business.
Promote plant-based alternatives
If you have a physical store or headquarters with employees, consider offering plant-based meals. Ensure that the food comes from ethical sources and that the companies don’t support factory farming. You can get some ideas from Veganuary’s Corporate Commitment, which features many brands that are committed to reducing animal product consumption.
How to Solve Potential Challenges
No matter how good your intentions are, there will be times when you’ll encounter obstacles. Here are a few common challenges and potential solutions:
Resistance from co-founders or business partners
It’s likely that not everyone will be on board with your values. Unfortunately, some people prefer to ignore animal suffering and aren’t interested in confronting the uncomfortable reality of factory farming. If appealing to their good nature doesn’t work, you may have better success if you highlight how supporting animal welfare is good for business. Have open discussions about why animal advocacy aligns with long-term business goals due to the increasing demand for ethical products and services. Depending on your industry, you might even qualify for grants such as the ASPCA Fund to End Factory Farming.
Balancing profit with ethics
It can be difficult to balance the drive for profit with a commitment to ethics. However, today’s consumers are increasingly prioritizing companies that align with their values, and ethical practices can actually enhance your bottom line in the long run.
Old-fashioned industry standards
In some industries, adopting animal-friendly tactics may conflict with traditional practices. Especially in businesses that have been around for a while, it can be challenging to disrupt an ‘’we have always done it this way’’ mentality.
However, with persistence and research, there are often ways to adapt business practices to be more ethical without compromising principles, profit, or quality.
Appealing to audiences who are disinterested in animal welfare
If your target audience is not particularly interested in animal advocacy, think of ways to educate them gently. Use subtle messaging and highlight how supporting animal welfare aligns with broader values that might appeal to them more, like sustainability or community well-being.
Don’t get discouraged if you encounter obstacles. There are other entrepreneurs and business owners who share your values. Connecting with them will not only help you feel less isolated, but it can also benefit your business since you can learn from each other.
Connect For Animals has this exact goal in mind—to connect people like you who want to create a better world for animals. You can use Connect for Animals to find online and even in-person events that can help you personally and professionally. You might even find like-minded entrepreneurs and business owners in your local community.
If you’d prefer an educational and informative approach that involves structured business advice, you can take a look at resources like Vegan Business Tribe or Vegan Mainstream. There are also resources for networking and investment, including some specifically built for entrepreneurs like Vegpreneurs.
Using Success Stories for Inspiration
While there is a lot of animal suffering in the world, there’s also a lot of positive momentum in the animal rights movement. More and more entrepreneurs are developing innovative ideas to advocate for animals. Also, an increasing number of businesses are making efforts to be more ethical, fight against animal cruelty, and contribute meaningfully to the cause.
The market is also changing as consumer mindsets shift. Consumers have become aware of the cruel practices behind their meals, clothes, and cosmetics. As a result, many consumers are becoming more inclined to buy from businesses that are committed to sustainability and animal welfare. If you showcase your ethical options, you may drive up your profits.
There are entrepreneurs and business owners out there who are just like you, who believed in their values and became successful by building their businesses to support the causes they believe in:
- Pat Brown, the founder and CEO of Impossible Foods, follows in the footsteps of many other innovators and businesspeople who have used science and technology to help end factory farming. Brown used his scientific knowledge to create an innovative, successful business in the alternative protein industry. His story demonstrates how a good idea and existing skills can make massive changes to an entire industry.
- Believing that business could be a force for good, Dame Anita Roddick took her business The Body Shop from a little store to an empire worth over $1 billion. In a world where nearly every cosmetic and skincare brand used animal testing, she included fighting for animals in the brand story and redefined industry standards.
Conclusion
Entrepreneurs and business owners share a common drive to build a better world. Their individual approaches and products might differ, but they can be equally impactful.
As an entrepreneur or business owner, you have a unique power to help end factory farming. If you care about these issues personally, you can begin to change or grow your company to be an extension of your values. Your voice is stronger than most, and when used for good, it can make a big difference for nonhuman animals. You can change the world through the products you make and the services you offer.
Whether you’re collaborating with like-minded businesses, supporting efforts to stop animal cruelty, or implementing ethical practices, you have significantly more resources to make a lasting impact than the average person. By making animal welfare an integral part of your mission and brand, you can help compassion and ethics drive both business growth and social change. Your efforts can inspire not just your team and customers but also other entrepreneurs and even entire industries.
You can start right now. One small step in the right direction can be the catalyst to help many animals and put an end to factory farming.
