Announcing: A Revolutionary Online Vegan Advocacy Project, & Donations to WTF are now being DOUBLED!
Until February 29th 2024, all donations to WTF are being matched by a generous donor, up to a maximum of USD $25,000. If you have ever considered donating to WTF before, now is the perfect time!
Let us explain a little of our ethos around fundraising.
We never want to pressure our supporters to donate to We The Free. For most people, the best way you can support our important work is by donating your time and skills on a volunteer basis; by attending our events, organizing a team in your area, or joining our volunteer media team.
We are aware, however, that not everybody has a lot of time to offer, and some people even practice the concept of ‘earning to give’. For those people, a donation to We The Free, whether small or large, can support and enable the activism of a global volunteer network of thousands.
In November 2023 alone we granted over $3400 in funding to a growing number of WTF teams worldwide.
Your Donation to We The Free Will:
$10 will fund 20 delicious vegan food prizes, given as incentives to members of the public who engage with a 3 Minute Movie Challenge - exposing them to the truth of what happens to animals, giving them a positive experience with delicious plant-based food, and often leading to inspiring conversations about veganism.
$50 will purchase a table at a vegan market to recruit volunteers and raise awareness about the need to get active.
$100 will fund 200 delicious vegan food prizes, that’s 2 month’s worth of conversations for a medium-sized WTF team!
$150 will purchase a “starter pack” of resource cards, banners, and “take the movie challenge” signs for a new team to get started hosting 3 Minute Movie Challenge events.
$200 will purchase a battery and charger that can power screens at regular events for the next 2-5 years.
$250 will purchase a TV screen for a We The Free team, enabling that team to showcase standard practice footage of animal agriculture to hundreds of people per year.
$500 will pay for an expert to provide free training to hundreds of activists in essential areas such as; mental health support, leadership skills, conflict resolution, nonviolent communication, and more.
$1000 will purchase an essential equipment pack “lite” for a WTF team; 4 tablets & stands, a portable generator, headphones & splitters, carry cases, and an oversized banner.
$1500 will purchase a complete essential equipment pack for a We The Free team; 4 screens, a battery & charger, a folding table and chairs, headphones, USB storage, and carry cases.
If you wish for your donation to go to a specific team, please let us know by email after donating!
Image Description: A WTF team in the UK holds an eye-catching movie challenge event on a busy high-street
We are also currently looking to raise $10,000 for a very special project:
Revolutionizing vegan advocacy in a digital age: bringing the inspirational power of street advocacy to an online audience
We know that street outreach advocacy leads to transformative conversations with members of the public; not only have we experienced these conversations ourselves and witnessed the tears of heartbroken good people finally making the connection, but our data backs that up; in 2022 our teams experienced a 31.1% “inspiration rate” of resource cards handed out conversions into website visits, and while we aren't quite ready to release our 2023 statistics, spoiler alert - it's even higher!
Online advocacy has huge potential, simply because if we harness the power of social media we can reach a staggering amount of people. For most “vegan campaigns” shared on social media, however, the comments sections are raging battlefields and there isn’t much evidence of that converting to people going vegan. We believe the main difference is the inspiring coaching conversations that typically accompany most street advocacy events; a skilled coach can help people navigate the complex feelings experienced by those who witness animal cruelty, and provide clarity on a way forward towards veganism, overcome any challenges faced, and share resources to help along the way. In particular, we have seen the 3 minute movie challenge be widely successful in the past 18 months because of the impressive amount of people who are willing to take the challenge, and a significant increase in the percentage of ‘good conversations’ with people who have taken the challenge compared to more traditional forms of TV screen outreach.
Image description: A member of the public reacts to the 3 minute movie challenge.
We frequently share photos like the above on social media, and often get comments or messages asking “where can I see the video they are watching?”. We can and do share the 3 minute challenge video with people online, but are we really having the same impact if it’s not accompanied by that inspiring coaching conversation?
That’s where our new project comes in: imagine that activists using the mystats app can join a live video chat with people who just took the online 3 minute movie challenge, and can share resources with the viewer and track impact statistics on their MyStats dashboard.We have already conceptualized and fully designed a web app to do exactly this, now we need to develop it.
Image Description: design reveal for the online 3 minute movie challenge and the mystats app vegan mentor videocall functionality.
This app will help overcome some of the challenges of online advocacy, while being able to benefit from global reach. Targeted marketing campaigns can drive large numbers of people to take the challenge, prize draws can incentivize engagement with the challenge and follow up actions, and the challenge itself has so much viral potential with people eager to find out what the challenge consists of.
Conversely, one of the weaknesses of street advocacy is the amount of time and effort that goes into planning and attending events, with large amounts of downtime and relatively small windows of opportunity to reach people - street outreach activists might have a window of 3 hours on a saturday to reach people with a vegan message, but with this app you could potentially veganize a stranger on your lunch break in the middle of the week.
This is an ambitious project however, and will take time and money to implement.
What will funds be used for?
It’s natural that you will have questions about funding and how WTF spends it, let us answer your questions:
How is WTF Funded?
As a registered non-profit organization, we rely entirely on fundraising to pay for the important work that we do; both through donations and grants programs. We have already raised sufficient funds to cover salary / payroll costs for our global support team in 2024 from our existing donors, and we are not asking for our volunteers to help fund this area of our work. That said, our team is working on We The Free as a passion project, and while we don’t want to exploit anyone to achieve our work, like in most non-profit organizations, all WTF team members receive humble compensation that falls below industry averages per profession. Our budget and spending is approved by an independent board of directors, so rest assured that your donation will not be used to fund lavish lifestyles for our team!
To make this project happen, we need funds to cover development costs. Some of the costs associated with a complex development project like this are covered by the fundraising we have already completed for the coming year:
Web Developer - we need this anyway for the ongoing development and improvement of our several existing websites, but this project would likely take more than 50% of their time for the next year to develop, refactor, and maintain.
UX / UI Design - Completed by our Design Lead, we anticipate this project taking a significant proportion of their time for the next year.
Why the Fundraiser?
Additional Costs: An estimated $10,000 of additional funds will be needed to ensure the successful launch of this project, which includes:
Server / hosting fees
Tech subscriptions, platform fees, & licenses
Targeted ads (to drive non-vegans to take the challenge)
Incentives (small monthly prize draws as incentives - in place of the vegan food prizes typically used for in-person events)
Technical / Legal consultations
We intend to use the proceeds of the fundraiser for the WTF Equipment Grant, and proceeds from the matching grant (i.e. when it is doubled) to cover the above associated costs with our new app development project.
What level of financial transparency can I expect as a donor?
We set projected budgets each year based on our anticipated needs, and provide mid-year updates and end-of-year updates to our major donors. We work closely with major donors at the onset of the relationship to understand the level of reporting they need, and commit to being fully transparent, as well as having candor around mistakes and learning opportunities.
For this particular project, rather than sending detailed financial reports to individual donors, we will publish additional fiscal reporting (in July 2024 and January 2025) on our website blog with how we have spent the proceeds of this fundraising campaign.
How to donate?
To donate to our fundraiser, you can donate by GoFundMe or PayPal. For crypto or larger donations (over $1000) you can contact us by email.
