Our approach to network building

A key approach to achieving our goals is to cultivate decentralised ‘impact networks’ in the grassroots, the ‘grasstops’ (national NGOs) and among organisations and individuals in the narrative and cultural spheres, ultimately connecting these networks into a ‘movement network’.

An impact network is a decentralised, interconnected system of individuals, organisations, and groups working collaboratively toward a shared purpose. Unlike traditional hierarchical structures, impact networks harness relationships, trust, and distributed leadership to drive large-scale social and systemic change (see Impact Networks by David Ehrlichman for more details).

By taking an impact network approach which centers decentralised, collaborative, and emergent ways of organising, we can support the UK animal freedom movement to build collective power while maintaining autonomy and flexibility.

Core Elements of the impact network approach applied to the Animal Freedom movement

1. Weaving Connections Across the Movement

• The movement is currently fragmented, with grassroots groups and NGOs often working in silos​

• Impact networks thrive on deep, trust-based relationships, making collaboration more effective.

• A network weaver role is essential to connect these groups, fostering trust and enabling cross-pollination of ideas, resources, and strategies over time.

  2. Shared Purpose and Emergent Strategy

• Network participants align around a common goal (e.g., animal freedom), but strategies evolve organically through collective learning and experimentation.

• Instead of rigid top-down control and centralised strategies, the network adapts dynamically based on real-world developments and opportunities.

3. Decentralised Leadership and Self-Organising

• Power is distributed, allowing multiple leaders and groups to take initiative.

• Autonomous nodes (grassroots groups, NGOs, campaigns) act independently but remain connected, reinforcing each other’s work.

  4. Collaboration Over Competition

• The focus is on shared learning, joint problem-solving, and collective impact rather than individual organisational or group success.

• Instead of competing for limited resources, network members pool expertise, tools, and strategies to amplify movement-wide efforts.

  5. Rapid Mobilisation and Adaptability

• Unlike rigid hierarchical organisations, impact networks can respond quickly to trigger events, deploying protests, direct actions, media interventions, or advocacy as needed​

• They operate through a "sense and respond" approach, meaning decisions emerge from constant feedback loops rather than top-down mandates.

  6. Enabling Infrastructure for Coordination

• Impact networks use decentralised communication tools (e.g., WhatsApp groups, regional hubs, regular gatherings and convenings) to maintain alignment without centralisation.

• Tools such as shared resource libraries, mapping of movement actors, and collaborative decision-making frameworks enhance collective intelligence.

For us, an impact network approach means:

✅ Connecting fragmented grassroots groups and NGOs into a mutually reinforcing ecosystem
✅ Empowering autonomous, decentralised activism while ensuring movement-wide strategic alignment​
✅ Fostering a culture of collaboration and shared learning, where local groups and organisations experiment and scale up successes​
✅ Rapidly mobilising around trigger events (e.g., media exposes, policy opportunities) by activating existing relationships and structures​.
✅ Building long-term movement infrastructure, ensuring collective resilience and adaptability rather than reliance on single organisations.

An impact network is not a coalition—it’s an adaptive, living system that grows stronger over time. By embracing this model, we aim to help transform the UK Animal Freedom movement into a deeply connected, agile and unstoppable force for change.

Our approach to local group organising

We believe that grassroots local groups are the foundation of a powerful, resilient, and growing movement for animal freedom. By organising locally, building strong communities, and developing strategic capacity, we can create long-term impact and mobilise at scale when opportunities arise.

Why Local Groups Matter

Historically, grassroots networks have been at the heart of major victories in the UK animal rights movement, including bans on fur farming, live exports, and animal testing for cosmetics​. Local groups provide a recruitment funnel for activism, ensuring that more animal lovers become movement participants, leaders, and changemakers.

However, the movement today is fragmented, with national groups working in silos and many local activists struggling to find a clear pathway to engagement​. Our local organising strategy aims to rebuild this grassroots network, ensuring local activism thrives while remaining connected to national and global campaigns​.

Our Organising Model: Decentralised, Empowered, and Impactful

We foster autonomous, strategic, and well-supported local groups that:

✅ Take independent action – deciding on their own campaigns, tactics, and strategies.
✅ Support national campaigns – amplifying their impact through coordinated grassroots pressure
✅ Engage and develop new activists – creating a movement pipeline where people can grow into leaders​
✅ Create synergy between groups – ensuring different types of activism reinforce each other rather than compete​

How We Support Local Groups

1. Building a Thriving Local Network

• Connecting existing chapters: We encourage local chapters of different organisations (e.g. Animal Save Movement, Hunt Saboteurs, Plant-Based Treaty) to work together under a unified local umbrella.

• Facilitating collaboration: Groups can share intelligence, resources, and strategies, strengthening collective power.

• Providing a launch model: New groups start with public meetings, with guidance on recruitment, leadership development, and campaign strategy​.

2. Training & Capacity Building

• Workshops & bootcamps: We run regular training sessions on campaign strategy, community organising, and direct action

• Skill-sharing culture: We create peer-learning networks, so that experienced activists can mentor new organisers​

• Narrative & messaging support: We help local groups craft compelling narratives that resonate with their communities​

3. Infrastructure for Coordination

• WhatsApp communities: Local organisers stay in constant communication with their networks, making rapid coordination possible

• Digital and print resources: We provide customisable campaign materials, outreach guides, and messaging frameworks​

• Regular convenings: Local groups come together for regional and national gatherings, building deeper relationships and alignment​

4. Campaigns & Mobilisation

• Local campaigns: Groups run strategic campaigns on local zoos, fur shops, factory farms, animal testing labs, and more, winning winnable battles that build confidence​ and capacity for bigger more complex long-term battles

• Mass mobilisation: When major events arise (e.g., an animal cruelty exposé), local groups can rapidly mobilise, ensuring the movement seizes political moments​

• Scaling successful models: When a local campaign proves effective (e.g., shutting down an animal exhibit), we create the infrastructure for the model to be replicated across multiple locations​

Creating a Self-Sustaining Movement

We don’t just need activists—we need movement builders. By investing in local organising, leadership development, and community-building, we aim to transform the UK animal movement into a deeply connected, unstoppable force for change​.

Join us. Start a local group. Build the movement. Change the world.

Characteristics of successful social movements

Leslie Crutchfield’s book How Change Happens: Why Some Social Movements Succeed While Others Don't, argues social movements that succeed in creating systemic change share six key characteristics. These elements enable movements to build power, sustain momentum, and achieve long-term impact. These six elements align with our own research and experience, and inform our organisational strategy.

1. Turning Grassroots into Grassroots Gold

• Successful movements prioritise grassroots engagement, mobilising everyday people rather than relying solely on elite leadership.

• They decentralise power and encourage widespread participation, fostering a culture where ordinary supporters take ownership of the movement.

• For example, the U.S. marriage equality movement grew by engaging local activists, volunteers, and community leaders, not just national advocacy groups.

✅ We’re applying this by:

• focusing on empowering local animal freedom groups, ensuring they have the tools, training, and autonomy to take action

• building strong grassroots networks that can mobilise in response to key events and policy opportunities.

2. Sharpening a 10/10/10/20 = 50 Vision

• Successful movements maintain a clear, long-term vision while securing incremental wins that build momentum.

• The 10/10/10/20 = 50 formula suggests that movements should focus efforts where they can influence policy, business, culture, and grassroots organising simultaneously.

• They balance pragmatism with bold ambitions, pushing for major transformation while winning winnable fights along the way.

✅We’re applying this by:

• experimenting with short-term campaign goals (e.g., ending greyhound racing, banning testing on dogs) that build power and momentum that will contribute to long-term systemic change (e.g., phasing out factory farming)

• Building grassroots, NGO and narrative networks that can simultaneously focus on engaging policymakers, businesses, media, and grassroots activists to shift the Overton Window.

3. Changing Hearts and Policy

• Movements succeed when they combine cultural shifts (changing public opinion and narratives) with policy reform.

• Narrative change lays the foundation for legal and political victories, while policy wins reinforce the new societal norms.

• For example, the anti-tobacco movement first shifted public perception about smoking through education and media before securing legislative bans.

✅ We’re applying this by:

• investing in storytelling and narrative power to make animal freedom a mainstream value, not a fringe issue

• building networks that can combine legislative advocacy (e.g., policy bans on testing on animals) with public pressure campaigns that reframe societal attitudes toward our fellow animals.

4. Reckoning with Adversarial Allies

• Successful movements embrace tensions and disagreements, understanding that coalitions require diverse perspectives.

• They manage internal conflict constructively, ensuring that ideological differences do not fracture the movement.

• For example, the climate movement has historically struggled with divisions between radical activists and mainstream policy advocates, but successful campaigns have managed to unify these factions for key battles.

✅ We’re applying this by:

• helping to bridge the divide between grassroots activists and national NGOs, working to increase alignment and synergy without uniformity.

• creating networks which foster a culture of strategic disagreement, where movement actors challenge each other without undermining the broader mission.

5. Breaking from Business as Usual

• Winning movements challenge institutional norms and adopt non-traditional approaches to power-building.

• They experiment with innovative tactics, combining traditional advocacy, direct action, digital organising, and cultural interventions.

• For example: The gun control movement in the U.S. historically relied on policy lobbying, but after the Parkland his-school shooting, it embraced youth-led activism, walkouts, and corporate pressure campaigns.

✅ We’re applying this by:

• creating networks that embrace diverse strategies, such as strategic litigation, corporate pressure, and nonviolent direct action.

• cultivating grassroots and NGO networks that can enable local campaigns to feed into national-level strategies.

6. Being Leader-Full (Not Leaderless or Leader-Led)

• Successful movements are "leader-full", meaning they develop many leaders rather than relying on a single figurehead.

• They build leadership pipelines, ensuring that new voices and organisers continuously emerge.

• For example: The civil rights movement cultivated thousands of local leaders, making it resilient even when key figures were targeted.

✅ We’re applying this by:

• developing resources, trainings, and coaching programmes to cultivate new grassroots leaders in local groups

• ensuring that leadership is distributed, so that movement momentum is not dependent on a few central figures or organisations.

Summary

We are applying these elements by:

• Expanding grassroots power, ensuring local activists are at the heart of the movement

• Balancing long-term vision with short-term wins, creating momentum for structural change.

• Combining cultural and policy shifts, making animal freedom an inevitable societal transformation.

• Navigating internal tensions strategically, ensuring the movement remains strong and cohesive.

• Embracing innovation and adaptability, using diverse tactics to drive systemic change.

• Investing in leadership development, ensuring the movement remains dynamic and leader-full.

Movement ecosystem framework

The Social Movement Ecosystem Framework* provides a comprehensive approach to understanding and strengthening social movements. It recognises the diversity of strategies, actors, and roles within a movement and emphasises the importance of relationships, synergy, and coordination across different approaches. The framework identifies five key theories of change commonly present in successful movements​:

• Personal Transformation – Changing individuals through education, awareness, and lifestyle shifts (e.g., vegan advocacy, diversity training).

• Building Alternatives – Creating new models and systems that embody movement values (e.g., plant-based food systems, sanctuaries).

• Inside Game – Engaging with policymakers, courts, and businesses to push for incremental reforms (e.g., corporate campaigns, lobbying, strategic litigation).

• Structure and Community Organising – Building strong grassroots networks that can pressure institutions (e.g., trade unions, local activist groups).

• Mass Protest – Using direct action and protest to shift public opinion and create political pressure (e.g., mass demonstrations, civil disobedience).

(Source: Ayni School Movement Ecology Series https://aynischool.com/movement-ecology-series/)

All of these approaches are necessary for a movement to thrive. However the biggest challenge facing many movements is internal division and fragmentation. Successful movements build alliances across sectors, acknowledging that different actors play different roles but contribute to the same overarching goal. This requires intentional efforts to strengthen coordination, foster trust, and ensure collaboration over competition.

*As developed by the Ayni Institute and the Ulex Project’s Movement Learning Catalyst, both informed by Bill Moyer’s Movement Action Plan model.

Our approach to movement strategy

1. The Complexity of Social Change: No Simple Solutions

• Social issues, including animal exploitation and systemic oppression, exist within complex, interconnected systems.

• Unlike complicated problems (which can be solved with technical expertise), complex systems require adaptive, evolving solutions.

• Linear, top-down strategies fail in these environments because cause and effect are not predictable—social change is nonlinear and emergent.

✅ Implication for Project Phoenix

• The movement must embrace adaptability, avoiding rigid strategies and instead using flexible, network-driven approaches.

• Change will not happen through a single intervention but through many interconnected efforts influencing culture, policy, and activism.

2. No One Organisation Can Make the Change Needed

• Wicked problems (like animal exploitation) are too vast for any one group to solve alone—change requires coordinated, collective action.

• Traditional top-down, hierarchical organisations cannot create large-scale transformation on their own.

• Impact networks allow for diverse actors (grassroots groups, NGOs, researchers, policy advocates) to align their efforts, creating synergistic impact.

✅ Implication for Project Phoenix

• Project Phoenix functions as a network facilitator, to ensure that grassroots activists, NGOs, and other actors are working in concert rather than in silos.

• Instead of duplicating efforts, the networks we are cultivating should amplify and align existing initiatives, ensuring resources, knowledge, and strategies flow effectively.

3. The Role of Experimentation, Learning, and Scaling Up Successes

• Complex systems require experimentation—since outcomes are uncertain, movements must test different strategies, learn from them, and refine their approach.

• Failure is part of the process—movements must create a learning culture that encourages rapid feedback loops and adaptation.

• Successful strategies should be identified, scaled, and replicated, ensuring proven models expand across the network.

✅ Implication for Project Phoenix

• We encourage local groups to experiment with different campaigning, organising, and direct action tactics.

• We establish a feedback system where groups document and share what works, allowing the movement to iterate and improve.

• We help scale successful models (e.g., if a local campaign against greyhound racing is effective, we help to replicate it across multiple regions).

4. Emergent Strategy: Adapting to Uncertainty and Change

• Emergent strategy means movements adjust in real-time rather than following a fixed, pre-determined plan.

• Instead of command-and-control leadership and centralised decision making, impact networks foster distributed leadership, collective intelligence and shared decision-making

• Movements that survive and thrive are those that sense, adapt, and respond to new challenges and opportunities.

✅ Implication for Project Phoenix

• The networks we are facilitating must remain agile, shifting focus based on emerging opportunities (e.g., new legislation, public outrage over animal cruelty).

• Rather than rigid top-down campaigns and strategies, local groups have autonomy to experiment within a shared movement vision.

• Decentralised leadership ensures resilience—if one approach fails, the movement adapts and tries again.

Summary

To help build a movement that is dynamic, resilient, and ultimately capable of transforming the system of animal exploitation we:

• Recognise that change happens within complex systems—solutions must be multi-layered and adaptive.

• Act as a movement facilitator, not a command center—aligning grassroots and NGOs rather than controlling them.

• Encourage constant experimentation and learning—ensuring campaigns evolve based on real-world results.

• Scale successful models and let go of failing ones—so that resources and energy flow to the most impactful initiatives.

• Embrace emergent strategy—staying flexible, responsive, and resilient in the face of change.

Our approach to mass movement building

Our goal is to build a movement with the power to end the farming of animals and all other forms of animal exploitation. This does not currently exist in the UK. To achieve this, we must scale a mass movement of everyday animal lovers, engaging both vegans and, crucially, non-vegans.

1. Expanding the Movement Through Popular Gateway Issues

• Single-issue campaigns (e.g. testing on dogs, killing badgers, hunting, importing ‘fur’, racing dogs) are highly popular and politically winnable, as seen in the Labour Party manifesto.

• Most of the UK’s historic wins have been campaigns related to these types of single-issues, e.g. banning: testing on animals for cosmetics (1998); the use of great apes in research (1998); fur farming (2000); hunting with dogs (2004), wild animals in circuses (2020); and live exports (2024). 

• These "low-hanging fruit" issues bring in large numbers of people who care about other animals but are not yet engaged in activism or veganism. They act as a recruitment funnel between the public and the movement.

• Short-term wins create momentum, which accelerates movement-building, attracts more people, and lays the foundation for bigger victories over time.

2. Converting Passive Supporters to Activists, Vegans and Farmed Animal Advocates

• Campaigns like ending testing on dogs and cats are a powerful entry point—57% of UK households have a cat, dog, or both, yet only 2-3% of people are vegan. With broad public support, these campaigns offer a major opportunity to turn passive supporters into active participants.

• By bringing non-vegans into activism and immersing them in a vegan community, they naturally begin to connect the dots between all forms of animal exploitation, transitioning into farmed animal advocacy and veganism—a pattern seen in the UK grassroots movement that existed previously. A movement culture where veganism is the norm means that new activists will be immersed in conversations, trainings, relationships, and networks (as explored in Damon Centola’s Change) that shift their perspective on all animal issues, including diet.

• The current Camp Beagle petition gathered over 200,000 signatures in just one week, yet our movement lacks 200,000 active members—proving huge untapped potential. Without infrastructure, most of these people will be lost to our movement. With our networks in place, groups like Camp Beagle can signpost supporters to their local groups, embedding them in a vegan culture and expanding the recruitment pipeline for both veganism and activism.

• Providing people with an accessible entry point via a single-issue campaign they already connect with, means more people can join the movement, and grow as they learn through immersion and training at their own pace. This will increase the number of vegans and activists over time.

• By growing a mass movement through popular single-issue campaigns, we can also re-politicise veganism as a social justice issue, a boycott against cruelty and a form of empowerment, not just a personal choice.

3. Building Local Group Infrastructure for Long-Term Impact

• Local campaigns (e.g. against zoos, oceanariums, fox hunts, fur shops etc.) train and empower grassroots groups, helping them develop strategic capacity for future farmed animal campaigns and other campaigns.

• Groups gain confidence by winning local, relevant battles, making them stronger and more effective when tackling bigger systemic issues like farming animals.

4. Strengthening National Farmed Animal Campaigns with Grassroots Power

• Current national NGO-led campaigns lack grassroots mobilisation—most don’t provide free or easily accessible materials for local groups, limiting their reach.

• A strong grassroots network would allow national campaigns to reach millions, ensuring farmed animal issues gain mass traction.

• A coordinated grassroots-NGO synergy, as attempted by the For Charlie campaign, would maximise the impact of national farmed animal campaigns.The reason this hasn't worked with the For Charlie campaign, is due to the lack of a grassroots network.

5. Mobilising in Response to Trigger Events

• The public regularly expresses outrage over specific animal injustices (e.g. Beau the calf, the Tamworth Two, or the humpback whale caught in a Scottish salmon farm).

• Currently, the movement lacks the capacity and infrastructure to respond at scale and turn these moments into mass mobilisations and take hold of the narrative.

• A well-connected grassroots network would allow us to rapidly mobilise protests, petitions and pressure campaigns, shifting public consciousness and policy.

6. Creating a Self-Sustaining, Expanding Movement

• Historically, mass mobilisations in the UK animal rights movement were driven by vivisection and then live exports, but momentum was not sustained.

• By building a decentralised local group network that works across diverse issues, we are more likely to have continued growth rather than decline.

• Examples like Dorset Animal Action (DAA) show how local groups increase all forms of activism, including diet change. Since starting DAA, attendance at slaughterhouse vigils has increased, as have the Plant-Based Treaty and WTF teams - all diet change initiatives. DAA has also increased collaboration between Plant Based Treaty and Plant Based Councils, and Southampton Animal Action (SAA) is launching a campaign to end the live export of farmed animals from the Isle of Wight which would end most animal agriculture on the island.

• This suggests that a thriving grassroots movement will naturally increase farmed animal advocacy and vegan activism.

A Transformative Approach

While we are not a single-issue organisation, our strategy is designed to grow and strengthen the movement in ways that will directly accelerate diet change and campaigns to end the farming of animals, along with all other forms of animal exploitation. 

Our approach is to: 

• build power from the ground up—expanding the activist base through engaging, winnable campaigns

• create cultural shifts—activating non-vegans and immersing them in a movement where veganism is the norm

• enable national farmed animal campaigns to scale effectively—bridging the gap between NGOs and grassroots activism, and 

• be prepared for moments of opportunity—ensuring public outrage translates into mass mobilisation and lasting change.

We are investing in the infrastructure that will make mass dietary change, ending the farming of animals and animal freedom inevitable in the UK.