Taking care of animal protection businesses

Do you ever meet super-smart people whose intelligence is so blatantly right there in front of you that just being around them is humbling—and simultaneously enjoyable and inspiring?  You know, the kind of folks who naturally function with an elevated vocabulary that causes you to reflect on the meanings of the words as they’re used and makes you keenly aware of the higher intellectual plane in your presence. 

Those are exactly the feelings I have when getting together with my friend and fellow consultant Caryn Ginsberg of Arlington, Virginia.  I don’t exaggerate.  Her IQ is surely off the charts!

That was confirmed when I asked about her educational background for this interview.  She mentioned taking statistics courses in high school; I don’t know about you but I avoided statistics till I was forced to take it for my master’s.  And—get this—she holds a bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth in economics and math (yes, maaaaaath!) and an MBA from Stanford.  Gulp…

Fortunately, this cerebral juggernaut has now spent two decades helping animal welfare organizations.  Having Caryn on the animals’ side is wonderful news for all concerned.

People come at the desire to help animals in all sorts of ways, bringing their own interests and talents to the table.  Caryn is one of those people responding to a calling to assist animals in a unique way.  Her powerful brain is focused on improving the strategy and marketing effectiveness of animal protection organizations so that the nonprofits get the maximum bang for their marketing buck.

I first met Caryn about twenty years ago as a contributor and consultant to the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS).  Upon meeting her, you get the vibe right away that you’re talking with someone not only extremely bright, but also deeply and altruistically interested in improving animals’ lives. 

I’ve learned over the years that she has a way of looking at the plethora of animal welfare organizations in America on a business level, with an eye toward how organizations can fulfill their missions as robustly and efficiently as possible.  Such change can lead to opportunities for increasing the number of animals being assisted relative to the amount of available resources.  New possibilities, in short.

Caryn Ginsberg launched her own consultancy, then named Priority Ventures Group, in 1994 with a friend and colleague who later left to start her own life coaching business.  Caryn had been working at mortgage repackager/reseller Freddie Mac and wanted something more.  Eventually, she jumped ship and consulted on her own for California Federal, an S&L, as well as other businesses for a few years.

The name of the firm was selected because Caryn and her co-founder believed in guiding clients through emphasizing their top priorities. 

“We wanted them to focus on what was most important to them so they would make the best decisions to get the best results,” she said.

In 2000, Caryn again found herself wanting a little more.  She signed up for a week-long class with the Institute for Humane Education to explore humane education, but came away with the idea of shifting her client focus to pursue animal protection organizations as consulting customers.

“I support planning processes, key meetings and field conferences by creating live visuals, leading discussions and providing insight on big-picture issues,” Caryn explained. 

The live visuals stem from her work as a graphic facilitator, a term she uses to describe herself.  I asked her to suss out exactly what that meant.

Caryn replied that her work includes graphic recording—in other words, providing a visual summary of in-person meetings and webinars through drawings and text.  The value of such efforts is that people can see the conversation as it happens and see connections they might not otherwise detect.  She noted that participants like the color and motion involved, and they leave meetings with strong understandings of what transpired.

“Graphic recordings are a much better way of providing information about meetings to people who did not attend,” explained Caryn.  “And they’re better to refer to later than just typed-up flip chart notes.”

“No one ever wanted to go back to read typed-up flip chart notes!” she laughed.

Graphic facilitation includes not only objectively rendered recording, but also traditional structured meeting leadership providing subjective feedback.  It’s wearing two hats, not just one.  She wears a third hat, or a different one, when she provides non-graphic consulting advice to organizations, as well.

Over the years, Caryn has worked with Fortune 500 companies, start-ups, nonprofits and trade associations involved in policy, science, technology, direct services and volunteerism.  Her animal welfare clients have included HSUS, ASPCA, Animal Grantmakers, Farm Sanctuary, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and many others.

This year, effective January 1, Caryn has changed her firm’s name to Priority Visions.  The reason for the change is because some people assumed the old name represented a venture capital firm and also the increasingly visual nature of her business.

“I use lots of visual tools.  And I want clients to see possibilities,” she said.  “Plus, I work with a lot of the visionaries in animal protection.”

In 2011, after working with animal protection groups for more than a decade, Caryn wrote Animal Impact: Secrets Proven to Achieve Results and Move the World, a publication that shows advocates how to adapt business marketing approaches to help animals.  It is available via hard copy and as an e-book.  She also is the board president for Faunalytics, which is, according to her, the only nonprofit devoted to market research on the full range of animal protection issues.

I asked Caryn what general advice she has for animal-focused nonprofits.  Here are some key points she shared:

Go deeper, rather than wider.

“Almost every organization could benefit from concentrating on fewer initiatives, investing more time and money in each one,” Caryn explained.  

She noted that when she consulted years ago with the Fund for Animals, staff, like at almost every nonprofit, was spread thin working on several campaigns.

“We used a series of strategic questions and a visual tool to analyze which ones were most important,” she said.  “They made the difficult decision to let go of some efforts that, while well intended and executed, weren’t the best use of limited resources.”

Caryn noted this same analytical approach later guided HSUS’s decisions on new campaigns once the Fund merged with HSUS.

“That helped them say no to some ideas to focus on the best opportunities.  We must remember that every initiative has an opportunity cost.  Time, money and energy that go into one campaign or program aren’t available to support another one,” professed Caryn.

Keep in mind that much of the public may have values and priorities different from your own.

“Another challenge we face is forgetting that the people we’re trying to influence don’t think the way we do,” cautioned Caryn.  “After all, if they did, they’d probably already be doing what we’re trying to get them to do!”

She has witnessed cases of advocates opting for strategies that they themselves find appealing, even when their task is influencing others.  Such an approach can result in failure or lackluster accomplishments. 

The example she gives was the use of humor or innuendo in a planned spay/neuter promotion.  

“Research I was involved in with HSUS showed that was a turn-off for people with unaltered animals.  Spay/neuter was a serious medical procedure for their companion animal, not something funny,” she said.

She also noted that the messaging failed to take into account the operation’s cost, a factor that often discouraged pet owners from acting even when they wanted to sterilize their animals.

The same research demonstrated that messages about pet overpopulation resulting in shelters performing euthanasia was, according to Caryn, “most compelling, especially when linked to the idea that it could be their dog’s puppies or cat’s kittens put down.”

Caryn said that when she speaks at conferences, which she does frequently, she starts presentations with hypothetical scenarios to illustrate the point that animal activists are not their own target audience for messaging. 

She asks session attendees to imagine they were asked to no longer drive or to shop only at thrift stores as ways to help the environment.  Benefits of such tactics are then discussed, after which Caryn asks the group if they would, in fact, change their behavior to give up their cars or mall shopping.

“Of course, no one ever raises their hand,” she stated.  “They have all kinds of practical reasons why.  I do this to show animal advocates that sometimes we’re asking people to do something in ways that don’t convince them to do it.”

“We have to think of the broader public as customers for change,” she added.  “We have to invite them to make change and give them compelling reasons to do so.  We can’t just give them our reasons for wanting to create change.”

Take advantage of marketing research.

“Big businesses may spend millions of dollars each year on [market research],” pointed out Caryn.  “Many leading animal protection organizations are investing in research, and it’s making a big difference.” 

One example she provided was animal groups testing promotional messages for ballot initiatives as well as the wording of the initiatives themselves to ensure that language on the ballot would be as agreeable to as many voters as possible.  Similarly, Farm Sanctuary undertook research on sanctuary visits, online video and in-person presentations to determine what was working best and what could be enhanced.

Nonprofit leaders often decry primary research as too expensive, claimed Caryn.  But she feels groups can’t afford not to spend on research—if they really want to achieve changed behavior that is animal-friendly.

Animal welfare groups can get help with secondary market research, which is far less expensive, by checking out Faunalytics.  The organization conducts studies and collects research from around the world on the full range of animal issues—and all the information is free on the Faunalytics website.

Recently, Faunalytics conducted a study showing that two percent of U.S. adults were vegetarian or vegan, while another ten percent had attempted but abandoned a plant-based diet.  The reasons why: taste, boredom with options, and health concerns, whether actual or imagined.  

“The good news,” said Caryn, “is that over a third of the past veg eaters wanted to try again.”

“Advocates can and do use these results to decide where to invest their limited time and money to get the best results for animals,” she explained.  “It’s just not enough to tell people why to eat plant-based foods.  We have to help them learn how and sustain them over time to stick with it.”

Take advantage of publicly available census data.

Available through census.gov or easidemographics.com, census data can help organizations better understand their local communities and to whom they are marketing.  Plus, it’s free since it is collected by the federal government.

“It can help you see who lives in your area and where they’re located, allowing you to target your programs to the right people in the right place,” Caryn noted. “Don’t forget, your local government may also have valuable information about your community.”