Making the Most of Our Activism: An Interview with Caryn Ginsberg

Think of the big-name organizations in the animal protection movement -- HSUS, ASPCA, Farm Sanctuary, RedRover -- and you'll find Caryn Ginsberg's fingerprints all over their strategies and campaigns. Caryn has spent more than a decade helping animal protection advocates utilize strategy and marketing approaches to get better results, and her new book, Animal Impact: Secrets Proven to Achieve Results and Move the World, is designed to help both beginning and experienced activists create more effective change for animals. Caryn's book has been endorsed by many well-known advocates, including Wayne Pacelle, Gene Baur, and Bruce Friedrich, and Peter Singer called it, "the practical handbook every activist should read."

In addition to her expertise merging business skills with activism, Caryn has also served on boards of directors and advisory boards, including for the Institute for Humane Education and the Humane Research Council, and has taught social marketing, marketing, and strategic management courses for Johns Hopkins University and Humane Society University. We talked with Caryn about her book and how it can help transform activism.

IHE: Your new book, Animal Impact, offers insights and strategies for animal activists. What's unique about your book amongst the other books about animal protection advocacy?

CG: There are many excellent books about animal advocacy. I quote from several in the book and recommend some of the best in the Resources section.

I reviewed a number of books before writing Animal Impact precisely to define what would make it different:

• Animal Impact introduces, explains, and illustrates a seven-step process to create change, so that readers take away an approach they can remember and apply to get better results.
• It includes thought exercises and questions, so you experience the material rather than just see it and can begin to put the information to work before they even finish reading.
• There's a free companion journal pdf that repeats the key points and provides space to answer questions and take notes, letting you create a personalized executive summary.
• The success stories and lessons learned from leading advocates around the world make the book enjoyable as well as instructive.

IHE: Is the book only for animal protection advocates?

CG: Although the stories come from the animal protection field, the lessons learned apply across almost all social change issues. There's already been interest from people working on environmental, social justice, and human rights issues.


IHE: Your book looks to business practices, including marketing strategies, as a core part of effective advocacy. Why is that important?


CG: Businesses have a proven track record of getting people to take action. Advocates can use the same approaches – ethically and without big budgets – to get people to take different actions. The field of social marketing, applying business marketing principles to motivate people to act in ways that benefit society, began in 1971. The public health, environmental, and animal protection fields, as well as others, have used social marketing successfully to advance change.

IHE: In your book, you talk about the ACHIEVEchange system as a guide for effective activism. Tell us a little about it.


CG: I like to joke that I've read a lot of self-improvement books but haven't improved very much. While the responsibility for that failure rests with me, I believe part of the problem is that many books share great ideas, but don't leave you with a framework you can use to take action.

With the ACHIEVEchange system, each letter in the word "ACHIEVE" stands for a phrase that represents a key step in the process of effective advocacy. For example, ""I" is for "I am not my target audience." This step addresses that advocates are often very different from the people we're trying to influence. What motivates us may not be the best way to inspire others. The ACHIEVEchange system makes it easier to remember and implement the seven steps.

IHE: Give us an example of "top-notch" advocacy.

CG: Top-notch advocacy comes down to "tipping the scales," so that people perceive more benefits than barriers to doing what we want them to do. When Bob Leonard first joined Delaware Action for Animals (DAA), he took on the fight against a proposal advanced by trappers to greatly expand the beaver-trapping season. Many advocates would have denounced the cruelty and maybe set up a protest at the wildlife agency. But to sway decision-makers, Bob knew he needed to show that it was not in the public interest to expand the trapping season.

He engaged them professionally and courteously, ultimately gaining access to data that proved that the extent of beaver complaints was overstated. He approached other local groups within and beyond animal protection, finding allies who cared about quality of life and public safety issues in addition to animal cruelty. That meant more organizations opposing the expansion of the trapping season and providing more reasons. Finally, Bob contacted national organizations and trained in peaceful methods for resolving conflicts with beavers. That enabled DAA to provide nonlethal assistance when there were situations that might lead to complaints.

I like this example because it shows how a small group of people acted strategically to overcome opposition and persuade government to make the animal-friendly decision not to pursue the change. Bob discusses this story in the form of a great how-to for advocates here.

IHE: What are some of the most common mistakes activists make?

CG: I mentioned that "I" in the ACHIEVEchange system stands for "I am not my target audience." Advocates often use materials or approaches that they like without seeing how they work with the intended audience. You see this a lot through social media where advocates talk about how wonderful a video, poster, or other promotional piece is without any measure of what impact it has. Testing our methods to see how, even if, they get results with people we're asking to change is critical to using our scarce resources wisely.

Another common mistake is the one-size-fits-all approach where we try to speak to everyone with the same message. What motivates one person to take action isn't necessarily the same as what will move another. For example, one person might choose to shop at thrift shops because it helps the environment, another person might be driven primarily to save money, while a third might enjoy rejecting the big business / mass market stores in the mall. When we can tailor our engagement to what's meaningful to individuals or groups of people, they're more likely to respond.

IHE: What's the biggest challenge in motivating people to change their behavior?

CG: What came up repeatedly in the book was how challenged we as advocates often are in getting past our anger and engaging respectfully with the people we seek to influence. People change when they choose to do so and when they see the benefits as being greater than the barriers to taking on a new behavior. We need to work much harder to see things from their perspective and try to help them, rather than push, or worse yet, guilt or yell at them.

IHE: What do you think it's most important for beginning activists to know? Where should they start? What should they consider when deciding how best to spend their time and resources?

CG: My hope for beginning activists would be that they would find a role where they enjoy what they're doing, and they're getting meaningful results from their investment of time and energy. While the path to that point may vary, I'd encourage new activists to learn about a variety of groups. See what kind of campaigns or programs they run and what outcomes they're achieving. Volunteer in a variety of capacities or apply for an internship. As you go, keep evaluating, "Is this the way I want to contribute? Is my work creating change?"

That's what I did. I started in animal protection working in mailrooms, staffing outreach tables, marching in parades, leafleting, and more, with a variety of different groups. I went to conferences to meet people. I discovered the match between my business background and the field when I attended a weeklong humane education training from IHE more than ten years ago. I decided that becoming a humane educator wasn't a fit. But I was so impressed with IHE's approach and Zoe saw that I brought something different when I did my final project on grant funding opportunities. She invited me to join the board of directors. That was the start of my applying my professional skills, and it led to other opportunities.

IHE: What keeps you motivated and positive in working toward a compassionate, just world for all?

CG: There are so many wonderful people working to create positive change in the world. Imagine how much we can accomplish if every one of them has the very best ideas, methods, and tools to get results. IHE Enews readers have experienced how exciting it is to experience humane education as a force for change. I know that the approaches I share in Animal Impact, and in workshops and projects, are equally powerful to help advocates create the world we want to see.

~ Marsha

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