Patricia Mikkelson

We Did Our Homework: Is Anyone Already Uniting Animal and Earth Groups?

I’m starting the Animal Earth Alliance, a friendly network for everyone who cares about animals and the earth, with my dear friend Barbara Hulley as my advisor. You can read about it on our page, Coming Soon: The Animal Earth Alliance. This post shares the research we did first, to see whether anyone was already doing this. — Patricia Mikkelson

Before starting the Animal Earth Alliance, we searched hard for a group already doing this. We didn’t want to duplicate anyone’s work. We looked for one organization that does four things: brings animal rights and environmental groups together, builds community among its members, runs an open think tank where everyone can help shape ideas, and helps vegans find each other for friendship and more. Here is what we found, as of October 2026.

Animal and earth groups do join forces, but for one cause at a time

  • Stop Financing Factory Farming brings together more than 25 groups, including Friends of the Earth U.S. and World Animal Protection. It works on one goal: keeping public banks like the World Bank from funding factory farms.
  • About 300 groups, from the ASPCA to Waterkeeper Alliance, endorsed the Farm System Reform Act in 2020, a bill to ban new factory farms. It was one letter for one bill.
  • The Plant Based Treaty has been endorsed by about 1,500 organizations and 34 cities. Signing shows support, but it doesn’t give groups a voice in decisions.

We found no ongoing, neutral home base where any animal, vegan or earth-care group can simply join to meet, share and plan together, and none at all in the South or the Ozarks. The need is real: one newsroom found that 96% of climate news stories never mention animal farming.

The think tanks publish for advocates, not with them

  • Faunalytics offers a wonderful free research library and office hours. Still, you bring your questions to it; you don’t help set its direction.
  • The Animal Advocacy Strategy Forum, where movement leaders plan together, is small and by invitation. Its 2023 meeting had 44 people from about 27 groups.
  • The Open Wing Alliance links more than 100 groups in 67 countries to share strategy. It’s a wonderful model, but it focuses only on chickens.

We didn’t find an open think tank where every kind of group and every caring person can offer ideas and help choose shared priorities. Faith groups, sanctuaries and small grassroots groups are the least heard.

Community is growing online

  • Hive has an online chat space with more than 4,500 advocates in over 100 countries.
  • Connect For Animals, a free nonprofit app, helps people find advocates, groups and events near them.
  • The AVA Summit brings about 1,000 advocates together in person.

Most of this centers on farmed animals and on big-city life.

Vegan friendship and matchmaking exist, but as businesses

  • Veggly, the largest vegan dating app, has over a million users. Grazer and VeggieConnection offer friendship and dating too.
  • VGN Social, started by an animal rights activist, puts friendship first and gives part of its earnings to animal groups. It’s closest to our hopes, but it’s still a business.
  • Vegan Outreach has paired more than 7,000 new vegans with volunteer mentors, for support rather than romance.

Most of these work best in big cities. Close to home, the Vegetarian Vegan Club of the Ozarks in Springfield, Missouri, has more than 400 members, but it hasn’t listed upcoming events lately.

What we found missing

The pieces exist, but in separate places. Nothing we found:

  • is a neutral home base for animal, vegan and earth-care groups together
  • holds an open think tank anyone can help shape
  • links friendship, activism, and shared living or land in one place
  • welcomes older and rural vegans, in places like Madison County
  • makes room for people of faith who see caring for animals and the earth as sacred work

That’s the welcoming circle we hope the Animal Earth Alliance can become, working alongside these good groups, not competing with them.

If we missed someone, please tell us in the comments or the questionnaire. We’d love to join hands with them.

Read more about the Alliance here: Coming Soon: The Animal Earth Alliance. And if you have a few minutes, we’d love your answers to our short questionnaire.

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