Shop Products for Animal Causes: Retail Therapy Meets Activism

There are some things that just naturally go hand-in-hand: Almond butter and chocolate, peppermint and mocha (vegan, of course), coffee and books, cute baby animals and YouTube, and my new favorite ... online shopping and animal rights activism. What could be better than shopping for a good cause (aside from it also being retail therapy)? 

Thankfully there a lot of online shops that empower consumers to be animal rights activists; they either sell products that raise awareness or share their proceeds with animal organizations. 

Below are just a few that I came across today. With the holidays upon us, there's no better time to shop for yourself and fellow animal lovers. They make the perfect holiday gifts!

Animals Awareness - They partner with merchants and jewelry artisans from around the world to bring unique merchandise that spark worthy conversations about animal causes. Their online catalog includes t-shirts and hoodies, iPhone cases, and other animal-inspired items. I love their logo, too.

Arm the Animals < Making Activism Fashionable > - They're armed with an inspiring mission and a passion for helping animal welfare organizations, particularly small, "mom-and-pop" animal care organizations struggling to cover expenses. You can shop by collection, design, men and women's apparel as well as accessories.  

Greater Good - Perhaps more popularly known for The Animal Rescue Site, Greater Good is a network of websites that was created to turn "a click on a website" into a "force for good". Their sites also include The Rainforest Site (to protect vital wildlife habitats), The Hunger Site (to help feed the hungry around the world), and The Veteran Site (helping to feed veterans in need). With their Click to Give program, each click a day on any of their websites literally counts, and you can see the measurable difference you make.

For example, The Rainforest Site's Click Results show how many people clicked on any given day, month and year, and how many square feet of land, acres and hectares of wildlife habitat were protected and preserved due to funds raised by people's clicks. They reported that in 2014, user clicks generated funds for the protection and preservation of 10,321 acres of habitat (home to tens of thousands animal and plant species). This is made possible through Greater Good's sponsor advertising fees, of which 100% is given to their charitable partners.

Greater Good also offers other ways you can help:

1. Shop their online stores (they offer huge selections across their nine websites)
2. Sign petitions for various causes (featured on their websites)
3. Help them find new "click sponsors" (who fund the proceeds that go to Greater Good's charitable partners simply by advertising on their websites)
4. Spread the word about them!

At the very least, each one of us with access to the internet should be setting daily reminders to click the button on each of their nine websites in order to raise funds. There's no cost for us to do it, so there's really no reason we shouldn't.

5 Ways to Get More Engagement for Animal Causes on Social Media

I often feel apologetic for posting graphic images and depressing stories about the plight of animals. As someone who follows a variety of animal news sources and animal rights organizations on Facebook, I know how overwhelming (and depressing) the stories can be as they flood my newsfeed.

But then I think about the animals. Sure, the graphic images and headlines are rather disturbing to see, but that’s just a momentary inconvenience for us. What about the animals that endure the pain and suffering, 24/7—those who can’t just simply look away and move onto the next, happier story?

So what’s an animal lover to do when your social media audience has grown weary of animal-related postings and petitions?

Here are 5 ways to help you get more engagement for your animal causes

1. Keep it short and simple. Summarize the article or issue by either quoting a compelling line within the article, or summarizing it in your own words. We know that people have short attention spans, so highlight the most important point when posting or sharing a story. Assume they won’t read the whole story and let them know if there’s a call-to-action at the end.
2. Diversify your audience. To help prevent your audience from tuning you out, post on different social media platforms on different days. This way, your Facebook friends will only see that you’ve posted once every few days, your Twitter followers once every few days, etc. You may be posting every day, but your social media followers won’t know that.
3. Sprinkle in happy stories. No one likes a "Debbie Downer". Make sure to balance sad stories with heartwarming, uplifting or even fun and irreverent stories (think Buzzfeed). By diversifying the stories you share, your content will look fresh and will less likely start sounding the same.
4. Blog about it! You don’t need to have an animal-focused blog to write a post about a worthy animal cause. You’ve worked hard to build an audience, now share with them a cause that is close to your heart.
5. Be creative. Present things differently, like a foodie pic turned into a call-to-action. You could post a picture you took of a yummy dessert like crème brule, and then add a line like: “This crème brule is calling my name, but all I hear is the pain and suffering of chickens. Sign this petition to ban cruel battery-cage eggs.”

These are things I try to be conscious of and implement. I know it's hard if you're an animal lover and all you want to do is shout to the world about all the cruelty and injustices animals face. It's a struggle, for sure. But hopefully with these tips, we can move people toward compassion for all living beings ... bite-sized posts at a time.