Growing PEPR: Highlights and learnings from our first 6 months driving effective impact
- Jay Barrett
- Apr 1
- 11 min read
Updated: Apr 11
Our movement needs as much capacity-building support as it can get
This update marks our very first Impact Report and a reflection on a meaningful six months of work supporting the Farmed Animal and Vegan Advocacy movement. It's not just a report—it’s a reflection on how far we've come, what we've learned, and where we're heading.
The Journey to PEPR
While PEPR officially launched in the summer of 2024, the idea has been taking root for over two years. As we listened, observed, and partnered with organizations across the farmed animal and vegan advocacy space, we saw a clear need—and a clear opportunity—for thoughtful, values-driven support. Repeated movement-level research has highlighted a persistent gap in HR, people management, and leadership—one that we felt uniquely equipped to help address. If left unaddressed, these gaps could limit the long-term effectiveness and resilience of advocacy organizations.
Our team brings together a diverse range of experiences - from global nonprofits to scrappy startups and large-scale organizations, and we bring a deep well of skills to the movement. What unites us is a shared belief: that strengthening the internal systems, leadership, and cultures of mission-driven organizations can unlock greater impact for the movement as a whole. We saw that we could help organizations figure out the how to deliver on their why.
The first iteration of PEPR focused on solving foundational infrastructure and culture challenges. We saw many organizations grappling with how to hire and support global remote teams, structure and scale effectively, and address persistent issues like leadership support, burnout, wellbeing, and professionalism. We also saw the barriers that continue to prevent diverse groups from fully participating in the movement—and the untapped strength that comes from valuing lived experience and centering intersectional justice.
We’ll be honest: we were ambitious. Some of our early interventions were ahead of what the movement could sustain. We proposed ideas that could have helped solve deep-rooted challenges and build long-term capacity—but without the necessary funding, they simply weren’t viable.
Regardless, we stayed the course. Through Culture Canopy’s original initiative, we supported more than 20 organizations during 2024, with tailored people and culture services, ensuring teams can grow sustainably in ways that are aligned with their values. PEPR is the next phase of the work Culture Canopy had started.
To create lasting change, the movement must not only focus on what it fights for, but how it must work for long-term sustained impact. The path requires strong internal systems, inclusive leadership, and a culture of wellbeing. Much like the movement itself, PEPR continues to evolve, staying responsive, staying hopeful, and always holding on to our big vision.
Our strategies may look different now than they did at the start, but our commitment remains the same: to help this movement thrive and improve the lives of animals and people.
Our Purpose
Transformative change in our food systems is only possible with an ecosystem of effective, resilient organizations working in farmed animal and vegan advocacy. When organizations don’t invest in their internal development, they risk falling short of their potential. Without strong internal systems, they may struggle to respond with agility, seize opportunities or sustain momentum - leaving impact on the table.
That’s where PEPR comes in.
We exist to help strengthen the movement from within. As a mission-driven professional services consultancy, we provide strategic and operational support to help advocacy organizations maximize their potential and drive collective, lasting change. We bring the next tier of operational insight to the movement—focused on organizational effectiveness, not just efficiency.
Our work spans three interconnected pillars:
Organizational Strategy – crafting clear, mission-aligned plans that guide growth and decision-making
People & Culture – fostering values-driven, inclusive, and sustainable workplace cultures
Finance & Operations – building smart, scalable systems that help organizations thrive
Our holistic approach ensures that strategy and operations are not siloed but deeply integrated—so that what’s envisioned can be achieved. When organizations operate with clarity, purpose, and strong infrastructure, the entire movement benefits.
Ultimately, our purpose is to help advocacy organizations protect their most precious resources—time, talent, and funding—by ensuring they are used wisely and effectively. We meet organizations at pivotal moments: launching new initiatives, navigating growth, or optimizing for long-term sustainability. We provide them bespoke solutions, recognizing that a one-size fits all approach often fails to recognize their unique challenges, aspirations and potential. Wherever they are in their journey, we’re there to support them in doing their best work.
We work with organizations through our program and through direct service engagements.
Our Impact: What has gone well
Reaching the movement
Since our launch, PEPR has provided some level of support to over 30 organizations across the farmed animal and vegan advocacy movement. From targeted interventions to deeper strategic partnerships, our work has spanned a spectrum of needs and contexts.
To guide how we engage, we developed a framework to assess the depth and type of support each organization requires—ensuring we invest our time and resources where they can drive the greatest value.
We’ve connected with organizations through resources and networks like Fast Community, Hive, the AVA Summit, Reducetarian, VARC, and through direct outreach. We also continue to support several partners from the original Culture Canopy program, deepening those long-standing relationships.
Measuring Our Impact
For any capacity-building organization, measuring impact is both essential and complex—especially when the link to systems change is less direct. We knew from the beginning that we needed a clear methodology to demonstrate the value of our work and deliver a meaningful return for our funders.
To assess our performance, we regularly deploy a stakeholder survey that tracks satisfaction, alignment, and outcomes. The feedback has been deeply encouraging:
Satisfaction with our work: 4.7 / 5
We met their needs: 4.8 / 5
Importance of continuing our programs: 5 / 5
Likelihood to recommend us: 4.9 / 5
Complementary to other capacity-builders: 4.75 / 5
We’ll continue evolving how we measure our impact—listening to our stakeholders, learning from feedback, and refining our work to deliver the strongest possible outcomes for the movement.
In addition to the stakeholder feedback we receive from those we have supported, we have case studies for potential funders to understand the impact of our work and the types of changes and growth we have helped our clients navigate.
Refining Our Work
The more organizations we support, the sharper our approach becomes. We've built the ability to quickly triage challenges, co-create roadmaps for change, and implement practical, people-centered solutions.
Here’s a snapshot of what our work looks like:
Developing Organizational Strategy: We partner to define the what and how that will deliver on an organization’s why. This includes mission and vision development, theory of change, strategic and workforce planning, priority setting, goal alignment, and sustainable growth design. We help organizations become more effective—and ready to expand their reach when needed.
Enhancing People & Culture: We help teams attract, develop, retain, and reward talent, so they can thrive while advancing their mission. Our work spans performance management, inclusive culture development, conflict resolution, compensation and rewards, and wellbeing strategies.
Elevating Finance & Operations: We support financial governance and back-office systems—everything from budgeting, scenario planning, and vendor selection to accounting, internal controls, and audit readiness. We help organizations build strong infrastructure that powers forward, rather than slows down, their work.
Across all of these areas, we focus heavily on organizational design—clarifying roles and responsibilities and improving internal ways of working. Our goal is to build organizations that are not just functional, but flourishing.
Growing an Inclusive Team
One of our proudest milestones is the growth of our team. What began with three co-founders - each different subject matter experts - has quickly grown into a team of 11 professionals working across the US, UK, France, Spain, and Ghana.
Our team brings together expertise in HR, DEI, nonprofit strategy, finance, and IT—collaborating across time zones and disciplines to solve complex challenges with heart and strategy.
Inclusion has always been central to our ethos. As a majority LGBTQ+ led organization, we’re deeply aware of the systemic barriers faced by marginalized communities. We don’t just talk about inclusion—we live it. This is reflected in our hiring practices, our team culture, and our global composition. We believe our diversity—of experience, skills, geography, and identity—is one of our greatest strengths.
Resilience & Perseverance
Launching a new organization is never easy; especially in a movement that receives a fraction of the funding compared to other cause areas like environmental or companion animals. While funding hasn’t reached the levels we initially aimed for, we’ve made the most of every resource we’ve received. We may be moving slower than we hoped - but we are moving. And we’re building a solid foundation for greater impact ahead.
Founding PEPR hasn’t been about overnight success. It’s been about trial and error, resilience, and persistence in the face of real challenges. And we’re not stopping. We’re here because the movement needs strong infrastructure to succeed. And because the animals need this movement to succeed. We are confident our support can help power the movement to success.
Why We Chose to Become a Public Benefit Corporation
At the start of 2024, we had planned to launch PEPR as a nonprofit. But after careful consideration and legal guidance - we pivoted. We didn’t want to create another organization entirely dependent on philanthropy in a movement where funding is already scarce, particularly for capacity-building efforts.
By choosing to become a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC), we made a conscious decision to blend profit with purpose. Our legal structure mandates us to balance stakeholder interests while delivering positive social impact. It ensures our mission stays at the core of everything we do - focused on benefiting people, planet, and animals.
Just as importantly, operating as a for-profit gives us the flexibility to move quickly, pivot when needed, and take on client work that diversifies our revenue. This model gives us more financial resilience and helps us sustain and grow our impact over time.
Though our structure is for-profit, our purpose is not. We exist to support the movement—not to generate profit, but to ensure we can keep doing the work that matters. While this path has made fundraising more complex, it has also given us a powerful edge: the ability to build a new model for how capacity-building work can thrive.
So far, choosing the PBC model hasn’t slowed us down. In fact, it’s helped us deliver more impact.
Our Learnings: What could have gone better
Clarifying Our Role in the movement
One of our challenges has been helping stakeholders fully understand what we do—and how we fit within the broader farmed animal and vegan advocacy movement.
At times, we’ve encountered hesitation or confusion about whether our work overlaps with that of other capacity-building groups. But through both experience and feedback, we’ve gained clarity and confidence in the distinct value we bring. Stakeholders have told us (and rated us) that our work is complementary to others in the space - and we’re proud to say we have collaborated with many of them.
So, who are we?
We are a mission-driven professional services consultancy providing strategic support to elevate Farmed Animal & Vegan organizations, empowering them to maximize their potential to create collective, lasting impact for people, planet and animals.
We help to launch, grow and sustain organizations so they can thrive and accelerate change.
Our holistic focus blends strategy and operations ensuring plans are actionable and tightly aligned to mission - enabling our clients to be as effective as they can be.
And how does our work vary?
Are we an operations team running the back office of organizations?
Sometimes—but that’s not our core mission. We help organizations build internal capabilities so they can manage operations independently and sustainably.
Are we a leadership development group?
Not in the traditional sense. We don’t run formal training programs. We develop leaders through embedded partnerships - coaching and navigating challenges with them in real time.
Are we a strategy consultancy?
Not exactly. We don’t dictate strategy. We help organizations clarify their vision, set priorities, and turn strategy into action.
There may be some natural overlap with other capacity-building efforts, but our approach, expertise, and delivery model are unique. We often work alongside other support providers, and together, we’re contributing to a shared goal: building stronger, more effective organizations that can achieve lasting impact for animals. And to achieve that, our movement needs as much capacity-building support as it can get.
Building Awareness & Reaching More Organizations
While we’ve made progress connecting with organizations through networks like the Fast Community, Hive, and our presence at conferences, there’s more to be done.
Awareness of PEPR is still limited outside the groups we’ve directly supported. That means some organizations that could benefit most from our services may not know we exist, or if they do, may not realize the kind of support we can offer through our program.
This is something we’re committed to improving. We want to make sure that any organization at a critical juncture - whether launching, scaling, or stabilizing—knows that we are here to help them grow, adapt, sustain, thrive and succeed.
So if you’ve made it this far—help us spread the word. Share our work with others in the movement. Let organizations know that PEPR is here to be a partner, a thought partner, and a resource. Because when advocacy organizations are supported from within, the whole movement becomes stronger.
Looking Ahead: What We’re Excited About
In the year ahead, we’re focused on expanding our reach and supporting even more organizations across the farmed animal and vegan advocacy movement. As we continue to evolve, we’re also working to strengthen our own operations, so we can move faster, dive into deeper work with organizations, and deliver even greater value to the partners we serve.
Beyond our core consultancy work, we’re also laying the groundwork for movement-level initiatives designed to move the needle on long-standing challenges. We're excited to contribute to efforts that increase organizational effectiveness, promote inclusion and wellbeing, and improve activist retention - all critical to sustaining the movement’s long-term impact.
The future of this movement depends on the strength of the organizations behind it, and we are here to help build that strength.
Want to Help Us Grow Our Impact?
Let’s collaborate.
Collaboration is at the heart of our values. If you’d like to work with us, partner on a project, or explore how we can support your organization’s journey, we’d love to hear from you.
Spread the word.
Help us reach the organizations that need our support the most - promising initiatives that could increase their impact with a little more strategic guidance. If you know of a group navigating change, facing unique challenges, or looking for clarity on how to move forward, please tell them about PEPR.
Share your feedback.
We’re always learning. Let us know how we’re doing, what we could do better, and how we can sharpen our capabilities to meet the real-world needs of your organization and others in the movement.
Connect us.
If you know someone we should know - another organization, a potential partner, a funder, a collaborator, please make the introduction. Some of our most meaningful connections have come through the generous support of our network.
And if we’ve worked with you.
If we’ve supported your organization and you’d like to help us grow our impact, consider sharing a testimonial, completing one of our stakeholder surveys, or mentioning us to your funders. Your feedback helps others understand the value and impact of our work.
A Word of Thanks
Though PEPR officially launched in 2024, this journey began much earlier. Along the way, we’ve been guided, supported, challenged, and inspired by so many in the movement.
To those who offered feedback, shared wisdom, extended encouragement, invited us in, showed us resilience, and believed in what we’re building: thank you. Your generosity has shaped PEPR, and your trust fuels our commitment to this work. We wouldn’t be here without you.
We look forward to continuing this work together - for the animals, for the movement, and for a more just and sustainable future.
We’re proud of what we’ve built—and even more excited for what’s ahead. Thank you for being part of our journey.
With kindness,
Jay Barrett
Chief Executive Officer
PEPR Public Benefit Corporation (PEPR)
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