By Lisa Rimmert, Director of Development

This November, we began a two-month fundraising campaign to raise $225,000–to be matched for a total of $450,000 for outreach. We’ve never tried to raise this much before, and we were nervous. But we knew we had to try, because the truth is we needed the funds to continue our leafleting at its current level–which has grown steadily every semester–and to introduce new programs in 2016 that will help more animals than ever.

We needed support for our work, and about nine hundred generous individuals stepped up to provide it. December 31 marked the end of our campaign, and we raised more than $240,000. We raised $15,000 more than the goal we set–the goal that, in mid November, made us nervous!

Because of your generosity, we get to put $465,000–almost half a million dollars–toward animal activism in 2016. You can proudly say that you’re part of something big. We’re changing the way people eat, changing the way people think about farmed animals, changing the world!

Our victories are your victories. Every success story you see from us is because you stepped up now to make a difference.

Every person who goes vegan after learning about animal ag from of a VO booklet. You did that.

Every vegan who feels alone in their community–who is on the fence about returning to eating animals but decides to remain true to her values thanks to the support of a mentor. You did that.

Every person who dips their toes into the water of animal activism by leafleting for the first time, and then goes on to start petitions, implement Meatless Monday in their community, or lead an animal group. You did that.

Thank you for making my day.

Thank you for changing the world.

Vic Sjodin, VO’s Director of International Outreach, has personally reached 34,697 students at 71 different schools this semester!

Above (from left) is Vic with Eve Massie and Kimberly Moffatt at the University of Warwick in Coventry, England, where they got booklets into the hands of 3,850 students in a single day; and Vic in action at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, sporting his VO hoodie paired with a kilt!

On September 28, Vic and Kimberly teamed with Alexandra Meeks (above, right), Sally Thompson, Jane Land, Dara Wetton, and Bethany Mills (above, left), reaching 4,000 students at Leeds Beckett University and the University of Leeds in England:

Today was the biggest leafleting day so far in UK history. Lots of readers, conversations started, and people coming back for more literature and/or questions.

My three favorite interactions were with Bethany, who was vegan and jumped right in and helped leaflet for over an hour, and wants to get more involved and loved leafleting. We had a long talk with Gabriel [below, right], who is committed to going vegan after reading the booklet in class; we gave him lots of information and encouragement. We also met Tara [below, left], who said she doesn’t think she can ever eat meat again after reading the booklet. We spoke for over 15 minutes, and she thanked us for the booklets and asked for more to show her friends.

Outreach in the UK is going phenomenal so far!! So happy because of VO supporters we can expand this lifesaving and effective work across the pond!

Less than two days left to receive dollar-for-dollar matching: Donate now to reach twice as many students in 2016!

With the number of farmed animals killed in the world today, it can be easy to lose sight of the fact that every single animal we spare from a lifetime of misery is a victory. Animals don’t suffer as a group, they suffer as individuals. And that means the part each of us can play will make all the difference in the world—in proportion to the effort we put forward.

You can persuade more people to spare animals from suffering!

Donate $20 or more today and we’ll send you a book to spread compassion even further!* “It’s Easy To Start Eating Vegan,” by Rebecca Gilbert, makes a great gift for friends or family members interested in making more animal-friendly food choices.

Please spare as many animals as you can. Donate today and get a copy of “It’s Easy To Start Eating Vegan.”

*US only. While supplies last.

VO’s Mexico Outreach Coordinator, Emmanuel Marquez (above, left), has personally reached 68,412 students at 61 different schools this semester! And Adopt a College activist Katia Rodriguez (above, right) has leafleted 7 of Mexico’s campuses this fall, handing out 11,601 booklets as a volunteer!

Emmanuel, Katia (above, left), Edgar Jimenez (above, right), Monse Iga, Miriam Reyes, and fellow activists reached 3,100 students at the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey:

We had the support of a lot of people who came to help, like Fernanda Rios (she is 13 years old), Leonardo Rios (her brother, who is 10), and their mom, Elaine Cuevas [below, left]. They are all vegan but were looking to do more for the animals, so they leafleted for the first time and rocked, reaching a lot of students with a big smile; nobody was able to refuse taking a booklet from them.

Carlos Contreras came to help once again, and he met Sara [below, right], who decided to go vegetarian after reading a booklet.

At the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, Campus Ciencias de la Salud, Katia reached 1,600 students:

Gabriela [below, left] received a leaflet and asked if I’d heard about a special date that was coming up, where people from different places were going to leaflet; she saw AnimaNaturalis’ Facebook post about FARM and wants to leaflet for World Day for Farmed Animals, so she took 100 leaflets – she’s trying to go vegetarian.

I offered a leaflet to a guy; he said no in a rude way and walked away. Then, he came back to where I was standing and asked for a leaflet, said he was sorry for rejecting it and explained why he did it: he said he kind of knew what the content was going to be about, and that he knows eating animals is wrong, but he has been avoiding reading more about it; he said it was time to face the truth, so he took the leaflet and continued walking.

At UANL Campus Mederos, Katia had help from Andrea Reyes (below, right), and together they reached 1,100 students: “At 11:00 am, Andrea showed up and volunteered; while chatting with her, she told me she received one of these leaflets there last semester – she was already a vegetarian, but the Fresco leaflet made her vegan.”

Emmanuel and Katia reached 800 students at Preparatoria 15 Unidad Madero:

An easy day of outreach but with good experiences at this high school. Many students were reading the information, and we were able to hear groups talking about it; we noticed how impressed they were. A group even gathered around me and started asking questions [below, left]. I felt the majority of the students were very receptive and reacted to the info according to their values.

At the Universidad Emiliano Zapata (below, right), Emmanuel and Katia got Fresco booklets into the hands of 1,800 students:

The UNEZ is a university with a college and a high school, located in an area of Monterrey with a not very high income. The principal of the high school granted us permission to leaflet inside the school and even suggested we visit the classrooms, meaning that each booklet we handed out today was followed by a positive explanation with personal examples and a veg eating myths-busting speech.

Katia joined me, and to be honest, we didn’t have very high expectations on the response of the students, but were about to have a very good surprise. We visited 37 classrooms that had between 12 and 68 students. We planned to take five minutes in each classroom to visit as many as possible, but the kids were so engaged and curious that they were asking a lot of questions, so we spent 10 to 15 minutes in each instead; and even some teachers were interested and happy that we were there.

The majority of the students didn’t know a vegetarian, but we ran into four within the day, and all of them were men. After the talk, we asked for a raise of hands from those interested in changing their diets or eating veg, and an average of four to five in each group did so.

The administration was so happy to have us that they invited us to come back to visit the college and also give presentations for them and the high school students too. The day was exhausting, moving from building to building, going up and down the stairs with heavy backpacks full of booklets, but we ended up very excited and with big smiles on our faces.

Less than a week left to double your impact for farmed animals: Donate now to receive dollar-for-dollar matching!

Kimberly Moffatt is one of the Adopt a College program’s top two volunteers this semester – touring the United Kingdom, Southern California, and the Southwest, she’s handed booklets to 37,657 students at 62 different schools!

Above is Kimberly at the University of Aberdeen – one of three campuses in Aberdeen, Scotland that she leafleted with Ashleigh Christie and VO’s Director of International Outreach, Vic Sjodin, on September 21. Together, they got booklets into the hands of 2,205 students!

Above (from left) are Kimberly, Eve Massie, Ell’e Chambers, Emily Payne, Vic Sjodin, and Popi Raja Peppas at the University of Sussex in Brighton, England. Along with volunteers Jim Curzon and Michael Green, they handed out 2,800 booklets there and at the University of Brighton on October 12. Below (from left) are a few of the people they reached on campus: a chaplain who asked for 20 more booklets to share with people in his department; a student who wanted to go veg; and Emily, a student who was set to go vegan after receiving a booklet!

On November 10, Kimberly single-handedly reached 1,101 students at the University of Texas at El Paso:

I had an extremely high take-rate, and the students were super friendly.… I had a brief conversation with a student who wanted to go vegan, so I gave him an eating guide, which he was super excited about.

Inspire twice as many new vegans in 2016: Have your donation doubled today!

By Vic Sjodin, Director of International Outreach

We’re excited to announce a new college-leafleting record! For the fall 2015 semester, Adopt a College activists have reached 1,174,739 students, busting our previous all-time semester record of 1,098,979.

A record 639 activists participated this semester – that’s 305 more participants than just two years ago! We’re not only affecting students, but also introducing hundreds of caring people to animal advocacy! This semester we also crossed the pond to leaflet in the United Kingdom for the first time.

Leading the charge this semester is Vegan Outreach’s traveling Outreach Coordinator Steven Litrov, who has reached 74,790 students during his first full semester of touring. Way to go Steven!

Close behind is indefatigable Steve Erlsten in Northern California, who has handed a booklet to 73,254 students. Steve is now the fourth most prolific leafleter of all time!

Leading volunteer efforts is John Sakars, who has reached a whopping 57,261 students in Canada, Upstate New York, and the Southeast. Kimberly Moffatt toured the United Kingdom, Southern California, and the Southwest as a volunteer, reaching 37,657 students.

On September 23, we were just 11 booklets shy of reaching 32,000 students with the plight of farm animals in a single day! There were many such monster days of outreach this semester – we reached more than 20,000 students on 15 different days!

Thank you to all who braved the elements and stood on the pavement smiling away while handing out booklets. I hope everyone who is a part of the Vegan Outreach family takes a lot of pride in what we’re accomplishing together. This outstanding semester couldn’t have happened without all of you, especially those who generously donate to make this work possible!

VO Outreach Coordinator Steven Litrov is this semester’s most prolific leafleter, personally handing booklets to 74,790 students at 75 different schools! For three weeks in October, VO intern Jet Sunrise traveled with Steven, leafleting campuses in Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee. In total, Jet has reached 13,370 students at 16 different schools this fall!

Above are Steven (left) and Jet (center) on their record-setting day at Indiana State University, and a student reading one of the 2,600 Your Choice booklets they handed out at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis:

Really great record-breaking day at IUPUI! We had tons of positive interactions, including one with a student named JC, who is trying to eat healthier and was also responsive to the environmental impacts of animal agriculture. Another student, Adam, told us the booklet exposed him to these horrors for the first time; and two athletes couldn’t believe David Carter and other athletes in the booklets were veg. Jet also interacted with a woman from the sustainability council who is veg and interested in getting active.

On September 8, at the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities, Steven (above, right) teamed with activists from Compassionate Action for Animals:

Together we handed out over 4,500 pieces of pro-veg literature to a responsive student body and had many wonderful interactions with veg*ans and curious students alike. We also came across a student named Caleb [above, left], who went vegan over the summer after receiving a booklet in April! No struggles! Yay!

On December 1, Steven was joined by Emmanuel Marquez, VO’s Mexico Outreach Coordinator:

Today we handed out a record 1,605 booklets at Northwest Vista College in San Antonio, TX, and had a ton of questions, interest, and support for the cause. Hemena [above, left], a vegan art appreciation teacher, grabbed some booklets to share with her students; another student recently learned of the environmental impacts of animal agriculture and is cutting back on eating meat; and Leonela [above, right] is ready to go veg after receiving a booklet and chatting with Emmanuel!

There are just nine days left to receive dollar-for-dollar matching on your donation: Please give now to reach twice as many students in 2016!

Jose Elias, VO’s Pacific Northwest Outreach Coordinator, has personally handed booklets to 20,699 students at 42 different schools this semester!

Above are Jose (second from right) and fellow Adopt a College activists (from left) Jacob Penney, Heather Bolint, Tessie Connors, and Ellen Kennelly with the literature cartons they emptied on the first day of classes at Western Washington University. Together, they set a huge record for the campus, handing out 4,451 Vegan Outreach booklets – and met a student who said she went vegan after receiving one last year!

Today, you can inspire twice as many new vegans and spare twice as many animals from suffering: Donate now to receive dollar-for-dollar matching!

Yuri Mitzkewich, VO’s Southeast Outreach Coordinator, has placed booklets into the hands of 57,238 students at 85 different schools this semester!

Above (from left) are Yuri, Jean Paul Grisales, Sarah Kiser, and John Sakars at Florida Gulf Coast University, where they reached more than 3,100 students in a single day – a new record for the campus!

At Hillsborough Community College’s Dale Mabry campus in Tampa, Yuri spoke with several interested students:

Josh [below, left] stayed talking a good 20 minutes at least, taking a Guide to Cruelty-Free Eating, as well as other info to read through. Having already tried vegan one time for a short period, he got all the help he wanted towards giving it another go. We also signed up several future volunteers in our time here, and even made contacts to do a presentation for a nutrition class possibly in the spring!

At the Florida Institute of Technology, Yuri and John reached 1,204 students:

We got the literature flowing out fast, and already before 11 am we had beat the previous FIT record. Reception was mostly good, but even better were the amazing conversations we kept having with students. The best one was with Dustin [above, right], who came back to me after checking out his Even If You Like Meat during class. Formerly vegetarian for over a year, he said the info made him remember why he’d chosen to go veg in the first place, and now would be going back. One of many here today inspired, I’m hoping, to make the change!

Yuri teamed with Julie Henry at Florida A&M University, and together they reached 1,000 students:

The highlight was Kerry [below, left], who was impressed greatly by the Compassionate Athlete he got. After talking a few minutes, digging a little deeper into things, he thanked us for being there getting him the info. First confirmed new vegan of the week at FAMU!

On November 18, Yuri and John had a huge day at Louisiana State University:

I was stoked to have the help of LSU’s new AR student crew for the first time ever. Group members Sarah Buckley and April Ahmed came out first, joining during the breaks they had in their morning class schedules. Both did awesome. Just before lunch we were joined by the group president, Jesse Clifton, who was also great getting the info out right from the start. He enjoyed the action thoroughly and now wants to get the group into leafleting regularly.

Jesse even got new group members signed up during the outreach – seven in total, including Carrie [above, right], who reported she went vegan from getting a booklet three years back while attending Tulane University!

With Jesse and crew on hand, we kept the numbers flowing steadily, and by the end had again broken the campus record, only just done here last year: 4,452 reached in total – not just a record for LSU, but the biggest day now in Louisiana outreach so far!

Take advantage of our year-end matching campaign: Through December, Your Donation to VO = 2 × More Vegans = 2 × More Animals Spared!

Kassy Ortega, VO’s Washington, DC Outreach Coordinator, has personally handed booklets to 22,651 students at 25 different schools this semester!

Kassy (above, foreground) and fellow activists (above, from left) Mike Wilson, Chris Guinn, and Julie Sutton emptied several boxes of literature at Virginia Commonwealth University, handing out 4,764 booklets in a single day!

Above are two students Kassy met this fall:

I handed Lydia [left] a booklet on campus. She handed it back and told me she was already vegetarian. I put a Guide to Cruelty-Free Eating in her hand and told her that there were vegan recipes inside. After a 15-minute conversation about the dairy and egg industries, she exclaimed, “I’m pretty sure you just made a new vegan today!”

Danielle [right] received a booklet from us last semester and has stopped eating animals!

Right now, you have the opportunity to spare twice as many animals from suffering: Have your donation doubled today!