metrics
- 18,700
- advocacy actions completed YTD
- 4000+
- animals rescued
- 13
- state bills passed as direct result of advocacy
The challenge: breaking the cycle of silent suffering
For decades, thousands of animals have lived out their entire lives in laboratory testing facilities across America, never touching grass, seeing daylight, or experiencing the simple joy of play. This is the crisis that Beagle Freedom Project, or BFP, set out to address when it was founded in 2010.
Jason Bayless, a lifelong animal advocate, joined BFP as Campaign Manager in January 2024, knowing the statistics were daunting: thousands of facilities still operating, with animals like Chami, a beagle held in duress at Texas A&M University.
"These animals go from breeding farms where they're just in small cages," explains Bayless, now Vice President of BFP. "They have zero stimulus, zero enjoyment. If you watch the video from our Free Chami campaign, you'll see her spinning in a constant circle nonstop. That happens because they live in such confinement and they lose their mind."
The challenge wasn't just the scale of animal testing. It was how to tell these stories in a way that motivated action rather than despair.
The mission: educate, legislate, liberate
Beagle Freedom Project operates on three core pillars: educate, legislate, and liberate. What sets BFP apart is their revolutionary focus on hope and empowerment, combined with a willingness to think beyond traditional advocacy.
"We don't take the graphic gore approach. We want to focus on the story of the animal, showing that there's hope at the end of this. But we have to come together to achieve that hope."
This philosophy drives everything from their day-to-day campaigns to their most ambitious project, completely transforming a former animal testing facility in Oklahoma into Freedom Fields, a 30-acre sanctuary.
"Nobody else in the history of the animal liberation movement has said, 'Hey, we're going to take over your animal facility and turn it into a sanctuary. Part of the education and storytelling is to place the person watching the video or reading the social media post to say, 'I have a role in changing this.' If we can get people to see their role in the story we're telling, we have a greater chance of having them step into action."
The technology: NationBuilder and ActionButton as advocacy engines
Since 2010, BFP has relied on NationBuilder as their central platform for all external communications, supporter management, and campaign coordination. With a lean team of 15 dedicated staff members, they've developed a sophisticated digital strategy that drives real-world impact.
"NationBuilder is our central platform, our central source of truth. All of our staff can know who's been contacted for what, and we can track what an advocate has done with us, so we can encourage their journey of taking action and supporting animal testing survivors."
The integrated ecosystem
BFP's NationBuilder setup includes:
ActionButton for targeted advocacy campaigns with ten action types spanning awareness, community building, and direct advocacy
Email marketing for storytelling and supporter engagement
ShelterLuv integration for adoption and foster management via API
GoFundMe Pro (formerly Classy) for donation tracking via API
ActionButton: from storytelling to action
ActionButton serves as BFP's secret weapon for turning emotional narratives into real-world impact. ActionButton is a visually engaging, flexible tool designed to attract, inform, and mobilize supporters with just a few clicks. From petitions and quizzes to polls and targeted emails, it supports ten action types, spanning awareness, community building, and direct advocacy.
The Custom Email Target action is one of the direct advocacy actions available, letting BFP pre-draft emails to up to 20 decision-makers, while the visual engagement design attracts and mobilizes supporters with just a few clicks.
BFP strategically places ActionButton in emails and on campaign landing pages, guiding supporters through a powerful journey from awareness to action. A typical sequence begins with a compelling rescue story sent through email, followed by context and photos on a landing page, then immediate action opportunities like sending messages to lawmakers.
Built-in tracking, automation, and attribution
Every ActionButton interaction automatically syncs with NationBuilder, allowing contacts to be tagged, funneled into automation paths, and assigned social capital points, helping outreach and follow-ups feel personal, timely, and efficient.
The ActionButton dashboard enables BFP to refine their approach based on what works, providing:
- Impressions, completions, and conversion rates
- Email recipients reached and total messages sent
- Subscriber-level data exports for advanced follow-up
The results: from advocacy to victory
This strategic approach consistently yields 4,000–5,000 completed actions per campaign, significantly higher than typical email-based advocacy efforts.
The Texas A&M breakthrough
BFP's most recent campaign demonstrates their methodology's power. Working with a whistleblower from Texas A&M University, they launched a multi-phase campaign using Custom Email Target actions:
- Phase 1: Outreach to laboratory veterinarians
- Phase 2: Escalate to legal counsel, compliance, and communications departments
- Phase 3: File lawsuit and request restraining order
- Phase 4: Victory. Court approval stops all testing
"Because of the restraining order, we've stopped the testing. They can't test them, they can't kill them, they can't do anything until there's a verdict on the hearing, other than release them to us so the dogs can begin living the life they deserve."
Ongoing corporate pressure
Simultaneously, BFP runs campaigns targeting major retailers like PetSmart, pressuring them to stop purchasing products connected to animal breeding facilities that supply testing laboratories.
The results: systemic transformation
Operating more like a grassroots collective than a traditional NGO, BFP maintains agility through collaborative problem-solving while achieving remarkable impact:
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Shut down one-third of America's flea and tick testing facilities
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Secured legal victories stopping active animal testing
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Developed the Cruelty Cutter app for verifying products are free from animal testing
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Transformed a former testing facility into a sanctuary
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Saved beagles from a foreign lab, arranged transport to Freedom Fields, and provided forever homes
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The Identity Campaign to symbolically “adopt” lab animals by name, underlining the mission to restore individuality and dignity
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Built an engaged community taking meaningful action
Looking forward: unwavering advocacy
BFP's immediate focus remains on the Texas A&M hearing and their broader mission to eliminate animal testing entirely. With thousands of facilities still operating across America, they plan to leverage NationBuilder's segmentation capabilities for more targeted communications based on supporter behavior.
We're unwavering in our commitment to remove all animals from laboratory and animal testing. That is our focus, that is our commitment.
They're well on their way. From laboratory to liberation, Beagle Freedom Project proves that with the right tools, strategy, and coordination, even the most entrenched systems of suffering can be transformed into sources of hope.
To learn more about Beagle Freedom Project's work or to take action, visit their website. To see how NationBuilder and ActionButton can amplify your advocacy efforts, sign up to learn more.
