The Roost Institute
Building the infrastructure for grassroots animal advocacy.
Our Vision
Imagine a movement millions strong, big enough to take on the largest companies or governments and win.
Our Mission
The Roost Institute exists to exponentially grow the animal advocacy movement. By blending social science, rapid iteration, and direct support for local organizers, we build the collective power needed to win for animals.
Our Story
When I joined The Humane League in 2019, I expected them to have thousands of volunteers. The organization had strong-armed hundreds of major corporations into cage-free egg policies, the biggest industry-level win the movement has seen. Then I started showing up to events. Most had half a dozen protesters, a dozen on a good day. The photos coming out of other cities looked the same. That shakes out to 100-200 volunteers nationwide , fewer than my high school graduating class. When I started digging into the data, it became apparent that only a tiny fraction (~0.1%) of vegans or vegetarians, and even fewer omnivores, participate in animal advocacy. This is a problem: a small movement is a weak one, no matter how clever its campaigns. The Roost Institute exists to figure out how to get more people who already care about animals to engage sustainably with activism and ensure their talents are put to good use.
Our Work
The Roost is a research-and-development shop for the grassroots groups. We learn from social science research and other activist movements, do original research, and test ideas as small experiments. We expect a lot of dead ends. If we only did what we knew would work, we wouldn't learn anything. When we find promising solutions, we figure out how they scale.
Micro-grants
The Hatchery Fund
Micro-grants for organizers to run hypothesis-driven experiments and help the movement learn.
About the Fund →
Practitioner resources
Guides & Playbooks
Out of the box tools for local organizers to help facilitate local groups.
Browse the resources →
Publication
The Chicken Coup
Essays on strategy, movement research, and news from the Institute.
Read on Substack ↗
Our Values
- Follow the evidence
- We start from established social science, run our own research, and watch what actually works on the ground. Strategy follows data, not tradition or assumption.
- Just try things
- We would rather run a small experiment than hold another meeting about it. Launch lean, learn fast, and scale what shows promise.
- Center the activists
- Grassroots leaders give their time, money, and passion to this movement. We exist to make their work easier by listening to what they need and building tools that take the friction out of it.
- Prioritize joy
- A movement only scales if people can sustain it. We design roles and resources for connection and creativity, so activists stay in it for the long haul.
Our Team
Zachary Segall
Founder & Director
Zachary is the founder of The Roost Institute, The Hatchery Fund, and The Chicken Coup. Combining six years of grassroots organizing experience at The Humane League with a background in software engineering, mathematics, and public policy, Zachary applies systems thinking, MEL, and social science principles to build infrastructure for the animal advocacy movement.