Encompass

Encompass dissolved its operations in July 2022 and disbursed its remaining funds to 14 organizations led by “Black, Indigenous, People of the Global Majority” activists. ⁵

Background

Encompass was a nonprofit organization that advocated for increasing “racial diversity, equity, and inclusion” in the animal advocacy movement.” ¹

Aryenish Birdie, a social justice and animal rights advocate, founded Encompass in 2017 to foster “greater racial diversity, equality, and inclusion in the farmed animal protection movement and to empower advocates of color.” ^{6 7} In a 2020 YouTube video published by animal liberation group Mercy For Animals, Birdie claimed that the “food system is completely laden with institutional racism.” ⁸

Advocacy

Encompass offered resources and programs to help animal activists embed “racial diversity, equity, and inclusion” into their organizations. ¹ It provided consulting for organizations to assess and improve their DEI practices, organized workshops and training events for similar organizations and individual animal activists, and posted resources and publications online that covered racial equity efforts in the animal advocacy field. ⁹

In 2019, Encompass partnered with the Unbound Project to interview and highlight racial minority women who work in the animal advocacy space. ¹⁰ The Unbound Project ran from 2016 to 2023 and was supported by Open Philanthropy and Animal Charity Evaluators. ¹¹

Funding

In 2020, Open Philanthropy donated a $200,000 grant to Encompass to “support its work to make the farm animal welfare movement more racially diverse, equitable, and inclusive.” ² The Effective Altruism Animal Welfare Fund donated a total of $100,000 to Encompass in 2018. ³

Other donors to Encompass included the Good Ventures Foundation, ⁴ the Seattle Foundation, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, and the Chicago Community Trust. ¹²

Dissolution

Encompass disbanded in July 2022. At that time, the board disbursed its remaining funds totaling $291,774 ¹³ to 14 organizations run by “BIPGM” (Black, Indigenous, People of the Global Majority) ^{5 14} “as a way to address funding inequity.” ¹⁵

Prior to its dissolution, in June 2022, then-executive director Aryenish Birdie made a final blog post entitled “Recommendations for the farmed animal protection community.” ¹⁶ The Encompass website remained online through May 2024. ¹⁷

Leadership

Aryenish Birdie was the founder and executive director of Encompass. She earned a bachelor’s degree in critical social thought/race and feminist theory from Hampshire College, and a master’s degree in public management from Johns Hopkins University. She worked in several left-of-center social movements focused on racial equity, queer interests, and abortion rights. Prior to founding Encompass, she worked at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine for seven years lobbying for alternatives to animal testing. ¹⁸ In 2024, Birdie earned an executive certificate in leadership coaching from Georgetown University and is self-employed as a leadership coach. ¹⁹ She sits on the advisory councils of the Good Food Institute and the Animal Defense Partnership as of October 2025. ^{20 21}

Shayna Rowbotham was the board chair of Encompass. She was the organizing manager for the animal liberation group Mercy For Animals. ²²