history of sara

When SARA was founded in March of 2001, we began with a simple idea to help build a culture of respect for animal rights with the leadership of youth. Today, just a few years since the Student Animal Rights Alliance was founded, our simple dream to support and connect young animal advocates has grown into a focused and distinctive mission to build a strong and diverse youth movement for animals through youth mobilization, education, and leadership development.

We recently celebrated our three-year anniversary, below is an overview of our last three years.

March 2001 Student Animal Rights Alliance (SARA) is founded and incorporated as a nonprofit organization in the State of New York .

July 2001 Student activists attending the Animal Rights 2001 national conference in Washington , DC gather and discuss plans for a national student animal rights conference.

October 2001 IRS recognizes the Student Animal Rights Alliance as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable organization.

February 2002 SARA holds the first national student animal rights conference, Liberation Now!, at American University in Washington , DC and makes history with Liberation Now! as the biggest youth event in the animal protection movement’s history.

May 2002 SARA becomes the first animal protection organization to join the International Right to Know (IRTK) Coalition and lobbies other animal protection organizations to get involved to increase greater transparency and disclosure of corporate environmental, human rights, and labor practices.

September 2002 SARA provides grants to students to receive political skills training at the National Institute for Animal Advocacy (NIFAA), beginning our commitment to mobilize youth to become political advocates for animals.

February 2003 SARA holds the animal protection movement’s first youth leadership development program with fourteen selected young activists from across the country for its Grassroots Training Program.

The second Liberation Now! national student conference is held at University of California-Berkeley – marking the first national animal rights conference held on the West coast since 1985.

October 2003 Student Animal Rights Alliance becomes the first animal protection organization to join the nonpartisan Youth Vote Coalition to increase youth political participation.

November 2003 After discussions with SARA, the Genesis Awards of the Humane Society of the United States Hollywood Office adds the first Student Genesis Award in its 18 year history to recognize student journalists and filmmakers.

The third Liberation Now! national student conference is held at American University in Washington , DC – marking SARA’s biggest conference yet with nearly 400 young animal advocates and dozens more speakers and representatives from over thirty organizations.

SARA organizes Get On The Hill: National Training & Student Lobby Day to empower young activists with the political skills to speak up for animals and brings students directly to Capitol Hill to meet with their Members of Congress and their staffers to push for animal protection legislations.

January 2004 Student Animal Rights Alliance joins Working Assets Voter Education Fund in a national nonpartisan campaign to register voters for the critical 2004 presidential election.

February 2004 In New York City at New York University , SARA holds the first of a series of Demand Liberation regional student animal rights action conferences to connect young activists on the local level for regional and national campaigns and actions.

Demand Liberation regional student animal rights action conference is held in Illinois at University of Chicago , marking our first event in the Midwest .

March 2004 Demand Liberation regional student animal rights action conference is held in California at University of California – Berkeley .

Student Animal Rights Alliance launches its Diversity Project to build racial and ethnic diversity in the animal protection movement.