Summary 

Hello! my name is Rachel Borkowski and I am the Founder and CEO of Animal Connection. 

Three years ago I was working in Commercial Real Estate and felt unfulfilled with the corporate grind. During that time, I became aware of the extreme abuse happening to animals and decided to adopt a vegan diet that would reduce my carbon footprint, save animals and make a meaningful impact on my health and the health of the world.

After making this change, I also felt called to be with the animals. In particular, I wanted to immerse myself with them on a daily basis. I chose to take some time to do just that in Israel. As someone with relatives that relocated there after the holocaust, I felt a personal connection to the Country. Furthermore, I knew the vegan movement was booming there after activists like Gary Yourofsky used their platform to speak about veganism on a national level.

During my time in Israel I was searching for a place to work and volunteer with animals, I discovered that none of the available online platforms highlighted opportunities where the animals were safe from exploitation. For example, my search led me to a goat dairy farm that seemed "ethical." Unfortunately the farm was not ethical at all.  The male goats were killed and the females were used as milking machines. Coming across that farm was truly a turning point in my life as not only a vegan, but an animal’s rights activist. It became my goal to create a platform where people could connect with animals that are safe. That is how Animal Connection was born.

To date, I have over 300 sanctuaries on the platform that people can choose from to visit, work, or volunteer and connect with not only the animals, but like-minded people. We’ve also grown to be able to frequently host our own trips from NYC to local Farm Sanctuaries in attempt to connect as many people and animals as possible. 

Overall, Animal Connection strives for one unifying and simple goal: connect people to animals. We believe to our core that introducing people to animals at sanctuaries, environments founded on love and compassion, we can cultivate a world where animals and people live side-by-side. We want to cut through the paradigm that separates human and non-human animals and emphasize our similarities as intelligent and love-driven creatures.

 To be able to do this, we decided to start a go-fund-me so we can build this non-profit company and be able to continue connecting the world through compassion with each other and animals. Any contribution helps start this journey to a more caring and compassionate society. Thank you for taking the time to learn about this company and my story. Please read on to see how you can help or how we may be able to help connect you.



Our Goal:

Our goal is to bring all open-minded people vegan or non vegan to heal with animals.

In addition to coordinating and funding several Sanctuary Trips this summer, we also wish to kickstart several initiatives such as:

Website developments
Mobile application development
Conducting school programs

Where your contributions help:

Each donation will go towards someone attending a trip, marketing, tabling events and more.

Check out all the trips here:

www.animalconnection.info/upcoming-events 


All the trips on Facebook:

Tamerlaine Farm Sanctuary Retreat, April 28th:

https://www.facebook.com/events/614406492356208/?active_tab=about

Funny Farm Rescue Retreat, May 26th:

https://www.facebook.com/events/270522530495783/

Ross Mill Pig Farm Retreat, June 22nd:

https://www.facebook.com/events/305399550157043/

Woodstock Farm Sanctuary Retreat July 20th:

https://www.facebook.com/events/2360342040856393/

Skylands Sanctuary Retreat August 17th:

https://www.facebook.com/events/1055098461367789/



The Impact

Within the Animal Rights movement there is a lot of sadness. While most of us are aware of horrific atrocities that happens in the world to the animals, there isn't much talk of all the good. There are many people and places out there love and take care of animals and wish to share that compassion, and influence others to experience the love. We want to connect good people and show how animals can inspire us to make compassionate choices on a daily basis.


Risks & Challenges

Being a one woman show with  occasional voluntary support, is no easy task! With your support I can delegate more tasks and focus on growing the non-profit internationally. 


Other Ways You Can Help

Even if you can't contribute, that doesn't mean you can't help:

Share this page and help us get the word out
Encourage others to share and donate
You can use Gofundme sharing tools!