What is the Effective Animal Advocacy Fund, and how does it work?

The Effective Animal Advocacy Fund (EAA Fund) is for anyone who is interested in making the animal advocacy movement more effective. ACE launched the EAA Fund in late 2018 for three main reasons:

We believe that a broad, pluralistic animal advocacy movement is more likely to be resilient—and hence more impactful—than a narrow, monistic animal advocacy movement.

There is little evidence available supporting the effectiveness of any given intervention, and we think that the movement can increase its chances of success by continuing to fund a wide range of interventions.

We think that building relationships with a larger group of advocates and charities will make our own work more effective by providing us with new information to consider and new groups with which to collaborate.

Donations to the EAA Fund will be distributed to a number of promising charities around the world, and a limited amount of funds may be used to support our recommended charities. The disbursement will be determined by the review committee.

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Past Effective Animal Advocacy Fund Grants

April, 2019 In April, we granted $1.39 million to a diverse group of 48 charities, organizations, and individuals from around the world1. Our goal for this round was to direct a substantial portion of our funding towards capacity-building projects, and we met this goal by funding 42 capacity-building proposals. We also hoped to fund a significant number of proposals supporting legal and policy work. We did not receive as many proposals as we hoped we would in that area, and we funded only 9 of them. Of the remaining grants, 31 are funding projects aimed at influencing public opinion, 9 are funding projects aimed at influencing industry, and 17 are funding projects aimed at building alliances. More information about each of the recipients, our research team’s evaluation and selection process, and future grant cycles can be found in our official announcement and grantee updates. Funds granted in April 2019 were as follows: Animal Aid UK $50,000 Animal Ethics $44,000 Animal Justice Project $20,000 Animal Place $10,000 Animal Welfare Media $33,000 Aph Ko $40,000 A Prayer for Compassion $25,000 Arvind Animal Activist $5,000 Balanced $50,000 Be Fair Be Vegan $30,000 Better Eating International $50,000 Center for Animal Law Studies $50,000 Centre for a Responsible Future $15,000 Christopher Sebastian McJetters $25,000 Compassion Over Killing $30,000 Compassionate Action for Animals $40,000 Dharma Voices for Animals $15,000 EAST $40,000 Emerging Markets Investors Alliance $30,000 Encompass $50,000 Equalia $10,000 Equal Sign $15,000 Essere Animali $40,000 Factory Farming Awareness Coalition $50,000 Factory Farming Legal Fellowship $20,000 Faunacción $20,000 Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organizations $50,000 Food Empowerment Project $50,000 Food Frontier $21,000 Grassroots Artists MovEment $30,000 Human Behaviour Change for Animals $20,000 LifeAfterHummus Community Benefit Society $22,000 Mission Vegan Andhra $4,000 Northwest VEG $21,240 Norwegian Animal Protection Alliance (Dyrevernalliansen) $16,500 Palestinian Animal League $35,000 Peace Advocacy Network $20,000 PlantPure Communities $30,000 The Save Movement $58,580 Sentient $32,500 Sneha’s Care $18,600 The Raven Corps $10,000 The Vegan Rainbow Project $5,000 The Veggie Connection $10,000 Thrive Baltimore Community Resource Center $30,000 UK Centre for Animal Law $19,147 Veganuary $50,000 Vegetarianos Hoy $25,000



November, 2019 For our second round of grants, we awarded $492,000 to a diverse group of 18 charities and organizations around the world.2 One of the goals of the EAA Fund is to complement our recommended charities by funding smaller or less well-funded organizations that are highly promising, which are often working in neglected countries or regions. More information about each of the recipients can be found in our official announcement. Funds granted in November 2019 were as follows: Assiettes Végétales $17,000 Biofutura A.C. $25,000 The Center for Animal Law Studies (CALS) $30,000 Colorado Voters for Animals $5,000 Czech Vegan Society $10,000 Equalia $20,000 Humánny pokrok $10,000 Kaplan Lab at Tufts University $50,000 LIBERUM $10,000 OBRAZ $10,000 Paris Animaux Zoopolis $40,000 Pour l’Égalité Animale $15,000 Plant-based Policy Centre $24,980 Sneha’s Care $43,000 Vegan Outreach $17,000 Vegans of Shanghai $50,000 Wild Animal Initiative $60,000 Anonymous grant recipient 3 $55,000

FAQ

How is the Effective Animal Advocacy Fund different from the Recommended Charity Fund? The Recommended Charity Fund supports only ACE’s currently recommended Top and Standout Charities, while the Effective Animal Advocacy Fund supports a wider range of promising interventions, in addition to ACE’s current Top and Standout charities. Grant recipients may include charities and programs that we feel show promise and are worthy of funding, though they may not meet all of our criteria for a Top or Standout recommendation. Essentially, the Effective Animal Advocacy Fund casts a wider net and may invest in more speculative or early-stage programs, while the Recommended Charity Fund offers donors more predictability. Donors who are interested in higher-risk/higher-reward investments may be more drawn to the Effective Animal Advocacy Fund, while donors who are more risk-averse may find the Recommended Charity Fund to be a better fit.

How is the Effective Animal Advocacy Fund's distribution determined? Donations will be distributed to promising charities around the world, and a limited amount may also be distributed to ACE’s recommended charities. The Fund’s disbursement will be determined by the EAA Fund review committee. We are likely to fund a wide scope of charities, organizations, and individuals that are not necessarily on our list of recommendations, but that are pursuing important work within the movement. Details on our process are subject to change as our thinking evolves.

For more detailed information on how applications were evaluated in our first round of funding, please see our official announcement.

Can I donate monthly to the Effective Animal Advocacy Fund? Yes! Simply make a donation to the Effective Animal Advocacy Fund, and click “MONTHLY.”

Can I leave a bequest to the Effective Animal Advocacy Fund? Absolutely! If you want your legacy gift to help as many animals as possible, but are unsure of which specific organizations to designate in your will or trust, you may want to consider leaving your gift to ACE’s Effective Animal Advocacy Fund. By leaving your bequest to this Fund, your legacy gift will be distributed according to the methodology outlined above. For more information about leaving an effective legacy gift, please visit our Planned Giving page or contact ACE’s Director of Philanthropy Heather Herrell.

If I’m looking for funding for a research project, should I apply to the Effective Animal Advocacy Fund or the Animal Advocacy Research Fund? In order to ensure research projects are of the highest possible standards, we are asking that all funding requests for research projects be submitted to the Animal Advocacy Research Fund (AARF), which has a grant evaluation process that is better optimized for research. The purpose of the AARF is to support research that contributes to an understanding of effective animal advocacy. A generous benefactor has committed $1,000,000 to be used for this program over three years. We hope to distribute most of this funding via grants to advocacy groups, academics (including graduate students and postdoctoral Researchers), and other qualified Researchers.

Does the Effective Animal Advocacy Fund require that grantees publicize the grant? The Effective Animal Advocacy Fund does not require this. Being included in the grant announcements blog post or on other pages on ACE’s website is optional; grantees are given the opportunity to remain anonymous. Everything we write about the grantees will be confirmed with the grantees prior to publication to ensure we are representing them accurately and no confidential information is included. Announcing the grant to the grantees’ own audiences is also not required.