Meta charities are the backbone of any social movement and arguably have more leverage for animals than traditional charities.

As an organization that focuses on empowering other animal advocates to do their best, Faunalytics is rarely on the “front lines.” Instead, we work with advocates to help maximize their impact. Faunalytics is one example of a “meta” animal charity.

Archimedes said (roughly), “Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand on and I will move the world.” For a half-century, animal groups have been trying to create change by pushing harder on the lever. The results have been mixed.

The value of meta charities is that we can provide advocates with a more solid footing for their decisions – a place to stand on. In Faunalytics’ case, we give advocates leverage by providing the information and insight they need to be as effective as possible.

This focus on effectiveness is fairly recent. Without a long history of learning from experience, and lacking the funds to conduct substantial research, animal advocates have a lot of unanswered questions. Such as:

What impact are we having?

Which strategies save the most lives?

Are we doing the most we can with the resources we have?

During our 16 years, Faunalytics has been able to chip away at some of those questions through our independent studies and client projects. We’ve tracked changes in key behaviors, discovered why some people don’t stick with plant-based eating, and helped organizations evaluate and improve their impact. We’ve also shared reports from around the world in the Faunalytics library.

Still, many more questions remain, and answering them should be a key priority for the movement. When we conduct research to address a critical question about animal advocacy, we answer it for the entire movement. That’s why we can create leveraged impact and help make sure our movement’s campaigns are as effective as possible, without wasting our precious resources.

Research is crucial to saving more animals faster. But it isn’t “sexy” or glamorous, especially compared to animal care, corporate campaigns, or undercover investigations. It doesn’t make the news and, for most donors, it doesn’t capture their hearts or checkbooks.

The challenge for meta charities is that most people (including donors) are driven by emotion, not logic. The result is that the vast majority of donors give to organizations that save individual animals or conduct direct outreach to people. This is important work, of course, but it’s not the whole story. Donating to “meta” charities has the potential for more leveraged impact for animals.

Recently, a respected social justice research organization closed its doors. For nearly 40 years, DataCenter sought to empower disadvantaged communities through what they called “research justice.” One of the reasons it shut down was a decline in donations. The result is that social justice advocates and the communities they help have lost a valuable resource.

Attention to research and effectiveness is on the upswing in our movement. Yet individual donations to Faunalytics still constitute less than 5% of our funding. Animal Charity Evaluators emphasizes the value of supporting meta charities like Faunalytics:

Meta-charities fill gaps in the advocacy world, often with specialties like research or connecting funders to organizations in need of funding. We believe that investing funding in meta-charities can ultimately provide high value per dollar donated, as conducting evaluative efforts and making recommendations to increase impact can result in broader and more systematic changes in how many groups conduct their efforts.

Some people call it a multiplier effect, and it’s the reason that Faunalytics exists. Animal advocates need as much leverage as possible to end animal suffering. Faunalytics works with clients and chooses independent studies based on what we think will help the greatest number of advocates and animals. Our work has a wide reach and influences the strategies of most of the major animal protection groups.

Meta charities are an essential part of the solution to end animal suffering. At Faunalytics, we are helping build a movement that thinks critically and focuses on effectiveness. Nothing is more important.

Please help us help you save animals by donating today.