This payout report covers the Animal Welfare Fund’s grantmaking from May 1 2022 to March 31st 2024 (23 months). It follows the previous March-April 2022 payout report.
Since the previous report was written, the Animal Welfare Fund made a conscious decision to deprioritize public reports so that fund managers can have more time and capacity to work on high-quality evaluations. However, now that I (Linch) am working for EA Funds full-time, I’ve attempted to consolidate and streamline the report writing process, so that hopefully regular reports can be written again without unduly using up limited fund manager time.
16 of our grantees, who received a total of $1,068,540, requested that we do not include public reports for their grants (you can read our policy on public reporting here).
Highlighted Grants
(The following grants writeups were written by me, Linch Zhang. They were reviewed by the primary investigators of each grant).
Highlighted grants correspond to grants that the AWF team rated highly, usually because they thought the grant was very likely to be very cost-effective or the potential upside was very high.
Planet For All Hong Kong ($63,000): Stipends and professional services to launch Hong Kong’s first aquatic animal welfare movement
The Animal Welfare Fund provided a $63,000 grant to Planet For All Hong Kong from September 2022 to August 2023. The funding covered stipends, marketing, website, and professional services for one full-time employee and two part-time employees to launch Hong Kong’s first aquatic animal welfare movement. The organization plans to engage with industry stakeholders, government, and policymakers; raise public awareness; and build partnerships with corporations to incorporate animal welfare in their sourcing policies.
The Animal Welfare Fund was excited to fund this project due to the region, focus area, and the organizations’ leadership and project plan. Hong Kong is a high-priority region with high fish consumption, and the work is very neglected. The fund believes the small organization has good leadership and a reasonable project plan. However, we did have concerns that the additional focus may distract from their very important work on chicken cage-free reforms. This concern is partially mitigated by the grant being used to hire an external person for the full-time role, so existing projects are hopefully less likely to be negatively impacted. Overall, the importance and neglectedness of the work are strong arguments in favor of supporting the grant.
Outcomes: During the grant period, the organization identified supportive stakeholders and a local campaign opportunity regarding “Fish Culture Zones,” building rapport with local marine conservation organizations and meeting with modern fish farmers to better understand the feasibility and challenges of promoting aquatic animal welfare. They connected the Fish Culture Zone campaign with the importance of aquatic animal agriculture and met with the Aquaculture Division of the Hong Kong government. The organization successfully launched “Sea Life Matters,” the first public education campaign about aquatic life welfare in Hong Kong, engaging with about 1,000 citizens, partnering with more than 30 online influencers, and collaborating with over 10 restaurants and retailers.
Animal Empathy Philippines ($33,000): PT stipend to increase community building work and support farmed animal welfare projects in the Philippines
The Animal Welfare Fund provided a $33,000 grant to Animal Empathy Philippines from June to November 2022 to support their community building work and farmed animal welfare projects in the Philippines. The Philippines is a priority country for farmed animal efforts, with over a billion farmed animals. Before the grant, Animal Empathy Philippines had been funded for about six months and had only 1.5 full-time equivalent staff.
Fund managers believe that talent, alongside identifying and implementing scalable, cost-effective interventions, may be the main bottleneck in the region. Given that EA Philippines already has a large, robust community, providing additional engagement opportunities to people interested in working on farmed animal welfare could help build the movement and develop talent in this region.
Animal Empathy Philippines has shown a promising trajectory with their community building and public communications. Further, there are no other natural funders for animal-focused community building work in Asia, as the Centre for Effective Altruism will no longer support EA chapters outside of the UK, US, and a limited number of key locations in the EU. However, there are concerns that this grant may, in practice, displace other general funding (“funging”) for EA community building in the Philippines. While we highlighted this grant in particular, please note that the Animal Welfare Fund has funded Animal Empathy Philippines multiple times, as we’re broadly happy with their work.
Outcomes: During the grant period, Animal Empathy Philippines conducted an 8-week Animal Advocacy Introductory Fellowship for 39 fellows across two cohorts and organized six virtual and four in-person events and activities. They generated 25 project ideas through regular one-on-one meetings, the fellowship, and networking, which they can act on in future years. Additionally, they conducted a scoping study on alternative proteins and provided assistance to other EA-aligned animal advocacy organizations.
Animal Welfare League ($40,000): 12-month budget support for a new organization’s nationwide cage-free campaign in Ghana
In November 2023, the Animal Welfare Fund provided a $40,000 grant to Animal Welfare League, a new Open Wing Alliance group founded in 2021, for their campaign to “end abuse of 25 million chickens in cages” in Ghana. Animal Welfare League is the only organization focused on cage-free advocacy in Ghana, where there are currently around 25 million layer chickens. Ghana’s rapidly growing economy makes early advocacy for cage-free campaigns potentially high-impact, as it may prevent or reduce lock-ins in the poultry industry.
While some fund managers thought that Animal Welfare League’s plans were too ambitious for their first year, their overall goals seemed reasonable, and their leadership appeared promising. Interested readers may find Animal Welfare League’s 2023 Review useful, although we should note that the Animal Welfare Fund’s funding barely covers the period discussed in the review.
Outcomes: As the grant period is still ongoing, the Animal Welfare Fund has not yet collected information on the outcomes of this grant.
The European Institute for Animal Law & Policy ($31,396.64):Funding for research on aquatic animals and insects in EU animal law and policy
The Animal Welfare Fund provided a $31,396.64 grant to The European Institute for Animal Law & Policy from August 2022 to June 2023. The grant covered 3-6 month stipends for a senior legal and policy researcher and an intern to deliver two reports on (1) aquatic animals in EU animal law and policy and (2) insects in EU animal law and policy.
A collection of resources on insects could be invaluable in helping groups understand the space and the implications of insect farming on land vertebrate farming. While aquatic animals in the EU are relatively neglected, insects are even more so.
Fund managers were impressed by Alice Di Concetto’s research quality and track record. Her previous work, including prior research notes and the 2021 annual report, seemed valuable and informative. A fund manager highlighted three salient examples: (1) noting that some alternatives to male chick-culling proposed in EA circles are intractable in the EU context due to the existing aversion to gene-editing in the food space; (2) mailing published materials directly to key decision-makers rather than relying on op-eds; and (3) attracting key figures in the EU animal advocacy space from politics, NGOs, and media to their first hosted event, demonstrating their importance and value within the network. In general, Di Concetto and her team provided strong technical expertise in areas where animal advocates often have less knowledge.
Unlike many other researchers, their research work seems focused on being thoroughly scoped and actionable, increasing the likelihood of decision-makers actually acting upon her work.
Outcomes: The grant helped Di Concetto and Pauline Koczorowski author 3 Research Notes, including a published report on aquatic animal welfare legislation and two reports on farmed fish welfare and insect welfare, which are slated for publication by Q3 of 2024. They also translated all the reports to French to increase engagement and readability for key French policymakers.
Koczorowski stayed with the Institute for a year, from January to December 2023, and is now working at the French Ministry of the Overseas, where she conducts France’s maritime conservation policies in overseas French territories.
Crustacean Compassion ($62,537.74):Funding for a Senior Policy and Public Affairs Advisor to include decapod crustaceans in UK animal welfare legislation
The Animal Welfare Fund provided a $62,537.74 grant to Crustacean Compassion from July 2022 to July 2023. The grant covered a 1-year stipend, travel costs, access to an online legal research platform, and other work expenses for a Senior Policy and Public Affairs Advisor to include decapod crustaceans in three types of animal welfare legislation in the UK.
At the time of the grant, Crustacean Compassion was the only group doing policy work on crustaceans, and their efforts in the UK could potentially lay the groundwork for EU policy. The organization had a track record of success, having previously used funding from the Animal Welfare Fund to work with a policy expert to include decapod crustaceans in the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act, a goal they achieved.
Crustacean Compassion has significant contacts in relevant positions within the UK government, particularly in the Conservative Party. On the other hand, one potential worry is about the short shelf life of these contacts, given the likelihood of the Conservative Party losing power in the coming election cycle. As with some of the other grants, potential funging with Open Philanthropy was a significant concern when making this grant.
Outcomes: During the grant period, Crustacean Compassion secured multiple productive meetings with senior leadership in the UK Conservative Party to discuss the welfare of decapod crustaceans and engaged with key figures in Scotland and Wales.
Rethink Priorities ($64,000.00): Funding research on improving the welfare of farmed Black Soldier Flies
The Animal Welfare Fund provided a $64,000 grant to Rethink Priorities from September 2022 to March 2024 to fund Dr. Meghan Barret’s research on improving the welfare of Black Soldier Flies (BSF).
Well-scoped insect welfare grants are rare, making this project both promising and neglected. The scale of BSF farming is substantial, with over 200 billion BSF farmed annually, and this number is expected to increase significantly in the future.
Dr. Barret and Rethink Priorities have previously worked on BSF welfare, so this grant supports the continuation of their existing research.
(I was also employed by Rethink Priorities when this grant was made. I was not in any way involved with the decision to make this grant). Kieran Greig also recused himself. In general, our COI policy is that anybody significantly involved with an organization would not be involved in the grantmaking decision).
Kafessiz Türkiye ($30,000): Funding for the director’s stipend and campaign support for a Turkish animal welfare organization
The Animal Welfare Fund provided a $30,000 grant to Kafessiz Türkiye, also known as Çiftlik Hayvanlarını Koruma Derneği, from June 2022 to June 2023. The grant supported the Turkey-based chicken and fish welfare organization, with $25,000 allocated for the director’s 12-month stipend and $5,000 for their chicken and fish campaigns.
Kafessiz Türkiye is a small but growing team, with 3 full-time and 3 part-time employees as of late 2021 and an organizational budget of $145,000. They have an impressive track record, with over a dozen cage-free commitments secured in Turkey in the previous year, including commitments from large companies such as a major mayonnaise producer.
The $25,000 salary for a Director-level position is low relative to the skillsets required and the expected impact of their work. Overall, fund managers view Kafessiz Türkiye as very impactful and cost-effective and are thus excited to support them further.
Outcomes: During the grant period, Kafessiz Türkiye secured cage-free commitments across 24 brands owned by 18 firms. They completed the Özsüt (one of the largest bakery chains in Turkey) cage-free campaign in March 2023, which they had started in late 2021. The organization also had numerous successes in mobilizing more volunteers, gathering more signatures, and increasing their Instagram presence by 28,000 followers. Additionally, they became a Recommended Charity by Animal Charity Evaluators.
Fórum Nacional de Proteção e Defesa Animal ($80,000):Funding for a Brazilian nonprofit to conduct audits ensuring companies keep their cage-free and gestation-crate-free commitments
The Animal Welfare Fund provided an $80,000 grant to Fórum Nacional de Proteção e Defesa Animal, a nonprofit in Brazil, from March 2023 to March 2024. The grant covers stipends and other staff expenses for conducting audits to help companies adhere to their cage-free and gestation-crate-free commitments.
The fund recommended the grant based on several factors:
Leadership: Fórum is a well-known organization with a professional, experienced approach to their work. One reference described their leadership as “[among] the most on top of it advocates I’ve ever met.”
Track record: Fórum has a history of success in animal advocacy.
Scale of potential impact: Brazil has a large farmed animal population, with 255 million layer hens slaughtered in 2021 according to FAOSTAT data. Relative to the potential impact, funding for farmed animal advocacy in Brazil is neglected compared to the US and Europe, although not as neglected as in parts of Asia or Africa.
Tractability: Holding corporations accountable for their cage-free egg commitments is crucial for animal impact. The theory of change for audits and other plans to help companies keep their commitments seems relatively straightforward. Companies with such commitments are generally open to acting on them but may need reminders to prioritize implementation. Many companies have made cage-free commitments with 2025 deadlines, making this a critical time to ensure they follow through.
Outcomes: During the grant period, Fórum Nacional de Proteção e Defesa Animal made significant progress in their accountability work, contacting 189 companies and receiving reports from 50 on their cage-free transition. They estimate an impact on three million layer hens, with a projected impact of 13 million layer hens if and when the reported commitments are fulfilled. Fórum Animal also encouraged 5 universities to commit to not using cages in their teaching farms.
Other writings
I’ve asked the Animal Welfare Fund (AWF)’s fund managers about other articles or writeups that can provide a good overview of the Animal Welfare Fund, or otherwise be very helpful to donors and community members. People highlighted the following pieces of writing:
The bar for animal welfare funding in 2023 (likely 2024 as well) is somewhat higher than in the past
In particular, there were ~7M of high-quality projects to fund, and only ~5M of donations
Further, many of the funded projects are expected to (or are able to) grow while maintaining similar levels of cost-effectiveness.
The article provides a list of marginal grants that are just above or just below the bar for funding, to help donors get a better sense of what types of projects their money is likely to buy on the margin.
As part of GWWC’s Evaluating the Evaluators project, GWWC made in-depth evaluations of the Animal Welfare Fund. The article enumerates a number of advantages of the fund:
Looks for international/national level work in priority countries that has leverage, not localized work in small lower priority places
Looks for opportunities with scaling potential & longer term TOC
Helps get things off the ground
Providing significant funding to an organization so it can undertake projects that could achieve impact at scale if successful.
A focus on a high-priority (and arguably underexplored) cause in a high-priority geographic area for that cause.
An intervention for which there is either some empirical support or a good theoretical case for cost-effectiveness.
Funds capacity building in promising and arguably underexplored causes (such as fish welfare and insect welfare) and geographies (such as South Asia and Africa), and in the effective animal advocacy movement more broadly.
Providing more support to the highest-potential grants rather than just making more grants
Do they seem to be operating in an area that seems high-impact?
Also, do their plans in that area seem reasonable?
Are plans concrete and detailed?
Combining 1 and 2, when applicable, does some quantitative back-of-the-envelope calculation suggest they impact a high number of animals per dollar spent?
Are we aware of any going ons regarding that group that should give us pause (staff retention, reported infractions, adverse relationships with other organizations)?
What is that group’s current financial position (reserves, other funders)?
Ideally AWF is excited to fund areas or interventions that are higher risk or less proven than ones funded by larger organizations like Open Phil
Other Grants We Made During This Time Period
Below is a list of about 100 other grants, totaling over $6 million, that the Animal Welfare Fund made during this period to support work on farmed animal welfare in many countries.
Please note that we also referred some grants to other funders during this time period.
Grantee
Amount
Grant Purpose
Award Date
The Good Growth Co
$46,000
PT salary for building FAW/AP research organisation and supporting FAW/AP research and community building in Asia
June 2022
Animal Advocacy Careers
$80,000
A 3 month FTE work placement for 8 fundraising professionals in Effective Animal Advocacy organisations
July 2022
Anonymous
$97,000
12 months FT salary for hiring a Fundraising and Operations lead and a three-month research fellowship program
July 2022
Institute of Animal Law of Asia
$30,000
1-year fees and salary for an educational center for research & info on the farmed animal law & policy issues in Asia
July 2022
Tanzania Animal Welfare Society (TAWESO)
$22,000
Additional costs to conduct survey on Farmed Fish Welfare in Tanzania aiming at inclusion in the Fisheries Policy
July 2022
Effective Altruism Singapore
$40,000
A 3-day farmed animal advocacy retreat for those working in Southeast Asia to connect and strengthen the community
July 2022
Aquatic Life Institute
$80,000
Build capacity and strengthen the effectiveness for the Aquatic Animal Alliance’s current and future work
July 2022
Australian Alliance for Animals
$87,000
Funding for a new organisation to unite the Australian animal protection sector to increase its influence and impact
July 2022
The Humane League UK
$74,876
1 year salary x 4 roles: actions for farmed fish, caged hens & broiler chicken welfare
July 2022
Sentient Media
$66,000
12-month project providing training for farmed animal advocate writers in neglected geographies and groups
July 2022
Animal Law Italia
$171,247
A 2 years plan to advance the legal protection of decapod crustaceans in Italy
July 2022
Animal Welfare League
$20,000
12-month budget support to a new org for a nationwide cage-free campaign to end abuse of 25 million chickens in cages
July 2022
Ethical Seafood Research
$90,000
Piloting a protocol for assessing the welfare of farmed Nile tilapia in pond and cage systems globally
July 2022
Legal Impact for Chickens
$76,000
Growing the new litigation nonprofit, Legal Impact for Chickens (LIC), to make factory-farm cruelty a liability
July 2022
Fórum Nacional de Proteção e Defesa Animal
$50,000
Animal Welfare in Public purchases and Legal requirements
July 2022
Healthier Hens
$50,000
Healthier Hens’ operations towards dietary interventions to improve layer hen welfare via keel bone fracture reduction
July 2022
Animal Welfare Observatory (formerly Equalia)
$268,683
General support for 15 months to extend expiring staff contracts and hire new key positions
July 2022
We Animals Media
$26,000
Funding to cover photojournalist expenses for investigative work in Africa, Asia and/or Latin America resulting in stronger campaigns and progress on farmed animal welfare issues in these regions
July 2022
Anonymous
$15,000
12-month stipend and fees to develop social media to raise the awareness of farm animal welfare and law in Asia
July 2022
Animal Advocates International
$10,000
Raising animal welfare standards in poultry farming industry through campaigns, conferences, trainings and legislation
July 2022
Animal Equality UK
$96,999
Urge policymakers to enact laws for farmed fish at slaughter through movement building, lobbying and public education
July 2022
Nature Imvelo Trust
$17,000
A six months to one year campaign on effects of battery cages on laying hens and egg production
July 2022
The Philippine Animal Welfare Society
$40,000
Setting up of 6-month face-to-face and online seminars for Filipino farmers on more humane farming methods for pigs and chicken
July 2022
Voters For Animal Rights
$100,000
12-month salary to protect the foie gras ban and advance legislation to protect aquatic & fur animals in NYC
July 2022
Sinergia Animal
$157,000
One-year funding for movement building, corporate and cage-free campaigns in Latin America and Asia, and support roles
August 2022
Eurogroup for Animals
$68,681
Developing a long term plan for Europe’s animal advocacy movement to counter the growth of insect farming
December 2022
Vegan Hacktivists
$12,088
A study to assess tech and data in the animal protection movement and present opportunities and recommendations
December 2022
Education for African Animal Welfare
$10,000
The workshop will impact local and international journalists in Tanzania with cage free movement information
December 2022
Kate Verdalyn
$59,000
Strengthening the farm animal advocacy in the Philippines by building community, capacity, and relationships
December 2022
Humánny pokrok o.z.
$75,000
Capacity building for animal advocacy in Slovakia and carp welfare campaign expansion
December 2022
Animal Friends Jogja
$10,000
A 12 month salary and expenses for a government advocacy coordinator to continue work on Cage Free/FA legislative change
December 2022
Igualdad Animal Mexico
$39,000
Research about aquaculture in Mexico and fish welfare to work on legislation to mandate stunning prior to slaughter
December 2022
The Animal Law Foundation
$56,846
Funding for The Animal Law Foundation to research neglected areas of animal law and bring high impact legal actions. This grant is restricted to research into fish farming legal interventions and conducting such interventions only (not pig tail docking).
December 2022
George Stiffman
$15,000
4-month stipend to create a roadmap to grow the US tofu market, tofu community build, and raise tofu venture funding
December 2022
Utunzi Animal Welfare Organization
$13,000
A comprehensive cage free training and sensitization program for beneficiaroes of our ongoing cage free proje
December 2022
Animal Advocates International
$25,000
3 months funding for raising animal welfare standards in poultry farming industry through campaigns, conferences, trainings
December 2022
Modern Agriculture Foundation
$5,000
2nd cohort of alt. proteins accelerator to speed up the success of 5-7 startups, and run a cost-effectiveness analysis
December 2022
Animal Charity Evaluators
$160,000
Funding 10% of 2022-2023 operating budget to support expanded globally-distributed team
December 2022
Faunalytics
$5,000
Funds to produce new resources on neglected species, including a Faunalytics Fundamental infographic on Invertebrates
December 2022
Africa Network for Animal Welfare
$100,000
Establish status of battery cage farming in 3 Southern Africa countries,campaigns in E.Africa and conference in W.Africa
January 2023
Shrimp Welfare Project, Ltd
$220,638
SWP works with stakeholders to reduce the suffering of farmed shrimps, with a focus on India and Southeast Asia
January 2023
Campaigns and Activism for Animals in the Industry (CAAI)
$40,000
12-month salaries and expenses to advocate for two bans in Bulgaria: fur farming and force-feeding of waterfowl
January 2023
Expertise for Animals
$93,738
12-month salaries to strengthen animal advocacy by creating content and carrying out pro bono work for organizations
January 2023
Open Cages Advocacy Ltd
$209,842
Campaign budget to pressure Lidl and other retailers to produce broiler welfare policies in Europe
January 2023
Anonymous
$40,000
6-month stipend to support video creation on EA and the welfare of farmed and wild animals targeting a Chinese audience
January 2023
Anonymous
$132,000
Annual expenditure for a college food literacy program and related events on Animal Welfare advocacy and Alt. Protein
February 2023
Sentient (Nonprofit Organization)
$30,000
Spread global use of disposable cellular cameras put on animals on the way to slaughter, enabling a personal narrative
February 2023
Rethink Priorities
$85,000
A 3-day forum to connect, coordinate, and strategize for the EAA movement
February 2023
Asociacion para el Rescate y Bienestar de los Animales
$35,000
Salaries for 2 full time economists and development of three surveys for one year
March 2023
Tanzania Animal Welfare Society (TAWESO)
$36,000
Funding for 2 surveyors to engage farmed fish stakeholders on a fish welfare survey document for policy and regulations inclusion
May 2023
Veganuary
$92,004
Funds to support 2-years of salary and on-costs for a Corporate Engagement Manager for Veganuary in Latin America
May 2023
Çiftlik Hayvanlarını Koruma Derneği (Farm Animals Protection Association)
$75,000
12-month salary for the staff and communications/ads costs to sustain capacity for cage-free campaigns and fish welfare
May 2023
Animal Advocacy Careers
$75,000
Support for the continuation of AAC’s work recruiting & matching talented individuals into high impact opportunities in the effective animal advocacy sector.
May 2023
Animal Advocacy Africa
$80,000
1-year of funding to build African orgs’ capacities, research on preventing factory farming & regrant to promising orgs
May 2023
Sentient Media
$66,000
1-year of funding to hire expertise in digital marketing/training/content production to an EAA-aligned high-impact welfare group and $15,000 for Spanish translations of top performing articles.
May 2023
Fórum Nacional de Proteção e Defesa Animal
$80,000
Operational funding (salaries, administration, travel costs etc.) for the Forum to enhance its cage-free accountability work approaching the 2025 cage-free deadlines.
May 2023
Vegan Network Uganda trading as Uganda Vegan Society
$20,000
General support for cage free campaign—an advocacy based project aimed at reducing cruelty towards battery caged hens through the promotion of plant based alternatives
May 2023
George Stiffman
$11,000
Funding for 4-months stipend to create infrastructure and raise funding for a tofu import business
May 2023
Animal welfare competence center for Africa
$75,000
1-year funding to cover the operational costs of government outreach campaign to stop or slow the growth of industrial animal agriculture in Uganda
May 2023
Aquatic Life Institute
$200,000
12 months of operational funding to build capacity and strengthen the global impact of the Aquatic Animal Alliance
May 2023
Every Animal
$10,000
Support Every Animal work to implement vegan rations in the Armed forces of Ukraine
June 2023
One Health and Development Initiative
$40,000
Promoting awareness, knowledge and capacity building of Nigerian fish farmers on implementing fish welfare practices
July 2023
Education for African Animal Welfare-EAAW
$30,000
This grant supports the scaling up of the Education for African Animals Welfare cage free project in Tanzania through strengthening media outreach, training, workshop, campaigns and surveys.
July 2023
Scarlet Spark
$50,000
This grant provides staff and operational funding for People Skills for Animal People—a program that builds both individual leadership skills and organizational capacity so that nonprofits working to end factory farming and develop alternative proteins and fabrics can reach their mission faster.
July 2023
Utunzi Animal Welfare Organization
$60,000
This grant provides funding for Utunzi Animal Welfare to continue its cage-free egg projects in Kenya through farmer outreach, student and general public awareness building and corporate outreach efforts to support both new cage-free egg commitment and implementation of existing commitments.
July 2023
Asher Soryl
$9,883
6-8 months of funding to complete my doctoral dissertation & publish academic papers based based on its chapters
August 2023
Institute of Animal Law of Asia
$50,000
This grant provides operational funding for a project launching two Animal Law courses offered for free to individuals in Asian countries where access to information is limited. The goal of the project is to educate and raise awareness of the animal welfare movement, with a focus on land and aquatic farmed animals.
August 2023
Kelly Pierce Manlangit
$12,300
This grant provides a 6-months of technical support for a feasibility study and information session on alternative protein research capacity in the Philippines.
August 2023
Legal Impact for Chickens
$85,000
This grant will go towards technical assistance and capacity building for expanding Legal Impact for Chickens (LIC), to fight factory-farm cruelty through litigation.
September 2023
Tälist
$87,601
Tälist matches Alternative Protein businesses with the best talent from around the globe. This grant provides 1 year of operational funding to build and run a platform that automatically matches top talent with Alt. Protein jobs at scale.
September 2023
Innovate Animal Ag
$70,000
This grant provides 1 year of funding for a new nonprofit that will support agricultural technologies that improve animal welfare. The first focus is in-ovo egg sexing technology to stop the culling of male chicks in the egg industry. The funds are intended for operations and capacity building.
September 2023
Anonymous
$60,000
12-month grant to support a policy advocacy organization dedicated to banning the use of live baitfish.
October 2023
David Omale
$7,000
A symposium to highlight the role students and academia can play in the transition to sustainable proteins
October 2023
Animal Ask
$18,000
This grant provides 6 months of funding for Ren Springlea to run a data collection effort assessing the current landscape of humane slaughter and the fish welfare industry.
October 2023
Effective Altruism Germany
$27,439
840 hours for Fabienne Sandkuhler to work on EAA meta-analysis
October 2023
DC Voters for Animals Education Fund
$30,000
Grow community involvement in animal protection initiatives by identifying and elevating DC community’s priorities that align with animal interests, such as expanding access to produce and other healthy, plant-based foods throughout the city.
Lead an education campaign for DC policy makers around the Plant-Based Treaty and aquatic animal protection.
Lead a legislative campaign to pass a law in DC to ban foie gras.
October 2023
Animal Ask
$37,500
This grant will contribute to the continuing activities of Animal Ask, a research consultancy that assists animal advocacy organisations with dedicated research to inform their campaigns. The grant will help to support Animal Ask for 20 months, and will go towards salaries, personnel costs, external services, travel and events, office, IT services, contingency, and PPF fiscal sponsorship.
October 2023
Good Growth
$20,000
1.5-day Asia strategy workshop to strengthen advocate connections, co-create initiatives and form working groups
October 2023
Animal Welfare Observatory (formerly Equalia)
$90,506
Support for Equalia to reach goals such as ensuring top 10 Spanish supermarkets have extended their cage-free policy, gaining major media attention for investigations into Spanish fish farming, and expanding their capacity to make fish welfare a public concern.
October 2023
Anonymous
$5,000
This grant will support a translation of “Animal Liberation” by Peter Singer into Thai to promote animal welfare awareness and ethical considerations in Thailand.
November 2023
Oxford University Vegan and Vegetarian Society
$2,589
Funding for Oxford Vegsoc—the largest society for vegans and vegetarians in the University of Oxford—to improve outreach, quality of events and quality of speakers available next academic year.
November 2023
KU Green Student Society
$2,400
This grant is funding a student-led campaign by Veganske Studerende for plant-based universities in Denmark, beginning with the University of Copenhagen (UCPH).
November 2023
Shrimp Welfare Project, Ltd
$130,000
This grant will enable the Shrimp Welfare Project to purchase 2 stunners for shrimp producers, enabling the stunning of a minimum of 1.4k MT (~100 million) of shrimps/annum per stunner. This is part of an effort to promote the adoption of electrical stunning as a standard in the shrimp industry.
December 2023
Animal Equality (UK)
$45,852
This one-year grant will fund research, production of materials, public awareness, legal advocacy and stakeholder engagement to lobby for better farmed fish welfare at slaughter and to halt the UK salmon industry’s expansion.
December 2023
Rethink Priorities
$295,600
This grant will support Rethink Priorities in their insect and decapod welfare research for a one-year period. The grant provides funds to be used to support the salaries of researcher roles as well as research and operational overhead costs.
December 2023
Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation
$50,946
This grant will fund three reports which highlight the economic benefits of Farmed Animal Welfare across government departments in the UK. The reports will contribute to government-directed messaging in support of farmed animal welfare.
December 2023
Sentience Politics
$100,000
This grant will go towards kickstarting a ballot initiative aiming to secure outdoor access for farm animals in Switzerland, aiming to reduce widespread animal suffering.
December 2023
Asociacion para el Rescate y Bienestar de los Animales
$22,000
This grant will support the Asociación para el Rescate y Bienestar de los Animales with salary costs, allowing ARBA to produce resources that help with corporate and governmental animal welfare outreach in Peru.
January 2024
Crustacean Compassion
$2,181
Funding to attend Effective Animal Advocacy Coordination Forum
January 2024
Kelly Pierce Manlangit
$1,000
Top-up fund to convert alternative protein culminating event from a virtual info session to an in-person symposium
January 2024
Animals Aotearoa
$139,188
Two years of operational costs for Animals Aotearoa, New Zealand’s primary charity for improving broiler welfare.
February 2024
University of Wisconsin-Madison
$79,668
This grant provides technical assistance and capacity building for a 2-year study to develop a welfare auditing tool for black soldier fly larvae raised for food and feed.
February 2024
Planet For All Hong Kong
$50,000
This grant will support Planet For All Hong Kong with funds for a one-year salary to continue their work driving changes in the Hong Kong government’s aquaculture standards.
February 2024
Het Harrison Collectief (The Harrison Collective)
$27,833
This grant will offer starter funding for Het Harrison Collectief, an organization seeking to abolish harmful practices in the animal production industry in Belgium.
February 2024
The Humane League UK (THL UK)
$192,222
This grant will support THL UK with salary and discretionary costs to help secure progress from at least two UK supermarkets towards some or all elements of the BCC.
February 2024
Animal Charity Evaluators (ACE)
$100,000
This grant will provide Animal Charity Evaluators with one year’s funding to incorporate lessons learned from their impact assessment into ACE’s strategy and operations.
March 2024
James Ozden
$7,201
This grant will support James Ozden in creating a podcast to cover effective altruist approaches to animal advocacy.
March 2024
Effective Altruism Germany
$36,413
This grant will support Lu Chen’s fish welfare work in East Asia.
March 2024
The Mission Motor
$43,611
This grant will support The Mission Motor with six months of running costs to develop an international pilot that will help charities in the animal welfare cause area increase the use of data to monitor and evaluate the efficacy of their interventions.
March 2024
Crustacean Compassion
$84,925
This grant will support Crustacean Compassion with salaries and expenses for their corporate and political engagement growth programme. This work will develop relationships and advance support for improving decapod welfare throughout industry supply chains.
April 2024
Asia Research & Engagement
$100,000
This grant will support Asia Research & Engagement in leveraging investor funds towards the following outcomes:
- 1 to 2 listed companies have a public time-based commitment to phase in cage-free or phase out caged systems, or a whole of company animal welfare policy aligned towards FARMS.
- Engage banks and solution NGOs, activating responsible lending or collaboration to support cage-free systems.
Animal Welfare Fund: Payout recommendations from May 2022 to March 2024
Introduction
This payout report covers the Animal Welfare Fund’s grantmaking from May 1 2022 to March 31st 2024 (23 months). It follows the previous March-April 2022 payout report.
Since the previous report was written, the Animal Welfare Fund made a conscious decision to deprioritize public reports so that fund managers can have more time and capacity to work on high-quality evaluations. However, now that I (Linch) am working for EA Funds full-time, I’ve attempted to consolidate and streamline the report writing process, so that hopefully regular reports can be written again without unduly using up limited fund manager time.
Total funding recommended: $7,079,301
Total funding paid out: $6,943,301
Number of grants paid out: 109
Acceptance rate (excluding desk rejections): 111⁄409 = 27.1%
Acceptance rate (including desk rejections): 111⁄685 = 16.2%
Report authors: Linchuan Zhang (primary author), Kieran Greig (fund chair), Karolina Sarek, Zoë Sigle, Neil Dullaghan
16 of our grantees, who received a total of $1,068,540, requested that we do not include public reports for their grants (you can read our policy on public reporting here).
Highlighted Grants
(The following grants writeups were written by me, Linch Zhang. They were reviewed by the primary investigators of each grant).
Highlighted grants correspond to grants that the AWF team rated highly, usually because they thought the grant was very likely to be very cost-effective or the potential upside was very high.
Planet For All Hong Kong ($63,000): Stipends and professional services to launch Hong Kong’s first aquatic animal welfare movement
The Animal Welfare Fund provided a $63,000 grant to Planet For All Hong Kong from September 2022 to August 2023. The funding covered stipends, marketing, website, and professional services for one full-time employee and two part-time employees to launch Hong Kong’s first aquatic animal welfare movement. The organization plans to engage with industry stakeholders, government, and policymakers; raise public awareness; and build partnerships with corporations to incorporate animal welfare in their sourcing policies.
The Animal Welfare Fund was excited to fund this project due to the region, focus area, and the organizations’ leadership and project plan. Hong Kong is a high-priority region with high fish consumption, and the work is very neglected. The fund believes the small organization has good leadership and a reasonable project plan. However, we did have concerns that the additional focus may distract from their very important work on chicken cage-free reforms. This concern is partially mitigated by the grant being used to hire an external person for the full-time role, so existing projects are hopefully less likely to be negatively impacted. Overall, the importance and neglectedness of the work are strong arguments in favor of supporting the grant.
Outcomes: During the grant period, the organization identified supportive stakeholders and a local campaign opportunity regarding “Fish Culture Zones,” building rapport with local marine conservation organizations and meeting with modern fish farmers to better understand the feasibility and challenges of promoting aquatic animal welfare. They connected the Fish Culture Zone campaign with the importance of aquatic animal agriculture and met with the Aquaculture Division of the Hong Kong government. The organization successfully launched “Sea Life Matters,” the first public education campaign about aquatic life welfare in Hong Kong, engaging with about 1,000 citizens, partnering with more than 30 online influencers, and collaborating with over 10 restaurants and retailers.
Animal Empathy Philippines ($33,000): PT stipend to increase community building work and support farmed animal welfare projects in the Philippines
The Animal Welfare Fund provided a $33,000 grant to Animal Empathy Philippines from June to November 2022 to support their community building work and farmed animal welfare projects in the Philippines. The Philippines is a priority country for farmed animal efforts, with over a billion farmed animals. Before the grant, Animal Empathy Philippines had been funded for about six months and had only 1.5 full-time equivalent staff.
Fund managers believe that talent, alongside identifying and implementing scalable, cost-effective interventions, may be the main bottleneck in the region. Given that EA Philippines already has a large, robust community, providing additional engagement opportunities to people interested in working on farmed animal welfare could help build the movement and develop talent in this region.
Animal Empathy Philippines has shown a promising trajectory with their community building and public communications. Further, there are no other natural funders for animal-focused community building work in Asia, as the Centre for Effective Altruism will no longer support EA chapters outside of the UK, US, and a limited number of key locations in the EU. However, there are concerns that this grant may, in practice, displace other general funding (“funging”) for EA community building in the Philippines. While we highlighted this grant in particular, please note that the Animal Welfare Fund has funded Animal Empathy Philippines multiple times, as we’re broadly happy with their work.
Outcomes: During the grant period, Animal Empathy Philippines conducted an 8-week Animal Advocacy Introductory Fellowship for 39 fellows across two cohorts and organized six virtual and four in-person events and activities. They generated 25 project ideas through regular one-on-one meetings, the fellowship, and networking, which they can act on in future years. Additionally, they conducted a scoping study on alternative proteins and provided assistance to other EA-aligned animal advocacy organizations.
Animal Welfare League ($40,000): 12-month budget support for a new organization’s nationwide cage-free campaign in Ghana
In November 2023, the Animal Welfare Fund provided a $40,000 grant to Animal Welfare League, a new Open Wing Alliance group founded in 2021, for their campaign to “end abuse of 25 million chickens in cages” in Ghana. Animal Welfare League is the only organization focused on cage-free advocacy in Ghana, where there are currently around 25 million layer chickens. Ghana’s rapidly growing economy makes early advocacy for cage-free campaigns potentially high-impact, as it may prevent or reduce lock-ins in the poultry industry.
While some fund managers thought that Animal Welfare League’s plans were too ambitious for their first year, their overall goals seemed reasonable, and their leadership appeared promising. Interested readers may find Animal Welfare League’s 2023 Review useful, although we should note that the Animal Welfare Fund’s funding barely covers the period discussed in the review.
Outcomes: As the grant period is still ongoing, the Animal Welfare Fund has not yet collected information on the outcomes of this grant.
The European Institute for Animal Law & Policy ($31,396.64): Funding for research on aquatic animals and insects in EU animal law and policy
The Animal Welfare Fund provided a $31,396.64 grant to The European Institute for Animal Law & Policy from August 2022 to June 2023. The grant covered 3-6 month stipends for a senior legal and policy researcher and an intern to deliver two reports on (1) aquatic animals in EU animal law and policy and (2) insects in EU animal law and policy.
A collection of resources on insects could be invaluable in helping groups understand the space and the implications of insect farming on land vertebrate farming. While aquatic animals in the EU are relatively neglected, insects are even more so.
Fund managers were impressed by Alice Di Concetto’s research quality and track record. Her previous work, including prior research notes and the 2021 annual report, seemed valuable and informative. A fund manager highlighted three salient examples: (1) noting that some alternatives to male chick-culling proposed in EA circles are intractable in the EU context due to the existing aversion to gene-editing in the food space; (2) mailing published materials directly to key decision-makers rather than relying on op-eds; and (3) attracting key figures in the EU animal advocacy space from politics, NGOs, and media to their first hosted event, demonstrating their importance and value within the network. In general, Di Concetto and her team provided strong technical expertise in areas where animal advocates often have less knowledge.
Unlike many other researchers, their research work seems focused on being thoroughly scoped and actionable, increasing the likelihood of decision-makers actually acting upon her work.
Outcomes: The grant helped Di Concetto and Pauline Koczorowski author 3 Research Notes, including a published report on aquatic animal welfare legislation and two reports on farmed fish welfare and insect welfare, which are slated for publication by Q3 of 2024. They also translated all the reports to French to increase engagement and readability for key French policymakers.
Koczorowski stayed with the Institute for a year, from January to December 2023, and is now working at the French Ministry of the Overseas, where she conducts France’s maritime conservation policies in overseas French territories.
Crustacean Compassion ($62,537.74): Funding for a Senior Policy and Public Affairs Advisor to include decapod crustaceans in UK animal welfare legislation
The Animal Welfare Fund provided a $62,537.74 grant to Crustacean Compassion from July 2022 to July 2023. The grant covered a 1-year stipend, travel costs, access to an online legal research platform, and other work expenses for a Senior Policy and Public Affairs Advisor to include decapod crustaceans in three types of animal welfare legislation in the UK.
At the time of the grant, Crustacean Compassion was the only group doing policy work on crustaceans, and their efforts in the UK could potentially lay the groundwork for EU policy. The organization had a track record of success, having previously used funding from the Animal Welfare Fund to work with a policy expert to include decapod crustaceans in the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act, a goal they achieved.
Crustacean Compassion has significant contacts in relevant positions within the UK government, particularly in the Conservative Party. On the other hand, one potential worry is about the short shelf life of these contacts, given the likelihood of the Conservative Party losing power in the coming election cycle. As with some of the other grants, potential funging with Open Philanthropy was a significant concern when making this grant.
Outcomes: During the grant period, Crustacean Compassion secured multiple productive meetings with senior leadership in the UK Conservative Party to discuss the welfare of decapod crustaceans and engaged with key figures in Scotland and Wales.
Rethink Priorities ($64,000.00): Funding research on improving the welfare of farmed Black Soldier Flies
The Animal Welfare Fund provided a $64,000 grant to Rethink Priorities from September 2022 to March 2024 to fund Dr. Meghan Barret’s research on improving the welfare of Black Soldier Flies (BSF).
Well-scoped insect welfare grants are rare, making this project both promising and neglected. The scale of BSF farming is substantial, with over 200 billion BSF farmed annually, and this number is expected to increase significantly in the future.
Dr. Barret and Rethink Priorities have previously worked on BSF welfare, so this grant supports the continuation of their existing research.
Outcomes: During the grant period, they published “Welfare Considerations for Farmed Black Soldier Flies (Hermetia illucens),” an extension of a peer-reviewed paper by Dr. Barret.
(I was also employed by Rethink Priorities when this grant was made. I was not in any way involved with the decision to make this grant). Kieran Greig also recused himself. In general, our COI policy is that anybody significantly involved with an organization would not be involved in the grantmaking decision).
Kafessiz Türkiye ($30,000): Funding for the director’s stipend and campaign support for a Turkish animal welfare organization
The Animal Welfare Fund provided a $30,000 grant to Kafessiz Türkiye, also known as Çiftlik Hayvanlarını Koruma Derneği, from June 2022 to June 2023. The grant supported the Turkey-based chicken and fish welfare organization, with $25,000 allocated for the director’s 12-month stipend and $5,000 for their chicken and fish campaigns.
Kafessiz Türkiye is a small but growing team, with 3 full-time and 3 part-time employees as of late 2021 and an organizational budget of $145,000. They have an impressive track record, with over a dozen cage-free commitments secured in Turkey in the previous year, including commitments from large companies such as a major mayonnaise producer.
The $25,000 salary for a Director-level position is low relative to the skillsets required and the expected impact of their work. Overall, fund managers view Kafessiz Türkiye as very impactful and cost-effective and are thus excited to support them further.
Outcomes: During the grant period, Kafessiz Türkiye secured cage-free commitments across 24 brands owned by 18 firms. They completed the Özsüt (one of the largest bakery chains in Turkey) cage-free campaign in March 2023, which they had started in late 2021. The organization also had numerous successes in mobilizing more volunteers, gathering more signatures, and increasing their Instagram presence by 28,000 followers. Additionally, they became a Recommended Charity by Animal Charity Evaluators.
Fórum Nacional de Proteção e Defesa Animal ($80,000): Funding for a Brazilian nonprofit to conduct audits ensuring companies keep their cage-free and gestation-crate-free commitments
The Animal Welfare Fund provided an $80,000 grant to Fórum Nacional de Proteção e Defesa Animal, a nonprofit in Brazil, from March 2023 to March 2024. The grant covers stipends and other staff expenses for conducting audits to help companies adhere to their cage-free and gestation-crate-free commitments.
The fund recommended the grant based on several factors:
Leadership: Fórum is a well-known organization with a professional, experienced approach to their work. One reference described their leadership as “[among] the most on top of it advocates I’ve ever met.”
Track record: Fórum has a history of success in animal advocacy.
Scale of potential impact: Brazil has a large farmed animal population, with 255 million layer hens slaughtered in 2021 according to FAOSTAT data. Relative to the potential impact, funding for farmed animal advocacy in Brazil is neglected compared to the US and Europe, although not as neglected as in parts of Asia or Africa.
Tractability: Holding corporations accountable for their cage-free egg commitments is crucial for animal impact. The theory of change for audits and other plans to help companies keep their commitments seems relatively straightforward. Companies with such commitments are generally open to acting on them but may need reminders to prioritize implementation. Many companies have made cage-free commitments with 2025 deadlines, making this a critical time to ensure they follow through.
Outcomes: During the grant period, Fórum Nacional de Proteção e Defesa Animal made significant progress in their accountability work, contacting 189 companies and receiving reports from 50 on their cage-free transition. They estimate an impact on three million layer hens, with a projected impact of 13 million layer hens if and when the reported commitments are fulfilled. Fórum Animal also encouraged 5 universities to commit to not using cages in their teaching farms.
Other writings
I’ve asked the Animal Welfare Fund (AWF)’s fund managers about other articles or writeups that can provide a good overview of the Animal Welfare Fund, or otherwise be very helpful to donors and community members. People highlighted the following pieces of writing:
The EA Animal Welfare Fund (Once Again) Has Significant Room For More Funding (Fundraising ask from December 2023):
The bar for animal welfare funding in 2023 (likely 2024 as well) is somewhat higher than in the past
In particular, there were ~7M of high-quality projects to fund, and only ~5M of donations
Further, many of the funded projects are expected to (or are able to) grow while maintaining similar levels of cost-effectiveness.
The article provides a list of marginal grants that are just above or just below the bar for funding, to help donors get a better sense of what types of projects their money is likely to buy on the margin.
Giving What We Can’s Evaluation report for the EA Animal Welfare Fund (AWF):
As part of GWWC’s Evaluating the Evaluators project, GWWC made in-depth evaluations of the Animal Welfare Fund. The article enumerates a number of advantages of the fund:
Looks for international/national level work in priority countries that has leverage, not localized work in small lower priority places
Looks for opportunities with scaling potential & longer term TOC
Helps get things off the ground
Providing significant funding to an organization so it can undertake projects that could achieve impact at scale if successful.
A focus on a high-priority (and arguably underexplored) cause in a high-priority geographic area for that cause.
An intervention for which there is either some empirical support or a good theoretical case for cost-effectiveness.
Funds capacity building in promising and arguably underexplored causes (such as fish welfare and insect welfare) and geographies (such as South Asia and Africa), and in the effective animal advocacy movement more broadly.
Providing more support to the highest-potential grants rather than just making more grants
Older comments
Questions AWF frequently tries to answer when making funding decisions
Do they seem to be operating in an area that seems high-impact?
Also, do their plans in that area seem reasonable?
Are plans concrete and detailed?
Combining 1 and 2, when applicable, does some quantitative back-of-the-envelope calculation suggest they impact a high number of animals per dollar spent?
Are we aware of any going ons regarding that group that should give us pause (staff retention, reported infractions, adverse relationships with other organizations)?
What is that group’s current financial position (reserves, other funders)?
Considerations for how AWF thinks about its role in the ecosystem, when there are larger funders
An especially large concern is charitable funging
Ideally AWF is excited to fund areas or interventions that are higher risk or less proven than ones funded by larger organizations like Open Phil
Other Grants We Made During This Time Period
Below is a list of about 100 other grants, totaling over $6 million, that the Animal Welfare Fund made during this period to support work on farmed animal welfare in many countries.
Please note that we also referred some grants to other funders during this time period.
Grow community involvement in animal protection initiatives by identifying and elevating DC community’s priorities that align with animal interests, such as expanding access to produce and other healthy, plant-based foods throughout the city.
Lead an education campaign for DC policy makers around the Plant-Based Treaty and aquatic animal protection.
Lead a legislative campaign to pass a law in DC to ban foie gras.
This grant will support Asia Research & Engagement in leveraging investor funds towards the following outcomes:
- 1 to 2 listed companies have a public time-based commitment to phase in cage-free or phase out caged systems, or a whole of company animal welfare policy aligned towards FARMS.
- Engage banks and solution NGOs, activating responsible lending or collaboration to support cage-free systems.