The Animal Welfare Fund aims to effectively improve the well-being of nonhuman animals, by making grants that focus on one or more of the following:
- Relatively neglected geographic regions or groups of animals
- Promising research into animal advocacy or animal well-being
- Activities that could make it easier to help animals in the future
- Otherwise best-in-class opportunities
The Animal Welfare Fund has historically supported many different interventions, including advocacy in neglected countries, research that improves our understanding of relevant issues, and campaigns that push large corporations to improve their farm animal welfare policies. In recent payouts, the Fund has made a number of small startup grants to emerging organizations, as well as grants to more established players in the space.
Grantmaking and Impact
The Animal Welfare Fund has recommended several million dollars' worth of grants to a range of organizations, including:
Supporting emerging animal welfare groups in a range of countries
The Fund has supported corporate and policy campaigns and movement building for farm animal welfare issues around the world, with grants to advocacy organizations working in 26 countries, including Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Czechia, Greece, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Poland, South Africa, Spain, Taiwan, Ukraine, and the United States.
Supporting research to improve the focus and efficacy of animal advocacy
In addition to funding direct work on animal welfare, the Fund also supports research that improves our understanding of how to most effectively help animals. This research has focused on better understanding the well-being of wild animals, which species are most promising to focus on, and which interventions are the most effective at reducing animal suffering.
Supporting campaigns to reform corporate policies
Tens of billions of animals suffer as a result of their use in food production. By tackling this issue at the level of commercial supply chains, corporate campaigns can be high-leverage opportunities to improve the lives of tens of billions of animals. The Fund has granted to a range of organizations with relatively strong track records of securing commitments from large food companies; these organizations include Compassion in World Farming USA and Sinergia Animal.
Supporting research on and advocacy for alternative proteins
Finding culinary alternatives to meat is an important step toward reducing the suffering of animals raised for food. While commercial alternative protein companies are generally able to raise private funding, other organizations that build support for alternative proteins (like academic groups and grassroots organizations) are relatively underfunded. The Fund has granted to organizations around the world, including in the UK (CellAG), Israel (The Modern Agriculture Foundation), and globally (Cellular Agriculture Society).
