What can your donations achieve for animals?

Key takeaways:

• There are hundreds if not thousands of animal advocacy charities and non-profits worldwide, all with the intention of improving animal welfare
• Animal welfare remains a cause areas that many people are hesitant about or do not donate to
• There are some charity evaluators such as Animal Charity Evaluators that vet charities before recommending them to potential donors

Introduction

Everyday, tens of billions of animals, from farmed to wild, are suffering immensely, and needlessly. Much of their suffering can prevented and their welfare improved, yet effective action in this area is still slow. In 2019 for instance, less than 0.3% of all philanthropic funding in the US was allocated to advocacy groups that focused on farmed animals.

Despite the lack of funding, animal advocates achieved some major victories. These victories often go unnoticed and are not particularly newsworthy, which is likely one of the reasons why the space remains underfunded

To shed some light on how animal advocacy charities operate, this article will briefly explain how animal charities utilise the funds and provide a recommendation list of effective animal welfare charities to donate to.

What do charities do with their funds?

Animal advocacy charities operate in a variety of ways, covering a range of major subproblems within animal welfare. There are many charities that focus specifically on raising awareness through public campaigns to influence and create partnerships with industry, policymakers, and broader society. This means funds are allocated towards hiring media, campaigning and communication specialists, and related professionals to increase public awareness and secure policy wins and corporate commitments that help animals Several charities well-known for their campaign work include The Humane League and Compassion in World Farming.

Other charities use financial contributions to fund research into interventions such as the adoption of humane slaughter techniques, educational resources to improve their slaughter processes, or enabling producers to purchase new tools of devices. For instance, the Shrimp Welfare Project is a charity that focuses largely on working together with retailers around the globe to adopt more humane practices (e.g., stopping the practice of eyestalk ablation and stunning shrimps before slaughter). They estimate that $1.00 helps anywhere between 1,100 – 2,100 shrimpCharities such as the SWP first look for critical buy-in from breeders and producers, before advocating for an industry practice to become mandatory by means of a policy proposal.

Improving animal welfare is a multi-faceted issue and as such, various animal welfare charity organisations have emerged to specialise and focus on different areas.

How will I know if my donation will have the most impact?

It is not easy to find for yourself which animal advocacy organisations will effectively and efficiently utilise their funds to achieve their promised goals. This is why organisations such as Animal Charity Evaluators and Giving What We Can provide a vetted list of effective charities ensure that donations are going to charities that have been able to prove that the funds utilisation has resulted in a cost-effective impact.

Our recommended list of charities to donate to:

1. Animal Welfare Fund (by Effective Altruism Funds)
2. Movement Grants Program (by Animal Charity Evaluators

There is also a list provided by Animal Charity Evaluators of vetted charities that they believe are examples of effective advocacy.

This article is part of our animal welfare section.