Animal Welfare Fund

Training of Trainers (5-day) in India to equip key stakeholders with best practices in cage-free egg farming

Funding to increase capacity and successfully run campaign aimed at banning cages in Slovenia with potencial effects on EU

Research & pilot program on humane chill-killing at Indian shrimp farms to inform global certification standards

A budget to support cage-free policy work in Ghana and recruiting cage-free farms in South Africa, Egypt, and Morocco

Project and staff expenses to work on corporate welfare washing in cage-free accountability in Brazil

The Fund focuses on projects that primarily address farmed animals, as well as projects that could affect other large populations of nonhuman animals.

Some examples of projects that the Fund could support:

• Supporting farmed animal advocacy in Asia
• Advocating against the use of cruel practices within the industrial agriculture system, such as battery cages for egg-laying hens
• Policy advocacy to increase government research and development (R&D) budget that goes to alternative protein
• Researching ways to improve the welfare of invertebrates
• Policy advocacy to increase government R&D budget that goes to alternative protein
• Movement building in neglected countries and regions with large-scale animal farming
• Growing the field of welfare biology in order to improve our understanding of different ways to address wild animal suffering

The AWF is dedicated to helping impact-focused donors by identifying and supporting the most effective opportunities to improve animal welfare globally.

We achieve our mission through a comprehensive strategy that includes:

1. Pooled Resources: We aggregate donations to create a shared fund that significantly exceeds individual donor capacity, enabling support for both smaller- and larger-scale initiatives.
2. Global Outreach: We actively solicit applications from organizations and individuals worldwide, ensuring a diverse range of high-impact projects for consideration.
3. Rigorous Evaluation: Our team conducts thorough assessments of project proposals to identify and select the most effective interventions.
4. Continuous Improvement: We aim to systematically evaluate the impact of our grants and adapt our grantmaking strategies to maximize our positive influence.
5. Strategic Collaboration: We partner with leading animal welfare organizations, researchers, and advocates to leverage collective expertise.
6. Transparency and Accountability: We are committed to openness in our resource allocation processes, ensuring responsible stewardship of donor funds in advancing animal welfare.

By combining these elements, the AWF strives to support transformative change in the lives of animals globally.

The AWF has recommended over 20 million dollars' worth of grants to a range of high-impact initiatives, including:

The Center for Responsible Seafood ($117,000): Research & pilot program on humane chill-killing at Indian shrimp farms to inform global certification standards

Shrimp are the most farmed animals globally (~440 billion annually) yet receive minimal welfare protections during slaughter. In March 2025, AWF provided this grant to fund TCRS together with a research partner from Professor Amaya Albalat's leading crustacean welfare lab. The researchers will test whether properly implemented ice slurry methods can effectively stun shrimp and reduce pain during slaughter in the real environment of a shrimp farm in a hot climate rather than in a lab environment with more controlled conditions. This method will also be compared at a small scale to electrical stunning (with collaboration from the Shrimp Welfare Project). Based on the outcome of this research, TCRS aims to develop practical humane slaughter guidelines and report the outcomes of their work to the Global Seafood Alliance for consideration in their certification standards of Best Aquaculture Practices, which certifies 11% of global shrimp production.

This initiative could impact around 50 billion shrimp annually by ensuring shrimp are killed more humanely than through asphyxiation. Even if the research doesn’t prove that chill-killing can be done humanely in those conditions, and therefore won’t be recommended, this project still provides valuable information that can inform advocacy for electrical stunning. This project is likely to be incredibly cost-effective, and it has a clear theory of change and a high likelihood of success as a result of the organization’s strong track record and leadership. Additionally, despite the massive scale of impact, shrimp welfare is a neglected cause, giving the AWF a unique position to support work in this area.

Just months after receiving the grant in February 2025, the organization already initiated lab-testing of various chill-killing methods and collaborated with several farms in India to implement chill-killing methods. In May 2025, they held a webinar on eyestalk ablation, humane slaughter, and proper grow-out techniques for shrimp and presented their lab results at their annual Shrimp Summit in June 2025.

Animal Welfare League ($130,000): A budget to support cage-free policy work in Ghana and recruiting cage-free farms in South Africa, Egypt, and Morocco

In January 2025, the Animal Welfare Fund provided a grant of $130,000 to the Animal Welfare League (AWL) to support policy advocacy to establish national poultry standards in Ghana and cage-free directories in South Africa, Egypt, and Morocco. AWL’s political advocacy in Ghana is especially timely as Ghana is developing new poultry certification standards, giving AWL leverage to create lasting improvements in welfare standards.

Large multinational companies seeking to fulfill cage-free commitments in Africa have requested the support of the AWL to identify recommended producers. Therefore, AWL plans to establish cage-free directories in South Africa, Egypt, and Morocco. These three countries currently have more than 90 million caged hens, so by making it easier for companies to fulfill their commitments, AWL’s efforts have the potential to improve welfare on a massive scale. While Africa has the fastest-growing egg production out of any continent and is projected to surpass Asia and Latin America in poultry production around 2030, this 2021 Farmed Animal Funders report demonstrated that it is the least funded region, and Animal Advocacy Africa estimates that less than 3% of general animal welfare funding in Africa is devoted to farmed animal welfare. Additionally, this continent has the fewest cage-free commitments. The AWL’s strong track record, strategic leadership, and expertise in cage-free advocacy position them to effectively utilize this funding to improve the welfare of the massive, growing population of hens in Africa.

Since receiving their most recent grant from the AWF, AWL secured a Memorandum of Understanding with Ghana's Standards Authority to co-develop national poultry standards that could affect all 23 million of Ghana's hens—potentially making it one of the first African nations to have a cage-free code of practice. While policy opportunities have a very high expected impact, their success is less certain, so AWL operates simultaneously on the corporate and producer level. After receiving this grant, AWL coordinated cage-free commitments from nine commercial producers across South Africa and Morocco, impacting a total of 35,000 hens, and added them to their cage-free directory, reducing barriers to fulfilling regional corporate commitments. To ensure genuine change, AWL also introduced farmers to the Certified Humane program to strengthen third-party verification processes.

AETP - Animal Enterprise Transparency Project ($28,500): Funding to increase capacity and successfully run campaign aimed at banning cages in Slovenia with potential effects on the rest of the European Union

With the EU's postponement of comprehensive animal welfare legislation and challenges to advancing cage-free reforms at the regional level, AWF recognized that supporting country-level bans could deliver direct welfare improvements while further strengthening the foundation for EU-wide reform. One tractable opportunity emerged in Slovenia, where AETP had built strong relationships with an unusually animal-friendly government and where ~85% of the country's ~1.8 million hens were already cage-free due to corporate campaigns—creating favorable conditions for legislative protection of the remaining 270,000 caged hens. Our cost-effectiveness analysis indicated that the expected impact of pursuing this ban justifies the investment, given both the scale and tractability of the opportunity.

AWF supported AETP in November 2024, recognizing an exceptional window created by Slovenia's stable government mandate through 2026 and AETP's established connections with key agricultural officials. The funding of $26,813 enabled AETP to hire essential capacity during a critical legislative period.

Since then, the progress has been staggering. Following AETP's advocacy, in January 2025, the the Ministry of Agriculture endorsed a ban on cages with the goal to phase them out by 2028. In August 2025, Slovenia passed an amendment to the Animal Protection Act, which banned cages for hens, with a four-year phase-out, and banned piglet castration without anesthesia.

Fórum Nacional de Proteção e Defesa Animal ($100,000): Project and staff expenses to work on corporate welfare washing in cage-free accountability in Brazil

In September 2024, the Animal Welfare Fund provided a grant of $100,000 to Fórum Nacional de Proteção e Defesa Animal to support accountability work for companies who already have committed to banning cages in their egg supply chains. The project aims to increase transparent reporting from 140 companies who are transitioning or have already transitioned to cage-free egg production. They will then launch a national campaign to publicize companies who are simply “humane washing,” but not actually fulfilling their commitments. Fórum is a professional and experienced organization with a strong track record of engaging with companies throughout Brazil that have made cage-free commitments. They had strong outcomes using previous funding from the AWF and have increasingly improved their efforts to strongly pressure companies into reporting and improving their progress. The fund managers also believe that cage-free accountability efforts are an especially effective intervention because companies must be engaged frequently in order to fulfill their commitments. Additionally, Brazil has a high population of farmed animals (e.g., 255 million layer hens slaughtered in 2021 per FAOSTAT data) but is somewhat neglected in terms of funding. Fórum’s campaign involving these 140 companies would improve the welfare of 13 million hens.

Since receiving this grant, Fórum released Brazil’s most comprehensive corporate accountability report on cage-free commitments. Thanks to the work of Fórum Nacional and many others, 16 companies reported transitioning to 100% cage-free eggs, and 14 other reported their progress toward cage-free production. In Brazil, a country that holds more than 250M hens and that, a few years ago, had almost no cage-free production, the trend is starting to change. Even the largest egg producer, Mantiqueir, is 15% cage-free, sparing 2.5M hens from cages. Such progress is a huge success, thanks to an effort by many organizations in Brazil and internationally.

Animal Friends Jogja (Perkumpulan Sahabat Satwa Jogja) ($10,000): A 12 month stipend and expenses for a staff member to continue government advocacy on cage-free / FA welfare legislative change

In August 2024, the Animal Welfare Fund recommended a grant of $10,000 to Animal Friends Jogja. The grant covers 12 months of funding for a staff member to advocate for cage-free legislation to end caged layer hen and duck farming in Indonesia. Animal Friends Jogja has been engaging stakeholders in local, regional, and national governments and aims to continue consistent meetings and focus group discussions to present recommendations for policy change. They will also advocate for local governments to support farmers transitioning to cage-free farming.

Animal Friends Jogja is one of the three leading organizations working on cage-free advocacy in Indonesia. They have an established track record of positive relations with government officials and contributed to successful regional bans on dog and cat meat trade. According to FAOSTAT data, as of 2017, Indonesia's poultry sector included approximately 205 million layer hens and 50 million ducks in intensive farming systems. Given these numbers, successful welfare reforms in Indonesia's could improve conditions for hundreds of millions of birds annually at a relatively low cost per animal affected. Moreover, the Indonesian government is currently planning policy priorities for the next twenty years, so this is a critical moment for impact organizations like Animal Friends Jogja to consult on cage-free transition efforts.

Since receiving this grant, Animal Friends Jogja participated in a National Planning Meeting on Indonesia’s new Animal Welfare Law and a public hearing for the draft of the Animal Welfare regulation. Though this draft was a strong start toward improving welfare standards, in order to strengthen the legislation, Animal Friends Jogja submitted improvements to the draft, wrote a joint letter calling for the Animal Welfare Department to publish information about updates to the draft, and presented policy recommendations at several legislative hearings. They have also participated in hearings to influence regional legislation in Yogyakarta, which will include animal welfare as a focal point.

1. The Scale of Animal Suffering is Immense. Annually, hundreds of billions of vertebrate animals are subject to factory farming. Roughly 83 billion terrestrial farmed animals are raised and slaughtered each year, as well as ~124 billion farmed fish. Farmed invertebrate animals (for example, shrimp and insects) number in the trillions.

Experts now agree that numerous species of animals are conscious and capable of feeling pain. Current practices within animal agriculture are likely to cause extreme suffering over the course of animals’ lives. Furthermore, hundreds of trillions of wild animals exist, many of which likely experience significant suffering that could be reduced through human intervention.

2. Funding to Address This Issue Remains Critically Limited. Despite the magnitude of this problem, the field of animal advocacy receives only a small percent of total charitable donations, with most of that money going to the comparatively few companion animals in shelters. This leads to some groups of animals being highly neglected in relation to their numbers and capacity for suffering.

3. Our Fund Maximizes the Impact of Your Contribution.

The Animal Welfare Fund holds a unique position to identify and support the most effective opportunities to help animals globally. What makes this possible is:

• Finding the Best Opportunities: We actively seek out promising projects across the world, from established organizations to new groups. We are also not restricted to donating only to nonprofits, we can also fund individuals, academic institutions, and other entities. Our strong connections within animal advocacy and effective altruism help us discover high-impact opportunities that others might miss.

• Rigorous Evaluation Process: Every grant application undergoes a systematic review, with the depth of investigation scaling with the grant size and uncertainty. Our evaluation includes assessing Theory of Change, scale of the counterfactual impact, likelihood of success, cost-effectiveness, value of funding, and forecasting. You can read more about our evaluation process in the FAQ section.

• Tracking Impact and Improving Based on Learning from M&E: We systematically track each grant's progress against specific goals, collect progress and learning reports, and compare our predictions against the real outcomes to continuously improve our grantmaking.

• Expert Fund Management: Our fund managers have good judgment and bring diverse expertise in animal advocacy, research, grantmaking, corporate outreach, entrepreneurship, and movement building. This helps us evaluate projects from different angles and guide our grantees effectively.

• Strategic Funding Approach: We build a balanced portfolio of grants that include both proven interventions and those that are more uncertain but have a very high expected value. This means supporting immediate welfare improvements while also investing in projects that could create systemic change.

• Movement Coordination: We work with other funders and organizations to strengthen the whole effective giving ecosystem and help ensure resources are allocated where they can have the highest impact.

By contributing to the Animal Welfare Fund, you can be confident that your donation will always be allocated with impact in mind, aiming to make the greatest possible difference in alleviating animal suffering and promoting their welfare.

1. You don’t support incremental welfare improvements Thus far, much of the Fund’s grant money has gone toward work on reducing farmed animal suffering through positive yet incremental changes. This is not an exclusive focus since we have also supported interventions that aim to be more systemic (like policy advocacy) and that reduce demand for animal products (like advocacy to increase investment in alternative protein). However, if you believe that it is wrong to support incremental welfare improvements, some of the Fund’s grants may not be a good match for your worldview.

2. You have a preference for specific interventions or species The Fund has made a range of grants. If you have a strong preference for supporting a particular intervention type or focusing on a specific animal group (e.g., exclusively supporting corporate outreach for hen welfare or concentrating solely on farmed animals), you may find it more satisfying to donate directly to charities specializing in those areas.