Hi FAST! We're from Animal Charity Evaluators (ACE) and we recently opened applications for our 2024 Movement Grants! Ask us Anything!

This is a great question, and the truth is we don’t really know! It can be tough to track the effects of cube-of-truth style activism because it’s hard to follow up with everyone who engages with activists in this capacity to see whether they change their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviour as a result. What’s more, even if someone does cite this form of activism as a key driver of their shift towards veganism it’s very challenging to verify whether that’s accurate. The movement needs much more high-quality animal advocacy research to be done to help us determine how effective different interventions are, especially vegan outreach efforts. In the absence of high-quality empirical evidence, at ACE we look at the theory of change behind the program and interventions that grant applicants submit to us for funding. If there’s a convincing theory of change that describes how you predict your intervention will cause a change in the people you engage with, we are more likely to consider funding your project. As a concrete example, last year we gave a grant to We The Free to support their street activism because we felt their theory of change was particularly compelling. That said, in general, we tend to favor activities that target institutions over individuals because they can typically engage many more people with the limited funds we have to disburse. 

In terms of the most effective ways to help animals as a private person, probably the most effective thing you can do is donate to effective animal charities or volunteer your time with them.

Question: I received a Movement Grant last year, am I eligible to apply again?

Response: Yes! Provided the work you are applying for remains in scope (see the Movement Grants eligibility criteria here) previous grantees are welcome to apply for funding again this round. 

Question: I am curious whether you accept grant applications from organizations preferring to remain anonymous or not publicly acknowledged as grantees?

Response: You can apply and request to remain anonymous. If successfully awarded a grant, we would only publicly list the amount and that it was to an anonymous organization. 

There is no question in the application form asking if you would like to remain anonymous, but you can note “anonymous” in the preferred name field so we are aware of your preference. If awarded a grant, we ask for feedback on our announcement post providing another opportunity to request that your grant remain anonymous if you haven’t already made us aware. 

Question: I have previously applied for funding on Granti, is there any connection between this application and applications I have submitted for other funders?

Response: Granti is the grant management platform ACE is using for Round 8 of the Movement Grants program. A number of other funders in the animal advocacy space use Granti, so applicants may already be familiar with the platform. Although we are using the same platform, our grantmaking programs are separate, we cannot see any applications you have submitted to other funders, and likewise they cannot see the application you have submitted to ACE. 

This is our first time using Granti and we appreciate any feedback you have on how you have on your user experience. 

Question: We will be applying for funding to cover our general operational costs, how do you determine an end date for the grant period?

Response: If you apply for general support funding, we will award the grant for 12 months from the point at which the grant agreement is signed - this means your grant period is likely to be from June/July 2024  to June/July 2025. If you spend the grant before that period concludes, you are welcome to report on your grant earlier (there is a question in the application that invites you to provide a date to report earlier), but this is not required. 

You can find more information on the Process and Timeline here. 

Question: Will applying for a higher amount decrease the chances of getting funding? Or is it best to apply for the lowest possible amount needed to carry out the project?

Response: 

Requesting more in the first stage is unlikely to hurt your chances of being awarded a grant provided you sincerely believe that being awarded more will substantially improve the impact of your project—we might well agree! Conversely, if it appears that an applicant has excessively padded their budget with unnecessary line items, we would look unfavorably upon this. 

There is a question in the application form about breaking down your budget. This would be where we would note what is necessary for the project and what is nice to have. If you can also explain how the nice-to-have line items will further help animals, this will help us decide whether to fulfill the requested amount or offer partial funding. 

We have previously awarded partial funding where we think the organization can deliver the project with less funding, and disbursing those additional funds to another organization will benefit animals more. We do this because our program is highly funding-constrained compared to the number of quality applications we receive. 

Depending on the size of the grant being considered (if it is over $20,000), we will often follow up with the applicant to understand whether they would be able to deliver the project with partial funding. 
 

Question: A number of people have been in touch to ask whether Masters and PhD students research projects are within the scope of the Movements Grants program.

Response: The program is open to applicants undertaking research, so Masters and PhD students are eligible to apply for funding. Note that we typically award grants to research organizations, mid-stage career researchers, and research programs because their work is often more likely to have real-world outcomes for animals than Masters or PhD student's research projects. However, we don't want to discourage you from applying, and we strongly advise that in your application you include how the research will ultimately help animals. For example, will the findings of your research be used by animal advocacy organizations, governments or industry? How will you ensure the users of your research will see your work and adopt its findings?  This is needed so we can understand the potential impact of your work. 

Secondly, we are unable to award grants to individuals working outside of the U.S., please ensure your university or another organization can act as fiscal sponsor to receive a grant if awarded. 

Question: A few people have queried the eligibility of individuals working outside of an organization to receive a Movement Grant. 
 

Response: We are able to fund individuals working in the United States, although such a grant may be considered taxable income. Individuals working outside the U.S. are asked to collaborate with a fiscal sponsor. 

Yes, individuals are eligible for our unrestricted general support grant. 

This year we are asking applicants to either apply for a single project through our project-specific application or for general support. We are two weeks into the application process and we have already received over 200 applications! Which is amazing, but unfortunately we won’t have the capacity to assess multiple projects for each organization that applies. You will not be favored for applying for a single project over general support, or vice versa..

If you complete all of the mandatory fields in the application form, we will have sufficient information to make our grant decision. The notes in gray against some questions in the application form provide additional guidance on what we are assessing in each of those questions. In the second stage, we usually ask follow-up questions to applicants if there’s anything else we need to clarify. 

Thanks, Eleanor

Hi Thomas, thank you for your questions. 

Yes, efforts for a better political representation of animals and/or against regulatory capture are eligible for a Movement Grant. Please note what percent of the work is lobbying in your application. 

For the purposes of our project specific vs general support applications, we define a project as a discrete area of work within an organization. This means the grant awarded will be restricted to the work described in the application. Compared with the general support grant, where the grant agreement will allow for the organization to spend the grant at their discretion but we assess the applicant based on all areas of work in their organization. 

If you are applying for a specific area of work using our project specific application, but there is no end date or obvious milestone that will serve as an end date, I recommend setting the end date as June 2025, which will be one year from when a grant is awarded. 

Thanks, Eleanor

Hi Nathalie, thanks so much for your question and for listing these very important issues! At ACE, we prioritize animals that suffer in the largest quantities (such as fishes) and projects tackling the problem that causes the most suffering (such as industrial fishing and aquaculture). So, out of the list above, we would most likely fund a project on “Eliminating damaging industrial fishing.” Thanks, Holly

Hi Amanda, thank you for your questions. See my response to each below: 

1 and 2, yes we can award grants to groups, organizations, and companies located anywhere in the world, as long as the application meets our other eligibility criteria. We are not able to fund groups or projects that:

• Encourage any form of animal exploitation.
• Are located in countries with nationwide sanctions by the U.S.
• Conflict with our commitment to representation, equity, and inclusion.
• Have leadership that has financially supported ACE in the past three years.
• Are currently a Recommended Charity, as these receive funding via our Recommended Charity Fund)
• Directly or indirectly participate or intervene in any political campaign on behalf of, or in opposition to, any candidate for elective public office.

3. Yes Movement Grants has a restriction on the amount we can award to lobbying, but this restriction applies to the total Movement Grants Program, not to any individual grant. I wouldn’t be concerned about this limit when applying. 

4. Through our Movement Grants program, we provide funding for both specific projects (restricted funding) and general operational support (unrestricted funding), including salaries. Do you have a specific project you need funding for? If not, I would suggest applying for general operating support. You will not be favored for applying for one over the other. 

5. Unfortunately, we receive several hundred applications so we do not have the capacity to interview applicants. We use the information provided in our application form and follow-up questions to make grant decisions. 

Thanks, Eleanor

Hi Samo, thanks for your question! If you fill in all mandatory questions in the application form, that will be sufficient information to make our grantmaking decisions. You can include extra documents like the ones mentioned, but they won’t be the focus of our decision-making. In the second stage of the process, we usually ask follow-up questions to applicants if we need more clarification. Thanks, Holly

We don’t have a fixed number of grants we intend to award. This primarily depends on the total donations we receive for the program. In previous rounds, we have awarded between 35 and 52 grants per year, and we expect that the number of grants we award is unlikely to differ from this range. 

The minimum we will award an individual or organization is $5,000 USD, and this year we have removed the maximum amount we will award grantees. However, we are unlikely to award a high number of grants above the previous cap of $50,000 USD because the focus of Movement Grants remains on supporting earlier stage organizations and organizations working in countries with emerging animal advocacy movements, in both cases most of our applicants typically apply for less than $50,000. 

Last year we awarded a high number of partial grants where the Movement Grants Committee felt that the project could still be delivered with reduced funding and we could have a greater impact by awarding an additional grant to another organization. Based on feedback from our grantees about the challenges some have faced with partial funding we anticipate fulfilling the full amount of more grant requests this round, this is likely to result in fewer grants being awarded. That being said, we are still likely to award some partial grants. 

Thanks, Eleanor

Based on the description of your work it appears that you will be looking for a general support grant as you are requesting funding for many projects. In our general support application form we ask applicants to provide up to two intervention areas. We assess applications for general support on what organizations spend most of their time and resources on (ideally over 75%). This is so we evaluate your organization fairly and don't put excessive weight on smaller projects. We recommend against including information about projects that require less than 25% of your organization's time and resources. You describe a number of intervention areas in your message including: research, corporate outreach, and public awareness campaigning. I recommend looking through our Menu of Interventions page and deciding which most fit the description of your work.

Please note, the Menu of Interventions is not an exhaustive list of intervention types. Once we have concluded this Movements Grants round we will revisit the completeness of our Menu of Interventions and decide whether we need to update our categories. 

Thanks, Eleanor

Wild animal suffering is one of our priority cause areas, so we welcome applications from those working to improve wild animal welfare. We prioritize applicants based on whether they are using novel interventions, target large numbers of animals, and/or operate in regions that are underrepresented in animal welfare. While we’ve previously funded more projects working on farmed animal advocacy, as you mentioned this is due to the fact there are limited organizations working on this issue. We would like to see more projects addressing wild animal suffering to fund through our Movement Grants! Thanks, Holly

Here is the 2023 version of the Intervention Relevant Scores. 

Regarding documentaries, it appears that a small number of documentaries are highly effective in convincing individuals to move towards a vegan diet. However, the vast majority of documentaries promoting animal welfare or veganism are not impactful. If we had a greater understanding of which documentaries would be as successful as Earthlings or Dominion, we would be much more likely to award documentary makers grants. Without this knowledge, we find that other interventions, such as investor outreach, are often a better use of our scarce funds. 

Thanks, Eleanor
 

We often ask other grantmaking organizations to share our application with organizations they think will be a good fit for Movement Grants. Occasionally, if we are aware an applicant has received a grant from another grantmaker, we may ask for feedback from the grantmaker. We also consider how likely the applicant will receive funding from other funders, although we don’t actively coordinate with them to determine this. 

Thanks, Eleanor

Thank you for your questions! 

1. At this stage it is hard for me to say how likely we are to award a grant for the work you describe because this depends on the number of applications we receive, the strength of those applications, and the amount of funding we have available. Whether we are likely to fund the project you describe depends on the jurisdictions you are working in, the number of animals that may be impacted by your work, and how well funded this type of work is. You can find more information on our priority areas on our Application Guidelines. 
2. Yes, a campaign that targets all candidates/political parties is within scope of Movement Grants. In the application form please note the percent of funding dedicated to lobbying at the relevant question. 

Thanks for this question and for carefully considering staff salaries in your project budgets. 

We do take a look at staff salaries to get a sense of what we think is fair and realistic to achieve the goals of a project. However, we tend to err on the side of trusting charities to set salaries that are in line with their particular region. We are not experts in global nonprofit salaries and tend to do more of a high-level red flag check than a deep dive into proposed salary budgets. Some examples of past red flags that we’ve raised are if we see a salary that we think is unjustifiably low for the role and aims of a project, or if we see a salary line item that we are unsure is necessary or should perhaps be paid by an institution rather than ACE (e.g. we have sometimes questioned salary line items for university teaching staff, and whether such salary should be paid by the university rather than ACE). We rarely (if ever) receive applications that include salaries that seem unjustifiably high. In cases of red flags, we tend to ask direct follow-up questions to the applicant rather than making assumptions with no additional information. A salary line item would very rarely be the reason we reject a proposal.

Elisabeth
 

Thanks for your question and for your hard work for animals!

For more information about what we are most interested in funding this round, please check out our Application Guidelines and read through the questions. We’d recommend using these guidelines to choose which project to focus on for an application.

We will not typically consider funding direct animal care, including the provision of funds to sustain animal care for farmed animal sanctuaries. It is highly unlikely that we’d fund project 3.  

For the first two legal projects, you’d need to be clear in your application about how your efforts serve to help animals. We’re interested in the theory of change of specific projects, and our aim is to prioritize those projects that have the highest chance of reducing the greatest amount of suffering for the most animals. We will prioritize efforts that work towards institutional or systemic change rather than individual change, such as institutional, legal, or corporate outreach.

Elisabeth

Thanks for this question! Requesting more in the first stage is unlikely to hurt your chances of being awarded a grant provided you sincerely believe that being awarded more will substantially improve the impact of your project—we might well agree! The application process may just take more time. Depending on the size of the grant being considered (if it is over $20,000), we will often follow up with additional questions and to understand whether the applicant would be able to deliver the project with partial funding. Thanks, Holly

It really just comes down to the type of support you need. Through our Movement Grants program, we provide funding for both specific projects and general operational support, including salaries. Do you have a specific project you need funding for? If not, I would suggest applying for general operating support. You will not be favored for applying for one over the other. Thanks, Holly

Hi Astrid! Please email me directly and we'll take a look for you: david@veganhacktivists.org :)

Thanks for reaching out - these projects all sound interesting! Unfortunately, we can’t give guidance on which specific project to focus your application on via this AMA. But we can offer guidance on what areas we prioritize.

For Movement Grants we prioritize funding efforts that work towards institutional or systemic change rather than individual change, such as institutional, legal, or corporate outreach. Some of your projects look quite promising in that regard. For more information about what we are most interested in funding this round, check out our Application Guidelines and read through the questions. We’d recommend using these guidelines to choose which project to focus on for an application.

We do hope to see an application from you. Thanks for all your work for animals!

Elisabeth

Thanks so much for this question. 

Many of the projects we fund via Movement Grants are happening at younger, smaller organizations, so there are two “early-stage” elements: early-stage organizations that might be in regions with a nascent animal advocacy movement, and early-stage projects that might be happening at early-stage organizations, or are happening at more established organizations that are expanding their programmatic work. 

Here are some examples of early-stage organizations we funded in 2023 that we think are doing impactful work in their global region. In these cases we’ve tended to give general operating funds rather than funding specific projects (though that’s not always the case):

We funded Samayu and A Just World to continue their systems-based approach to achieving positive animal welfare outcomes in the farming industry. They focus on both the aquaculture and poultry sectors, conducting regional research, advocating for improved policies, conducting outreach to farmers and communities, and running campaigns.

We provided general support for Good Growth to continue work in two areas to accelerate the growth of sustainable and ethical food systems in Asia. The first area is open-access market research to understand local stakeholders, farming systems, and consumer attitudes and identify locally relevant interventions. They launched a website that makes public datasets more accessible for advocates and funders, and this grant allowed them to scope out the demand for and potential impact of this project. The second area was community engagement and capacity-building to facilitate knowledge-sharing and build advocates’ research skills. This included conducting outreach by delivering workshops at animal advocacy events and producing content for their website.

We funded Animal Empathy Philippines to implement a capacity-building program for Filipino youth leaders. They work with rural youth, particularly those in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas, to co-create localized projects helping farmed animals in the country. They also plan to develop a program implementation toolkit and training for other organizations to roll out the same program in the future.

Here are some examples of early-stage projects we funded in 2023 at more established organizations:

We funded a project by Education for African Animal Welfare that aimed to influence the discourse on egg-laying hen welfare in Tanzania, promote cage-free farming, and consolidate and share information on welfare considerations in chicken farming. They worked with farmers and key stakeholders to assess the status and compile a report on battery cage farming in Tanzania through a nationwide survey, literature review, and stakeholder consultative meetings. They aimed to use this research to slow the intensification of poultry farming in the region.

We funded ARAF Plateau Dogon fora project that focused on raising awareness about the risks of battery cage farming of chickens in the Ségou region of Mali. They planned to mobilize youth and target the public at local events and schools across several municipalities. They also aimed to educate people on welfare issues and encourage people to not buy animals that have been raised in cages.

We gave a grant to AnimaNaturalis to take legal action against the federal government for failing to comply with its legal obligations on animal welfare in slaughterhouses. Their objective was to force authorities to comply with the provisions on animal welfare. They planned to focus on the federal government first and later move against state governments.

I hope these examples help you better understand the grant decisions we make in our Movement Grants program. If you have any additional questions or I haven’t answered you sufficiently please let me know!

Elisabeth

The 27 intervention types we include in our Menu of Interventions aim to capture a broad spectrum of strategies animal advocates use to try to produce change for animals. We categorized these interventions to better understand and communicate how the animal advocacy movement works as a whole and how individual charities operate within the movement. The Menu of Interventions is not an exhaustive list of intervention types. We only include those commonly used by the charities in our Charity Evaluations and Movement Grants programs. We expect to update this list as we encounter new interventions used by the organizations we evaluate.

You are correct that your intervention is not listed as an option in our Menu of Interventions. For your application, please put another intervention in the field, and ensure the details provided in the question: ‘Describe the work of your organization’/’Please describe the project for which you are seeking funding?’ accurately describe the work you are applying for funding for. Once we have concluded this Movements Grants round, we will revisit the completeness of our Menu of Interventions and decide whether we need to update our categories. 

Thanks, Eleanor