Announcing our 2024 Charity Recommendations

By Animal Charity Evaluators @ 2024-11-12T17:19 (+108)

Hundreds of billions of animals are trapped in the food industry or suffer in the wild. Our goal is to help you make a bigger positive difference for animals by providing you with impactful giving opportunities that can reduce animal suffering to the greatest extent possible. We are excited to tell you about the five charities we recommend this year!

Animal Charity Evaluators (ACE) spends several months each year evaluating animal advocacy organizations to identify those that can do the most good with additional donations. In 2024, our team of researchers conducted comprehensive evaluations of the 10 animal advocacy organizations that seemed to be doing the most promising work for animals based on what they shared in their evaluation applications. We are grateful to all the charities that applied and agreed to participate in this year’s charity evaluations. We believe that each of the charities we chose to evaluate is doing some of the most meaningful work to reduce the suffering of farmed and wild animals. However, among this select group, we estimate that your donations to our Recommended Charities will have an exceptional impact.

Dansk Vegetarisk Forening, Çiftlik Hayvanlarını Koruma Derneği, and Sinergia Animal have continued to work on the most important issues for animals using the most effective methods and all renewed their status as Recommended Charities after being re-evaluated this year. Newly evaluated charities that join their ranks are Aquatic Life Institute and Good Food Fund.

Faunalytics, Legal Impact for Chickens, New Roots Institute, Shrimp Welfare Project, The Humane League, and Wild Animal Initiative have all retained their two-year Recommended Charity status from 2023.

Below, you will find a brief overview of why we are convinced that ACE’s 11 Recommended Charities will do the most good for animals with your support.

Recommended in 2024

Aquatic Life Institute (ALI) carries out a range of strategies to help reduce the significant suffering endured by hundreds of billions of farmed and wild-caught aquatic animals. These are among the most neglected animals in animal advocacy despite being more numerous than all land animals combined. ALI develops strategic campaigns that are likely to bring both significant short-term benefits and longer-term systemic change to relieve the suffering of aquatic animals. They do this through successful engagement with a range of influential stakeholders throughout the supply chain, including policymakers, retailers, and certifiers. ALI has a strong track record of success and has been able to help many animals at relatively little cost. For example, through their corporate outreach program, we estimate they have reduced the suffering of thousands of shrimps per dollar spent. ALI’s plans for 2025 and 2026 give us confidence that they would use donations in ways that likely create the most positive change for aquatic animals.

ALI’s recent achievements include:

• helping achieve a statewide ban on octopus farming and the import of farmed octopuses in California;
• playing a pivotal role in the development of seafood brand BlueYou’s first-of-its-kind Animal Welfare Policy, which covers both farmed and wild aquatic animal sourcing;
• using their expertise to encourage Hilton Foods to produce their first crustacean welfare policy. Crustaceans are now acknowledged as sentient beings and their welfare implications during farming, transport, and slaughter are taken into account.

With your help, ALI will be able to elevate global aquatic animal welfare standards by advocating for the adoption of high-welfare recommendations among leading seafood certification bodies. They will work toward influencing international and local policy, shaping corporate commitments for large-scale impact, building unified global coalitions, and continuing the fight against the developing octopus farming industry.

ACE proudly recommends Aquatic Life Institute (ALI) as an excellent giving opportunity. To learn more, read our 2024 comprehensive review of Aquatic Life Institute.

Çiftlik Hayvanlarını Koruma Derneği (ÇHKD) is the only organization working to improve the lives of the more than 109 million egg-laying hens and 680 million farmed fishes that suffer at any given time in food production systems in Türkiye. ÇHKD strategically develops programs that maximize the number of animals that can benefit by pushing for welfare improvements for egg-laying hens and farmed fishes. They do this by securing cage-free commitments from companies via corporate outreach and targeted pressure campaigns, and through field research and producer outreach for farmed fishes. ÇHKD measures their program successes effectively, is transparent about risks and limitations, and collaborates with other organizations to share best practices. ÇHKD’s programs have been able to help many animals at little cost; we estimate their work positively impacts around three hens per dollar and has the potential to be even more cost-effective in the future. ÇHKD’s plans for how they’d spend additional funding across 2025 and 2026 give us confidence that they would use donations in ways that likely create the most positive change for egg-laying hens and farmed fishes.

ÇHKD’s recent achievements include:

• securing over 30 cage-free commitments in Türkiye since 2020, impacting an estimated 850,000 egg-laying hens annually;
• publishing a comprehensive report following field research with major fish producers in Türkiye, contributing to the international knowledge base for fish welfare organizations;
• securing a key welfare commitment from a major Turkish producer of sea bass and sea bream.

With your support, ÇHKD will be able to secure more cage-free commitments, strengthen their campaigns, and mobilize greater public support to drive Türkiye toward a cage-free future. Your contribution is crucial in amplifying their reach, empowering them to influence more corporations, and building widespread backing for animal welfare. By expanding media outreach, enhancing staff capabilities, and ensuring financial stability, your support will sustain and grow the movement in Türkiye for lasting change.

ACE proudly recommends Çiftlik Hayvanlarını Koruma Derneği (ÇHKD) as an excellent giving opportunity. To learn more, read our 2024 comprehensive review of Çiftlik Hayvanlarını Koruma Derneği.

Dansk Vegetarisk Forening (DVF) works to reform the food system and reduce animal product consumption, thereby reducing the immense suffering endured by the 47 million farmed animals (including 11 million farmed fishes) and 32 billion wild-caught fishes who are exploited for food production each year in Denmark. DVF has a clear overarching strategy that brings together their individual programs with a long-term goal of creating systemic change. Their increasing focus on influencing funding and policy at the E.U. level makes their work potentially highly scalable and means many more animals could be spared or helped as a result. We are particularly impressed by DVF’s focus on collaboration through the Danish Network for Plant Proteins and the Danish Center for a Plant-Based & Organic Future. DVF’s work has already benefited a substantial number of farmed animals and has strong potential to impact many more at relatively little cost. For example, we estimate that the charity’s lobbying work has influenced the Danish government to invest about $68 into developing the plant-based food sector per dollar spent. DVF’s plans for how they’d spend additional funding across 2025 and 2026 give us confidence that they would use donations in ways that are likely to create the most positive change for farmed animals.

DVF’s recent achievements include:

• influencing the equivalent of USD 14 million in Danish government funding toward plant-based foods;
• winning a greenwashing lawsuit against Europe’s largest pork exporter, Danish Crown;
• continuing the expansion of the Danish Center for a Plant-Based & Organic Future, which educates professionals throughout the food system (in collaboration with Organic Denmark).

With your support, DVF will be able to keep influencing the Danish government to prioritize plant-based ambitions while simultaneously using the case of Denmark to inspire other governments at the E.U. level and globally.

ACE proudly recommends Dansk Vegetarisk Forening (DVF) as an excellent giving opportunity. To learn more, read our 2024 comprehensive review of Dansk Vegetarisk Forening.

The Good Food Fund (GFF) works strategically to promote diet change and transform the food production system in China so consumption of animal products is reduced and animal welfare is centered. China ranks as the highest in farmed animal population (1st out of 196 countries)—there are 56 billion farmed animals alive at any given point in time in China, of which 49 billion are farmed fishes. Additionally, 190 billion fishes are caught in the wild per year in China. GFF strategically develops activities and programs to reduce the number of animals that suffer in the food production system, both through reducing animal product consumption and improving animal welfare. They do this through a variety of programs that use approaches like chef training, diet change workshops, youth leadership training, and an annual Good Food Summit. These activities and programs support each other and align with government priorities, which is essential in China. GFF collaborates with prestigious institutions on some of their programs and makes good use of existing policy and governmental priorities to promote plant-based diets and animal welfare. Their strategic selection of programs is well-suited to the context they work in. Given the very high number of farmed animals and the steep rise in animal product production and consumption in China, GFF’s work has the potential to impact very large numbers of animals. Their plans for how they’d spend additional funding in 2025 and 2026 give us confidence that they would use donations in ways that likely create the most positive change for farmed animals.

GFF’s recent achievements include:

• serving as a hub for China’s food systems stakeholders—they are arguably the best-known brand in the country’s food systems space today;
• building momentum and social capital for plant-based transition in China through their annual Good Food Summit, Mama’s Kitchen, and other initiatives;
• creating the Good Food Pledge to promote plant-based dietary transition and animal welfare.

With your support, GFF will be able to continue as the most powerful voice for plant-based transition and animal welfare in China’s food systems space, where they have already established themselves as a first-mover, a widely-recognized innovative leader, and a trusted hub for all changemakers. Your help will enable GFF to continue building social capital and break new ground on policies for animals.

ACE proudly recommends the Good Food Fund (GFF) as an excellent giving opportunity. To learn more, read our 2024 comprehensive review of the Good Food Fund.

Sinergia Animal carries out a range of short-term and long-term strategies to help reduce the significant suffering endured by farmed animals in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Indonesia, Peru, and Thailand. At any one time, more than 800 million egg-laying hens are subjected to intensive farming systems in the countries where Sinergia works. Over 40 million pigs are intensively farmed in Brazil, where Sinergia carries out their pig welfare project. Sinergia’s strategically developed programs are likely to lead to significant benefits for egg-laying hens and farmed pigs, including in regions where the animal advocacy movement is currently relatively neglected. They sensitively tailor their campaigns to each country, setting a strong overarching agenda but granting country-specific teams autonomy to adapt that agenda to national contexts. They have a strong track record of productive engagement with relevant stakeholders through their corporate outreach campaign, especially with producers and retailers. Their programs have been able to help a substantial number of animals at relatively little cost. For example, we estimate that combined, their cage-free corporate campaigns, institutional meat reduction campaign, and pig welfare program could positively impact hundreds of animals per dollar spent. Sinergia’s plans for how they’d spend additional funding across 2025 and 2026 give us confidence that they would use donations in ways that likely create the most positive change for farmed animals.

Sinergia’s recent achievements include:

• a campaign that led to multichain restaurant Zen Group announcing a cage-free egg that applies to their more than 300 locations across Thailand, Myanmar, and Cambodia;
• sealing a partnership to promote plant-centered diets with Red de Bancos de Alimentos de Argentina, a network that unites 20 food banks and five initiatives across 15 provinces, supporting over 4,500 organizations and helping more than one million people;
• being invited to participate in a working group with the government to enforce legislation and address the serious evidence of violence and cruelty gathered via Sinergia’s undercover investigation in Colombia, which exposed terrible welfare conditions in animal transportation.

With your support, Sinergia Animal will be able to enhance their capacity to drive effective interventions in relatively neglected Latin American and Asian countries. Future plans include strengthening public policy influence, movement building, and high-impact mobilization campaigns.

ACE proudly recommends Sinergia Animal as an excellent giving opportunity. To learn more, read our 2024 comprehensive review of Sinergia Animal.

Recommended in 2023

Faunalytics is a U.S.-based organization that connects animal advocates with important information relevant to advocacy. Their work mainly involves conducting and publishing independent research, working directly with partner organizations on various research projects, and promoting existing research and data for animal advocates through their website’s content library. Faunalytics’ work helps fill the current evidence gap in animal advocacy, which is important to fill so we can grow an evidence-based, resilient movement. In particular, their research to help farmed animals and wild animals in the U.S. and China is highly likely to be impactful for the billions of animals who endure significant suffering. By helping animal advocates access the latest data on how best to help animals, Faunalytics is likely to be able to help many animals per dollar spent.

Faunalytics’ recent achievements include:

• producing eight new original research studies and analyses, including reports about industry costs for animal products, global slaughter statistics, an international study of animal advocate strategies & needs, and more;
• adding over 200 study summaries to their Research Library, creating a new Tactics In Practice resource series summarizing the science behind different advocacy interventions, and launching microsites in Spanish and Simplified Chinese to help bring research to advocates around the globe;
• supporting 187 advocates directly via office hours, delivering research presentations to 52 organizations, creating dozens of new factsheets and infographics, and holding their 3rd annual research symposium Fauna Connections.

With your support, Faunalytics will be able to publish new studies about advocacy in Southeast Asia and low- and middle-income countries, political/legislative advocacy, and engaging youth in animal protection. They’ll also create new databases for advocates and launch a new advocacy-academic network in collaboration with other organizations.

ACE proudly recommends Faunalytics as an excellent giving opportunity. To learn more, read our 2023 comprehensive review of Faunalytics.

Legal Impact for Chickens(LIC) works to make cruelty towards farmed animals a liability in the United States. There are 9.55 billion chickens who are killed for food each year in the U.S. and 336 million egg-laying hens (76% kept in battery cages)—each individual undeniably suffers as a result. LIC serves to help these animals by filing strategic lawsuits for chickens and other farmed animals, developing and refining creative methods to civilly enforce existing cruelty laws in factory farms, and suing companies that break animal welfare commitments. LIC is an excellent giving opportunity because they leverage existing laws in innovative ways to help animals, and a single litigation win by them could help billions of chickens who endure significant suffering in the food production system in the U.S. Their litigation, corporate outreach, and education work to help farmed chickens in the United States seems highly likely to be impactful. We consider their Costco shareholder derivative case to be particularly cost effective because the achievement has strong potential for indirect impact and received a large amount of media attention.

LIC’s recent achievements include:

• Legal Impact for Chickens v. Case Farms: a lawsuit against the KFC supplier that breeds and kills almost 200 million birds each year;
• USA v. Rhode Island Beef and Veal: a new avenue for animal advocates to get courts to consider animal cruelty violations, established by LIC;
• Legal Impact for Chickens v. Alexandre Family Farm: an animal-cruelty lawsuit to protect cattle from systemic deception, cruelty, and animal abuse.

With your help, Legal Impact for Chickens aims to litigate and win the Case Farms appeal, the Alexandre lawsuit, and the newly filed Animal Outlook v. Harvey’s Market case.

ACE proudly recommends Legal Impact for Chickens as an excellent giving opportunity. To learn more, read our 2023 comprehensive review of Legal Impact for Chickens.

New Roots Institute is a U.S.-based organization that works to empower the next generation to end factory farming. There are nearly 10 billion animals who are trapped and suffer in the U.S. food production system. The New Roots Institute educational outreach program in classrooms throughout the U.S. inspires critical thinking and sparks dynamic discussions about the connections between industrial animal agriculture and important issues like animal welfare, climate change, environmental sustainability, human rights, and personal and public health. Through the organization’s Leadership Program, students interested in a deeper exploration of factory farming’s impacts and solutions can participate in a yearlong fellowship, where they receive training in communication, organizing, and other critical leadership skills. The quality of engagement and impact of their programs is high.

New Roots Institute’s recent achievements include:

• approximately 80% of students surveyed at schools engaged by New Roots Institute in the past year plan to reduce their consumption of animal products, and over 90% of students support introducing more plant-based options in their schools and favor legislation aimed at reducing factory farming;
• training student fellows to lead campaigns in 36 states and 21 countries, leading to commitments to plant-based dining at UCLA and Cornell University.

With your support, New Roots Institute expects to inspire the largest, most motivated group of students in their history to join and contribute to the movement to end factory farming.

ACE proudly recommends New Roots Institute as an excellent giving opportunity. To learn more, read our 2023 comprehensive review of New Roots Institute.

Shrimp Welfare Project (SWP) is the first organization to focus exclusively on improving the welfare of farmed shrimps, who suffer significantly in current production systems. SWP runs their programs in the UK, India and Vietnam—in general, data on the number of farmed shrimp is lacking, but as many as 57 billion shrimps are estimated to be farmed in India alone. SWP’s efforts to help these animals include corporate and producer outreach and raising awareness about shrimp welfare. They collaborate with stakeholders across the supply chain, including retailers and medium-to-large shrimp producers, to improve welfare standards. SWP also runs the Sustainable Shrimp Farmers of India, which takes a farmer-centric approach to improving welfare standards on farms in the country. They work on a highly neglected species, the number of shrimps they can help per dollar is very high, and their producer outreach work to help farmed shrimps in India seems to have a particularly high impact potential.

SWP’s recent achievements include:

• collaboration with Tesco and Sainsbury’s to publish shrimp welfare commitments that involve stunning an additional ~1.6 billion shrimps before slaughter per year;
• removing sludge from ~80 acres of shrimp ponds in India, which will impact ~30 million shrimps per year;
• incorporating the most current peer-reviewed literature to publish their Shrimp Welfare Index, summarizing the most important factors of shrimp welfare.

With your support, SWP will be able to support the seafood industry in its transition to more humane and higher welfare shrimp farming practices.

ACE proudly recommends Shrimp Welfare Project (SWP) as an excellent giving opportunity. To learn more, read our comprehensive review of Shrimp Welfare Project.

The Humane League (THL) operates in the U.S., the U.K., and Japan, where they work to help farmed animals through advocacy and corporate outreach to improve farmed animal welfare standards. THL supports the growth of the global animal advocacy movement via the Open Wing Alliance (OWA), a coalition whose mission is to end the use of battery cages for the billions of hens worldwide who currently suffer in cramped conditions. THL works to improve farmed chicken welfare in the U.S. through corporate outreach, legislative outreach, and skill and network building. Their programs are highly likely to be impactful and reduce the suffering of billions of farmed animals, and the grants provided through the Open Wing Alliance are particularly cost effective.

THL’s recent achievements include:

• sparing an estimated 3.4 million+ hens from cages in 2024 through their global corporate accountability work;
• the Open Wing Alliance (OWA) released the 2024 cage-free fulfillment report, which found that 89% of corporate cage-free egg commitments with deadlines of 2023 or earlier have been fulfilled worldwide—a good sign that progress isn’t waning;
• after fierce pressure from OWA activists and five years of negotiations, Kewpie (responsible for purchasing a whopping 10% of all eggs in Japan) committed to increasing its cage-free egg usage to meet targets by 2027 and 2030.

With your support, THL will be able to continue holding companies accountable for their cage-free commitments as they approach the vast majority of deadlines coming due in 2025 and 2026. And, THL will continue to pressure companies in Asia—since this is where nearly two-thirds of the world’s egg-laying hens live—to adopt cage-free commitments and spare hens from immense suffering.

ACE proudly recommends The Humane League (THL) as an excellent giving opportunity. To learn more, read our 2023 comprehensive review of The Humane League.

Wild Animal Initiative is a U.S.-based organization working to improve our understanding of wild animals’ lives by advancing the field of wild animal welfare science. There is an estimated 10^15 wild animals that make up the Earth’s biomass, and many of these animals—possibly the vast majority—live very short lives and experience painful deaths. By conducting their own research and supporting other wild animal researchers, Wild Animal Initiative aims to increase academic interest in wild animal welfare and identify evidence-based solutions to improving the wellbeing of the immense number of wild animals who currently endure significant suffering. They are an excellent giving opportunity because they focus on high-priority but neglected animal group. Their calls for research proposals and funding of wild animal welfare research projects are particularly cost effective because they combine a high-priority intervention with strong implementation.

Wild Animal Initiative’s recent achievements include:

• increasing awareness of and credibility for wild animal welfare science by expanding their online research community to 455 members and facilitating their first-ever online workshop series;
• conducting research to understand how to intervene for wild animals responsibly, seeing their journal articles reach 47 citations, and launching an inaugural in-house field research study;
• accelerating the growth of the wild animal welfare field by awarding over $1.3 million in grant funding and celebrating the publication of three peer-reviewed papers on research their grants have funded.

With your support, Wild Animal Initiative will be able to further develop the visionary framework of wild animal welfare science, fund groundbreaking research projects, and foster a growing community of scientists dedicated to this emerging field. This work lays the crucial groundwork for future evidence-based interventions to reduce wild animal suffering.

ACE proudly recommends Wild Animal Initiative as an excellent giving opportunity. To learn more, read our 2023 comprehensive review of Wild Animal Initiative.

Support our Recommended Charities

Each one of these exceptional charities depends on the generosity of people like you to carry out their mission. The animals they help around the globe will have measurably better lives with your support. By making a single donation to ACE’s Recommended Charity Fund, you support all 11 of our Recommended Charities and their efforts to reduce animal suffering worldwide. These different charities each represent different approaches and ways of working that are necessary to meet the complex challenge of reducing animal suffering. This fund is distributed twice per year among our Recommended Charities, according to up-to-date data on the greatest need at that time.

Right now, you have a special opportunity to have your donation to the Recommended Charity Fund matched! Click here to learn more about this limited giving incentive to help more animals and have your donation doubled today.

Final Thoughts

ACE’s goal is to offer clear recommendations of specific charities that will have the greatest impact with additional funds. We strive to foster a culture of measurement, evaluation, and learning so the animal advocacy movement can maximize positive change for animals. We provide reviews that charities can use to assess their impact to help more animals. We hope that you find value in our charity recommendations and that you are inspired to support their and our work to help more people help more animals. Together, we can build a future that’s kind to all.