FarmKind: Using a diet offset calculator to encourage effective giving for farmed animals

By Aidan Alexander, ThomNorman @ 2025-02-11T17:19 (+182)

When we built a calculator to help meat-eaters offset the animal welfare impact of their diet through donations (like carbon offsets), we didn't expect it to become one of our most effective tools for engaging new donors.

In this post we explain how it works, why it seems particularly promising for increasing support for farmed animal charities, and what you can do to support this work if you think it’s worthwhile. In the comments I’ll also share our answers to some frequently asked questions and concerns some people have when thinking about the idea of an ‘animal welfare offset’.

Background

FarmKind is a donation platform whose mission is to support the animal movement by raising funds from the general public for some of the most effective charities working to fix factory farming.

When we built our platform, we directionally estimated how much a donation to each of our recommended charities helps animals, to show users. 

This also made it possible for us to calculate how much someone would need to donate to do as much good for farmed animals as their diet harms them – like carbon offsetting, but for animal welfare. So we built it. What we didn’t expect was how much something we built as a side project would capture peoples’ imaginations! 

What it is and what it isn’t

What it is: 

• An engaging tool for bringing to life the idea that there are still ways to help farmed animals even if you’re unable/unwilling to go vegetarian/vegan.
• A way to help people get a rough sense of how much they might want to give to do an amount of good that’s commensurate with the harm to farmed animals caused by their diet

What it isn’t: 

• A perfectly accurate crystal ball to determine how much a given individual would need to donate to exactly offset their diet. See the caveats here to understand why you shouldn’t take this (or any other charity impact estimate) literally. All models are wrong but some are useful.
• A flashy piece of software (yet!). It was built as a side-feature and has become more important than anticipated. We're now overhauling it to make it prettier and more user friendly (especially on mobile).

How it works

Feel free to skip this section if you don’t care. If you’re interested in digging into the details, you can read a longer write up on methodology here and see the underlying calculations and sources here, but in short we combined:

• How many animals are farmed to provide for the average Western diet: This is based primarily on United Nations FAO data for animal product availability and output per animal, combined with demographic data. It also factors in estimates of premature deaths in the supply chain:

• How much it costs our recommended charities to help each animal: This is the output of our estimate of the rough cost for each charity to help cows, pigs, chickens, fish and/or shrimp. We’ve used independent estimates of each charity’s cost-effectiveness where possible and adopted reasonable but conservative assumptions
• How much each charity helps each type of animal:^[1] While interventions that reduce animal consumption will prevent all the suffering the animal would have experienced in it’s life, welfare interventions only prevent a fraction of it, so you may need to (for example) help 2 broiler chickens through the Better Chicken Commitment to offset the production of 1 chicken. These fractional improvements in welfare were estimated using AIM’s ‘Suffering Adjusted Days’ methodology.

The calculator has two modes:

• Simple: Choose between ‘omnivore’, ‘pescetarian’, ‘flexitarian’ and ‘vegetarian’
• Advanced: Allows the user to tailor the result to their own specific diet choices

Why this is a promising way to encourage effective giving for animals

As you've probably witnessed first hand, most people intuitively care about animal suffering and agree factory farming is problematic when pressed on it. Yet most people are either unwilling or unable to change their diet. The widespread messaging from the animal movement telling people to change their diet often falls on deaf ears. This creates a significant opportunity: there's a large population of people who care about animals and might be willing to take some other action (like donating), if approached with the right message.

FarmKind's core message, and our calculator in particular, could be effective in unlocking this potential donor base for three key reasons:

1. Decoupling action from diet change: By separating "wanting to help animals" from "changing your diet," we reduce defensive reactions and cognitive dissonance that often prevent engagement with animal welfare issues. Our core message is that donating is an underrated way that anyone can be part of the solution to factory farming, regardless of their diet. This non-judgmental message is one people are more willing to listen to, and our calculator seems to bring it to life for people.
2. The success of carbon offsetting: Voluntary carbon offsets raised $2 billion in 2020. Many are skeptical of carbon offsets because it's often questionable whether the money is going to high-impact interventions, but the fundraising model clearly works. As such, applying this successful fundraising model to effective farmed animal charities seems quite promising.
3. Enabling broader advocacy: Many people with platforms are sympathetic to addressing factory farming but hesitant to speak about it. This hesitation is understandable – when Alex O'Connor (formerly the Cosmic Skeptic) 'came out' to his audience as vegan, he received a lot of backlash from audience members who felt implicitly criticized for their own choices. When he later stopped being vegan for health reasons, he faced criticism from parts of the vegan community as well. The donation-focused message provides a way for influencers to discuss helping farm animals without making their audience defensive or uncomfortable. This is promising for our ability to secure more earned media coverage and reach potential donors cost-effectively.

Case study: Bentham’s Bulldog

Bentham’s Bulldog is a prolific Substack blogger with ~5k followers. He wrote a blog making the case for donating as something you can to help farmed animals even if you’re unwilling to change your diet.

Bentham has a very engaged following, but it is still small in the scheme of things, and yet this post had a really tangible impact for animals:

Shrimp and non-shrimp counted separately because in terms of sheer number of animals impacted, they dwarf everything 😅

How is this actionable for you?

If you like this tool for encouraging effective giving for farmed animals, here are a few ways you can take action:

1. Try the Compassion Calculator and share it with others: The calculator is designed to help people understand that even if they’re unable or unwilling to change their diet, donating to high-impact charities is a meaningful way to reduce animal suffering. If you know someone who might resonate with this message, feel free to share the tool with them.
2. Help introduce the calculator to a wider audience: Even small platforms can make a big difference. If you have an audience—whether it’s a Substack, Twitter account, YouTube channel, or podcast—or know someone who does, consider spreading the word. We can help craft the message and track the impact to maximize reach and effectiveness.
3. Share relevant quotes: Have you heard someone say something like, "I think factory farming is awful, but I love meat and diet change feels unrealistic" (e.g. 1, 2, 3, 4)? These kinds of quotes help illustrate the pain point we address. If it’s from someone with an audience, we may even reach out to introduce them to the calculator and explore collaboration. Feel free to share in the comments or submit here.

Thanks for reading!

If you’d like to subscribe to quarterly updates about our strategy and what we’re learning about helping bridge the belief-action gap for farmed animals, you can subscribe here. 

1. ^{^}

    An extra detail: The calculator doesn’t funge different animals’ suffering such that you could donate all of your money to (for example) the Shrimp Welfare Project. Instead if your diet affects 33 chickens, 1.5 pigs and 8 fish, your offset cost is what’s needed to do a commensurate amount of good for both the chickens, pigs and fish.