High-Leverage Systemic Change for Aquatic Animals: The Case for Supporting Aquatic Life Institute With Marginal Funding

By ali.fish @ 2025-11-18T13:26 (+7)

As part of the EA community’s Marginal Funding Week, we want to share where Aquatic Life Institute stands at the end of 2025: our impact this year, the $291K remaining funding gap, and how $100K in individual donations this Giving Season could directly reinforce global aquatic welfare reform.

This post also links to The Invisible Majority, our year-end campaign highlighting why aquatic animals, who make up the overwhelming majority of animals in global food systems, remain underrepresented in both policy and philanthropy.

Learn more and donate: The Invisible Majority

TL;DR

• Funding gap: USD 291,000 remaining to close ALI’s 2025 budget ($1.25M total; $954K secured).
• Goal for Giving Season: Raise $100K in individual donations toward closing the gap
• Why it matters: Aquatic animals represent the vast majority of animals used in global food systems, yet their welfare remains largely invisible in global food systems. ALI is the only organization systematically reforming the standards, policies, and institutions that shape their lives.
  
   

Why Aquatic Welfare?

Aquatic animals make up the vast, unseen majority of animals used for food, yet are excluded from most welfare and sustainability frameworks. This remains one of the largest and most neglected moral frontiers.

Aquatic Life Institute (ALI) exists to correct this imbalance by reforming the systems that govern aquatic animal welfare, from certification schemes and corporate policies to United Nations frameworks and national legislation. Our theory of change centers on leverage: influencing the rules, incentives, and institutions that determine welfare at scale.

2025 Impact Highlights

Our annual outcomes show how systemic reform can drive meaningful welfare gains:

• Certification reform at scale: Following sustained ALI engagement, the Global Seafood Alliance adopted a new requirement that will end eyestalk ablation in BAP-certified shrimp hatcheries by 2030,  This applies to ~1,900 farms + 150 hatcheries, ~800,000 tonnes/yr; modeled downstream benefit ≈ ~44B shrimp annually (16–73B range) when fully implemented. This is a direct welfare gain catalyzed by our benchmark research and technical recommendations. The 2025 Benchmark (forthcoming) incited competition among 9 certifiers and 2 ratings agencies that were assessed under new “Transport” and “GMO prohibition” criterion, contributing to a transparent scoreboard that moves standards.

• Policy integration at the highest levels: ALI’s Stunning & Slaughter: Best Practices in Aquaculture report was cited in the European Commission’s 2025 Code of Good Practices on Fish Welfare, now a guiding reference for regulators and producers across the EU.

• Movement influence and coordination: Through the Aquatic Animal Alliance (AAA), now with 180+ member organizations, ALI hosted regional convenings, and online peer sessions, connecting under-resourced groups to technical tools that accelerate campaign design and execution. At Asia for Animals in Taiwan, ALI participated in the first-ever aquatic welfare panel in the conference’s food systems track (opened by Taiwan’s President). A follow-on coalition letter urged Nepal to add fish welfare to its transport protocol helping establish regional policy footholds where ~90% of aquaculture occurs.

• Legislative traction: Octopus farming prevention: ALI’s expert testimony and coalition mobilization contributed to the United States legislative bans now in place (Washington and California) with momentum continuing in 7 additional states and at the federal level. Chile introduced a national ban bill, Spain is still under scrutiny, and an AAA-led week of action in Mexico demonstrates an international appetite for furthering plausible and tractable, pre-industrial prevention pathways.

• Global Governance: Delivering the first recorded SDG-14 animal welfare intervention at the High Level Political Forum, UN-recognized side events with World Federation for Animals, and being recognized for consistently and accurately linking animal welfare to ocean resilience and food-system metrics all set the stage for ALI to anchor welfare inside SDG/FAO/traceability infrastructures.

ALI’s full 2025 Annual Impact Report will be released in the second week of December with comprehensive details/analyses.

Funding outlook:
 

Our essential programs and core expenses are already fully funded through 2025 under a non-growth scenario, meaning our current workstreams are secure. A few grant proposals under review could bring us closer to closing the remaining gap. To complement that, we aim to raise $100K in individual donations during the Giving Season, directly contributing to closing the $291K gap and building reserves for long-term stability.

The Opportunity: $291K in Marginal Funding

These funds don’t expand ALI’s scope, they would strengthen the infrastructure that makes every dollar of program funding more effective, stable, and measurable. Marginal funds would unlock two high-leverage priorities:

1. Contingency Reserve Fund ($150K)

Establishing an initial reserve equivalent to 2–3 months of operations will enhance ALI’s financial resilience, mitigating the effects of grant fluctuations and external delays. It will ensure continuity in our strategic engagements with institutions such as the European Union, United Nations, and seafood certification schemes, while preserving the agility needed to act during key policy windows. For donors, this translates into lower risk exposure and a higher expected return on their philanthropic investment.

• Why it matters: Stability multiplies impact. Every $1 in reserve safeguards ~$4 of active program leverage.
  
   
• Expected value: Reduces mission risk and ensures continuity during critical policy windows.
  
   

2. Strategic Internal Growth & AI-Ready Infrastructure ($141K)

Strengthening ALI’s data and coordination systems will improve cross-program efficiency and transparency by 40–60%. Additional funds could be put toward cross-program coordination and modern data systems that raise ALI’s impact-per-dollar. Rather than launching new programs, this work would strengthen the core engine that powers all others.

• Applications under exploration:
  
   
  • Research: Automate evidence mapping and validation, detect welfare references in policies and certifier updates → faster, more reliable metrics.
    
     
  • Policy: Predict regulatory windows and track welfare language across UN and EU texts → timelier, data-driven submissions.
    
     
  • Coalition: Use AI-assisted mapping of 180 NGOs and multilingual summarization → stronger coordination and inclusion.
    
     
  • Benchmark & Certification: Automate scheme scanning and Impact Tracker updates → real-time visibility of reforms affecting billions of animals.
    
     
  • Corporate Engagement: Analyze retailer reports, forecast traction, and generate welfare briefings → more targeted, higher-yield outreach.
    
     
  • Communications & Development: Connect MEL data to storytelling and donor dashboards → transparent, evidence-based reporting and higher ROI.
    
    
     

How Marginal Funding Translates to Impact

Expected Marginal Return

• Stability multiplier → every $1 in reserve safeguards ≈ $4 of active program leverage.
• Efficiency multiplier → AI-enabled workflows may cut analysis & coordination time by 40 - 60%.
• Transparency multiplier → more traceable, verifiable impact evaluations leading to improved cause prioritization and activity execution.

Why Now

• Neglected cause, proven traction → Aquatic welfare reforms are already influencing certification and global governance.
• High leverage, low crowding → Each marginal $ strengthens infrastructure for an entire field still in early-stage development.
• Future-proofing → Investing in AI-ready systems today ensures ALI can scale impact efficiently, without expanding costs or drifting from mission.

Get Involved or Learn More

This Giving Season, we aim to raise $100K in individual donations toward closing our $291K gap. Every contribution builds stability and system-wide leverage for aquatic welfare globally.

If you’d like to help us scale this work:

 👉 Learn more about the Invisible Majority campaign and donate to support ALI this Giving Season

You can also:

• Visit www.ali.fish
• Read our latest Impact Report
• Follow ALI on Instagram and LinkedIn