If you had $100 to alleviate the most suffering and do the most good in the world, what would you do with it? For many philanthropists, the answer to this question lies in newer and less expected places, specifically in new or underfunded issues.

One growing community of philanthropists, for example, sees exponential benefits in tackling the harms of intensive animal agriculture. Long overlooked and underfunded, this cause is increasingly attracting donors eager to address the largest social issues of our time. Many funders have woken up to a problem leading thinkers have called “a defining moral failing of our age” and “perhaps the worst crime in history”: the horrific suffering inflicted on farm animals. Others have recognized factory farming’s colossal negative impacts on climate, rural communities, and farmers—or its contributions to pandemic risk, antibiotic resistance, and a catastrophic loss of biodiversity.

Uniting these funders, including many from younger generations, is an understanding that giving to create a more ethical and resilient food system is, dollar for dollar, one of the highest-impact opportunities in philanthropy and that collaboration can help maximize every precious cent.

To this end, in 2018, a group of these funders established Farmed Animal Funders, now Senterra Funders, with the aim of accelerating progress toward a more humane, sustainable food system. Today, Senterra supports high-net-worth individuals who represent about 75 percent of global giving in this sector. It has deployed millions of dollars through a pooled fund and tens of millions more in independent, collaborative donations. It offers a case study for philanthropists and advocates working on other new, underfunded, complex causes on how to coordinate effectively to create wide-ranging social impact.

An Underfunded Issue with Outsized Returns

Science shows that farm animals are as capable of feeling pain, stress, and loneliness as our beloved pets, and given the chance, they experience joy, seek out play, and form deep bonds with one another and with people. However, the vast majority of the billions of land mammals and birds raised for food globally are confined in filthy, windowless warehouses—often called factory farms or concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs)—where they’re denied fresh air, basic comforts, and the ability to express natural behaviors, and where they’re often subjected to brutal abuse. Billions more sentient aquatic animals endure similar conditions. Shifting how we treat these animals is one of the greatest opportunities to reduce suffering at scale.

The very same effort can also save trillions of dollars in ecological and health costs by reforming a system that accelerates climate change and pollution while producing food that is often both unhealthy and unsafe. Intensive animal agriculture is the leading cause of deforestation and a top global water user, in part because it takes 50 to 100 times more land and water to produce a single calorie from meat than from plants. Moving toward a more plant-based food system would dramatically ease the strain on the planet and help build a healthier, more livable future.

Read the full article about boosting support for new or underfunded issues by Shannon Campion and David Coman-Hidy at Stanford Social Innovation Review.