Countless species of animals are in need of our help. From unwanted cats and dogs to endangered rhinos and elephants, the range of animal suffering in our world is widespread and daunting. If our goal is to have the most impact with our philanthropy, we need to direct our giving to an area where it will be used effectively to produce the greatest results: farmed animal advocacy.

The scale of human-caused suffering inflicted on the billions of animals we raise annually for food dwarfs all other categories. Despite the fact that farmed animals represent over 99 percent of animals used by humans, charities that exclusively advocate for farmed animals receive less than 1 percent of animal welfare donations. The average cost to save one companion animal in a U.S. shelter could likely spare thousands of farmed animals a lifetime of suffering.

Considering the magnitude of the issue, the lack of devoted resources, and the cost-effectiveness, we should consider giving to farmed animal charities if we want our philanthropy to impact the most animals possible.

Tools For Impact Giving

There are many charities that work to reduce farmed animal suffering. At Animal Charity Evaluators (ACE), we conduct comprehensive charity evaluations based on seven criteria to provide detailed recommendations that can help you make the most progress for animals with your giving. The charities we consider for review generally operate within one or several of our high-priority cause areas: industrial agriculture, legal and legislative work, cultured and plant-based food tech, reducing wild animal suffering, and capacity building. These are the cause areas that ACE currently considers to be the most impactful based on three cause prioritization criteria: scale, tractability, and neglectedness. By researching the effectiveness of specific interventions—such as leafleting and protests—we empower charities to better focus their time and efforts on the methods that have the most impact. In addition to our general charity evaluations, we also offer an online charity quiz to help donors discover giving opportunities that match their personal interests and values.

Here are a few ways to get involved:

Learn: Gain a deeper understanding of animal advocacy by reviewing resources and research on a range of topics.

Connect: Each winter, ACE releases our annual charity recommendations. This can serve as a useful resource for donors who want to connect with highly effective animal advocacy organizations. In 2018, Albert Schweitzer Foundation, Animal Equality, The Good Food Institute, and The Humane League were named Top Charities by ACE.

Take Action: Our Recommended Charity Fund and our Effective Animal Advocacy Fund allow donors to make a single gift and support multiple efforts around that globe that ACE’s research team deems to be the most impactful for animals based on our cause prioritization criteria. A donation to our Recommended Charity Fund will support exclusively ACE’s currently recommended charities, while a donation to our new Effective Animal Advocacy Fund will support a broader scope of charities and groups that we think show promise. Both Funds are distributed bi-annually, in the beginning and middle of the year.

We all want our giving to be impactful—to make a positive and measurable difference in the world. When we choose to invest in highly effective charities that advocate for farmed animals, we have the opportunity to affect more lives than we could by giving to any other animal cause.