Charitable giving for animal welfare can vary enormously in effectiveness. Evidence-based frameworks help donors direct resources where they will help the most animals.
Animal welfare philanthropy effectiveness varies enormously. A donation to an organization working on farm animal welfare policy may help orders of magnitude more animals than an equivalent donation to a local shelter, which helps an important but smaller number of individuals. This does not mean local shelters are not valuable — it means that donors who want to maximize their impact per dollar should apply the same analytical frameworks to animal welfare giving that effective altruists apply to global health. Animal Charity Evaluators provides the most rigorous independent assessment of animal welfare organization effectiveness, incorporating cost per animal helped, evidence of impact, and organizational capacity. Using these resources transforms philanthropic impact.