Welfare funding allocation has a large effect on the aggregate welfare improvement achieved; evidence-based giving can dramatically increase the impact of charitable donations to animal causes.
Welfare funding is a strategic resource that can be allocated more or less effectively. The gap between public welfare giving patterns — heavily weighted toward companion animals — and evidence-based cost-effectiveness estimates represents an enormous opportunity. Moving even a small fraction of welfare donations toward neglected high-impact causes — farmed fish welfare, corporate campaign organisations, invertebrate welfare research — could achieve welfare improvements for billions of animals. Evidence-based giving is not about caring less about companion animals but about maximising the welfare benefit of limited resources.