Effective Altruism and Animal Welfare Funding

The effective altruism movement has directed significant funding and talent toward animal welfare, creating new organizations and research that have meaningfully shifted the field.

Key Facts

EA-aligned funders including Open Philanthropy have granted hundreds of millions of dollars to animal welfare organizations since 2015.
Key EA-funded animal welfare organizations include Animal Charity Evaluators, the Good Food Institute, and the Shrimp Welfare Project.
EA prioritizes interventions affecting large numbers of animals, neglected causes, and tractable problems — leading to focus on farmed and aquatic animals.
Animal Charity Evaluators conducts research on donation effectiveness and publishes top charity recommendations annually.
The EA framework has been credited with shifting donor attention toward farmed animal welfare and wild animal suffering at scale.

Welfare Considerations

The application of effective altruism principles to animal welfare has been one of the most significant developments in the field in the past decade. By focusing on scale, neglectedness, and tractability, EA has directed funding and talent toward farmed and aquatic animal welfare — areas affecting far more individual animals than companion animal welfare receives. This has created organizations that would not otherwise exist and generated research that is changing policy and industry practice globally.

What You Can Do

Consult Animal Charity Evaluators recommendations when making donations to animal welfare organizations.
Consider donating a portion of your giving to EA-recommended organizations working on high-impact welfare issues.
Learn about the EA framework for animal welfare prioritization and apply it to your own advocacy decisions.
Support the Good Food Institute's work on plant-based and cultivated meat as a structural solution to farmed animal welfare.