Movement Grants: 2023 Grantee Updates
In July 2022, we awarded $910,000 to organizations and projects around the world as part of our sixth round of Movement Grants. Some of those projects are now complete, and we are delighted to share their accomplishments with you below.
When grantees complete their projects, we send them a survey to learn about the progress they’ve made. This survey helps us improve our future grantmaking decisions and showcase the achievements of our funded organizations. The updates below highlight the achievements of the organizations that have completed their projects since receiving funding in 2022, as well as some that were funded in 2021. We have gathered reports from each organization and summarized their key accomplishments.
We will provide updates on the remaining organizations still carrying out their funded work later in 2023.
Overview
Sub-Saharan Africa
Animal Advocacy Africa
Southern African Faith Communities Environment Institute
Quality Life without Borders
Nurture Imvelo Trust
Shangano Arts Trust
Europe
Equalia
Expertise for Animals
Sentience Politics
Middle East and North Africa
Middle East Vegan Society
Latin America
Brigada Animal México
Anglo America
We Animals Media
Updates
Sub-Saharan Africa
Animal Advocacy Africa
Introduction: Animal Advocacy Africa (AAA) works to strengthen the fundraising capacities and effectiveness of African animal advocacy organizations, especially those focused on farmed animals. We provided funding for their capacity-building efforts.
Country: South Africa
ACE grant amount: $50,000
Percent of their reported updates funded by ACE: 97%
- Supported 17 organizations in eight African countries through their capacity-building program
- Helped raise $12,500 for partner organizations
- Provided strategic feedback to five groups, resulting in the adoption of high-impact interventions such as political advocacy to prevent industrial animal agriculture in Uganda and cage-free campaigns in Ghana.
- Encouraged greater African representation in animal advocacy and effective altruism through their personalized recommendations.
- Organized five group training sessions attended by 18 organizations, covering topics like project management, leadership, theories of change, monitoring, and evaluation.
Southern African Faith Communities Environment Institute
Introduction: Southern African Faith Communities Environment Institute (SAFCEI) is a multi-faith organization committed to supporting faith leaders and their communities in southern Africa. Their Movement Grant was supported their campaign for cage-free hens in southern Africa.
Country: South Africa
ACE grant amount: $25,000
Percent of their reported updates funded by ACE: 25%
- Contacted and campaigned against 16 corporations in South Africa, securing commitments for cage-free eggs
- Nandos committed to using 100% cage-free eggs by 2030, three years ahead of schedule.
- Famous Brands completed their pledge to source 100% cage-free eggs in their 2022 Integrated Annual Report.
- Three Cape Town restaurants committed to going cage-free.
- Launched a cage-free billboard in Cape Town, generating an estimated 80,000 social media impressions
- Conducted training sessions for new activists, increasing their Fast Action Network to 507 activists
- Organized the 2022 Open Wing Alliance Africa Summit
Quality Life without Borders
Introduction: Quality Life Without Borders is a development organization focusing on people in low-income communities, especially school children. We are providing funding for a new program to introduce more plant-based options in schools.
Country: Kenya
ACE grant amount: $14,000
Percent of their reported updates funded by ACE: 57%
- Conducted training for chefs in 10 schools
- Developed a library of plant-based culinary training materials for school chefs
- Received positive feedback from school chefs, with 95% recommending the training program to others
- Formed partnerships with three institutions to develop plant-based culinary training materials for catering and baking programs
Nurture Imvelo Trust
Introduction: Nurture Imvelo Trust is a youth organization that addresses animal welfare issues. We provided funding for them to run a campaign targeting caged hens.
Country: Zimbabwe
ACE grant amount: $7,000
Percent of their reported updates funded by ACE: 100%
- Launched a social media campaign to educate and raise awareness on the effects of battery cages on hens’ welfare in Zimbabwe
- Created educational animations and hosted two radio programs to spread awareness of the campaign
- Branded a campaign vehicle to visually depict the effects of battery cages on hens’ welfare
- Met with animal welfare policymakers in Zimbabwe to discuss effective lobbying strategies for better welfare laws
- Promoted 17 cage-free farmers through their networking channels
Shangano Arts Trust
Introduction: Shangano Arts Trust educates communities on conservation and veganism through art. We provided funding for their art workshops, which use storytelling and poetry to engage audiences with vegan messages. We also supported their vegan workshops with chefs and nutritionists.
Country: Zimbabwe
ACE grant amount: $5,000
Percent of their reported updates funded by ACE: 90%
- Reached over 1,000 women and 4,000 school children in Hwange Rural through poetry, storytelling, and dialogues aimed at correcting myths and misconceptions about veganism and animal rights
- Introduced plant-based diets in schools for the first time, educating school children about the benefits of plant-based eating
- Engaged with audiences through question-and answer sessions to spread knowledge and address concerns
Europe
Equalia
Introduction: Equalia is dedicated to improving the living conditions of farmed animals suffering under the lowest animal welfare standards. We provided a grant to help increase Equalia’s capacity for video production, editing, and full-stack development and aid their long-term sustainability.
Country: Spain
ACE grant amount: $40,000
Percent of their reported updates funded by ACE: 100%
- Edited 26 videos, including 13 investigative reporting videos
- Garnered 148 media appearances from their investigative reporting videos, reaching an estimated audience of 700 million people
- Reached 200,000 accounts through Facebook and Instagram ads
- Developed a guide on fish welfare for aquaculture, pending negotiations with the Spanish aquaculture sector
Expertise for Animals
Introduction: Expertise for Animals (EfA) aims to strengthen the connection between the field of animal welfare science and the animal advocacy movement. We provided funding to establish and develop the organization.
Country: Germany
ACE grant amount: $30,000
Percent of their reported updates funded by ACE: 33%
- Successfully founded the organization, and developed a strategy for 2022
- Worked with an agency to create a new website for the organizaiton.
- Published 10 articles on the website, based on current scientific literature, to strengthen animal advocacy and address underrepresented topics.
Sentience Politics
Introduction: Sentience Politics is a Swiss organization that raises awareness about the interests of nonhuman animals. We supported their campaign to ban factory farming, which was put to a public vote in 2022.
Country: Switzerland
ACE grant amount: $25,000
Percent of their reported updates funded by ACE: 5%
- Launched a physical advertising campaign to promote the factory farming ban, featuring billboards and ads in newspapers, public transport, and post offices
- Mobilized over 1,400 volunteers to hold stands, deliver flyers, participate in debates, write to local papers, and distribute posters and billboards to promote the initiative in their regions
- Received media coverage in 800 outlets since the campaign’s launch in July 2022
- A total of 1,062,693 people, 37.1% of voters, said YES to the initiative to ban factory farming.
Middle East and North Africa
Middle East Vegan Society
Introduction: The Middle East Vegan Society works to accelerate the spread of veganism across the Middle East and North Africa. We provided general funding for them to build the capacity of their organization.
Country: Lebanon
ACE grant amount: $40,000
Percent of their reported updates funded by ACE: 50%
- Expanded their team to 10 members
- Created a website in English and Arabic, receiving 2,300 visits at the time of this update
- Reached 20,000 accounts per month on Instagram
- Launched the Vegan Islam Initiative, which aims to provide resources on the connection between veganism and Islam
Latin America
Brigada Animal México
Introduction: Brigada Animal México (Animal Brigade Mexico) is an anti-speciesist collective working to train activists and educate the general public on anti-speciesism and veganism. We provided general funding for them to build the capacity of their organization.
Country: México
ACE grant amount: $35,000
Percent of their reported updates funded by ACE: 65%
- Engaged in activism with various groups, using tactics such as pressure campaigns, public awareness campaigns, and protests
- Expanded their presence on several social media platforms, reporting at the time of this update:
- Facebook: 8,409 followers; 4,831,200 accounts reached
- Instagram: 3,598 followers; 1,661,896 accounts reached
- X (formerly Twitter): 413 followers; 88,751 impressions; 20,864 profile views; 1,647 posts
- YouTube: 3,850 subscribers; 10,190 views
- TikTok: 139 followers; 1,817 likes; 18,496 views; 46 TikToks made
Anglo America
We Animals Media
Introduction: We Animals Media is a photojournalism nonprofit organization based in Canada that focuses on documenting the lives of animals used by humans. We provided funding for their Unbound Project, an online platform that celebrates women working in animal advocacy through interviews, films, and photographs.
Country: Canada
ACE grant amount: $31,000
Percent of their reported updates funded by ACE: 95%
- Hired a dedicated project coordinator for the Unbound Project
- Assembled an advisory panel of advocates to select which Unbound Project nominees to feature and ensure that featured nominees met the project’s goals
- Featured 17 women advocates on the project’s website
- Reached tens of thousands of users through Facebook and Instagram between June 2021 and December 2022
- Collaborated with Plant Based News and Evanna Lynch to promote aspects of the Unbound Project
