Animal Charity Evaluators began in 2012 under the name Effective Animal Activism (EAA), as a division of the U.K.-based charity 80,000 Hours—an organization dedicated to providing career advice to people who want to be highly impactful in their work. 80,000 Hours is part of the Effective Ventures Foundation, which works to promote the philosophy of effective altruism—the belief that we should use evidence and reasoning in order to find the best ways to improve the world. Eitan Fischer founded EAA after realizing there was a need for a resource for those looking to give effectively to animals, as no other animal organization provided evidence-based advice focused on total impact at that time.
In 2013, EAA underwent significant changes. Although our original focus was on creating discussion about tactics to help animals, this shifted towards an emphasis on creating quality educational and research content. EAA hired our first Executive Director Jon Bockman and merged with his charity, Justice for Animals, thereby officially becoming a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Our mission was revised to specify the goal of finding and promoting highly effective opportunities for helping animals, and we rebranded as Animal Charity Evaluators (ACE).
Today, our mission is to find and promote the most effective ways to help animals. We have three main focus areas that help us achieve those goals: Research, Education, and Philanthropy. To date we have considered over 350 animal charities for evaluation, reached over 1.5 million people with our research through our website, awarded 46 grants from our Animal Advocacy Research Fund, and influenced over $26 million in donations to our recommended charities and Movement Grants (formerly Effective Animal Advocacy Fund) recipients.