2024 ACE Year In Review
Addressing the hidden and extreme suffering of animals is a difficult challenge for both our minds and our hearts. The cruelty we witness is heartbreaking, and the complexities surrounding potential solutions can be overwhelming. What is clear, however, is that the sooner we address these issues, the more lives we can save.
In 2024, Animal Charity Evaluators continued to make strides toward our mission to find and promote the most effective ways to help animals. We granted nearly $3 million to organizations working tirelessly to help animals, influencing additional funding for impactful work worldwide. We invested in our talent, expertise, and operations to grow as a reliable source for the animal protection movement. Our Movement Grants recipients and Recommended Charities continued their efforts to help countless animals thrive and live better lives.
The accomplishments we achieved this year were made possible by ACE’s staff, supporters, and donors to our Recommended Charities and Movement Grants program. Thanks to their kindness, a chicken might be born into a life where she can freely walk to drink water when thirsty. A tilapia might be able to swim in clean water. A rat’s life might not be cut short by poison. Thank you for steering us toward a brighter and kinder future for all.
For more information on this year’s achievements, including a letter from ACE’s Executive Director and Board, please read the full 2024 Year in Review.
For a brief summary of our work in 2024, read on.
Charity Evaluations
The goal of our Charity Evaluations program is to identify the animal charities that can do the most good with additional donations. In 2024, we reviewed 34 eligible charities and selected 10 for a thorough evaluation. From these, we ultimately recommended five outstanding organizations. These five join the six charities that successfully maintained their two-year recommendation status from 2023. Visit our Recommended Charities page to learn more about these 11 exceptional groups and the meaningful work they are doing for animals.
Improved Charity Evaluation Process
We made several large improvements to our charity evaluation process in 2024. Notably, we introduced an evaluation application form, which provided our team with higher-quality information during the selection process. We also updated our evaluation criteria and added a new Impact criterion, which includes two assessments: Theory of Change Analysis and Cost-Effectiveness Analysis. The Theory of Change Analysis evaluates a charity’s reasoning and evidence, while the Cost-Effectiveness Analysis measures the impact of each dollar spent. We tailor these assessments to each charity’s work to show their potential to reduce suffering for animals. Additionally, we improved the clarity of our charity reviews based on feedback from key stakeholders.
Read our 2024 charity recommendations announcement to meet this year’s Recommended Charities!
Grantmaking
Movement Grants
Our Movement Grants program experienced significant growth in 2024. We received an unprecedented 324 applications from 73 countries, up from 200 the previous year. Through careful consideration, we awarded $1,024,172 to 30 innovative projects that show exceptional promise in helping animals across different regions and contexts. Additionally, we assisted Doneer Effectief with their $134,149 quarterly distribution from the Animal Welfare and Food Transition Fund by selecting one of our applicants to receive a grant.
One of our most exciting wins of this year was receiving recognition from Giving What We Can through their Evaluating the Evaluators program. This resulted in our selection as a recipient of their Animal Welfare fund. This external validation reinforces the rigor and effectiveness of our grantmaking approach.
Read our Round 8 grantee announcement to meet this year’s Movement Grantees!
Recommended Charity Fund
This was the first year since we moved to a single Recommended Charity tier rather than our previous two tiers (Top and Standout). This required adjusting our methods for distributing funding between our Recommended Charities. In 2024, our Recommended Charity Fund supported 11 Recommended Charities—six selected in 2023 and five selected in 2022. Thanks to generous donor support, we were able to disburse nearly two million—$1,394,955 in February and $523,083 in August—to these exceptional organizations.
Research
In 2024, we continued to rigorously assess evidence to inform our charity evaluations and grantmaking, expanding our outreach to external experts to better understand how regional and political factors can influence intervention effectiveness. While we paused the creation of our own research briefs, we added 887 new publications to our research library. We continued publishing our monthly Research Digest (formerly the Research Newsletter) and refined the format to be more user-friendly, sharing more than 550 empirical studies related to farmed animal advocacy.
Additionally, we started developing an intervention effectiveness tracker—a tool designed to synthesize research and data relevant to interventions in animal advocacy—which will help us gather essential knowledge for our grant decisions and charity evaluations. While it is not yet public, we are already incorporating some of our findings into our decision-making for grants and charity evaluations. Stay tuned for further updates in 2025.
Meta-fundraising
ACE’s meta-fundraising work encompasses our efforts to raise funds for effective animal advocacy groups. In our most recent fiscal year (April 2023 to March 2024), we influenced at least $8.5 million in donations to our Recommended Charities. It’s important to note that this figure may be underestimated, as there are likely additional donations beyond our current data’s scope. Without our intervention, we estimate that $3.7 million of these donations would not have been directed to these highly consequential organizations.
During the same period, we disbursed $0.8 million to our Movement Grantees. We estimate that $0.4 million would not have otherwise been granted to the underrepresented interventions, animal groups, and countries we funded.
The Year Ahead
What’s next?
In the coming year, humans are expected to farm more animals—not only the usual cows, chickens, and pigs, but also less commonly recognized species like carp and black soldier flies. In the wild, countless frogs, butterflies, and gray squirrels will continue to struggle with starvation and illness without us being able to assist them. However, swarms of people worldwide will be researching, strategizing, protesting, negotiating, and lobbying every day in 2025 to change this situation. ACE will be there to amplify their efforts.
We will start the year by developing a new strategic plan for the coming years. By setting a clearly defined end goal with measurable outcomes, we will be able to make tactical pivots toward achieving meaningful results for more individuals. Alongside expanding our numbers and grant pool, we aim to improve the quality of our work. This includes investing in our research evidence tracker, refining our project assessments, and simplifying the grant proposal process for promising applicants.
Get involved
- Stay Informed: Subscribe to our newsletter to learn how people successfully help animals in need.
- Donate: Support more animals in need worldwide! Donate here.
- Follow our journey: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, Bluesky, and Threads.
Thank you for considering the experiences of animals. By making smart and kind choices, you can help end animal cruelty and create a more compassionate world for all.
