Movement Grants: 2022 Grantee Updates
In June 2021, we awarded $1.09 million to organizations and projects around the world as part of our fifth round of Movement Grants. Most of those projects are now complete, and we are happy to share updates about their accomplishments below.
This post reflects our new approach to collecting updates from our Movement Grantees. Rather than checking in with grantees while their projects are underway, we now only check in with them after their projects are complete. This approach allows us to share more detailed updates about each project and better understand the impact of our grants. Below, you will find updates from some of the organizations that have completed their projects since our last check-in in early 2022. We have taken reports from each organization and edited them for consistency.
Later in 2023, we will share updates from our sixth round of Movement Grants, along with the remaining updates from our fifth round.
Overview
Europe
Animal Ask
ProVeg Czechia
World Day for the End of Fishing
Associação Vegetariana Portuguesa
The European Institute for Animal Law & Policy
Asia
Animal Friends Jogja
ACTAsia
Anglo America
Food Empowerment Project
Peace Advocacy Network
Rethink Your Food (Vegan Carribean Kickstart)
Africa
Demissew Bekele
Latin America
Asociación para el Rescate y Bienestar de Los Animales (ARBA)
Oceania
Cellular Agriculture Australia
Updates
Europe
Animal Ask
Introduction: Animal Ask is a new organization that aims to optimize and prioritize animal welfare asks (i.e., specific requests that animal advocacy organizations make to industries, food companies, or governments to improve animal welfare). We provided funding for the salary of one of their researchers.
Country: United Kingdom
Grant amount: $40,000
Percent funded by ACE: 25%
- They worked with Sentience Politics, Animal Equality UK, and Otwarte Klatki through their prioritization program and have begun working with Invisible Animals Bulgaria. They also completed a project on priorities in U.K. policy.
- They consulted with Essere Animali about the cost of humane fish slaughter in Italy, the Coller Animal Law Foundation on a guide to policy priorities, and Equalia on the effect of CCTV in slaughterhouses.
- They conducted independent research on corporate campaigns, pathways to victory, and challenges to measuring the impact of lobbying.
- As a result of their prioritization program, they expect that they influenced over $1 million in the budgets of the organizations they worked with.
ProVeg Czechia
Introduction: ProVeg Czechia (formerly Česká Veganská Společnost) works to increase the consumption of plant-based foods in the Czech Republic. Though they use various advocacy tactics, this grant was restricted to their program that supports the local alternative protein industry.
Country: Czech Republic
Grant amount: $25,000
Percent funded by ACE: 60%
- Their initial idea of running an international project spanning several European countries had to be reassessed due to a lack of resources and underestimated time requirements.
- The team pivoted to a different project that meets the same goal: conducting a ranking of food science universities in Europe.
- The report, which covers 60 European universities, will be published soon.
World Day for the End of Fishing
Introduction: Launched in 2017 in Switzerland, World Day for the End of Fishing (WoDEF) aims to abolish fishing and the farming of aquatic animals, including crustaceans and cephalopods. WoDEF works with partner organizations year-round to advocate for aquatic animals, but they are best known for their awareness day in March. During this dedicated day, they call for the end of human-caused harm to fishes and encourage a broad group of organizations to develop their own fish welfare projects.
Country: Global
Grant amount: $24,000
Percent funded by ACE: 80%
- The World Day for the End of Fishing took place on March 26, 2022, with a particular focus on crustaceans and cephalopod farms.
- They achieved a new participation record: 152 actions were carried out by 125 organizations in 31 countries.
- During the rest of the year, WoDEF’s international coordination team assisted organizations with inquiries about fish-related advocacy and developed ready-to-use content in multiple languages for activism against aquatic animal farming.
- They updated their website, improved their database of participating organizations, and added to their database of journalists.
- They received state support for volunteer positions and hired a staff member.
Associação Vegetariana Portuguesa
Introduction: Associação Vegetariana Portuguesa (AVP) is a nonprofit organization that advocates for plant-based diets via education, corporate advocacy, capacity building, and political lobbying. ACE provided funding for their Prato Sustentável (Sustainable Plate) project, which aims to increase the availability and quality of plant-based options in school cafeterias.
Country: Portugal
Grant amount: $22,000
Percent funded by ACE: 100%
- AVP achieved their primary goal of having two municipalities sign up for their program to offer a plant-based meal to all school students once per week. These schools now serve 4,000 plant-based meals each week and will continue to do so after the program ends.
- AVP held five workshops on sustainable plant-based food with students, parents, and teachers and four professional training sessions with kitchen staff and managers.
- A total of 40 municipalities applied to the program, indicating that the program has room for further growth.
- AVP developed over 10 different supporting materials, including a recipe guide and an implementation guide, that can serve as a toolkit for future editions and be replicated in other countries.
The European Institute for Animal Law & Policy
Introduction: The European Institute for Animal Law & Policy (formerly Animal Law Europe) is a consultancy in Brussels that supports and promotes the development of animal law as an autonomous discipline, placing nonhuman animals as sentient beings at its core.
Country: Belgium
Grant amount: $20,000
Percent funded by ACE: 100% of the research paper, 80% of the launch event.
- On March 1, 2022, the Institute published a 72-page position paper titled “For a More Humane Union: A Legal Assessment of EU Farm Animal Welfare Legislation,” the first comprehensive review of E.U. farm animal welfare legislation, including legislative history, shortcomings, and reform proposals.
- They held an online launch event on the day of the position paper’s publication, cosponsored by Compassion in World Farming EU and three European Parliament political parties.
- The event had 323 registered attendees and 185 attendees from 31 different countries, and included Members of the European Parliament, European Commission officials, and lawyers specializing in E.U. animal law.
- The event received positive feedback. The Head of the Animal Welfare Unit at the European Commission stated that he would read the report to inform his work on the upcoming revision of E.U. farm animal laws.
- In October 2022, the European Commission included at least 10 observations and reform proposals formulated in the Institute’s position paper in its own legislative assessment report of E.U. farm animal welfare legislation.
Asia
Animal Friends Jogja
Introduction: Animal Friends Jogja (AFJ) (also known as Perkumpulan Sahabat Satwa Jogja) is an Indonesia-based organization that works in multiple areas of animal advocacy, including farmed animals, companion animals, and wild animals. AFJ is conducting a pilot project to develop a Toolkit to improve the mental wellbeing of animal welfare advocates in Indonesia.
Country: Indonesia
Grant amount: $30,000
Percent funded by ACE: 100%
- AFJ’s S.O.S. (Save Our Souls) Project is designed to address the wellbeing and mental health needs of animal welfare advocates in the Asia Pacific region.
- They created “A Day in the Life,” a short documentary about the experiences of AFJ staff to provide viewers a deeper understanding of animal care, advocacy, and activism.
- In collaboration with psychologists and public health professionals, AFJ conducted a survey to gain insight into the extent of burnout and compassion fatigue experienced by activists, as well as ways to better support activists in the region.
- On August 16, 2022, AFJ organized national and regional dialogues on wellbeing for animal welfare advocates. They also presented at Asia For Animals’ Farm Animal Day NGO Sessions to speak about their SOS project.
- AFJ developed a toolkit to provide strategies and support animal advocate wellbeing across Asia. The toolkit was translated into multiple languages.
ACTAsia
Introduction: ACTAsia promotes compassion, kindness, and respect for humans, nonhuman animals, and the environment. They have successfully completed the pilot stage of the Compassionate Choices Network (CCN), a community of organizations centered around reducing animal consumption and promoting plant-based diets and sustainable lifestyles in Asia.
Countries:Taiwan, China, India, Vietnam, and Japan
Grant amount: $50,000
Percent funded by ACE: 100%
- CCN launched in the autumn of 2021 and has established a coalition of six groups: Life Conservationist Association of Taiwan, The Good Food Fund of China, SHARAN of India, Song Thuan Chay of Vietnam, the Animal Rights Centre of Japan, and the No More Cry Bunny kind beauty initiative.
- ActAsia successfully recruited a Project Coordinator and a Project Officer to establish the infrastructure, processes, communication, and evaluation of CCN, including the development of a handbook.
- CCN held its first webinar in December 2021 and has continued holding bimonthly webinars on issues such as behavior change models and capacity building.
- CCN conducted its first plant-based joint campaign coinciding with World Animal Day, which reached 2,668,728 people on social media.
Anglo America
Food Empowerment Project
Introduction: Food Empowerment Project (F.E.P.) is a U.S.-based vegan food justice organization that works to reduce the injustices inflicted by the food system upon animals, humans, and the environment.
Country: United States
Grant amount: $60,000
Percent funded by ACE: 100%
- F.E.P. used their Movement Grant to support several initiatives in 2021, such as an anti-dairy program, vegan recipe resources, the virtual Vallejo Healthy Food Festival, and Fight for the Ocean Week.
- Grant funds went toward educating the public and offering specific support to Black and Brown communities. Projects highlighted links between racism, colonialism, environmental justice, and animal rights, encouraging individuals to go and stay vegan.
- F.E.P.’s anti-dairy outreach included a multifaceted approach, including printing booklets about the links between colonization and harms done by the dairy industry.
- The Vallejo Healthy Food Festival was held virtually in 2021 and featured vegan cooking demonstrations, a tour of the Vallejo People’s Garden, education about ethical veganism for the animals, dance performances, and vegan speakers.
- Fight for the Ocean Week, held from August 23–30, introduced various materials including new vegan recipes, educational materials, and print resources about sea creatures.
Peace Advocacy Network
Introduction: Peace Advocacy Network (PAN) is a U.S.-based organization that aims to train other advocates on strategies such as campaigning, event organizing, coalition building, media training, and program evaluation.
Country: United States
Grant amount: $20,000
Percent funded by ACE: 80%
- The team completed their first Vegan Activist Academy session in March 2022, with 11 graduates from different countries who have taken critical activist skills back to their communities.
- The nine-week program covered topics such as issue knowledge, strategy building, communication skills, political strategy, equity in the animal rights movement, fundraising, and self-care practices. They invited experts in each subject to be guest speakers and had an activity to practice skillsets related to the topic.
- Participants were asked to create a plan of action for their activism. At the end of the program, their projects included working to ban farm animal crates in their local community, partnering with local organizations to educate families on veganism through cooking demonstrations and trips to sanctuaries, and leading a 31-day vegan challenge.
- PAN incorporated feedback into their next Vegan Activist Academy, which began on January 8, 2023.
Rethink Your Food
Introduction: Rethink Your Food runs a pledge program, Vegan Caribbean Kickstart, which provides recipes and guidance tailored to a Caribbean audience.
Country: United States
Grant amount: $20,000
Percent funded by ACE: 35%
- The Vegan Caribbean Kickstart online pledge program celebrated its one-year anniversary in November 2022 and received over 15,000 signups in its first year.
- 82% of participants were of Caribbean heritage, and over 76% lived in the Caribbean region.
- 63% of participants signed up to improve their health, and 30% were motivated for the three most common reasons combined (improving health, environmental concerns, and animal welfare).
- 86% of survey respondents pledged to continue their journey of eating fully plant-based for four or more days per week.
- Many participants proactively shared positive feedback for the program, citing helpful recipes and information on ingredients commonly used in the Caribbean.
Africa
Demissew Bekele
Introduction: Demissew Bekele is completing a research project on the potential use of fava beans, amaranth grains, and sunflower seed meals as raw materials for plant-based meat at the Addis Ababa Institute of Technology. This research project aims to produce a meat substitute from plants and increase the availability of animal-free products in Ethiopia using locally available grains.
Country: Ethiopia
Grant amount: $10,000
Percent funded by ACE: Undetermined
- During a research visit to KU Leuven, Demissew Bekele performed experiments on grains, including isolating the proteins and analyzing their thermal and functional properties, to understand how they could work as a meat substitute.
- Bekele successfully obtained an extruded blend of the proteins that can form the basis of future products that mimic the texture of meat.
Latin America
Asociación para el Rescate y Bienestar de Los Animales
Introduction: Asociación para el Rescate y Bienestar de Los Animales (ARBA) advocates for improving the quality of life of animals in Peru.
Country: Peru
Grant amount: $10,000
Percent funded by ACE: 100%
- ARBA implemented and analyzed a nationwide survey to better understand public perception of animal welfare, public policy, and plant-based diets in Peru.
- The survey found that 34% of the population is worried about the suffering experienced by farm animals and that 54% would be in favor of a law that puts an end to caged systems used for laying hens.
- In 2022, ARBA conducted a poll about plant-based diet adoption and animal welfare policy, finding that 88% of respondents had not heard about gestation crates and 72% would support a law that improves pig conditions. Additionally, 75% were against the conditions of broiler chickens.
- An analysis by ARBA found that Peru’s egg industry relies heavily on imported products, particularly the crops used to feed the laying hens.
Oceania
Cellular Agriculture Australia
Introduction: Cellular Agriculture Australia (CAA) works to increase the supply of commercially competitive, sustainable, and ethical cell-cultured products and reduce demand for animal products in Australia.
Country: Australia
Grant amount: $20,000
Percent funded by ACE: 90%
- CAA developed and launched Australia’s first online course on cellular agriculture, which is free to access and hosted on their Learning Management Platform (LMS). The course is designed to equip students and industry professionals with the foundational knowledge of cellular agriculture.
- CAA partnered with the Australian Institute of Food Science and Technology (AIFST) to include the first-ever cellular agriculture session at AIFST’s Annual Conference. This event was delivered to over 300 registrants across 90 food companies and research institutes, and resulted in an invitation to publish three articles in the industry publication Food Australia.
- In September 2021, during National Science Week, CAA hosted a virtual science lab/office space where participants could explore science videos and video chat directly with six experts working in cellular agriculture in Australia.
- CAA produced a short film that explored an introduction to meat science, the environmental and ethical impacts of meat production, and how cellular agriculture can transform the way we produce meat. The film was presented by scientists researching the potential of cellular agriculture from the University of Melbourne and is available on YouTube.
