Aquatic Life Institute (ALI) carries out a range of strategies to help reduce the significant suffering endured by trillions of farmed and wild-caught aquatic animals. These are among the most neglected animals in animal advocacy despite being more numerous than all land animals combined. ALI develops strategic campaigns that are likely to bring both significant short-term benefits and longer-term systemic change to relieve the suffering of aquatic animals. They do this through successful engagement with a range of influential stakeholders throughout the supply chain, including policy-makers, retailers, and certifiers. ALI has a strong track record of success and has been able to help many animals at relatively little cost. For example, through their corporate outreach program, we estimate they have reduced the suffering of thousands of shrimps per dollar spent. ALI’s plans for 2025 and 2026 give us confidence that they would use donations in ways that likely create the most positive change for aquatic animals. ALI received Movement Grants from ACE in 2020 and 2024 and became a Recommended Charity in 2024.

Çiftlik Hayvanlarını Koruma Derneği (ÇHKD) is the only organization working to improve the lives of the more than 109 million egg-laying hens and 680 million farmed fishes that suffer at any given time in food production systems in Türkiye. ÇHKD strategically develops programs that maximize the number of animals that can benefit by pushing for welfare improvements for egg-laying hens and farmed fishes. They do this by securing cage-free commitments from companies via corporate outreach and targeted pressure campaigns, and through field research and producer outreach for farmed fishes. ÇHKD measures their program successes effectively, is transparent about risks and limitations, and collaborates with other organizations to share best practices. ÇHKD’s programs have been able to help many animals at little cost; we estimate their work positively impacts around three hens per dollar and has the potential to be even more cost effective in the future. ÇHKD’s plans for how they’d spend additional funding across 2025 and 2026 give us confidence that they would use donations in ways that likely create the most positive change for egg-laying hens and farmed fishes. ÇHKD received a Movement Grant from ACE in 2021 and became a Recommended Charity in 2022.

Dansk Vegetarisk Forening (DVF) works to reform the food system and reduce animal product consumption, thereby reducing the immense suffering endured by the 47 million farmed animals (including 11 million farmed fishes) and 32 billion wild-caught fishes who are exploited for food production each year in Denmark. DVF has a clear overarching strategy that brings together their individual programs, with a long-term goal of creating systemic change. Their increasing focus on influencing funding and policy at the E.U. level makes their work potentially highly scalable, and means many more animals could be spared or helped as a result. We are particularly impressed by DVF’s focus on collaboration through the Danish Network for Plant Proteins and the Danish Center for a Plant-Based & Organic Future. DVF’s work has already benefited a substantial number of farmed animals and has strong potential to impact many more at relatively little cost. For example, we estimate that the charity’s lobbying work has influenced the Danish government to invest about $68 into developing the plant-based food sector per dollar spent. DVF’s plans for how they’d spend additional funding across 2025 and 2026 give us confidence that they would use donations in ways that are likely to create the most positive change for farmed animals. DVF received Movement Grants from ACE in 2020 and 2022, and they became a Recommended Charity in 2022.

Faunalytics is a U.S.-based organization that connects animal advocates with important information relevant to advocacy. Their work mainly involves conducting and publishing independent research, working directly with partner organizations on various research projects, and promoting existing research and data for animal advocates through their website’s content library. Faunalytics work helps fill the current evidence gap in animal advocacy, which is important to fill so we can grow an evidence-based, resilient movement. In particular, their research to help farmed animals and wild animals in the U.S. and China is highly likely to be impactful for the billions of animals who endure significant suffering. By helping animal advocates access the latest data on how best to help animals, Faunalytics is likely to be able to help many animals per dollar spent. Faunalytics has been a Recommended Charity since December 2015.

The Good Food Fund (GFF) works strategically to promote diet change and transform the food production system in China so consumption of animal products is reduced and animal welfare is centered. China ranks as the highest in farmed animal population (1st out of 196 countries)—there are 56 billion farmed animals alive at any one point in time in China, of which 49 billion are farmed fishes. Additionally, 190 billion fishes are caught in the wild per year in China. GFF strategically develops activities and programs to reduce the number of animals that suffer in the food production system, both through reducing animal product consumption and improving animal welfare. They do this through a variety of programs that use approaches like chef training, diet change workshops, youth leadership training, and an annual Good Food Summit. These activities and programs support each other and align with government priorities, which is essential in China. GFF collaborates with prestigious institutions on some of their programs and makes good use of existing policy and governmental priorities to promote plant-based diets and animal welfare. Their strategic selection of programs is well-suited to the context they work in. Given the very high number of farmed animals and the steep rise in animal product production and consumption in China, GFF’s work has the potential to impact very large numbers of animals. Their plans for how they’d spend additional funding in 2025 and 2026 give us confidence that they would use donations in ways that likely create the most positive change for farmed animals. GFF was previously recommended by ACE in 2020 and became a Recommended Charity again in 2024.

Legal Impact for Chickens (LIC) works to make factory-farm cruelty a liability in the United States. There are 9.55 billion chickens who are killed for food each year in the U.S. and 336 million egg-laying hens (76% are kept in battery cages)—each individual undeniably suffers as a result. LIC serves to help these animals by filing strategic lawsuits for chickens and other farmed animals, developing and refining creative methods to civilly enforce existing cruelty laws in factory farms, and suing companies that break animal welfare commitments. LIC is an excellent giving opportunity because they leverage existing laws in innovative ways to help animals, and a single litigation win by them could help billions of chickens who endure significant suffering in the food production system in the U.S. Their litigation, corporate outreach, and education work to help farmed chickens in the United States seems highly likely to be impactful. We consider their Costco shareholder derivative case to be particularly cost effective because the achievement has strong potential for indirect impact and received a large amount of media attention Legal Impact for Chickens became a Recommended Charity in 2023.

New Roots Institute is a U.S.-based organization that works to empower the next generation to end factory farming. There are nearly 10 billion animals who are trapped and suffer in the U.S. food production system. The New Roots Institute educational outreach program in classrooms throughout the U.S. inspires critical thinking and sparks dynamic discussions about the connections between industrial animal agriculture and important issues like animal welfare, climate change, environmental sustainability, human rights, and personal and public health. Through the organization’s Leadership Program, students interested in a deeper exploration of factory farming’s impacts and solutions can participate in a yearlong fellowship, where they receive training in communication, organizing, and other critical leadership skills. The quality of engagement and impact of their programs is high. New Roots Institute became a Recommended Charity in 2023.

Shrimp Welfare Project (SWP) is the first organization to focus exclusively on improving the welfare of farmed shrimps, who suffer significantly in the current production system. SWP runs their programs in the UK, India and Vietnam—in general, data on the number of farmed shrimp is lacking, but as many as 57 billion shrimps are estimated to be farmed in India alone. SWP’s efforts to help these animals include corporate and producer outreach and raising awareness about shrimp welfare. They collaborate with stakeholders across the supply chain, including retailers and medium-to-large shrimp producers, to improve welfare standards. SWP also runs the Sustainable Shrimp Farmers of India, which takes a farmer-centric approach to improving welfare standards on farms in the country. They work on a highly neglected species, the number of shrimps they can help per dollar is very high, and their producer outreach work to help farmed shrimps in India seems to have a particularly high impact potential. Shrimp Welfare Project became a Recommended Charity in 2023.

Sinergia Animal carries out a range of short-term and long-term strategies to help reduce the significant suffering endured by farmed animals in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Indonesia, Peru, and Thailand. At any one time, more than 800 million egg-laying hens are subjected to intensive farming systems in the countries where Sinergia works. Over 40 million pigs are intensively farmed in Brazil, where Sinergia carries out their pig welfare project. Sinergia’s strategically developed programs are likely to lead to significant benefits for egg-laying hens and farmed pigs, including in regions where the animal advocacy movement is currently relatively neglected. They sensitively tailor their campaigns to each country, setting a strong overarching agenda but granting country-specific teams autonomy to adapt that agenda to national contexts. They have a strong track record of productive engagement with relevant stakeholders through their corporate outreach campaign, especially with producers and retailers. Their programs have been able to help a substantial number of animals at relatively little cost. For example, we estimate that combined, their cage-free corporate campaigns, institutional meat reduction campaign, and pig welfare program could positively impact hundreds of animals per dollar spent. Sinergia’s plans for how they’d spend additional funding across 2025 and 2026 give us confidence that they would use donations in ways that likely create the most positive change for farmed animals. Sinergia Animal has been a Recommended Charity since November 2018.

The Humane League (THL) operates in the U.S., the U.K., and Japan, where they work to help farmed animals through advocacy and corporate outreach to improve farmed animal welfare standards. THL supports the growth of the global animal advocacy movement via the Open Wing Alliance (OWA), a coalition whose mission is to end the use of battery cages for the billions of hens worldwide who currently suffer in cramped conditions. THL works to improve farmed chicken welfare in the U.S. through corporate outreach, legislative outreach, and skill and network building. Their programs are highly likely to be impactful and reduce the suffering of billions of farmed animals, and the grants provided through the Open Wing Alliance are particularly cost effective. In 2014, THL was recommended in our first official round of ACE charity evaluations and has been renewed as a Recommended Charity ever since.

Wild Animal Initiative is a U.S.-based organization working to improve our understanding of wild animals’ lives by advancing the field of wild animal welfare science. There are an estimated 10¹⁵ wild animals that make up the Earth’s biomass, and many of these animals—possibly the vast majority—live very short lives and experience painful deaths. By conducting their own research and supporting other wild animal researchers, Wild Animal Initiative aims to increase academic interest in wild animal welfare and identify evidence-based solutions to improving the wellbeing of the quadrillions of wild animals who currently endure significant suffering. They are an excellent giving opportunity because they focus on high-priority but neglected animal group. Their calls for research proposals and funding of wild animal welfare research projects are particularly cost effective because they combine a high-priority intervention with strong implementation. Wild Animal Initiative has been a Recommended Charity since 2020.