Dharma Voices for Animals
Evaluated Charity
Dharma Voices for Animals (DVA), the world’s only international Buddhist animal rights organization, conducts most of their work in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, and the U.S. DVA’s programs align with the specific contexts and priorities of the countries where they operate. While many of DVA’s programs focus on dietary change, they also lobby for animal welfare legislation, provide veterinary care, and work with restaurant owners to encourage them to transition to vegan business models.
| Review Published: | 2023 |
Committed to practicing the teachings of the Buddha and ending animal suffering in Dharma communities.
Why did DVA not receive our recommendation?
DVA’s work to improve animal welfare standards and increase knowledge and skills for animal advocacy is promising because it primarily focuses on animal groups, countries, and interventions that we consider high priority. We found their educational work to help farmed animals in Vietnam particularly likely to be impactful. For more information, see their Impact Potential spreadsheet. However, despite their impactful work, we estimate that additional funds would have marginally more impact going to our recommended charities. See 2023 Criteria Methods and Limitations for a detailed explanation of how we conduct evaluations and our 2023 Evaluation Process for information about our decision-making process. While DVA did not receive a recommendation from us this year, we recognize them as one of the most effective charities in their space.
Are Dharma Voices for Animals’ programs cost effective?
After analyzing the recent achievements and expenditures of Dharma Voices for Animals’ programs, we assessed their campaign for the Animal Welfare Bill in Sri Lanka as especially cost effective because the potential impact on animals is particularly high compared to other government outreach achievements. In contrast, we assessed their attendance of VegFests as less cost effective because we rated the impact and media coverage as lower than for other achievements in the same intervention category. For more information, see Dharma Voices for Animals’ Cost-Effectiveness spreadsheet.
$800K
Funding Gap
2024-2025
30-39
Staff Size
2012
Year Founded
How is Dharma Voices for Animals’ organizational health?
Organizational factors can influence a charity’s effectiveness and stability. Based on our assessment, we are confident that Dharma Voices for Animals has the key policies and processes in place necessary for healthy workplace conditions, governance, and staff engagement. We also positively noted their high level of volunteer engagement and their thoughtful approach to cross-cultural decision-making.
How much additional funding could they use?
We estimate that Dharma Voices for Animals has room for $501,743 of additional funding in 2024 and $300,000 in 2025, beyond their current projected revenues for those years. Therefore, we believe that they could effectively use a total revenue of up to $1,067,543 in 2024 and $905,800 in 2025. For more information, see their Room for More Funding spreadsheet.
