Vegetarianos Hoy

A single circle indicates that a charity’s performance is weak on a given criterion, relative to the other charities we evaluated:
Two circles indicate that a charity’s performance is average on a given criterion, relative to the other charities we evaluated:
Three circles indicate that a charity’s performance is strong on a given criterion, relative to the other charities we evaluated:

Low confidence: Very limited evidence is available pertaining to the charity’s performance on this criterion, relative to the other charities. The evidence that is available may be low quality or difficult to verify.
Moderate confidence: There is evidence supporting our conclusion, and at least some of it is high quality and/or verified with third-party sources.
High confidence: There is substantial high-quality evidence supporting the charity’s performance on this criterion, relative to the other charities. There may be randomized controlled trials supporting the effectiveness of the charity’s programs and/or multiple third-party sources confirming the charity’s accomplishments.1

Criterion 1: Programs

When we begin our evaluation process, we consider whether each charity is working in high-impact cause areas and employing effective interventions that are likely to produce positive outcomes for animals. These outcomes tend to fall under at least one of the following categories: increased availability of animal-free products, decreased consumption of animal products, improvement of welfare standards, increased prevalence of anti-speciesist values, stronger animal advocacy movement, or direct help.

Cause Areas

Vegetarianos Hoy focuses primarily on reducing the suffering of farmed animals, which we believe is a high-impact cause area. They also work to reduce the suffering of animals in entertainment, which we believe is a relatively less impactful cause area.

Countries of Operation

Vegetarianos Hoy currently works in Chile, Colombia, and Mexico. We believe that animal advocacy in these countries is relatively neglected.

Interventions and Projected Outcomes

Vegetarianos Hoy pursues different avenues for creating change for animals: They work to improve welfare standards, decrease the consumption of animal products, increase the availability of animal-free products, increase the prevalence of anti-speciesist values, and strengthen the animal advocacy movement.

To help communicate the process by which we believe a charity creates change for animals, we use theory of change diagrams. It is important to note that these diagrams are not complete representations of real-world mechanisms of change. Rather, they are simplified models that ACE uses to represent our beliefs about mechanisms of change. For the sake of simplicity, some diagrams may not include relatively small or uncertain effects.

Below, we also describe the work that Vegetarianos Hoy does.² Unless otherwise specified, we have sourced the information in this criterion from Vegetarianos Hoy (2020c). For each intervention, we provide an assessment of how effective we think that intervention is at achieving a given outcome (weak/moderate/high).³ These assessments are based on the available evidence and are determined through a vote and discussion among our researchers. We flag assessments in which we have particularly low confidence, i.e., if we know of little or no supporting research or expert opinions.

A note about long-term impact

Each charity’s long-term impact is plausibly what matters most.⁴ The potential number of individuals affected increases over time due to population growth and an accumulation of generations of animals. Thus, we would expect that the long-term impacts of an action would be more likely to affect more animals than the short-term impacts of the same action. Nevertheless, we are highly uncertain about the particular long-term effects of each intervention. Because of this uncertainty, our reasoning about each charity’s impact (along with our diagrams) may skew toward overemphasizing short-term effects.

Improvement of welfare standards

Vegetarianos Hoy works to improve animal welfare standards through their cage-free egg campaign, Chile Libre de Jaulas. This work generally seeks to make incremental improvements to the conditions in which animals live, e.g., in factory farms. For farmed animals, welfare reforms generally only result in small improvements to their living conditions. However, this is balanced by the large numbers of animals who can be impacted, and there is some evidence to suggest that farmed animal welfare reforms are likely to be very cost effective in the short term.⁵

Vegetarianos Hoy works to influence corporations to adopt cage-free egg commitments. Cage-free egg systems are believed to reduce suffering by increasing the space available to hens and providing them important behavioral opportunities, although during the transition process mortality may increase, and there is some risk that it may remain elevated.⁶ We believe that corporate outreach and campaigns to secure cage-free commitments are highly effective in improving welfare standards.

Decreased consumption of animal products

Vegetarianos Hoy works to influence individuals to decrease their consumption of animal products through two veg*n pledge programs and a mobile phone app. Generally, there is a lack of empirical evidence regarding the causal effects of different types of interventions on individual consumer behavior.⁷ Previous studies mostly rely on self-reported consumption data, which can be subject to misreporting and biases. There is a lack of empirical studies that measure the effect of interventions on observable dietary change, such as restaurant orders, food purchasing data, or biomarkers.⁸ Despite the uncertainty surrounding measuring the effectiveness of interventions on individual behavior, we think it is important for the animal advocacy movement to target at least some outreach toward individuals. We think that a shift in public consumer preferences could help drive industry changes and lead to greater support for more animal-friendly policies, and it may even be a necessary precursor to more systemic change. On the whole, however, we believe that efforts to influence public opinion are much less neglected than other types of interventions.⁹

Vegetarianos Hoy’s two veg*n pledge programs consist of a 30-day plant-based challenge and an annual 7-day dairy-free challenge. Some empirical studies suggest that self-monitoring—which is part of taking a veg*n pledge—reduces meat consumption, at least in the short run.¹⁰ Other studies that measure the impact of veg*n pledges suggest that some participants adopt a more plant-based diet for several months after engaging with a pledge.¹¹ Besides influencing dietary change, veg*n pledge programs may help recruit new people to the movement, normalize veg*nism, and raise awareness of veg*nism and animal-related issues. We believe that veg*n pledge programs are highly effective in decreasing the consumption of animal products.

Vegetarianos Hoy works with various institutions through their Meatless Mondays campaign, including schools, universities, and cafeterias, increasing the number of meatless meals served at those institutions. Vegetarianos Hoy also develops institutional campaigns to increase plant-based options. They work with hotels, food chains, and restaurants to support the development of plant-based options, providing advice on (i) product development, (ii) protocols, and (iii) how to connect with suppliers of plant-based products. We believe that these types of institutional campaigns and outreach are highly effective in decreasing the consumption of animal products.

Vegetarianos Hoy also runs a mobile app that provides resources and guidance for following a plant-based diet. Some empirical studies suggest that providing people with written information may increase their intention to consume less meat.¹² However, it is uncertain (i) how written information may affect attitudes toward animal products other than meat, (ii) how the format and the specific content of the message may affect the impact on intentions, and (iii) whether changes in intentions translate into changes in consumption behavior. We believe with a low degree of confidence that mobile phone apps are moderately effective in decreasing the consumption of animal products.

Increased availability of animal-free products

Increasing the quality and availability of plant-based foods may help to create a climate in which it is easier for individuals to reduce their use of animal products.

In Chile and other Latin American countries, Vegetarianos Hoy also runs a vegan product labeling program. We believe with a low degree of confidence that labeling projects are moderately effective in increasing the availability of animal-free products.

Increased prevalence of anti-speciesist values

Vegetarianos Hoy is working to spread and solidify anti-speciesist values through a legislative campaign to increase animal rights and a campaign to stop rodeo from being considered Chile’s national sport. While there is some uncertainty surrounding the effects of anti-speciesist values on animals, we think an increased prevalence of anti-speciesist values may contribute to other outcomes for animals. Namely, it may decrease individual consumption of animal products, improve welfare standards, increase direct help, and/or strengthen the animal advocacy movement.

Despite the lack of evidence surrounding the effectiveness of interventions aimed at increasing the prevalence of anti-speciesist values, we think it’s important for the animal advocacy movement to target at least some outreach toward individuals’ attitudes. A shift in public attitudes could help drive industry changes and lead to greater support for more animal-friendly policies; in fact, it might be a necessary precursor to more systemic change. On the whole, however, we believe that efforts to influence public opinion are much less neglected than other types of interventions.¹³

Vegetarianos Hoy conducts legislative advocacy and lobbying to gain legal rights for animals. For example, they are aiming to change the designation of animals in Chilean law from object to subject. We believe that legislative work to encode animal welfare protections into law is moderately effective in increasing the prevalence of anti-speciesist values.

Stronger animal advocacy movement

Working to strengthen the animal advocacy movement through capacity- and alliance-building projects can have a far-reaching impact. Capacity-building projects can help animals by increasing the effectiveness of other projects and organizations, while building alliances with key influencers, institutions, or social movements can expand the audience and impact of animal advocacy organizations and projects. ACE’s 2018 research on the way that resources are allocated between different animal advocacy interventions suggests that capacity building and building alliances are currently neglected relative to other interventions aimed at influencing public opinion and industry. Vegetarianos Hoy’s capacity-building work includes disseminating advocacy research and resources.

Vegetarianos Hoy runs Biblioteca V, a virtual library that provides various types of publications on the impact of humans’ consumption patterns. The organization also has a physical library in their office in Santiago, Chile. We believe that disseminating advocacy research and resources is moderately effective in strengthening the animal advocacy movement.

Criterion 2: Room for More Funding

We look to recommend work that is not just high-impact, but also scalable. Since a recommendation from us could lead to a large increase in a charity’s funding, we look for evidence that the charity will be able to absorb and effectively utilize funding that the recommendation may bring in. To estimate a charity’s room for more funding, we not only consider the charity’s existing programs and potential areas for growth and expansion, but also non-monetary determinants of a charity’s growth, such as time or talent shortages.

Since we can’t predict exactly how an organization will respond upon receiving more funds than they have planned for, our estimate is speculative rather than definitive. This year, our estimates are especially uncertain, as we do not know the consequences of COVID-19 on financials. It’s possible that a charity could run out of room for funding more quickly than we expect, or that they could come up with good ways to use funding beyond what we expect. At midyear, we check in with each recommended charity about the funding they’ve received since the release of our recommendations, and we use the estimates presented below to indicate whether we still expect them to be able to effectively absorb additional funding at that point.

Financial History and Financial Sustainability

An effective charity should be financially sustainable. Charities should be able to continue raising the funds needed for their basic operations. Ideally, they should receive significant funding from multiple distinct sources, including both individual donations and other types of support. Charities should also hold a sufficient amount of reserves.

The chart below shows Vegetarianos Hoy’s recent revenues, assets, and expenditures.¹⁴ The financial information for 2019 and the first six months of 2020 was reported by the charities during this year’s evaluation process,¹⁵ the financial information for earlier years was acquired from various sources, and the values for 2020 are estimated based on the first six months of 2020. Vegetarianos Hoy’s revenue has been growing in the past few years. They received an ACE Movement Grant (22% of their annual revenue) and another large donation (20% of their annual revenue) in 2019. They also received an ACE Movement Grant (about 8% of their annual revenue) in 2020. With about 228% of their current expenditures held in net assets, we believe that Vegetarianos Hoy holds a sufficient amount of reserves.

Planned Future Expenditures

Below we list Vegetarianos Hoy’s plans for expansion for 2021.¹⁶ For each plan, we provide an estimate of the expenditure as well as a confidence level, which indicates how confident we are that the plan can be realized in 2021.¹⁷ For staff salaries, we estimated the number of staff Vegetarianos Hoy could hire by considering the number of existing staff they have and the number of staff they have plans to hire in 2021. For the corresponding costs, we made salary estimates based on information about the job’s seniority, type, and location using data from current and past job postings whenever possible.¹⁸ We also factored in additional costs incurred as part of the hiring process. We estimated non-staff-related costs for each charity’s plans for expansion¹⁹ based on their 2019 program expenditures;²⁰ in some cases, we also considered Vegetarianos Hoy’s estimations of their future expenditures²¹ and/or our impressions of how much the expansions would cost.²² Additionally, we accounted for an estimate—based on a percentage of the charity’s current annual budget—of possible unforeseen expenditures.

Estimated Room for More Funding

We estimated Vegetarianos Hoy’s room for more funding for 2021. For this, we relied on an estimate of their predicted revenue for 2021. We estimate that Vegetarianos Hoy’s revenue in 2021 will be $0.24 million or within the 90% prediction interval [$0.16M, $0.33M].²⁶ Vegetarianos Hoy’s own prediction of their 2021 revenue ($0.25M) lies within the predicted interval.

Using our predictions of future revenue, Vegetarianos Hoy’s room for more funding was estimated via Guesstimate. Note that when ACE estimates a charity’s room for more funding, we are estimating the amount of funding that the charity could use on top of their predicted, regular funding in the coming year.

The chart shows Vegetarianos Hoy’s room for more funding in 2021 distributed across our three confidence levels. For donors influenced by ACE wishing to donate to Vegetarianos Hoy, we estimate that Vegetarianos Hoy’s room for more funding in 2021 is $53k (90% prediction interval: [$11k, $99k]) with high confidence. Overall, we have some confidence that Vegetarianos Hoy has room for $0.20 million (90% prediction interval: [$39k, $0.38M]) in additional funding in 2021. We believe that Vegetarianos Hoy’s room for more funding relative to the size of their organization is of average size compared to the other charities we evaluated this year. We also believe that their absolute room for more funding is of smaller size relative to the funding we influence through our recommendations. Given the impact a recommendation may have on a charity’s funding, we base our rating of performance in this criterion on the latter assessment.

Criterion 3: Cost Effectiveness

A charity’s recent cost effectiveness provides an insight into how well it has made use of its available resources and is a useful component in understanding how cost effective future donations to the charity might be. In this criterion, we take a more in-depth look at the charity’s use of resources over the past 18 months and compare that to the outcomes they have achieved in each of their main programs during that time. We have used an approach in which we qualitatively analyze a charity’s expenditures and key results, and compare them to other charities we are reviewing this year.

We categorized the charity’s programs into different outcomes—improvement of welfare standards, increased availability of animal-free products, decreased consumption of animal products, increased prevalence of anti-speciesist values, and stronger animal advocacy movement. Then, for a given outcome, we compared the charity’s key results and expenditures from January 2019 to June 2020 to other charities we evaluated in our 2020 evaluations, and gave our assessment of how cost effective we think their work towards that outcome has been.

Increased Prevalence of Anti-Speciesist Values

Vegetarianos Hoy engages in two programs that we have categorized as contributing to an increased prevalence of anti-speciesist values—No Son Muebles (“Animals Are Not Things”) and Sin Rodeos (“No Rodeos”). As the resource usage and key results of each program are distinct, we have kept them as separate categories in our analysis.

Key results and use of resources

Below is our estimated resource usage for Vegetarianos Hoy’s programs focused on increasing the prevalence of anti-speciesist values, January 2019–June 2020. In this section, we have only included what we believe are the key results of each program. For a full list of results and resource usage, see Vegetarianos Hoy (2020a).

Evaluation of cost effectiveness

Vegetarianos Hoy’s No Son Muebles campaign focuses on promoting consideration of nonhuman animals as sentient beings, and advocates for changing the legal designation of animals from objects to subjects under Chilean law. This campaign may have increased the prevalence of anti-speciesist values through their petition, media appearances, and the bill presented to change Chile’s Civil code. After accounting for all of their key results and expenditures, we think the cost effectiveness of Vegetarianos Hoy’s work in their No Son Muebles program seems slightly higher than the average cost effectiveness of other similar programs working toward increasing the prevalence of anti-speciesist values we have evaluated this year.

Vegetarianos Hoy’s Sin Rodeos programs serves a similar purpose to their No Son Muebles campaign, but focuses more narrowly on animals used in rodeos and advocates for rodeo to stop being considered Chile’s national sport. They filed a legal complaint for animal cruelty, which has initiated a legal investigation for animal cruelty in rodeo activities for the first time and was covered by the media. They also published an investigation suggesting that Chile’s National Rodeo Federation was not constituted under the Sports Law in Chile, gaining media attention and collecting signatures for their petition. Because of the relatively small number of animals used in rodeos, we believe that the Sin Rodeos campaign is less cost effective than the No Son Muebles campaign, which seems more focused on system-wide change and, although harder to achieve, has the opportunity to affect a larger number of animals. After accounting for all of their key results and expenditures, we think the cost effectiveness of Vegetarianos Hoy’s work in their Sin Rodeos program seems similar to the average cost effectiveness of other similar programs working toward increasing the prevalence of anti-speciesist values we have evaluated this year.

Overall, we think the cost effectiveness of Vegetarianos Hoy’s work toward increasing the prevalence of anti-speciesist values seems slightly higher than the average cost effectiveness of other charities’ work toward this outcome we have evaluated this year.

Decreased Consumption of Animal Products

Vegetarianos Hoy engages in four programs that we have categorized as contributing to decreasing the consumption of animal products—Lunes Sin Carne (“Meatless Mondays”), Veggie Challenge, Semana Sin Lácteos (“Dairy-Free Week”), and Plan V App. As the resource usage and key results of each program are distinct, we have kept them as separate categories in our analysis.

Key results and use of resources

Below is our estimated resource usage for Vegetarianos Hoy ’s programs focused on decreasing the consumption of animal products, January 2019–June 2020. In this section, we have only included what we believe are the key results of each program. For a full list of results and resource usage, see Vegetarianos Hoy (2020a).

Evaluation of cost effectiveness

Vegetarianos Hoy’s Lunes Sin Carne program focuses on securing commitments from institutions to serve plant-based meals one day of the week and has so far convinced one institution to sign up. As so few resources have gone into the program so far, we are particularly uncertain about its cost effectiveness and thus have not included any further assessment. Vegetarianos Hoy has reported to us that in light of COVID-19, they have had to stop their work with corporations. It is therefore likely that this program will become more cost effective once the limitations imposed by the pandemic come to an end.

Vegetarianos Hoy’s Veggie Challenge program focuses on challenging individuals to pledge to go vegan for 30 days. When taking an estimate of pledge days secured per dollar spent on this program, their work appears to be much more cost effective than the pledge programs of other charities we evaluated in 2020. That said, this is a somewhat simplistic quantification of cost effectiveness as it doesn’t take into account other factors such as the number of participants who follow through on the pledges. After accounting for all of their key results and expenditures, we think the cost effectiveness of Vegetarianos Hoy’s work in their Veggie Challenge program seems much higher than the average cost effectiveness of other other similar programs working toward decreasing consumption of animal products we have evaluated this year.

Vegetarianos Hoy’s Semana Sin Lácteos program focuses on challenging individuals to pledge to give up dairy for a week. When taking an estimate of pledge days secured per dollar spent on this program, it appears to be similar to the average cost effectiveness of the pledge programs of other charities we evaluated in 2020. That said, this is a somewhat simplistic quantification of cost effectiveness as it doesn’t take into account other factors such as the number of participants who follow through on the pledges. This program focuses solely on cows. In general, we expect a focus on chickens and fishes to be the most cost effective, and so all else equal, a pledge with a more general vegan ask is likely to be more cost effective, as it would also include these priority species. After accounting for all of their key results and expenditures, we think the cost effectiveness of Vegetarianos Hoy’s work in their Semana Sin Lácteos program seems slightly lower than the average cost effectiveness of other similar programs working toward decreasing consumption of animal products we have evaluated this year.

Vegetarianos Hoy’s Plan V App program focuses on running and promoting an app that provides recipes and other information to assist individuals in transitioning to a vegan diet. As so few resources have gone into the program so far, we are particularly uncertain about its cost effectiveness, and thus have not included any further assessment.

Overall, we think the cost effectiveness of Vegetarianos Hoy’s work toward decreasing consumption of animal products seems similar to the average cost effectiveness of other charities’ work toward this outcome we have evaluated this year.

Increased Availability of Animal-Free Products

Vegetarianos Hoy engages in two programs that we have categorized as contributing to increased availability of animal-free products—Opción V (“Option V”), and vegan certifications. As the resource usage and key results of each program are distinct, we have kept them as separate categories in our analysis.

Key results and use of resources

Below is our estimated resource usage for Vegetarianos Hoy’s programs focused on increased availability of animal-free products, January 2019–June 2020. In this section, we have only included what we believe are the key results of each program. For a full list of results and resource usage, see Vegetarianos Hoy (2020a).

Evaluation of cost effectiveness

Vegetarianos Hoy’s Opción V program focuses on working with restaurant chains to increase the number of vegan options available on their menus. Their work has led to new options being introduced at 4 chains totaling over 240 locations at an approximate cost of $39 per location. That said, this is a somewhat simplistic quantification of cost effectiveness as it doesn’t take into account other factors such as the likelihood restaurants would have added new vegan options anyway or differences in animals spared by different products. After accounting for all of their key results and expenditures, we think the cost effectiveness of Vegetarianos Hoy’s work in their Opción V program seems similar to the average cost effectiveness of other charities working toward increasing the availability of animal-free products we evaluated this year.

Vegetarianos Hoy’s vegan certifications program focuses on working with supermarkets and other retailers to increase the number of vegan products in their stores. Their work has led to V-labels being added to 160 products at an approximate cost of $107 per label. That said, this is a somewhat simplistic quantification of cost effectiveness as it doesn’t take into account other factors such as the likelihood retailers would have labeled new vegan options anyway or differences in animals spared by different products. After accounting for all of their key results and expenditures, we think the cost effectiveness of Vegetarianos Hoy’s work in their Vegan Certifications program seems lower than the average cost effectiveness of other similar programs working toward increasing the availability of animal-free products we have evaluated this year.

Vegetarianos Hoy has reported to us that in light of COVID-19, they have had to stop their work with corporations. It is therefore likely that this program will become more cost effective once the limitations imposed by the pandemic come to an end.

Overall, we think the cost effectiveness of Vegetarianos Hoy’s work toward increasing the availability of animal-free products seems slightly lower than the average cost effectiveness of other charities’ work toward this outcome we have evaluated this year.

Stronger Animal Advocacy Movement

Vegetarianos Hoy engages in one program that we have categorized as contributing to strengthening the animal advocacy movement—Biblioteca V (“V Library”).

Key results and use of resources

Below is our estimated resource usage for Vegetarianos Hoy’s program focused on strengthening the animal advocacy movement, January 2019–June 2020. In this section, we have only included what we believe are the key results of this program. For a full list of results and resource usage, see Vegetarianos Hoy (2020a).

Evaluation of cost effectiveness

Building a stronger animal advocacy movement encompasses a broad category of outcomes for animals that are typically indirect, and as such, it is difficult to make an assessment of their cost effectiveness. Vegetarianos Hoy’s Biblioteca V program focuses on making resources relevant for veganism available for animal advocates to use. As so few resources have gone into the program so far, we are particularly uncertain about its cost effectiveness, and thus have not included any further assessment.

Improvement of Welfare Standards

Vegetarianos Hoy engages in one program that we have categorized as contributing to the Improvement of Welfare Standards—Chile Libre de Jaulas (“Cage-Free Chile”).

Key results and use of resources

Below is our estimated resource usage for Vegetarianos Hoy’s program focused on the improvement of welfare standards, January 2019–June 2020. In this section, we have only included what we believe are the key results of the program. For a full list of results and resource usage, see Vegetarianos Hoy (2020a).

Table: Estimated number of animals affected³⁸ by corporate commitments, January 2019–June 2020

Evaluation of cost effectiveness

Vegetarianos Hoy’s Chile Libre de Jaulas program focuses on securing commitments to improve welfare standards for farmed animals. In the past 18 months, Vegetarianos Hoy has reported securing four cage-free commitments. After factoring in the proportional responsibility that Vegetarianos Hoy has for securing these commitments, we estimate these commitments have the potential to affect 1,700 to 45,000 animals once implemented. After accounting for all of their key results and expenditures, we think the cost effectiveness of Vegetarianos Hoy’s work in their Chile Libre de Jaulas program seems much higher than the average cost effectiveness of other charities working toward improving welfare standards we have evaluated this year.

A detailed analysis of these estimates can be found in this Guesstimate model. Our estimates take into account the uncertainty about the rates with which companies follow through on their commitments. In the U.S., for example, companies have made commitments often with deadlines 5–10 years after the commitment, which leaves the risk that they will not be followed through on without continued campaigning.³⁹ We are not aware that Vegetarianos Hoy actively follows up on commitments.

Vegetarianos Hoy has reported to us that in light of COVID-19, their work with companies has been slowed down.

Overall, we think the cost effectiveness of Vegetarianos Hoy’s work toward improving welfare standards seems slightly lower than the average cost effectiveness of other charities’ work toward this outcome we have evaluated this year.

Criterion 4: Track Record

Information about a charity’s track record can help us predict the charity’s future activities and accomplishments, which is information that cannot always be incorporated into our other criteria. An organization’s track record is sometimes a pivotal factor when our analysis otherwise finds limited differences between two charities.

In this section, we evaluate each charity’s track record of success by considering some of the key results that they have accomplished prior to 2019.⁴⁰ For charities that operate in more than one country, we consider how they have expanded internationally.

Overview

Vegetarianos Hoy was founded in 2012. They have been working in their Vegan Certifications program for seven years, building a long track record of success in certifying vegan products with two labels, “Sello Vegano” (“Vegan Label”) since 2013, and “V-Label” since 2018. They also have a long track record of success in their Lunes Sin Carne (“Meatless Monday”) program, influencing institutions and companies to reduce meat offerings in Chile. They have been working on their No Son Muebles (“Animals Are Not Things”) campaign for five years, and their Sin Rodeos (“No Rodeos”) campaign for three years, receiving media attention. In 2018, they commenced their work on their Semana Sin Lacteos (“Dairy-Free Week”) campaign and launched their Plan V app. Note that all of their programs concern industrial agriculture except the Sin Rodeos program. which targets animals in entertainment, a cause area that ACE does not prioritize.

Key Results Prior to 2019⁴¹

Below is a summary of Vegetarianos Hoy’s programs’ key results prior to 2019, ordered by program duration (with the longest-running programs listed first). These results were reported to us by Vegetarianos Hoy, and we were not able to corroborate all their reports.⁴² We do not expect charities to fabricate accomplishments, but we do think it’s important to be transparent about which outcomes are reported to us and which we have corroborated or verified independently. Unless indicated otherwise, the following key results are based on information provided by Vegetarianos Hoy (2020c).

Note that many of these results have been achieved in collaboration with other organizations and individuals.

International Expansion

We think that expanding internationally can be a way for effective charities to increase their impact. By introducing effective programs into countries where similar work is not being done—or where similar work is being implemented relatively ineffectively—those charities can expand their audience and impact. That said, international expansion needs to be handled thoughtfully; in addition to the strategic value of expanding to a new country, charities should consider the linguistic, social, political, economic, and cultural factors that could pose challenges. We think that charities should work carefully with local activists⁴⁶ during any expansions and that organizations founded in Western countries should consider the historical effects of colonialism in their expansion to non-Western countries.

Vegetarianos Hoy was founded in Chile in 2012. They expanded to Mexico in March 2020 and Colombia two months later by hiring employees in those countries. They select regions to expand to based on a two-stage process. First, they consider the effective altruism framework of scale, neglectedness, and tractability by looking at the scale of meat consumption and animal agriculture, the number of animal advocacy organizations, and the reliability of data about these issues.⁴⁷ Second, they consider their current audience (e.g., number of followers on social media), or whether there are fundraising opportunities (e.g., national grants or funds for vegan labeling).⁴⁸

Vegetarianos Hoy reports that the ideas for local programs are discussed with the local staff and that proposals of projects by local staff are reviewed by the team in Chile, which has more general expertise.⁴⁹ The Executive Director oversees the strategy and direction, while the Projects Director provides support and evaluation. Before expanding to a new country, Vegetarianos Hoy conducts research to understand the local movement, culture, and political and economic context, and adapt their campaigns accordingly.⁵⁰ They hire staff from each country where they operate and plan to visit each country to provide support and training to their staff. Note that Vegetarianos Hoy’s subsidiaries do not have independent boards; they all depend on the board in Chile, and they are all currently financially dependent on Chile’s organization. Vegetarianos Hoy reports that the subsidiaries have plans to become self-sustained.

Overall, we think that Vegetarianos Hoy has been strategic in their international expansion by focusing on neglected regions, but they might have expanded too quickly to other countries, especially by expanding to two countries (Mexico and Colombia) in 2020. Although they conduct research about the context of the countries where they operate, because of the hierarchical structure of their international work, there seems to be a lack of autonomy of the subsidiaries both financially and in terms of decision-making, strategy, and direction. We hope that Vegetarianos Hoy gives more autonomy to their subsidiaries to make decisions about programs in their local context.

Criterion 5: Leadership and Culture

Leadership directly affects an organization’s culture, performance, and effectiveness. Strongly-led charities are likely to have a healthy organizational culture that enables their core work. We collect information about each charity’s internal operations in several ways. We ask leadership to describe the culture they try to foster, as well as potential areas of improvement. We review each charity’s human resource policies and check that they include those we believe are important. We also send a culture survey to the staff of each charity.^{51, 52}

Key Leadership

In this section, we describe each charity’s key leadership and assess some of their strengths and weaknesses.

Leadership staff

• Executive Director (ED) and Founder: Ignacia Uribe, involved in the organization for eight years
• Projects Director: Javiera Mayorga, involved in the organization for two years
• Legal Director: Cristian Apiolaza, involved in the organization for two years

All respondents to our culture survey agreed that Vegetarianos Hoy’s leadership is attentive to the organization’s strategy. All respondents agreed that their leadership promotes external transparency and almost all agreed that they promote internal transparency (90%).

Recent leadership transitions

Vegetarianos Hoy did not have a transition in leadership. Their current ED has been in the position since the organization’s foundation (2012).

Board of Directors

Vegetarianos Hoy’s Board of Directors consists of five members, three of whom are also staff, including Executive Director Ignacia Uribe. We think including more non-staff members in Vegetarianos Hoy’s board would increase their capacity to oversee the organization from a more independent and objective perspective. We consider the board’s lack of independence to be a weakness.

Members of Vegetarianos Hoy’s Board of Directors

• Ignacia Uribe (President and ED): journalist, has an MA in Animal Law and Society
• Javiera Mayorga (Board Secretary): Projects Director at Vegetarianos Hoy
• Cristian Apiolaza (Legal Director): lawyer at Vegetarianos Hoy
• Ivan Flores (Treasurer): has a background in finances and project management
• Alejandra Cueto (Evaluation Director): has a background in sustainability and management

About 90% of respondents to our culture survey agreed that Vegetarianos Hoy’s board supports the organization in achieving its strategic vision.

We believe that boards whose members represent occupational and viewpoint diversity are likely most useful to a charity, since they can offer a wide range of perspectives and skills. There is some evidence suggesting that nonprofit board diversity is positively associated with better fundraising and social performance⁵³ and better internal and external governance practices,⁵⁴ as well as with the use of inclusive governance practices that allow the board to incorporate community perspectives into their strategic decision making.⁵⁵ Vegetarianos Hoy’s board potentially lacks a diversity of occupational backgrounds and experiences. We consider the board’s relative lack of occupational diversity to be a weakness.

Policies and Benefits

Here we present a list of policies that, if properly drafted and enforced, we find to be beneficial for fostering a healthy culture. A green mark indicates that Vegetarianos Hoy has such a policy and a red mark indicates that they do not. A yellow mark indicates that the organization has a partial policy, an informal or unwritten policy, or a policy that is not fully or consistently implemented. We do not expect a given charity to have all of the following policies, but we believe that, generally, having more of them is better than having fewer.

Culture and Morale

A charity with a healthy culture acts responsibly toward all stakeholders: staff, volunteers, donors, beneficiaries, and others in the community. According to Vegetarianos Hoy’s leadership, their organizational culture is open and collaborative; there is a general openness to discuss different topics, and a natural collaboration among staff.

The survey we distributed supports leadership’s claim that Vegetarianos Hoy’s culture is overall positive. Some respondents noted in an open-response box that work at Vegetarianos Hoy is challenging, while others noted it was rewarding. A few common adjectives that respondents used to describe Vegetarianos Hoy’s communication style were “direct,” “concise,” “friendly,” “respectful.”

According to our culture survey, Vegetarianos Hoy has an overall level of employee engagement close to the average of charities under review.

Vegetarianos Hoy has a formal compensation plan to determine staff salaries. About 70% of respondents to our survey agreed with the statement that their compensation is adequate. Vegetarianos Hoy offers 15 days of paid time off, as well as paid sick days as required by the law in Chile. About 44% of respondents agreed that these paid benefits provided are sufficient. Vegetarianos Hoy reports that employees have clearly defined essential functions for all positions and regularly evaluate performance. About 22% of respondents to our culture survey agreed that the system of staff performance evaluation needs to be changed or improved upon.

According to leadership, the following areas of Vegetarianos Hoy’s organizational culture have room for improvement: staff self-care and burnout, fear of failure, and motivation for learning. Vegetarianos Hoy does not conduct surveys to their staff, but they are currently working on a 360° survey for this year. We think distributing regular culture surveys could help Vegetarianos Hoy to better understand their workplace culture and identify further areas for improvement.

Overall, we think that Vegetarianos Hoy’s staff satisfaction and morale are close to the average charity we evaluated this year. We think that Vegetarianos Hoy’s culture could benefit from providing more paid benefits to their employees and implementing policies that support employees’ work needs and preferences, such as flexible work hours and remote work options.

Representation/Diversity,⁶⁰ Equity, and Inclusion⁶¹

One important part of acting responsibly toward stakeholders is providing a representative/diverse,⁶² equitable, and inclusive work environment. Charities that have a healthy attitude toward representation/diversity, equity, and inclusion (R/DEI) seek and retain staff and volunteers from different backgrounds. Among other things, inclusive work environments should also provide necessary resources for employees with disabilities, protect all team members from harassment and discrimination, and require regular trainings on topics such as equity and inclusion, in conjunction with year-round efforts to address R/DEI throughout all areas of the organization.

About 30% of staff that participated in our culture survey agreed that Vegetarianos Hoy has members from diverse backgrounds. Vegetarianos Hoy made an effort to increase representation/diversity through their recruitment process by including a statement in job posts, setting a job profile and description, and reviewing applications for the position before looking at resumes.

In our culture survey, some respondents mentioned that leadership does not need to take any action to be more inclusive or to better support staff who are members of marginalized groups.

Vegetarianos Hoy supports R/DEI through their human resource activities. Vegetarianos Hoy has a workplace code of ethics/conduct and a written statement that they do not tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, disability status, or other characteristics. Vegetarianos Hoy has a written procedure for filing complaints and explicit protocols for addressing concerns or allegations of harassment⁶³ or discrimination.⁶⁴ In our culture survey, all respondents agreed that Vegetarianos Hoy protects staff, interns, and volunteers from harassment and discrimination in the workplace, and they all agreed that they have someone to go to in case of harassment or other problems at work. However, our culture survey suggests that Vegetarianos Hoy’s staff experienced or witnessed some harassment or discrimination in the workplace during the past year, similarly to the average charity under review. Because staff feel protected, and Vegetarianos Hoy seem to have systems in place to prevent and handle harrassment and discrimination when they occur, we are not highly concerned about this finding.

Vegetarianos Hoy offers regular trainings on topics such as harassment and discrimination in the workplace. In our culture survey, 90% of staff agree that they and their colleagues have been sufficiently trained in matters of R/DEI. We believe that the opportunities for the team to learn about R/DEI are sufficient.

Overall, we believe that Vegetarianos Hoy is as diverse, equitable, and inclusive as the average charity we evaluated this year.

Criterion 6: Strategy

Charities with a clear and well-developed strategy are more likely to be successful at setting and achieving their goals. In this section, we describe and assess each charity’s strategic vision and mission, plan, and planning process.

Given our commitment to finding the most effective ways to help nonhuman animals, we assess the extent to which the charity’s strategic vision is aligned with this commitment. We believe that their strategic planning should clearly connect the charity’s overall vision to their more immediate goals. Additionally, we assess the extent to which their strategic planning process incorporates the views of all their staff and board members and whether the frequency of this process is adequate, given the nature of their work. There are many different approaches to strategic planning, and often an approach that is well suited for one organization may not work well for others. Thus, in this section, we are not looking for a particular approach to strategy. Instead, we assess how well the organization’s approach to strategy works in their context.

Strategic Vision

Vegetarianos Hoy’s vision: “A more ethical, healthy and sustainable future, where all people can access delicious and nutritious food without animal products.”

Strategic Position in the Movement

We asked Vegetarianos Hoy how they see their organization’s work fitting into the overall animal advocacy movement. They report that they aim to connect the animal advocacy movement in Latin America with the international movement, particularly in Europe and the U.S. They focus on adjusting their advocacy to the cultural context.

Strategic Planning Process

Type(s) of plan: Three-year strategic plans

Leadership staff’s role: The ED works with the board on the strategic plan.

Board of Directors’ role: The board works with the ED on the strategic plan.

Non-leadership staff’s role: Non-leadership staff were not directly involved in the creation of the strategic plan. However, according to Vegetarianos Hoy, they were all new to the organization at the time of drafting.

Contents of plan: Vegetarianos Hoy’s strategic plan does not include any high-level strategy to analyze how their program work contributes to achieving their mission/vision. They do, however, address their internal structure—e.g., fundraising— in their plan.

Goal Setting and Monitoring

Vegetarianos Hoy includes specific goals in their strategic plan. Vegetarianos Hoy holds retrospective meetings—i.e., postmortems—following major projects. Moreover, they participate in an annual review by an organization (Fundación Lealtad) that promotes good practices among nonprofits through regular workshops. The ED reviews objectives annually to make sure they are aligned with the general strategy and long-term goals.

Our Assessment

Vegetarianos Hoy’s vision implies promoting plant-based diets but not explicitly reducing suffering, though those two goals may often overlap. We believe that promoting plant-based diets does reduce suffering to the extent that it causes a reduction in the number of animals being raised for food. Vegetarianos Hoy’s vision also implies achieving benefits for other causes related to the food system, such as human health and environmental degradation, which can support the growth of the farmed animal advocacy movement as a whole. We think that they have a clear notion of how they fit into the wider animal advocacy movement, particularly on a global scale, and that this is reflected in their strategic decisions to connect animal advocacy in Latin America to North America and Europe, where it is more developed. We think their strategic plan is lacking in high-level strategy that connects their programs to their strategic vision and communicates the future trajectory of their organization. Their goal setting appears to be carried out well, and we think they have a strong approach to self-assessment. Overall, we think Vegetarianos Hoy’s approach to strategy is average compared to other evaluated charities, given the context in which they operate and the type of work they do.

Criterion 7: Adaptability

A charity’s self-assessment should inform their decisions. This will aid them in retaining and strengthening successful programs and modifying or discontinuing less successful programs, and will enable them to see if or when it is necessary to change their organizational structures. When such systems of improvement work well, all stakeholders benefit: Leadership is able to refine their strategy, staff better understand the purpose of their work, and donors can be more confident in the impact of their donations.

We have identified the following examples of how Vegetarianos Hoy has adapted to success and failure:

In the early stages of professionalizing Vegetarianos Hoy, their leadership reports that they struggled to hire appropriate people for leadership roles, which resulted in two hires that didn’t work out.⁶⁵ Through this process they realized that their hiring practices needed improvement and that they needed more clearly defined responsibilities for each role. They also realized that it was not possible for Ignacia Uribe, now CEO, to keep her previous job at the same time as supporting the organization throughout its professionalization process. Vegetarianos Hoy reports that when Uribe left her previous job to take on the leadership role at Vegetarianos Hoy, this fixed a lot of the issues they were encountering at that time.

Vegetarianos Hoy reports having several programs in the history of their organization that they have decided to cut for not being sufficiently impactful. In 2019, they established a volunteer network to pressure companies that weren’t responding positively to their other corporate outreach work, but they made the decision that the tactic of more direct pressure was not an approach that they wanted to take as an organization. Given its overall performance, they decided to end the network. In 2018 and 2019 they were also holding cooking classes and movie screenings, which they found to be resource intensive and were reaching only a limited audience. They found they were able to create similar content to promote through social media, which significantly increased the reach of this work. Finally, they also ran an income-generating program with a restaurant in which ordering a certain item on the menu would result in a small donation to Vegetarianos Hoy. After limited success with this, they decided to end the program.

Recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected Vegetarianos Hoy’s ability to carry out several of their programs.⁶⁶ All programs that work with companies or schools and universities have either been paused or slowed down, and time has instead been invested in strategizing for when these programs can return. They have also focused on programs that work well online, such as their Veggie Challenge program and social media efforts. Additionally, they have used this time as an opportunity for staff professional development by attending international conferences and webinars—now taking place online—that they wouldn’t otherwise have had the funding to attend.

Overall, we believe that Vegetarianos Hoy is just as able as the average charity evaluated this year to adequately respond to success and failure.