Apply for Charity Evaluations
Animal Charity Evaluators is dedicated to identifying and promoting organizations that are likely to make the most significant difference for animals. One way we accomplish this is by evaluating animal charities, sharing our evaluations on our website, and encouraging donors to give to our Recommended Charities.
Each year, we invite approximately 10 charities to participate in our evaluation process. To select these charities, we consider organizations from around the world and assess whether we expect them to perform well on our
evaluation criteria1 which indicates a high likelihood of doing exceptionally cost-effective work to help animals. Last year, 34 eligible charities applied to be evaluated: we evaluated 10 of those and ultimately recommended 5.
Charities wanting to be considered for our Charity Evaluations must fill out a preliminary application form. The deadline for filling out this form is April 6, 2025 (11:59pm, PDT). Please note that filling out this form does not guarantee that you will be evaluated.
Charity Application
The evaluation application process is divided into two phases.
Phase One
This phase includes basic questions to ensure the organization’s eligibility to participate in charity evaluations. It should take around 15 minutes to complete. To be eligible, charities must:
- Primarily work to help farmed animals and/or wild animals
- Not be in a highly exploratory or testing phase where there is significant uncertainty about which of the charity’s programs will be scaled up
- Have been an organization for at least three years
- Have at least three paid full-time equivalents (including full-time, part-time, and contractors)
- Have annual expenditures of more than $100,000 USD
- Not work or be based in a country that is comprehensively sanctioned by the U.S. (see list here)
- Be able to gather and send all documents required for ACE to distribute funds to the organization, either directly or through the use of a fiscal sponsor
Please note: Applications must be submitted by a global/parent organization rather than individual country offices or regional branches. Please ensure that only one person from your organization fills out the application form.
Phase Two
Organizations that meet our eligibility criteria will proceed to phase two. This phase is expected to take about two to four hours to complete, depending on the number of programs your organization operates. It includes thorough questions regarding the charity’s programs, track record, goals, and use of evidence and data. For your reference, you can find all application questions here. We may also reach out to charities with follow-up questions via email or video call if we need to clarify any application responses.
Process and Timeline
Please note that these timings are approximate and subject to change.
Overall, charities report that the total evaluation process requires around 100 hours of total staff time on average. The time requirement is typically shorter for smaller organizations and longer for larger organizations.
If you have any questions about the application or the charity evaluation process, please don’t hesitate to contact our Charity Evaluations Manager, Vince Mak.
Frequently Asked Questions
Being evaluated comes with many benefits for participating organizations. It provides an opportunity to be assessed by a third party alongside other animal advocacy organizations, helping charities identify areas of strength and improvement and gain a detailed external perspective on their work. It’s also an opportunity to have a review published on ACE’s website, which increases charities’ visibility and can strengthen current and potential donors’ trust in their work.
Organizations selected as Recommended Charities enjoy even greater benefits. ACE will promote them for the two-year duration of the recommendation by featuring them on our website, promotional materials, social media, and presentations at events. We will also fundraise on their behalf through ACE’s Recommended Charity Fund (which is distributed among our Recommended Charities) and through donations given to ACE for specific charities. Where possible, we will provide organizations with donors’ contact information and distribute donations to the organizations at least twice per year.
We compensate organizations that participate in our evaluation process by awarding participation grants to those that, in our judgment, make a “good faith effort” to work with us toward the publication of a review but do not end up being recommended. Publishing a review of an organization is not a requirement for receiving a participation grant.
Recommended Charity status lasts for two years. We reserve the right to revoke a charity’s status if we uncover significant new information that changes our assessment.