I am a newcomer to the animal advocacy movement and recently had the pleasure of attending the AVA Summit in Los Angeles. I previously worked for six years as the Development Director for an environmental justice organization that grew from just over $1 million to nearly $10 million during my time there. I learned a lot about how to take an extremely niche issue and find financial support for it, and I thought I would share some of that with anyone in the animal advocacy movement for whom it would be useful.
The parallels between my previous work and animal advocacy are strong. When I say "environmental justice," I specifically mean waste incinerators, which have typically been built in black and brown communities in the U.S. Having become vegetarian/vegan for ethical reasons, I understand how difficult it can be to talk to other people about factory farming; they just don't want to hear about how their daily actions are having such a horrendous impact on others. I guarantee you it is even harder to talk to them about waste. Everybody wants to believe their stuff just disappears or is miraculously recycled into something new; nobody wants to think about the harmful impact of their waste going to another community to be burned. The same "waste-to-energy" scam that is being used in animal agriculture has been propagated to vulnerable communities around the world for decades. While the animal advocacy movement might feel constrained by the $250 million currently devoted to it, there's $0 specifically devoted to fighting "waste-to-energy" or waste incinerators. All of our funding came from adjacent cause areas.
In my opinion, the animal advocacy movement can make even stronger arguments in spaces that border the movement: climate, conservation, biodiversity, labor, immigration, health, diet, and more are all areas with extensive funder interest. If you can incorporate these causes into your work, then you will get funding. You will also become accepted into these spaces and have more platforms to make the case for animals.
What follows is in two parts. First, I will share some of the strategies we used to get the niche cause of ending waste incineration onto funders' radars. Second, I will share the funders who worked with us and might be open to supporting the animal advocacy movement.
I. Fundraising Strategies We Used
1. Joining with Other Movements, Connecting with Other "Cause Areas"
As I mentioned in the intro above, we were very successful at connecting a very niche issue to a wide variety of other cause areas that funders cared about. We did this in a variety of ways:
- incorporate other issue areas into your work (e.g., have a climate page on your website, do a report on health issues, develop an exposé of labor issues in factory farms, etc.)
- get onto steering committees for pooled funds or funder collectives that are looking for guidance from nonprofit leaders
- join alliances and/or other movements, offering support while also not being shy about sharing the case for why animal advocacy can help that cause
- go to conferences, attend webinars, and engage in other spaces dedicated to connected issue areas
- find out what other issue areas your own donors are interested in and see if they can help connect you to others
- host your own webinar about the connections between animal agriculture and another issue area; get another organization from that issue area to co-host
One qualification is in order, as I've seen things go awry when people don't have this in mind. It is important to connect with others with mutual respect and an understanding that your connection is a two-way street. I myself feel like factory farming is one of the most horrific and dire practices of our time; after all, I'm providing all this amazing advice to you, not to, say, people who are trying to raise money for a summer camp. At the same time, if you view engagements with others as recruiting them to "our" cause, you will be less successful than if you are genuinely trying to connect multiple causes together. Climate justice, for example, can and should include justice for animals, and vice versa. We are all in this together.
We found success in connecting environmental justice to the following causes/movements and got funding because of the connections we made:
- marine plastic pollution
- just transition and labor movement
- sustainable finance
- climate justice/movement
- air pollution
- grassroots activism and support
- methane (GHG) reduction
- EV batteries (!!!)
Almost every one of those could be connected to animal welfare and ending factory farming, and there are so many more. Find out where the money is, find the connections, build partnerships and alliances, and the resources will come to you.
2. Collaborative Proposals & Regranting
Another challenge for those most active in environmental justice is that they are grassroots activists, volunteering, or working in the Global South, with fewer direct connections to sources of funding. Even if a small organization is able to make a connection to a funder, their requests for, say, $5000 to start a composting program for ten neighborhoods were too small to be a blip on some funders' radars.
We found a lot of success pooling together projects into broader proposals and then presenting those as more comprehensive strategies. Many funders love it when it feels like they are contributing to efforts in a wide array of places, rather than pouring money into just one tiny section of a megacity with millions of people. Funders can buy into the idea of movement-building as gardening: plant a bunch of different seeds, foster and grow them, and great things will happen. You might not know which section of your garden will take off first, but if you support enough efforts in the right way, the movement will be successful.
For other funders, we needed to articulate a more specific strategy. To all the movement-building, capacity-building, and networked organizations out there, it really pays to know what other organizations are up to and where they need support. You will be able to identify patterns and connections, and then you can turn these into strategies for funders who need this level of direction in the projects they fund.
You also don't have to develop a full regranting program with RFPs and application processes to do this. That's not only time-consuming for you but also burdensome for subgrantees. While there are appropriate situations when you want a full process like this, we found a lot of fundraising success by simply knowing the six organizations that, when cobbled together just so, could make a really compelling proposal to a funder with a specific interest.
3. Research as Communications as Marketing as Fundraising
I know what I'm about to say will sound like more work, but I promise you it is less.
You should bring the same mindset of connectivity I'm suggested for cross-movement engagement to efforts within your organization. When you have a big report coming out (for example), you should also have a communications and social media campaign around it, you should be having webinars, and you should be engaging with funders about it.
That's not to say the program/research team drives calendar of the entire organization; in fact, such a non-collaborative approach is a quick way to send people back to their silos. Instead, everyone should be working together to make big moments happen for your organization. You know that big conference where we'll be speaking to a bunch of donors about super pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions? Let's release our report about waste and climate right after that gathering, so we can drum up interest for it at the conference. In fact, we can even give donors a special "sneak peak" at the report and get their input.
Yes, this actually works! Getting donor input on your projects -- whether you act on it or not -- helps them be more engaged, can get you some good insights, and will have more funders paying attention when you release materials. In my past work, because we also had our communications team ensuring the report got some headlines, funders felt like they were part of something greater than themselves and this one organization they are funding. They feel like they are a part of helping bring an issue to light and shifting public opinion.
This approach doesn't help just with current funders either. If you have quality research that's been processed by someone with an eye for communications or marketing, it is so much easier to engage funders new to your issue. I often shared press releases or comms summaries with funders rather than the full 120-page report, and I would get responses back within the day.
4. Funder Affinity Groups
Funders have their own issue areas and speak to each other about them. As you are building connections with other movements, pay attention to where their funders gather and try to make inroads into those spaces. You could be invited to speak at one of their conferences, and then all of a sudden you are in the same room as dozens of funders who want to hear what you have to say. You might be asked not to make pitches, and that's fine; you'll be making connections, which are more important. Funders who want to support you or learn more about your organization will be more than happy to speak with you separately, and then you can pitch all you want.
Here are the conferences at which we spoke and from which we got some funding leads. Note that none of these explicitly relate to environmental justice or ending "waste-to-energy," and I believe almost all of them could have a space for representatives from this movement as well.
- Environmental Grantmakers Association (EGA)
- Health & Environmental Funders Network (HEFN)
- EDGE Funders
- Biodiversity Funders Group
- Global Methane, Climate, and Clean Air Forum
II. Some Actual Leads
"Yeah, thanks for telling us stuff we already know, Chris! What about some actual funders? Show me the money!"
I hear you, and here you go:
- The Libra Foundation funds groups building BIPOC power in three program areas: community safety and justice, environmental and climate justice, and gender justice. I strongly believe that a BIPOC-led organization that can show the connections between animal justice, climate issues, and/or other justice movements can get funding from this foundation.
- SAGE Fund is an excellent funder that focuses on human rights. They funded work helping wastepickers gain recognition and improve working conditions in the environmental justice space, and I think they would take seriously any project seeking to help those working in slaughterhouses or other deplorable conditions. Of course, we don't want philanthropic money helping to extend the life of a horrific industry, but I have to think some of you out there are dealing with the labor aspect of this and have some good approaches that would connect with SAGE Fund.
- Waverley Street Foundation views themselves as a climate justice funder. After a slow start, they have gotten going in giving out millions of dollars over the past few years, particularly to networks and funds that redistribute to other mission-aligned organizations. They are spending down their endowment over the next decade, so their giving is aggressive (in a good way) and typically for general support. Applications are relatively easy, as long as you have forged a relationship with their program staff. Recent grantees include the National Young Farmers Initiative, National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, the National Black Food and Justice Alliance, so clearly food and agriculture are on their minds.
- The Urban Movement Innovation (UMI) Fund focuses on movement-building climate organizations, recognizing that real action climate change will not happen unless there is a bottom-up grassroots-level push for it. They had an early recognition that agriculture was a key factor but felt it was too complicated to address at the time. I do wonder if a clear path were presented to them (i.e., end animal agriculture, switch to plant-based diets: simple, right?), they might take it on again. Either way, that’s not the only avenue here: they’ve also been funding youth organizations through their “International Youth Movement” program. Note that they are a decidedly international organization, so they are less likely to fund a U.S. organization
- The JPB Foundation, in contrast, funds only U.S. organizations doing work in the U.S. About a decade ago, they shifted their grantmaking strategy to fund organizations that can get funding to local grassroots organizations, and national organizations like Climate Justice Alliance were part of the first wave of this funding. Since then, they have zoomed into the regional/state level but still favor networks. Their environment program is probably the best fit for animal organizations. Their emphasis has been on air pollution, specifically as it relates to human health harms, but they seem to be expanding their notions about what will be helpful. Organizations in the South might have an advantage, even though the funder is based in NYC. They are invitation-only, so you will need a connection to a program officer to submit and concept note. Although they have simplified their application process a little, still expect to construct a logic model and spend a lot of time on this if you do get invited.
- Tundra Glacier Fund is a donor-advised fund coming out of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. The donor leans toward conservation efforts, funds work on climate and plastics from that perspective, but is sympathetic towards more human-oriented work and grassroots movement-building. There will always be questions about metrics and effectiveness, but not to nowhere near the level of doing a randomized control trial to prove the worthiness of your intervention. I am not sure how they would react to supporting the end of animal agriculture as a climate intervention, but it can’t hurt to try.
- The Marisla Foundation has an environment program that sounds extremely narrow based on the limited information on its application page, but I can attest to the fact that it is not as narrow as it seems. They do get a lot of applications, and their new president is shifting the foundation’s focus, probably more towards a focus on marine plastic pollution, but I’m not sure. I would recommend trying to network your way into getting an invitation to submit, but it can’t hurt to submit an application online just to start getting on their radar.
- Climate & Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) has a tech-first approach to their work, so they present stuff like changing feed for cows as the ultimate silver bullet to climate emissions from the agricultural sector. That did not stop them from funding a bunch of tiny grassroots organizations in Africa who are trying to set up compost systems to reduce food waste rotting in landfills. They currently have an RFP open, and I will warn you that this one is a major pain. However, getting funding from them creates new pathways for advocacy ("Hey, look, what if we just bypass this whole 'feed' thing altogether?") and gets you on the radar of much bigger funders, which brings us to...
- The Global Methane Hub (GMH) was set up a couple years ago to administer funds set aside by governments to achieve worldwide pledges to reduce methane in the atmosphere. I have some familiarity with their thinking on waste, which (like CCAC) is very tech-forward (e.g., satellites). They seem desperate for buy-in and/or credibility with justice-oriented groups and are therefore willing to provide funding to them, even if it is dwarfed by their funding to thinktanks and pundit-oriented NGOs. I don't know much about their strategy on agriculture, but it is probably something that needs to be changed, such as methane capture, presupposing animal agriculture rather than ending it. They are very focused on working with governments, so groups that are able to make that connection will be in a better position for funding.
I have contacts at most of these organizations and would be happy to make an introduction. That does not mean you'll get funding or even get a conversation with a funder, but it is the best I can do personally.
Many of these funders more or less practice trust-based philanthropy, so it is all about building a connection with them. The Libra Foundation in particular has been a leader in this area; once you get funding from them, all they need from you is a 30-minute chat once a year -- no reports, forms, spreadsheets, or any of that nonsense. Notable exceptions are CCAC and GMH, and of course they're some of the biggest funders.
In addition to the funders above, there are also the funders next on our list like the Bezos Earth Fund, MacKenzie Scott, and others. These funders are throwing money at environmental groups left and right with few restrictions. We were also going to be approaching the Climate Leadership Initiative, which is not a funder but can help pitch your organization to major funders (for free).