2025 Movement Grants AMA Highlights

Response: Yes, in some cases, we’ll fund operating costs like salaries, depending on the type and strength of the application and the operating budget of the organization where the employee works. —Elisabeth

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We’ll fund projects from U.S. citizens who want to do outreach work in other countries; however, we take seriously the importance of our grantees understanding the cultural context of their work, so we’d need to see in the application some kind of evidence of the “right fit” for the person doing the work. For general outreach work, we’d also need to see evidence of a strategically developed approach that has the capacity to reach people at scale and track relevant outcomes. —Elisabeth

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We don’t have predetermined criteria for which ballot measures we would or wouldn’t fund, and proposals are assessed on a case-by-case basis. That said, three out of the four U.S. measures run in 2024 were unsuccessful, including the Denver fur ban, which we expected to perform better. Given that, we are more pessimistic that more radical measures can be achieved through ballot initiatives. We supported ProAnimal Future and Sentient Politics in part to capture insights from those campaigns, which will inform our future grantmaking. Beyond the ask, we also take into consideration the opposition to the measure, the political and media environment, and current public sentiment. —Holly and Eleanor

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Perhaps it goes without saying that our ideal proposal is a campaign with a reasonable likelihood of success and a measure that would create a meaningful positive impact for animals. We also consider broader movement-building effects, such as engaging and training new advocates or shifting public attitudes toward animals. We would expect applicants to propose the most relevant impact metrics, particularly if they believe success should be measured beyond a campaign win. —Holly and Eleanor

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While we prioritize promoting the work of our recommended charities and grantees, we are open to hearing from other organizations that are doing high-impact work and/or have interesting learnings that could help others for our guest blog. For example, you can submit a guest blog proposal for writing about movement-level strategies, potentially impactful interventions, and discussions of interventions or strategies between experts from different angles. You can read more about what we publish on this page under “blog submission.” —Holly and Eleanor

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We don’t fund academic research unless there is a clear dissemination plan that extends beyond publishing the work in academic journals. We want to understand how you’ll create information value that can be utilized by animal advocates and translate into a positive impact for animals. Therefore, without such a plan in place, we would be very reluctant to award funding. Additionally, academic research often has alternative sources of funding (e.g., government grants or other academic funders), so we prioritize supporting work that is unlikely to be funded by other means. —Elisabeth

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Yes, we are open to projects focused on a particular demographic within a wider population, such as the Mexican-American community. In your application, we need to see how you plan to strategically target this population so that you are able to have an impact at scale. —Eleanor

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We would be open to receiving an Expression of Interest for such an initiative. Research on the impact of documentaries is mixed. While some films have had outsized effects, reported impact varies significantly by country and context. Because of this, our team is somewhat uncertain about documentaries as an intervention overall. A strong application would need to clearly demonstrate how the film and its distribution would lead to meaningful outcomes for animals.

We’d be particularly interested in how such a project would go beyond raising awareness to create measurable outcomes, whether through policy change, movement-building, or direct improvements for animals. If you decide to apply, outlining a clear theory of change and providing examples of how similar initiatives have led to measurable outcomes would strengthen your application. —Eleanor

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Yes, capacity-building work is within the scope of the program. You can find the full Movement Grants eligibility criteria here on our website under the FAQs: What are we interested in funding? What are we not interested in funding? —Eleanor

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We would need to understand how the event would meaningfully change the lives of many animals. Specifically, we’d be interested in whether the event targets influential individuals within the movement, how it differs from or complements existing initiatives, and what concrete outcomes it aims to achieve.

If you decide to submit an expression of interest, providing specific examples of expected outcomes would strengthen your proposal. —Eleanor

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Federal legislation, corporate policy change, and governmental policy change all have the potential to have a huge impact based on the change that is being called for and the likelihood of success. For each avenue, we would like to hear what your expected outcomes are, how you’re tracking them, and how you expect those outcomes to have downstream impacts for animals. We are currently highly uncertain about the impact of digital campaigns, but we find that they can be impactful as part of a wider campaign utilizing multiple tactics. —Elisabeth

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ACE doesn’t currently prioritize organizations and projects working in direct animal care (rescue and rehabilitation) as we focus on larger-scale advocacy work. For example, see our recent grant recipients. However, we would be open to hearing more about your education work (if it is directed toward a large number of people) or your work advocating for policy change. We ideally want to see work that is scalable and has the potential to affect a large number of animals. —Holly

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One exciting trend is the increase in climate funders supporting a reduction in animal agriculture through dietary change and alternative proteins as climate mitigation. Just last week, the Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein opened at Imperial College London with $30M in funding. This shift could open up a lot of funding opportunities for organizations that are currently solely reliant on funding from funders concerned with animal welfare. —Eleanor

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I enjoy reading applications from new organizations the most—that’s not to say they are more/less likely to get funding—but it is such a pleasure to see the dedication and bravery it takes to start something new. Even more so when I see them working in a country where there is a nascent animal advocacy movement. —Eleanor

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I would like to see some applicants include a bit more detail on the context in which they are working, in particular, whether there are political, social, or economic factors that might impact their work. Similarly, for some niche species-specific work, it is useful for our grant review team if you include the animal science research you are relying on. —Eleanor

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Response: ACE does not offer matching grants in the sense that we do not require grantees to secure additional funding as a condition of our grants. However, if an organization has received a grant from another funder that requires matching funds, an ACE grant can be used to fulfill that requirement—unless the other funder has specific restrictions that prevent this. —Eleanor

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This year, we will have two funding rounds. The first round of grants will likely be disbursed in May and June, and the second round will likely be disbursed in December and January. —Eleanor

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If you decide to complete an Expression of Interest, please focus on what you intend to use the grant funds for. If you are invited to complete a full application, there will be a question about your achievements in previous years where you can outline your recent accomplishments. You can also learn more in this video. —Eleanor

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Since our process is application-based, it’s difficult to predict exactly which projects will be funded—it depends on the proposals we receive. Our portfolio this round is likely to look similar to the previous round. There are also a few areas where we would like to have seen more applications last round. In particular, we’d like to see more proposals focused on support for egg-laying hens, given the strong track record of corporate welfare campaigns in many different countries. We also didn’t fund any entirely wild animal-focused projects last round, and we’d like to see more applications from Southeast Asia, which remains significantly underfunded. —Eleanor

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EOIs should be short and to the point—they are much less detailed than the application. A strong EOI clearly describes the planned activities, target groups, animal populations being helped, and how the intervention creates impact. We should be able to quickly understand the scale of the project and its potential effects. —Eleanor

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Common mistakes include:

• Applicants misinterpreting questions or not answering as we would have expected them to. Most questions have an (i) icon next to it with additional guidance on what we’re looking for.
• Attaching or linking to extra documents instead of properly answering application questions.
• Insufficient desk research; in particular, new organizations sometimes miss key risks because they haven’t fully explored the context or intervention.
• Improper use of AI; in particular, some applicants generate entire sections with AI without checking for accuracy or relevance. We find that AI-generated plans and budgets usually don’t make sense, and this resulted in a number of rejected applications last round. —Eleanor

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We assess effectiveness on a case-by-case basis, depending on the intervention and the stage of the project (e.g., pilot, scaling, or full implementation). We start with what the applicant states they aim to achieve and how they plan to measure it. Based on this, we identify additional reporting requirements and share them with the grant recipient early on in the grant period, allowing them to provide feedback if they believe other metrics would be more useful. We are in the early stages of implementing our own Measurement, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) in the Movement Grants program, which will include what we learn from our grant reporting to understand our own impact. We hope to share how this is going toward the end of the year. —Eleanor

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We don’t have a strict cap on grant amounts, but we expect funding sizes to be in line with previous rounds. Last year, the average grant size was $37,397 USD, including a Movement Grant recommendation that ACE did not disburse. —Eleanor

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At this time, we are not considering applications for regranting, as we are a regranting organization ourselves. However, if you know of a regranter playing an important role in the movement, we’d be happy to hear about them—we may be able to share their information within our network. —Eleanor

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Sub-Saharan Africa encompasses many countries and contexts, so I am reluctant to make any sweeping statements about the most impactful areas for such a large region. However, I will try to offer some useful thoughts.

There has been relatively little advocacy work in the region. If I were to advise groups on what they might focus on, I would start by looking at what interventions have been the most impactful in other parts of the world, and focus on how one might adapt such approaches to this context. For example, higher rates of informal markets or different communication norms could lead to significant changes in how you implement an intervention that has been successful in other parts of the world.

Another approach is to examine the interventions that have specifically succeeded in your country for other (non-animal) issues and consider whether these interventions could be adapted to benefit animals.

The current and predicted rates of animal farming and consumption vary greatly between countries within sub-Saharan Africa, so it is possible that if you have the freedom to move and work in different countries (I appreciate that many don’t have this privilege), you may find that you can have a greater impact in your work.

We are not experts in advocacy in this region, so I would love to see what others think in the replies! —Eleanor

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