Farm Animal Welfare
Industrial animal agriculture causes immense suffering to billions of animals and is one of the most significant drivers of the most serious environmental problems. We support initiatives to elevate the moral relevance of farm animals in major institutions, alleviate their suffering and replace industrial animal agriculture with a dominant food system that does not rely on animals.
Our Approach
The Navigation Fund focuses on changing the culture and policies of dominant institutions, such as corporations, government, legislation and significant public institutions. While we want to maximize our impact for animals, we take a long-term view to achieving this. We invest in helping the movement to build the power today to achieve bigger wins tomorrow. We are open to supporting interventions that we believe are important but are hard to measure. We are also open to taking calculated risks if the upside could be significant.
Funding Priorities
1. Institutional Impact
Support projects to directly change the policies and practices of institutions (such as food corporations, government, legislation and other significant public institutions), and build policy momentum.
2. Movement Power
Support organizations to build more power to influence institutions through:
People Power and Disruptive Capacity: Increasing the capacity to 1) mobilize and 2) organize people to influence institutional decision-makers.
Narrative Influence: Increasing the capacity to influence important conversations and influence how farm animal issues are framed, particularly with key audiences. (Our priority audiences are listed below. Other audiences may be of interest for specific projects.)
Policy and Electoral Capacity: Increasing the capacity to change institutional policies, and increase the importance of animal issues in the political sphere.
3. Invest in Reaching Critical Target Audiences:
Youth: Increase the number of youth (e.g. high-school and especially college students) actively engaged in the movement.
Elites: Increase our influence on cultural and political decision-makers and leaders, and get movement allies into decision-making positions.
4. Capacity Building
Invest in capacity building for the movement, such as operational support, training, and strengthening movement cohesion and collaboration.
5. New Funding
Support initiatives to bring new funding into the farm animal movement, such as major giving and programs for monthly giving and bequests.
6. Innovation and Experimentation
Support new or underfunded approaches, particularly those that address the above priorities or that find solutions in important regions that currently seem less tractable.
You’ll find more details on our thinking, regional priorities and potential research interests in our strategy summary.
What is Not Our Focus?
While we value a wide range of approaches, we are grateful to see other funders invested in the following areas and do not currently see these as priorities for The Navigation Fund.
Alternative proteins
Individual diet/behavior change
Plant-based policy work
Farm transition programs
Farm sanctuaries and direct animal care
Public awareness campaigns without a clear target audience (but we are interested in targeted campaigns)
Our Process
Grant applications are by invitation. We have been scoping the farm animal sector broadly to identify organizations and initiatives that are a good fit with our priorities. We will be having exploratory conversations with groups in June 2024, with our initial round of funding starting in July 2024 and decisions made by the end of September 2024. After initial exploration, groups who are invited to apply will be asked to complete a short questionnaire. Where groups have existing materials that answer our questions, we prefer that people do not spend significant time on customized materials for us.
We understand the value of unrestricted funding. We expect some of our funding will be unrestricted. We expect to give some multi-year gifts. As a new fund, we may be more conservative in year one while we’re learning. We understand the benefits of multi-year funding to grantees and plan on moving in this direction over time.
Meet Our Program Officer for Farm Animal Welfare
Introduce Yourself to the Farm Animal Welfare Team
If you think your organization or project might be a good fit with our priorities, feel free to introduce yourself. We do not respond to all introductions, but we will keep you in mind if we see a fit our current funding focus.