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Common concerns about donating to animal charities

Donating to animal charities is a great way for anyone to help animals, as long as you are thoughtful about where you donate. And if you use your career to earn more and donate more, you can have as much (or more) impact as you’d have working in a charity yourself!

But lots of people have reasonable concerns about donating to animal charities. In this piece, we’re going to address these and provide some replies.

Can an individual donor really make a difference?

Yes!

Of course, each donation’s impact is proportional to its amount, but even modest donations can have a big impact if you select charities with focused strategies on helping animals most. And if you donate to charities working in neglected areas, a single person’s donation can make a really substantial difference — because these organisations are often overlooked by other donors.

Also, if you make effective giving a part of your long-term goals, your impact can compound over time. One-off small donations may have limited impact (still important though!), but recurring and increasing donations over your career can have a significant impact.

Finally, you are not alone. There are many other donors just like you who are also willing to give what they can afford. And together, we can support advocacy organisations so that they can achieve progress with the help of your generosity.

Do animal charities really make a big difference?

Yes! Here are some examples:

Open Wing Alliance, a coalition of organisations initiated by The Humane League, has successfully campaigned against keeping egg-laying hens in battery cages in factory farms. The resulting corporate and legislative reforms have impacted more than 100 million animals reared in awful conditions — and this number keeps rising with continued efforts from animal advocates.

The Good Food Institute was instrumental in the development and promotion of plant-based and cultivated alternatives to animal products. Today, these alternatives are available in mainstream fast-food restaurants, and the sector has attracted further public and private investment and is on track to achieve further technological progress.

Wild Animal Initiative supported scientific research to better understand wild animal welfare and potential interventions, and has significantly increased academic interest in this field — which will be instrumental in identifying evidence-based solutions to improving wild animals’ wellbeing.

These are just a few. Check out Animal Charity Evaluators, Effective Altruism Funds’ Animal Welfare Fund, Open Philanthropy’s farm animal welfare grants for other examples.

Am I guaranteed to help animals with my donations?

Unfortunately, no.

There’s no guarantee that every campaign or project will achieve a high impact for animals. In fact, the uncertainties are high due to the challenges organisations face. Some animal welfare campaigns may fail to influence their target institutions, some research and development efforts on alternative proteins may come to nothing, some movement-building efforts may fizzle, and so on.

But the certainty of achieving impact should not be the only metric when you’re deciding where to donate. Advocacy efforts can impact a huge number of animals if they succeed:

Some animal welfare campaigns have convinced or forced institutions to commit to higher standards for millions of animals.
Some research and development efforts resulted in the creation of very competitive alternatives to animal products — which could eventually transform the food industry.
Some movement-building campaigns shifted public opinion and brought awareness of animal suffering into the mainstream.

You can think of donating as similar to investing. No investment is certain to generate profit, just like no donation is certain to generate impact. You have to consider the upside potential as well as the risk of no return. Since promising farmed and wild animal advocacy organisations can deliver meaningful change for millions of animals, some (or even high) levels of uncertainty are acceptable.

Also, even if our immediate goals aren’t met, advocacy organisations learn what didn’t work or how to make things better for the next time. So if a campaign or project doesn’t succeed, that doesn’t mean it was a failure; the experience may actually provide valuable information about how we can achieve our goals in the future.

Finally, if we withhold our support from any effort that involves some uncertainty, then it would be impossible to solve any major problem in the world (even beyond animal suffering), since almost none of them can be expected to be solved with total certainty.

Shouldn’t we volunteer rather than donate?

We can do both!

Volunteering and donating are not mutually exclusive. Volunteering is definitely a good way of helping animals, and if you can spare your time, you can consider doing that too.

But remember that you can’t volunteer for an unlimited amount of time. And animal charities also need money to cover their expenses — particularly salaries for their permanent staff members — so they can’t rely on volunteering alone. In fact, many organisations would prefer donations over volunteers due to financial needs (and having volunteers isn’t totally “free” given that they need some oversight and support). For that reason, donations are essential for advocacy organisations: without financial support, organisations cannot sustain or expand their efforts.

Shouldn’t rich people donate?

Yes!

It’s fair to say that wealthier people should give first and give more. We believe richer people have a bigger responsibility to use their resources for the common good. Unfortunately, not all rich people share what they have (although some of them do).

But even if some rich people are indifferent and greedy, this doesn’t change the fact that animals are innocent and they desperately need our help. Other people’s lack of compassion should not be a reason for us to follow their bad example, or not do what we can with our own resources.

Also, even if you’re not a billionaire, there’s a good chance that you’re more financially privileged than you realise. Even average people with modest salaries in high-income countries are much richer compared to the rest of the world. Similarly, you might be a high earner in a low- or middle-income country and be richer than most of the world.

For example, let’s assume that your household has an annual income of $150,000 in the US. If you decide to donate 10% to an animal charity in a low- or middle-income country, you can cover a significant portion of the annual salary of a staff member. That staff member might succeed in achieving institutional reforms that prevent factory farming from taking root in their country, which would impact tens of thousands of animals (or many more) in the long term.

So even though those who have more power should probably do more, it may be that you also have more power than you realise.

Why donate to animal charities while humans still suffer?

We can help both humans and animals!

Donating to animal charities and human-focused charities are not mutually exclusive. If you think there are other important issues that also deserve your attention, and you believe that there are effective organisations that can solve those problems, then it’s perfectly reasonable to allocate some of your donations to those organisations too. This doesn’t mean that you can’t allocate at least some of your donations for animals too.

It’s also important to remember that animal welfare and human welfare are often intertwined. For example, donating to organisations that work to end factory farming can have benefits for climate change and human health as well. Or donating to wild animal welfare organisations could lead to research that reduces animal-to-human transmission of potential pandemic pathogens.

Finally, remember that animal advocacy is a very neglected field. As a result, your specific donation will likely make a bigger impact for the organisations that desperately need resources than other human-focused organisations that are more comfortably funded by governments and big donors.

How much should I donate?

That depends on your financial circumstances and your own personal beliefs and values.

Here are a few cases where it might be difficult (or even irresponsible) to donate significant amounts:

You don’t have much savings (we recommend six months of runway in case you quit or lose your job).
You have children or other dependents who require your attention and you lack the means to support them adequately.
You plan to make a big investment that can put you in debt or use up your savings (like buying a house or starting a business).

In fact, rushing to donate more than you can afford may be counterproductive, as you could spend years getting back to a place of financial stability. It’s better to sort out your finances first, and set yourself up with a good foundation to donate more in the long term.

But if you’re in a stable financial situation, it can be helpful to set some expected amount to keep you on track for what you hope to achieve with your donations. Donating 1% to 10% of your income is a realistic range in most cases. Some people may even prefer higher amounts if they’re ambitious and have the means to do so. The community at Giving What We Can offers a lot of support and information for making the decision that’s right for you.

Even if you’re uncertain exactly how much you should donate, from a practical point of view, it’s more important to make a decision, set some reasonable goals, and then take action.