The list contained in this blog was curated by a group. For this initial year, we have identified national (rather than local) US-based groups for donations though this list excludes sanctuaries. If your group has been overlooked, please make a note in the comment section below. We see this as a living document. Finally, we apologize in advance if we misidentified any individuals.
Conversations around gender inequity are on the rise in the animal protection movement—and in our country at large. While it may be difficult to dig into these issues, it’s vital work that’s necessary in ultimately making our movement stronger.
Given this, we think it’s important to financially support organizations run by women of all races, people of color of all genders. and to name them explicitly. We have received numerous requests for a list of tax-exempt, farmed animal protection organizations run by women.
We also wanted to focus on groups where your donor dollars would go the farthest—and where the need is the greatest—so we have not included larger organizations. Here are some groups you should consider supporting:
Compassion in World Farming, Leah Garces
Mission: End factory farming and advance the well-being of farmed animals globally.
Encompass, Aryenish Birdie
Mission: Increase effectiveness in the animal protection movement by fostering greater racial diversity, equity, and inclusion while empowering advocates of color.
Food Empowerment Project, lauren Ornelas
Mission: Create a more just and sustainable world by recognizing the power of one's food choices.
Vegan Advocacy Initiative, Liz Ross and Linda Alvarez
Mission: Support a shift toward creating alternative food systems that exclude cruelty and exploitation toward non-human sentient animals.
A Well-Fed World, Dawn Moncrief
Mission: A hunger relief and animal protection organization chipping away at two of the world’s most immense, unnecessary and unconscionable forms of suffering… the suffering of people hungry from lack of food, and the suffering of animals used and abused for food.
Animal Equality, Sharon Nuñez Gough and Jose Valle
Mission: An international organization working with society, governments and companies to end cruelty to farmed animals.
Balanced, Audrey Sanchez
Mission: Working for a world free of food-related public health concerns caused by the overconsumption of meat and egg products, and radically increased access to healthier foods for individuals and families.
Brighter Green, Mia MacDonald
Mission: a public policy action tank that works to raise awareness of and encourage policy action on issues that span the environment, animals, and sustainability.
Compassion Over Killing, Erica Meier
Mission: Focuses on cruelty to animals in agriculture and promotes vegetarian eating as a way to build a kinder world for all of us, both human and nonhuman.
Factory Farming Awareness Coalition, Katie Cantrell
Mission: An educational non-profit committed to empowering people to save the environment, animals, and our own health through our daily food choices.
Nutrition Facts, Katie Schloer
Mission: A strictly non-commercial, science-based public service provided by Dr. Michael Greger, providing free updates on the latest in nutrition research via bite-sized videos.
Plant-Based Foods Association Research and Education Fund Michele Simon
Mission: Support the plant-based foods industry.
Sentience Institute, Kelly Witwicki
Mission: Build on the body of evidence for how to most effectively expand humanity’s moral circle, and to encourage advocates to make use of that evidence.
Vegan Outreach, Steve Ann Chambers and Jack Norris
Mission: Work to end violence towards animals by promoting a vegan lifestyle and providing resources to help people sustain it.
Our Hen House Mariann Sullivan and Jasmin Singer
Mission: To effectively mainstream the movement to end the exploitation of animals by way of a dynamic media platform, featuring interviews with activists, writers, and artists—and commentary on current events—all from a vegan lens.
We are including this one sanctuary because of their substantial contribution to gender and LGBTQIA equity. We are going to devote a discussion to sanctuaries soon, and how so many are women-run, and the kinds of contributions that they are making.
Also, we want to address the issue of how women-led organizations have been treated by the white men's club. And that is forthcoming.
Update 12/12/17: The feedback we’re receiving on additional groups is great. Some we can't add because they're not 501(c)3 nonprofits — and this list was developed in response to donors looking for tax exempt organizations to support. We chose not to include sanctuaries at this time because we are responding to donors who give to farm animal advocacy work and wanted more inclusive options — however, if we choose to make this list again next year we will keep this category open for consideration. This is a project that could grow and change over time. We're excited about the feedback so far. One thing has been made clear: The animal movement is full of incredible women/queer/POC-run groups and individuals and even though most of the money in our movement goes to larger (traditionally white male run) organizations this segment of our movement deserves attention and financial support!