Expanding Coalitions to Amplify Impact: The Humane League's Room for Funding

About The Humane League

The Humane League (THL) exists to end the abuse of animals raised for food. THL is laser focused on the efforts that reduce the most suffering for the greatest number of animals. We are distinguished from other animal welfare organizations by the effectiveness of our corporate campaigns and our approach to multiplying our movement’s impact globally through the Open Wing Alliance (OWA) and in the US through the Animal Policy Alliance (APA). Our scalable interventions have a proven track record of reducing farm animal suffering—according to a 2019 Rethink Priorities report, our corporate cage-free campaigns affect nine to 120 years of a hens life per dollar spent, and have a follow-through rate of 48%-84% (we’ve found up to 89% in recent years). But our work is severely neglected—the entire farm animal advocacy movement receives just 0.03% of US philanthropic support.

We are proud to be recognized by Animal Charity Evaluators, Giving What We Can, and Founders Pledge as one of the most effective animal protection charities in the world.

“While we expect all of our evaluated charities to be excellent examples of effective advocacy, THL is exceptional even within that group. Giving to THL is an excellent opportunity to support initiatives that create the most positive change for animals.” —Animal Charity Evaluators, 2023 THL evaluation report

Our Strategy & 2024 Impact

THL believes in focusing our collective energy where it will do the most good. Since chickens represent 90% of all land animals raised for food, any interventions we make for chickens will have the greatest potential impact. And restrictive battery cages—small wire cages used to confine laying hens to the space of an iPad—are thought to be responsible for about 60% of the suffering a hen experiences. Eradicating battery cages means ending the acute suffering of hundreds of millions of birds. THL is committed to ending the abuse of animals raised for food by:

• Holding companies accountable to their cage-free commitments. Thousands of companies around the world have pledged to eliminate battery cages from their supply chains, which would drastically reduce the suffering of millions of sentient animals. Now, our next step is to hold these companies accountable to their promises to hens. As of last year, 89% of global cage-free commitments with deadlines of 2023 or earlier had already been fulfilled! Meanwhile, for companies that are falling behind or failing to transparently report their progress, THL conducts outreach and campaigns (if necessary) to hold them accountable. In 2024, THL held 80 companies with global cage-free commitments accountable to reporting progress on their pledges. Household names like Aramark, Hilton, and General Mills began publicly reporting on their cage-free commitments. As we pressure companies to follow through, we see real results for animals: now 40.8% of the US egg-laying flock lives free from cages (approximately 127.5 million hens), up from ~5% when THL began this work in 2014. (Global data is currently unavailable)
• Progressing the cage-free movement globally. In addition to holding companies accountable for their existing commitments, THL is working to secure new cage-free commitments in key strategic areas around the world. Through the OWA—our coalition of 95 member groups in 75 countries across 6 continents—THL is empowering a global movement of animal advocates focused on ending the abuse of chickens worldwide. So far this year, the OWA has influenced 101 global companies to agree to eradicate battery cages from their supply chains, and convinced 11 global companies to sign on to our welfare standards for “broilers” (chickens raised for meat). Notably, the OWA has also made significant inroads in Asia, where 63% of all egg-laying hens are housed. Following our successful campaign last year to persuade Asian restaurant group Jollibee Foods Corporation to go cage-free, this year we secured a hard-won commitment from iconic Japanese mayonnaise giant Kewpie to phase out battery cages. Kewpie purchases 10% of all eggs produced in Japan, and is second in the world for the highest egg usage in emerging cage-free markets. Kewpie’s move is a sign of transformational change to come in the Japanese egg market. 

Our Room for More Funding

THL maintains its room for funding of $10.5 million to grow our Open Wing Alliance and our Animal Policy Alliance. This would be in addition to THL’s current operating budget of ~$20M USD. We feel that we can effectively deploy these additional funds to achieve much-needed transformation in our global food system, to strengthen the animal protection movement in every country where factory farming exists, and to eliminate the cruel practice of intensively confining animals raised for food. 

Open Wing Alliance (OWA)

We have developed a robust expansion plan for the OWA through 2030, which we would be able to put into place with significant additional funding. The goal of this expansion is to free one billion hens from cages by 2030 and achieve a critical tipping point in the OWA’s mission to eliminate battery cages from the planet. Campaigns against global companies have worked well, but to phase out battery cages across the globe, we must have a robust alliance touching every major country. 

To achieve this, we aim to strengthen the OWA by recruiting new member organizations in high priority regions, such as Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East. Doing so will not only expand our geographical scope of influence, but will also help us to build power in the areas where our work is needed most. 

But to do that, we first need to build internal capacity. Our current model—having a single regional OWA coordinator to support upwards of 20 member groups with differing needs across an entire continent—is no longer sustainable. Since there are few other resources available for international movement building, our limited funding means that groups are unable to get the training, support, strategic guidance, and leadership development they need. But we see great interest from groups in the OWA’s offerings, so we know we are poised to build an even more robust global coalition. 

To meet our current need and provide for future growth, we need to restructure, creating small teams in key regions around the world to support the specific needs of groups in each region. Those regions include Asia-Pacific, where we need more groups securing cage-free commitments in Asia; the Americas, where we need more cage-free commitments and corporate accountability, particularly in Latin America; and EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa), where we need several more groups in the Middle East, and more support for existing groups in Africa and Europe. 

To support these smaller teams, we would need to hire more campaigners and corporate negotiators to develop customized strategies in coordination with regional OWA leaders. We’d also need more animal welfare scientists to provide local groups with research tailored to farming practices in each region. And we’d need regional teams focused on recruiting and supporting new groups in effective campaigning. To scale up our OWA model as described, we estimate we will need an additional $8 million in 2025 and beyond. In addition, we would also need to scale up our core supporting teams (Operations, Communications, and Development) in order to meet the needs of the expanded OWA and Global Teams—a lesson learned from historical THL growth periods.

In addition to building internal capacity, we also aim to provide much-needed grant funding to animal protection groups looking to expand their cage-free or broiler welfare campaigns. 

Each year, we hope to distribute $2 million to $2.4 million in OWA grants. (In 2024, we provided more than $2 million in grant funding to 38 OWA groups.) These grants are transformative, and can cover general operating support, staff expenses, and campaign materials. New grantees can apply for grants up to $50,000 and existing grantees can apply for grants up to $100,000; both have the option of applying for a two-year grant.

But as of November, we have no committed funding for OWA grants in 2025 and beyond. Consequently, these grants will be funded by THL’s unrestricted revenue, and the final amount we have to distribute will depend on our final 2025 annual budget. 

Animal Policy Alliance

Another program primed for expansion is our Animal Policy Alliance, a coalition of organizations across the United States fighting for meaningful change for animals through public policy. 

Launched by THL in 2022, the APA organizes, unites, and empowers local and state-level animal advocacy groups focused on issue-based advocacy and legislative change for animals raised for food. As members of the coalition, these local animal groups benefit from being part of a significant base of animal advocates across the country. They foster relationships with legislators at the city, state, and federal level, and ultimately advocate for policies that benefit animals. So far, some of our APA member groups have won significant victories, including getting octopus farming banned in Washington and California. 

Our current goals for the APA include growing it from 23 to 30 active members, building grassroots and legislative power for farmed animals by supporting and uniting animal protection groups, incentivizing groups to focus on policy that will impact farmed animals, and providing grants that will permit APA groups to carry out meaningful work. 

While we distributed $500k in grants to APA members in 2022—our first year—we were unable to provide grants in 2023, due to lack of funding, and provided $100k in grants in 2024. But we are confident that in 2025 we could effectively deploy up to $750k in grants to APA members: most grants would be less than $50k, but we would offer up to $100k for organizations seeking to hire staff in high cost of living areas. We do know that the need for funding among our member groups is strong, and that there are dozens of groups eager to expand their advocacy for farmed animals. 

But as of November, we have no committed funding for APA grants in 2025 and beyond. Consequently, our ability to offer APA grants next year will depend on how much room is left in THL’s budget after other operating costs (including OWA grants) are accounted for, or on any restricted grants we might receive for the APA grant program. If we were to receive funds for regranting, we would be able to maintain momentum as we build progressively stronger US policy protections for farmed animals. 

As we expand the alliance and rebuild our grant program, we would also need to expand the APA team and core teams, which we estimate would cost $1 million in 2024 and $1.5 million in 2025.

Opportunities to Support THL

Donate to THL directly on our website or vote for us in the EA Forum donation election! We’d love to hear why you think donating to THL is important and effective. If you would like to discuss the impact you could have with a more substantial donation, or explore other ways to give, please reach out to Caroline Mills, Associate Vice President of Donor Relations, at [email protected].

If you’re based in the UK, we recommend you check out THL UK (they’ve shared their own marginal funding post here!). THL UK is an independent organization that works in collaboration with and is partially funded by THL. You’ll be able to maximize your impact by taking advantage of gift aid.