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So you want to start something for animals: a map of the incubators
10 min readJul 22
Tl;dr: A few years ago, if you wanted to found an animal advocacy organisation, there was basically one incubator. Now there are at least nine programs, plus several adjacent accelerators, and the hard part has shifted from finding support to choosing the right kind. This post maps the main options across focus, format, funding, and fit, so you can spend your energy on your idea rather than on decoding the landscape.
AI disclosure: I asked Claude to research the current programs and draft the comparison, then I verified the details, added a few more programs, added my own take on fit, and edited the result. Program details were checked against each organisation’s website in July 2026. If you spot any inaccuracies, please flag them in the comments, and I will correct them!
Recently I was chatting with a fellow board member, Cam, and we realised neither of us could confidently list all the incubation programs in animal advocacy anymore. That’s a good problem. When I started in this movement, “founding something” mostly meant one route or self-found. Now there’s a choice, and the programs serve various founding stages and needs. I’d love all aspiring founders to have the lay of the land and apply to the incubators that they are most suited to.
So here’s the map. At the end of the post, I’ve grouped programs by the question that matters most: what kind of founder are you, and what do you need?
A note on scope: I focus on programs whose goal is launching new organisations measured on impact for animals. Most build nonprofits, though a couple (Spring Innovation Fund, Myrias) also launch for-profit companies within a philanthropic model, where returns feed back into creating more ventures. Accelerators for commercial startups, like the ProVeg Incubator for alternative protein companies, get a brief note at the end.
Most of these programs run in cohorts, once a year or less, so at any given moment several will be closed. Sign up to each program's newsletter or follow them on LinkedIn, and you'll hear when the next round opens.
The flagship. AIM’s Incubation Program is a free two-month, full-time program with a stipend that gives you a researched charity idea/problem space that’s very promising for a new org to enter. It matches you with a talented co-founder and provides up to ~$220,000 in seed funding. They’ve incubated 70+ organisations since 2018, including Shrimp Welfare Project and Fish Welfare Initiative, and others.
The big news: AIM is running its first incubation round focused exclusively on animal welfare in early 2027, in partnership with Aaron Boddy, co-founder of Shrimp Welfare Project.
Applications are open from August 3 until September 13, and you can sign up for an expression of interest to be notified. AIM has said publicly that it is bottlenecked by a lack of great animal founders, not ideas or funding. If you’ve ever assumed you’re not the founder type, or maybe you have founded something a while ago and are currently running it, that post is worth reading. It’s good to keep in mind that AIM is very competitive, but worth applying because top candidates may be referred for other high-impact roles in the movement.
Best for: People ready to go full-time on a rigorously researched idea, comfortable being matched to both an idea and a co-founder, and able to relocate or travel for the program. High intensity, high support, strongest funder network.
An 18-week program for nonprofits and impact initiatives transforming the food system, combining virtual phases (around 20 hours per week) with two in-person weeks in Berlin. It grew out of ProVeg and is now independent. The 2026 program runs from late July to late November. Graduates receive a minimum of $10,000 in seed funding, with up to $100,000 awarded by a jury of major funders at the Plant Food System Summit in Berlin in November, from a total pool of over $1 million this year, three times last year's. K4G has also secured matching grants, so graduates can double any funding they raise independently after the programme, and new for 2026, development grants of up to $12,000 go to promising applicants who don't make the cohort. You can apply with your own idea or take on one from their researched idea list. Alumni include Open Paws and the Farm Adaptation Network.
Best for: People with their own food-system or advocacy idea who can’t yet commit full-time. Note that there is no participation stipend: travel and accommodation for the Berlin weeks are covered, but your time is not.
Applications are closed for this year, but they usually open every year in spring. Join their mailing list to keep updated.
A 12-week, full-time incubation programme launching locally-based nonprofits to improve farmed animal welfare in Southeast Asia, focused on Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. The 2026 programme runs from early September to the end of November, mostly online with a two-week in-person component in the region, and this year's focus is layer hens and farmed fish, chosen through their own prioritisation research. The support package includes project-idea research, stipends to cover living costs, co-founder matching within the cohort, and a seed grant of up to $50,000 for accepted proposals, followed by a year of continued support. The 2024 cohort launched two organisations working on farmed duck welfare: Sentient Animals Vietnam and Across Species Project Indonesia. Note that FAWI runs roughly once every two years and the applications for this year are closed, so the next opportunity is likely 2028; their 14-week part-time fellowship (SEAFAWF) is the entry point in between.
Best for: Advocates based in or committed to Southeast Asia. The stipend and year of post-program support make this accessible.
Applications are closed for this year, but sign up to their newsletter to find out when their next cohort opens.
A training and incubation program for advocates launching farmed animal advocacy initiatives across Africa, where total farmed animal funding was around $2 million in 2022, less than 1% of the global total. Participants start with a training cohort (their second took 19 people from over 400 applicants), the strongest progress to an advanced phase to develop detailed project plans, and the best projects receive seed funding. Participants receive a stipend, and their Nigeria Fellowship covers accommodation for its in-person training week. Their first two cohorts incubated six new organisations, five still running, including Lumera in Zambia, which secured the country’s first conditional cage-free commitment. AAA also offers career support for advocates not ready to found, and regrants to African initiatives through its Catalyst Fund. Applications are closed for now, but sign up for their newsletter to be notified when they reopen.
Best for: Advocates based in Africa or willing to relocate there, especially those early in their journey who want training, network, and incubation in one package, with financial support along the way.
A new venture studio rather than a classic incubator. Myrias builds nonprofits and for-profit companies targeting the largest and most neglected sources of animal suffering: farmed fish, insects, feeder rodents. Their prioritisation starts with China, where more than half the world’s farmed animals are raised. In a venture studio model, the studio generates and de-risks the ideas and recruits people to build them, so the entry point is often a role like Entrepreneur in Residence rather than a cohort application.
Best for: Experienced operators and builders who want to execute against a pre-researched, high-conviction thesis rather than develop their own idea, especially those with China or aquaculture context.
Not an incubator, and RP says so themselves: their recent call for founders was an expression of interest, not a structured program with fixed slots. RP is looking for founders on frontier animal issues: wild animal welfare, invertebrates, aquatic animals, AI and animals, welfare technology, and neglected geographies with intensive farming but little advocacy infrastructure. Depending on fit, they offer 3 to 6 months of funded runway as a Special Project, an Entrepreneur in Residence role, or structured support to spin out as an independent organisation. Special Projects alumni include the Insect Institute, now a leading voice on insect farming, and the Center for Wild Animal Welfare, which secured a wild animal welfare debate and tabled amendments in the UK Parliament within months of launching.
RP’s key question to applicants is whether you’d switch to working on this full-time given the runway, and the funding is a pro-rated salary of $60,000 to $105,000 per year, designed to let you step away from your current role, although they may be open to part-time candidates. Their first expression-of-interest round closed in July 2026, but they’ve said there’s no fixed start date, and they want to hear from people who can’t start until next year, so it’s worth contacting them even between rounds.
Best for: Experienced people with a frontier-issue thesis (or strong motivation to develop one) who want institutional backing, research support, and a salary rather than a curriculum and cohort. RP notes that animal-specific background is not required.
A 10-week, fully remote, part-time program (5 to 10 hours per week) pairing fellows with mentors to build projects across animal welfare, artificial minds, and AI governance. The 2026 round runs from 31 August to 9 November, with applications closing 9 August. You can join a mentor’s pre-defined project or propose your own, and the goal is a finished standalone output rather than necessarily a new organisation. Alumni projects include an animal welfare benchmark merged into the UK AI Security Institute’s evaluation suite and Shared Roads, which engages governments on how driverless vehicle policy should account for animals.
Best for: People testing whether founding or independent work suits them, technical people bridging into advocacy, and anyone working at the intersection of AI and animals. The lowest-commitment entry point on this list, and it's unpaid, so it suits people who can carve out 5 to 10 hours a week alongside existing work or study.
The newest entry, launched in 2026, is the first venture philanthropy studio dedicated to welfare tech: technology that improves animal welfare in ways that make commercial sense for producers to adopt. Spring is a 501(c)(3) that runs a paid three-month entrepreneur-in-residence program, after which selected founders may launch companies with roughly $500,000 in initial funding, plus follow-on support. Their pitch to founders is that salary, capital, co-founders, and initial research are all in place on day one. Focus areas include fish and crustacean welfare (their most active), hatchery and on-farm interventions, vaccines, and AI monitoring and breeding tools. Because donors take no equity and Spring recycles any returns into future ventures, it occupies unusual ground: you build a for-profit company, philanthropically backed, judged on welfare impact.
Best for: Builders, engineers, and commercially minded founders who want to create welfare technology companies rather than advocacy nonprofits, with the strongest day-one package on this list. You can do it with or without your own idea or even your established company.
Not an incubator, but a founding pathway hiding inside a placement fellowship. SMA, co-founded by Rutger Bregman in 2024, recruits mid-career professionals and embeds them in host organisations for six months; their first EU Food Fellows cohort graduated in April 2025, placed across 12 organisations spanning food, climate, and animal advocacy, with 83% still working in food system reform. The EU Food Transition Fellowship offers a monthly stipend of €4,000 gross plus a €1,000 monthly expense budget. And while the design is placement, founding keeps happening anyway: two fellows co-founded The Protein Project, which built a coalition of 90+ organisations influencing EU protein diversification policy. A US Food System Reform Fellowship launches in 2026, combining fundraising training with a six-month placement. There are no animal-only cohorts yet; the food fellowships sit within a broader protein transition frame, alongside SMA’s tobacco work.
Best for: Mid-career professionals from outside the movement who want a paid, structured transition into food system work, with founding as a possible outcome rather than the goal.
The programs sort along four questions.
Do you have your own idea? If yes: Kickstarting for Good, or Sentient Futures. If no, and you want to be handed a rigorously researched one: AIM, AAA, Myrias, or Welfare Matters. Rethink Priorities and Spring Innovation Fund sit in both camps: they welcome founders with a specific idea and those motivated to develop one with their research team's support.
Can you go full-time? If yes: AIM, Myrias, Welfare Matters, Rethink Priorities, School for Moral Ambition. If no: Sentient Futures (lightest), AAA, or Kickstarting for Good. Rethink Priorities may be open to part-time candidates.
Where are you, and where do you want to work? Regional programs (AAA, Welfare Matters, Myrias) exist because context matters. If you’re based in those regions, they will likely serve you better than a global program, and the movement needs founders there most.
Can you afford to work unpaid? This question will help you decide which program is doable for your circumstances. Rethink Priorities, Spring Innovation Fund, School for Moral Ambition, and Myrias pay a salary or equivalent. Welfare Matters and AIM provide a cost-of-living stipend. AAA pays a modest stipend for part-time participation. Kickstarting for Good covers travel expenses. Sentient Futures does not currently provide a stipend.
Start with the lowest-commitment option and produce something. A 10-week Sentient Futures project or a Kickstarting for Good application will teach you more about your fit than another six months of deliberation.
Speak to people who have founded something, or read/watch their accounts of what it’s like to found (here is mine!). You can also get some informal takes from previous incubator participants if you’d like to know what it’s really like to go through any particular incubator (e.g. you can ask on Hive in the help-requests channel).
Five years ago the bottleneck was support infrastructure and funding. Today, by AIM’s own account, the bottleneck is founders. The infrastructure now exists across every commitment level, almost every region, and idea-ownership preference. If you’ve been waiting for the right on-ramp, it’s here, and there’s more than one.
If your idea is a company rather than a charity, you’re looking at a different ecosystem: the ProVeg Incubator (130+ alternative protein startups supported since 2018, currently running its free three-month Fast-track to Impact program) and Big Idea Ventures are the main entry points.
Hi, I’m Sofia Balderson. I lead Hive, a global community for people working to end factory farming. This post is from my Substack, Notes from the Margin, to share the messier, more personal reflections that don’t fit in formal updates. If you care about leading, belonging, or building something that matters (especially from the edges), you might enjoy sticking around.
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