AVA fundraising for travel awards to animal welfare conferences (matching opportunity)

Animal & Vegan Advocacy (AVA) International is building highly progressive and impactful global conferences for professional advocates. Our goal is to ensure that every single one of them has the opportunity to attend at least one AVA Summit in their region each year—to connect with funders, improve their strategies, and maximize their impact. 

Our Funding Gap

For our upcoming event in Brazil, we have the incredible opportunity to double your donation by having it matched 1:1 by Open Philanthropy. The maximum matching amount is $186,000, and we’ve raised $136,000 so far. This means we still need to raise $50,000 during Marginal Funding Week to unlock the full match and ensure that even more high-impact advocates can attend our upcoming Summit in Sao Paulo, in collaboration with VegFest Brazil.

What Will Your Donation Fund?

Every dollar raised will go directly to our Travel Award Program, which enables advocates from underrepresented regions to attend our Summit. This is one of the most effective and direct ways to support future movement leaders from neglected regions and bring them into the global conversation.

Because your donations will be doubled by Open Philanthropy, we can bring between 60 to 100 additional advocates to the event.

Why Are Travel Awards Crucial?

Supporting advocates who would otherwise not be able to attend is essential for building a strong, diverse, and equitable movement. These Travel Awards do more than just enabling individuals to participate; they are an investment in the future of the animal advocacy movement. By providing access to critical resources, strategies, and networking opportunities, we empower advocates to amplify their impact within their regions.

We prioritize advocates who are:

• Focused on farm animal issues
• Working at organizations with budgets under $250k
• Earning under $30k/year
• The sole attendee from their organization at the Summit
• From the BIPOC community

Our Track Record of Impact

AVA Summits consistently drive change:

• 89.1% of attendees at our 2023 Asia Summit reported learning new strategies that will positively impact their work on farm animal welfare.
• 45% of attendees made ten or more valuable connections at the event, and 94% would recommend attending to their colleagues.
• 100% of funders who participated in our Grantees’ Day said the event helped them build meaningful relationships with new groups they wouldn't have otherwise met.

These are just a few examples of the powerful outcomes we see. In 2025, we’re also planning:

• The first-ever Farm Animal Welfare Conference for nonprofit professionals in Africa, with 200+ attendees, tailored to regional needs.
• The largest Animal Advocacy Conference ever held in Asia, with 650+ attendees in India.

And we’re not done. As we work to improve our conferences, we aim to:

• Provide professional public speaking workshops for all our speakers.
• Enhance the quality of our recordings to share on our YouTube channel.
• Further expand our Travel Award Program to increase accessibility for advocates from diverse backgrounds.

Our Key Metrics of Success

We measure the impact of our conferences using several key indicators:

• Attendance: We prioritize bringing together the most influential advocates, with the goal of having 80+% of organizations send their leaders, 15+ major funders/foundations present, 40+ different countries represented, and 80+% of attendees being full-time advocates.
• Participant Engagement: We aim for high engagement in sessions, workshops, and networking activities, confirmed by an average 7.5/10 rating on session feedback.
• Networking Success: We aim for at least 1/3 of attendees to make 10+ new, valuable connections.
• Operational Excellence and smooth logistics, with an average 7.5/10 rating on overall event satisfaction.

Why Support AVA?

Beyond the measurable outcomes, these testimonials speak for themselves:

• “I honestly think this was the best conference I’ve ever attended!” — Chris Bryant, Bryant Research
• “For the past two years, AVA has been a central part of the growth of our organization.” — Ayubu Nnko, Education for African Animal Welfare
• “I finally got the chance to meet well-known organizations. Now I will implement their suggestions.” — Rajiv Aryal, Animal Advocate Nepal

The Bottom Line

Supporting the AVA Summit is one of the most impactful ways you can contribute to the success of professionals working in animal advocacy. Your donation will help close the funding gap, doubled in value through Open Philanthropy’s match, and enable advocates from across the globe to access the resources and networks they need to drive change.

We invite you to be part of this transformative effort. Let’s unlock the potential of the global animal advocacy movement, one Travel Award at a time.

If you're interested, please contact me at [email protected] 
Thank you for your consideration and generosity!

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