Request for Proposals: Strategic Animal Funding Circle, Spring 2026

Overview

Strategic Animal Funding Circle (SAFC) is a group of donors looking to support cost-effective and high-impact animal welfare and protection nonprofits, particularly during a critical growth phase where targeted funding can have a significant impact. Twice a year, donors in the circle grant a total of ±$500k divided among the most promising applicants, with a typical grant size of $50k.

Grants will initially be one-off support, though renewals may be possible at the discretion of individual donors. We aim to keep the application process relatively short and fast.

See the results from our previous rounds here. More info about SAFC and how to join is at the bottom of this post.

Apply by March 25th, 2026.

Eligibility Criteria

1. The intervention is focused on reducing the suffering of farmed or wild animals, or on reducing the number of farmed animals.
2. The intervention can be service delivery, campaigning, policy work, or any other type that delivers measurable impact and helps multiple animals per dollar spent. Roughly, we use cage-free corporate campaigns or stunning improvements for aquatic animals as a benchmark of effectiveness.
3. Your project has the potential and ability to scale.
4. (Highly preferred) You are a registered not-for-profit entity or are partnering with one as a fiscal sponsor.
5. Preference is given towards:
   • Funding opportunities below $200k
   • Organizations with less than 4 years of operating history or less than $500k in annual budget

Areas We Are Open to Funding

• Improving the welfare of neglected species, such as fish, shrimp, or invertebrates
• Helping animals in neglected geographic regions, such as Southeast Asia
• Policy advocacy for tractable animal welfare improvements
• Pilots of new, promising interventions that can produce evidence of impact, cost-effectiveness, and feasibility
• Reducing the suffering of wild animals or city wildlife (numerous species such as small mammals and birds)
• Welfare technology (e.g., in-ovo sexing, water quality monitoring, etc.)
• Research projects to understand priorities for the animal welfare movement (e.g., identifying new species of highly numerous animals with possible approaches to help them, such as this work)
• New evidence-driven approaches to target cultural change (e.g., applying lessons from successful social change campaigns with similarities to meat reduction, such as anti-smoking, in a highly targeted way)
• Metacharities helping other actors in the animal welfare space to significantly and demonstrably scale up their impact, including helping large organisations
• Charities effectively and measurably advancing the shift from animal to plant-based/alternative proteins, including for pet food. 

Areas We Are Not Considering This Round

• Farm Transitions
• Individual diet change campaigns or humane education
• Documentaries
• Most institutional diet change interventions, except for the most cost-effective approaches (supermarket protein ratios, choice architecture in large cities, etc.)
• Sanctuaries or direct care of animals 

Application & Timeline

Apply here by March 25th, 2026. We aim to notify applicants about interview invitations shortly after. There will be one additional stage, a request for more information and an interview, before the final decision.

We have very limited capacity to respond to specific questions or give feedback on applications beyond our results posts, and will only contact those that seem like a good fit.

Selection Criteria: What Makes a Competitive Application?

• A Great Idea: An innovative, neglected, scalable, and cost-effective program where funding can catalyze real progress.
• Focus on Impact: Demonstrated results through metrics, internal data, or externally-backed models. Strong applicants set SMART goals for the grant period. We recommend tools like Goal Review Rubric and GoalsGPT.
• Cost Effectiveness: Interventions should have the potential to outperform cage-free corporate campaigns in cost-effectiveness.
• Quality of Evidence: Studies, data, or information indicating the program is or will be successful.
• Scalability: Concrete plans to expand impact.
• Demonstrated Funding Gap: Support enables work that wouldn't otherwise happen. We are most excited about areas neglected by major farmed animal funders.

Future Rounds

We plan to review applications twice per year, with the next round opening around September 2026.

About the Strategic Animal Funding Circle

We are a group of donors supporting promising farmed animal welfare and animal protection nonprofits during the critical growth phase. By coordinating funding at this inflection point, we help elevate the next generation of farmed animal welfare innovators.

Programs are helping early-stage groups start up, and later, a select few highly effective nonprofits attract attention from major funders. But between these stages lies a gap, when organizations lack the track record for major donations yet have demonstrated early success and the capacity to scale. We seek to bridge that gap with relatively small grants and a light due diligence process.

Join Us

If you are a funder with the capacity to donate ±$100k or more per year to animal welfare and are interested in our scope, we invite you to join. Reach out to jozden[at]mobius.life.

If you occasionally give larger $10k+ grants to animal welfare organizations, we will be experimenting with an exclusive Funder's Inbox for promising applications with room for more funding beyond the circle rounds. Reach out via [email protected] .

See www.animalfundingcircle.com for more information.