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Announcing our 2026 Charity Recommendations
We update our list of recommendations annually. This year, we announced our recommendations on November 10.
Most people who care about animals arrive at the same impasse: the problem is enormous, there are thousands of animal advocacy organizations working on it, and there’s no obvious way to tell which of them are effective at turning donations into real-world change that helps animals at scale.
That’s where Animal Charity Evaluators comes in. We spend months evaluating a small cohort of the most promising animal charities so you don’t have to. We examine their programs, evidence, finances, organizational health, and what they’d do with more funding. After this year’s comprehensive evaluations, we’re delighted to announce our Recommended Charities for 2026.
| Charities awarded the status in 2026 | Charities retaining the status from 2025 |
Çiftlik Hayvanlarını Koruma Derneği Greener by Default Sinergia Animal | Animal Welfare Observatory Shrimp Welfare Project Sociedade Vegetariana Brasileira The Humane League Wild Animal Initiative |
Çiftlik Hayvanlarını Koruma Derneği (in Türkiye) and Sinergia Animal (in Latin America and Southeast Asia) have continued to demonstrate impactful strategic prioritization and effective methods in their work on the most important issues for animals. After being thoroughly re-evaluated this year, their recommendation status has been renewed. And this year, a newly evaluated charity joins their ranks: U.S.-based Greener by Default.
Many worthy charities applied to be evaluated this year, and we’re grateful to them for the incredible work they’re doing for animals who need help. We believe the six we selected for in-depth evaluation are doing some of the most meaningful work to reduce the suffering of farmed and wild animals, and it was a pleasure to get to know their programs in such detail.
If you’d like to support our Recommended Charities, we invite you to give to our Greatest Needs Fund. The fund lets us stay responsive to animals’ needs in a rapidly and radically changing world, so we can act on things that are hard to anticipate, like a Recommended Charity facing an unexpected funding gap or a time-sensitive opportunity we’d otherwise have to pass up. Your gift today is what makes that responsiveness possible.
Thanks to a generous legacy donor, we’ll launch a Matching Challenge for our Greatest Needs Fund to increase the impact of your donations starting 14th November.
Three charities were newly evaluated this year; five carry forward their recommendation status from 2025, having met our rigorous evaluation criteria.
Çiftlik Hayvanlarını Koruma Derneği (ÇHKD) is working to improve the lives of the more than 110 million egg-laying hens and 1.8 billion farmed fishes (around 600,000 tonnes) that are suffering at any given time in Türkiye’s food production systems. They are the country's only farmed animal advocacy organization, running corporate cage-free campaigns through Kafessiz Türkiye (Türkiye Without Cages) alongside a newer program building the welfare science base for farmed fishes. They aim to make Türkiye a country where corporate welfare standards are expected rather than exceptional.
ÇHKD’s recent achievements include:
With your support, ÇHKD can expand the Future for Fish program beyond its first pilot round, encourage the development of a Turkish egg certification scheme, and sustain the accountability work needed to hold companies to cage-free commitments already secured.
| ACE proudly recommends Çiftlik Hayvanlarını Koruma Derneği (ÇHKD) as an excellent giving opportunity. To learn more, read our 2026 review of Çiftlik Hayvanlarını Koruma Derneği. If you would like to support the work of Çiftlik Hayvanlarını Koruma Derneği, you can donate here. |
Greener by Default (GBD) works in North America and Europe to reduce the number of animals raised and killed for food by changing how institutions serve meals. Institutional kitchens serve billions of meals a year, and the choices made in those kitchens shape what millions of people eat. Rather than asking individuals to change their habits, GBD works with hospitals, universities, corporate dining programs, stadiums, and city governments to make plant-based options the default on menus, with meat available on request.
Their approach is grounded in behavioral science, and because a single institutional contract can shift millions of meals, GBD's model reaches a scale that individual outreach cannot. The changes tend to persist because they’re built into procurement and menu design rather than depending on continued persuasion.
GBD’s recent achievements include:
With your support, GBD will be able to hire two healthcare managers to expand their coverage across U.S. regions and open up the senior living sector, an area which no other organization currently works in. They will also grow their train-the-trainer program, which they expect to equip at least 10 organizations by 2028, reaching institutions that serve over 9 million meals a year. Support will also help them add capacity to work with individual hospitals they currently turn down.
| ACE proudly recommends Greener by Default as an excellent giving opportunity. To learn more, read our 2026 review of Greener by Default. If you would like to support Greener by Default’s work, you can donate here. |
Sinergia Animal works across Latin America and Southeast Asia to reduce the suffering of farmed animals in countries including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Indonesia, Peru, and Thailand — countries where farmed animals have few advocacy organizations working on their behalf. Sinergia drives meaningful welfare improvements through corporate outreach, institutional meat reduction, and programs for pigs’ welfare. Their campaigns are both locally tailored and globally strategic. With a strong track record and impressive plans for the future, Sinergia is well positioned to create lasting change for farmed animals worldwide.
Sinergia’s recent achievements include:
With your support, Sinergia Animal will be able to hire five new accountability campaigners in Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Indonesia, and Thailand, and senior campaign strategists to support national teams. They’ll also be able to run more pressure campaigns and develop a staff retention and succession plan.
| ACE proudly recommends Sinergia Animal as an excellent giving opportunity. To learn more, read our 2026 review of Sinergia Animal. If you would like to support Sinergia Animal’s work, you can donate here. |
Animal Welfare Observatory (AWO) works to improve the welfare of farmed animals through corporate campaigns, investigations, and legislative advocacy. Based in Spain, one of the EU’s largest producers of farmed animals and a strategically important yet neglected country for animal protection, AWO focuses on improving conditions for egg-laying hens, chickens raised for meat, and farmed aquatic animals, including fishes and shrimp. The organization works with companies and policymakers in Spain and at the EU level to advance stronger welfare standards and lasting institutional changes toward ending factory farming.
AWO’s recent achievements include:
With your support, AWO will hold Spain’s largest retailers accountable for fulfilling their cage-free commitments, push chicken producers to adopt European Chicken Commitment standards, and secure corporate commitments to end eyestalk ablation and introduce effective stunning for shrimp. Additional funding will also support advocacy during the upcoming revision of EU animal welfare legislation, particularly to advance an EU-wide ban on cages and stronger legal protections for farmed fishes.
| ACE proudly recommends Animal Welfare Observatory as an excellent giving opportunity. To learn more, read our 2025 review of Animal Welfare Observatory. If you would like to support Animal Welfare Observatory’s work, you can donate here. |
Shrimp Welfare Project (SWP) is the first organization dedicated exclusively to improving the welfare of farmed shrimp. They secure commitments for electrical stunning, which minimizes suffering during slaughter, through two key approaches: supporting retailers’ shrimp welfare policies and providing producers with stunning equipment, ongoing technical support, and supply chain consulting. SWP also works to improve water quality on shrimp farms and researches shrimp welfare. In recent years, shrimp welfare advocacy has gained more traction and found opportunities to make meaningful change. SWP’s long-term goal is to transform industry standards toward higher welfare.
SWP’s recent achievements include:
With your support, SWP will be able to continue deploying stunners to accelerate industry-wide change, catalyze cheaper and fit-for-purpose models of electrical stunners, and bring in third-party verification for electrical stunning to improve implementation.
| ACE proudly recommends Shrimp Welfare Project as an excellent giving opportunity. To learn more, read our 2025 review of Shrimp Welfare Project. If you would like to support Shrimp Welfare Project’s work, you can donate here. |
Sociedade Vegetariana Brasileira (SVB) is a nonprofit organization working to transform Brazil’s food systems by making plant-based eating more accessible, affordable, and widely adopted. SVB combines government relations, public policy advocacy, and grassroots mobilization to drive systemic change. Through engagement with policymakers, public institutions, and other stakeholders, they work to integrate plant-based nutrition into public policies and institutional food systems while building the political and social support needed to sustain these changes. By combining technical assistance, professional training, and policy engagement, SVB helps translate policy opportunities into practical improvements in food provision at scale.
SVB’s recent achievements include:
With your support, SVB can build on this momentum by strengthening their work in government relations and public policy advocacy, expanding their campaigns and capacity-building efforts, and broadening their nutrition education initiatives through courses and lectures at universities. The funding will also support SVB’s participation in health-related and international climate events, as well as their strategic engagement in fiscal policy through the hiring of a specialized consultant.
| ACE proudly recommends Sociedade Vegetariana Brasileira as an excellent giving opportunity. To learn more, read our 2025 review of Sociedade Vegetariana Brasileira. If you would like to support Sociedade Vegetariana Brasileira, you can donate here. |
The Humane League (THL) drives corporate and legislative change for farmed animals worldwide. Billions of chickens raised for eggs and meat suffer in intensive farming systems designed to maximize output at the expense of welfare. THL accelerates the adoption of cage-free and other welfare commitments, backed by their international Open Wing Alliance (OWA) network. Their tactics include direct company engagement and public pressure campaigns. They also establish lasting welfare reforms through their Animal Policy Alliance and direct political outreach.
With your support, THL will be able to provide training and funding for Open Wing Alliance members around the world, expand their cage-free accountability work, drive forward progress in Asia, and support policy alignment to convert corporate norms into durable legislation.
| ACE proudly recommends The Humane League as an excellent giving opportunity. To learn more, read our 2025 review of The Humane League. If you would like to support The Humane League’s work, you can donate here. |
Wild Animal Initiative (WAI) is a U.S.-based organization working to improve our understanding of wild animals’ lives by advancing the field of wild animal welfare science. The vast majority of animals live in the wild, many of whom live very short lives and experience painful deaths. Yet we know very little about most wild animals’ quality of life or how to improve it. WAI conducts their own research and supports other wild animal researchers to expand academic interest in wild animal welfare. Together, these efforts help uncover evidence-based solutions to improve the wellbeing of wild animals.
WAI’s recent achievements include:
With your support, WAI will be able to ensure their grants, research, and services programs remain high-impact. They will also be able to pursue new milestones for the field, such as an interdisciplinary conference dedicated to wild animal welfare science and the launch of formal wild animal welfare science programs at major universities.
| ACE proudly recommends Wild Animal Initiative as an excellent giving opportunity. To learn more, read our 2025 review of Wild Animal Initiative. If you would like to support Wild Animal Initiative’s work, you can donate here. |
