THL exists to end the abuse of animals raised for food. Through strategic corporate negotiations, policy change, and movement building, we meaningfully reduce the suffering of millions of animals on factory farms around the world each year. THL currently has a funding gap of $3.6M for 2025. Beyond that, we have developed detailed plans to absorb over $4M in additional funding to high-impact interventions to reduce the suffering of chickens, the most widely abused land animals. With these funds, we would allocate roughly:

• $1M to Open Wing Alliance (OWA) program expansion and $1M in additional OWA regranting funds in support of our goals to spare 300M hens from cages globally and 1.3B chickens raised for meat from cruelty by 2030
• $1M to US corporate cage-free accountability in support of our goal to reach a critical tipping point where two-thirds of hens in the US are spared from cages by 2030
• $250,000 to Animal Policy Alliance (APA) program expansion and $750,000 to APA regranting in support of our goal to build political power in the US and pass increasingly ambitious legislation to protect farm animals.

THL’s Room for More Funding

Grow the Open Wing Alliance

THL founded and leads the OWA, a global coalition of 90+ animal protection organizations across six continents. Modeled after a Y Combinator approach, OWA provides early funding, hands-on training, and regionally coordinated strategies to help emerging organizations accelerate their impact and reduce the suffering of millions of animals. This wraparound support acts as an impact multiplier, equipping advocates with the skills needed to make their grants successful and sustainable. In 2026, OWA seeks to build on our strong track record with expanded funding to deepen support for grantees. 

The OWA has developed regional strategic plans to spare one-third of egg-laying hens from cages globally by 2030—an additional 300M more birds. Key outcomes include:

• Improve Accountability in Europe: Pressure companies so that over 80% of hens in the UK and EU are out of cages, while progressing the European Chicken Commitment so that 30% of chickens raised for meat are compliant.
• Advance Accountability in Latin America: Increase the cage-free fulfillment rate to over 50%, while securing new cage-free commitments from the retail sector in key countries.
• Establish Foundational Standards in Africa: Experiment with tactics to develop regionally appropriate, replicable campaigns in the region, and establish cage-free standards that are locally contextualized in two or more African countries.
• Strengthen Alliance Capacity in Asia: Recruit and incubate groups in half of the major Asian countries, while supporting all OWA member groups to confidently lead corporate campaigns through a newly established Corporate Engagement Academy.

In order to fully resource our regional strategic plans, we need to add key roles in Europe, Africa, and Asia, such as a Corporate Outreach role for Asia, as well as support roles that serve the entire alliance, like a Corporate Campaigns trainer. In addition, we would build a team to support the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region, incubating the movement in this neglected but high-potential area. Together, these roles will cost just over $1,000,000 USD. Increasing our staffing to fully support the alliance would enable us to increase funds awarded through our regranting program, up to an additional $1,000,000, and ensure those funds were spent effectively.

Hold US Companies Accountable for their Cage-free Commitments

2025 and 2026 are pivotal years for corporate accountability, with hundreds of cage-free commitments due. As the world’s largest economy, progress in the United States has a ripple effect across the world. We aim to reach a tipping point by 2030, when two-thirds of all egg-laying hens in the US live free from a cage, sparing 200M individuals from the cruelty of intensive confinement. We’ll do this by focusing on the largest and most influential restaurants and retailers, as they predominantly hold the remainder of the nation’s caged egg-laying flock in their supply chains and can set the precedent for other similar companies. 

In order to ensure we reach this tipping point by 2030, we need to hire additional campaigners and organizers, and invest in impossible-to-ignore campaign tactics to put pressure on stubborn US retail targets. We estimate we could effectively spend nearly $1,000,000 advancing US cage-free accountability.

Resource the Animal Policy Alliance (APA)

Modeled on the OWA and launched by THL in 2022, the APA organizes, unites, and empowers more than 30 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 receive strategic guidance, grants, and the opportunity to network and learn from each other. APA members foster relationships with legislators at the city, state, and federal level to build power for animals and ultimately pass increasingly impactful legislation that protects farm animals from suffering and curtails the power of the animal agriculture industry. Our APA member groups have won significant victories, including banning octopus farming in Washington and California. 

We estimate that the APA could effectively use approximately $250,000 for staff roles and tech tools like an AI Policy ChatBot to provide more robust coordination and support for APA members, as well as up to $750,000 in additional funding for grants.

Why Give to THL

THL's corporate negotiations and pressure campaigns have transformed the food industry's treatment of animals. Alongside our partner organizations, THL has secured over 3,000 commitments from companies to spare chickens from abuse. This includes over 2,700 cage-free welfare commitments and over 650 broiler welfare commitments by restaurants, bakeries, supermarkets, drugstores, and other foodservice and hospitality businesses. Of these cage-free commitments with a deadline of 2024 or earlier, 92% have been successfully fulfilled. As a result, as of 2025, over 45% of the US egg-laying flock is cage-free vs. only 5% when THL started conducting cage-free campaigns in 2015. That 40% difference accounts for an estimated 120 million egg-laying hens per year in the US who will never face life in a cage. 

In the first three quarters of 2025, THL held 109 companies accountable for their commitments to spare 145 million hens from cages, and based on the progress those companies reported, 5.9 million hens were spared from suffering in a battery cage last year.

THL’s scalable interventions have a proven track record of reducing farm animal suffering—we recently estimated that our corporate cage-free campaigns have conservatively spared two hens from cages for every dollar spent. 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 and Founders Pledge as one of the most effective animal protection charities in the world.

Opportunities to Support THL

Donate to THL directly on our website or vote for us in the EA Forum donation election! 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 cmills@thehumaneleague.org. 

If you’re based in the UK, we recommend you check out THL UK (they’ve shared their own marginal funding post here) in order to take advantage of gift aid. THL UK is an independent organization that works in collaboration with and is partially funded by THL.