Wild Animal Initiative

Wild Animal Initiative (WAI) is a nonprofit organization focused on supporting and producing academic research on improving wild animal welfare. It is one of three "Top Charities" recommended by Animal Charity Evaluators.[4]

Wild Animal Initiative
AbbreviationWAI
Formation2019 (2019)
Founders
    • Abraham Rowe
    • Persis Eskander
Merger of
    • Utility Farm
    • Wild-Animal Suffering Research
Type501(c)(3)[1]
Registration no.EIN 82-2281466[2]
FocusWild animal welfare
Location
Region served
Global
Executive Director
Cameron Meyer Shorb
Revenue (2020)
$605,883[3]
Websitewildanimalinitiative.org

History

WAI was founded in 2019, as a merger of the organizations Utility Farm (founded in 2016 by Abraham Rowe) and Wild-Animal Suffering Research (founded in 2017 by Persis Eskander).[5] Its stated mission is to "understand and improve the lives of wild animals," by studying natural causes of pain and death for animals, such as natural disasters, disease, and starvation.[6]

Abraham Rowe was the Executive Director of WAI until 2019,[7] after which Mal Graham became the leader of the organization.[8] In 2022, Graham took the role of Strategy Director, and Cameron Meyer Shorb became the Executive Director.[9]

In 2021, WAI received a grant of $3.5 million from Open Philanthropy to support research on wild animal welfare.[10] In the same year, WAI launched a research fund for high-impact wild animal welfare research, with the intent to "distribute over $3 million to academic research projects designed to understand and improve the lives of wild animals".[11] WAI received a further $6 million grant from Open Philanthropy in 2023.[12]

Reception

Animal Charity Evaluators, which rates the cost-effectiveness of projects that work on improving animal welfare, rated WAI as a "Top Charity" in 2020, meaning that in their view, donating to WAI was one of the most effective ways to help animals. WAI is the only group not working on farmed animal welfare to ever receive that rating.[13][14] WAI retained its "Top Charity" status in 2021 and 2022.[4]

See also

References
  1. "Wild Animal Initiative Inc". Internal Revenue Service.
  2. EIN tax ID
  3. "Wild Animal Initiative's Reporting of Programs, Financials, Leadership, and Culture (2021)" (PDF). 2021. Retrieved 2021-12-07.
  4. Ormandy, Elisabeth (2022-11-22). "Announcing Our 2022 Charity Recommendations". Animal Charity Evaluators. Retrieved 2022-11-22.
  5. "Transparency". Wild Animal Initiative. Retrieved 2022-11-22.
  6. "About us". Wild Animal Initiative. Retrieved 2021-06-24.
  7. "Wild Animal Initiative is hiring an Executive Director". Wild Animal Initiative. Retrieved 2021-09-05.
  8. Matthews, Dylan (2021-04-12). "The wild frontier of animal welfare". Vox. Retrieved 2021-06-24.
  9. "Cameron Meyer Shorb now serving as Executive Director". Wild Animal Initiative. Retrieved 2022-06-28.
  10. "Wild Animal Initiative — Animal Welfare Research". Open Philanthropy. 2021-06-15. Retrieved 2021-06-24.
  11. "We're launching a research fund". Wild Animal Initiative. 2021-07-02. Retrieved 2021-10-18.
  12. "Wild Animal Initiative receives $6 million grant". Wild Animal Initiative. 2023-07-20. Retrieved 2023-07-25.
  13. Samuel, Sigal (2019-12-03). "Want to help animals? Here's where to donate your money". Vox. Retrieved 2021-06-28.
  14. "Announcing our 2020 Charity Recommendations". Animal Charity Evaluators. 2020-11-24. Retrieved 2021-06-24.

Further reading
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