Compassion in World Farming USA donations received

This is an online portal with information on donations that were announced publicly (or have been shared with permission) that were of interest to Vipul Naik. The git repository with the code for this portal, as well as all the underlying data, is available on GitHub. All payment amounts are in current United States dollars (USD). The repository of donations is being seeded with an initial collation by Issa Rice as well as continued contributions from him (see his commits and the contract work page listing all financially compensated contributions to the site) but all responsibility for errors and inaccuracies belongs to Vipul Naik. Current data is preliminary and has not been completely vetted and normalized; if sharing a link to this site or any page on this site, please include the caveat that the data is preliminary (if you want to share without including caveats, please check with Vipul Naik). We expect to have completed the first round of development by the end of July 2024. See the about page for more details. Also of interest: pageview data on analytics.vipulnaik.com, tutorial in README, request for feedback to EA Forum.

Table of contents

Basic donee information

ItemValue
Country United States
Facebook page CompassionUSA
Websitehttps://www.ciwf.com/
Donate pagehttps://donate.ciwf.com/page/12128/donate/1?supporter.appealCode=LAWE_US0918a
Twitter username@compassionusa
Open Philanthropy Project grant reviewhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/CIWF-USA-general-support
Instagram usernamecompassionusa

Donee donation statistics

Cause areaCountMedianMeanMinimum10th percentile 20th percentile 30th percentile 40th percentile 50th percentile 60th percentile 70th percentile 80th percentile 90th percentile Maximum
Overall 7 78,750 392,679 10,000 10,000 30,000 30,000 30,000 78,750 550,000 550,000 550,000 1,500,000 1,500,000
Animal welfare 7 78,750 392,679 10,000 10,000 30,000 30,000 30,000 78,750 550,000 550,000 550,000 1,500,000 1,500,000

Donation amounts by donor and year for donee Compassion in World Farming USA

Donor Total 2021 2020 2018 2017 2016
Open Philanthropy (filter this donee) 2,708,750.00 550,000.00 78,750.00 1,500,000.00 30,000.00 550,000.00
Effective Altruism Funds: Animal Welfare Fund (filter this donee) 40,000.00 0.00 0.00 30,000.00 10,000.00 0.00
Total 2,748,750.00 550,000.00 78,750.00 1,530,000.00 40,000.00 550,000.00

Full list of documents in reverse chronological order (10 documents)

Title (URL linked)Publication dateAuthorPublisherAffected donorsAffected doneesAffected influencersDocument scopeCause areaNotes
Announcing our 2019 Charity Recommendations2019-12-02Toni Adleberg Animal Charity Evaluators Albert Schweitzer Foundation for Our Contemporaries Anima International The Good Food Institute The Humane League Compassion in World Farming USA Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisations Faunalytics Animals Now Compassion in World Farming International Mercy For Animals The Nonhuman Rights Project Evaluator consolidated recommendation listAnimal welfareIn this blog post, Animal Charity Evaluators (ACE) announces its 2019 end-of-year recommendations. Top charities are Albert Schweitzer Foundation for Our Contemporaries, Anima International (a newly formed charity from a merger of two charities including Otwartke Klatki (Open Cages)), The Good Food Institute, and The Humane League. Standout charities include two of general interest: Compassion in World Farming USA and Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisations, and one of special interest: Faunalytics. ACE also lists other charities it reviewed in 2019, linking to its comprehensive review for each: Animals Now, Compassion in World Farming International, and The Nonhuman Rights Project. It also suggests to donors to donate to its Recommended Charity Fund, from which it disburses money to its recommended charities every January and July. There is a companion blog post https://animalcharityevaluators.org/blog/comparison-chart-of-our-2019-recommended-charities/ that includes a comparison chart and more details on how to use it to compare charities. Also, the accompanying blog post https://animalcharityevaluators.org/blog/the-process-leading-to-our-2019-recommendations/ goes into more detail on the process leadinig up to the recommendations
EA Giving Tuesday Donation Matching Initiative 2018 Retrospective (GW, IR)2019-01-06Avi Norowitz Effective Altruism ForumAvi Norowitz William Kiely Against Malaria Foundation Malaria Consortium GiveWell Effective Altruism Funds Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters Effective Animal Advocacy Fund The Humane League The Good Food Institute Animal Charity Evaluators Machine Intelligence Research Institute Faunalytics Wild-Aniaml Suffering Research GiveDirectly Center for Applied Rationality Effective Altruism Foundation Cool Earth Schistosomiasis Control Initiative New Harvest Evidence Action Centre for Effective Altruism Animal Equality Compassion in World Farming USA Innovations for Poverty Action Global Catastrophic Risk Institute Future of Life Institute Animal Charity Evaluators Recommended Charity Fund Sightsavers The Life You Can Save One Step for Animals Helen Keller International 80,000 Hours Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative Vegan Outreach Encompass Iodine Global Network Otwarte Klatki Charity Science Mercy For Animals Coalition for Rainforest Nations Fistula Foundation Sentience Institute Better Eating International Forethought Foundation for Global Priorities Research Raising for Effective Giving Clean Air Task Force The END Fund Miscellaneous commentaryThe blog post describes an effort by a number of donors coordinated at https://2018.eagivingtuesday.org/donations to donate through Facebook right after the start of donation matching on Giving Tuesday. Based on timestamps of donations and matches, donations were matched till 14 seconds after the start of matching. Despite the very short time window of matching, the post estimates that $469,000 (65%) of the donations made were matched
Where ACE Staff Are Giving In 2018 and Why2018-12-21Erika Alonso Animal Charity EvaluatorsSofia Davis-Fogel Toni Adleberg Erika Alonso Gina Stuessy Kathryn Asher Jamie Spurgeon Trent Grassian Melissa Guzikowski Albert Schweitzer Foundation for Our Contemporaries Otwarte Klatki Animal Equality Encompass Sinergia Animal Mercy For Animals Compassion in World Farming USA The Humane League L214 International Rescue Committee New York Public Library Give Power Animal Charity Evaluators Recommended Charity Fund The Good Food Institute Effective Animal Advocacy Fund StrongMinds Global Catastrophic Risk Institute New Harvest We Animals Against Malaria Foundation GiveWell top charities Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies Beckley Foundation Christopher Sebastian Animal Aid GiveDirectly Periodic donation list documentationAnimal welfare|Global catastrophic risks|Global health and developmentContinuing an annual tradition started in 2016, Animal Charity Evaluators (ACE) staff describe where they donated or plan to donate in 2018. Unlike 2017, there is no mention of the Effective Altruism Funds, with most funds-style donations going to the ACE-run Recommended Charity Fund and Effective Animal Advocacy Fund. Donation amounts are not disclosed, likely by policy
Suggestions for Individual Donors from Open Philanthropy Project Staff - 20172017-12-21Holden Karnofsky Open PhilanthropyJaime Yassif Chloe Cockburn Lewis Bollard Nick Beckstead Daniel Dewey Center for International Security and Cooperation Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security Good Call Court Watch NOLA Compassion in World Farming USA Wild-Animal Suffering Research Effective Altruism Funds Donor lottery Future of Humanity Institute Center for Human-Compatible AI Machine Intelligence Research Institute Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative Centre for Effective Altruism 80,000 Hours Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters Donation suggestion listAnimal welfare|AI safety|Biosecurity and pandemic preparedness|Effective altruism|Criminal justice reformOpen Philanthropy Project staff give suggestions on places that might be good for individuals to donate to. Each suggestion includes a section "Why I suggest it", a section explaining why the Open Philanthropy Project has not funded (or not fully funded) the opportunity, and links to relevant writeups.
Staff Members’ Personal Donations for Giving Season 20172017-12-18Holden Karnofsky Open PhilanthropyHolden Karnofsky Alexander Berger Nick Beckstead Helen Toner Claire Zabel Lewis Bollard Ajeya Cotra Morgan Davis Michael Levine GiveWell top charities GiveWell GiveDirectly EA Giving Group Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative Effective Altruism Funds Sentience Institute Encompass The Humane League The Good Food Institute Mercy For Animals Compassion in World Farming USA Animal Equality Donor lottery Against Malaria Foundation GiveDirectly Periodic donation list documentationOpen Philanthropy Project staff members describe where they are donating this year, and the considerations that went into the donation decision. By policy, amounts are not disclosed. This is the first standalone blog post of this sort by the Open Philanthropy Project; in previous years, the corresponding donations were documented in the GiveWell staff members donation post.
Updated Charity Recommendations: December 20172017-11-27Jon Bockman Animal Charity Evaluators Animal Equality The Good Food Institute The Humane League Faunalytics Vegan Outreach ProVeg Albert Schweitzer Foundation for Our Contemporaries Compassion in World Farming USA The Humane Society of the United States L214 Nonhuman Rights Project Otwarte Klatki Evaluator consolidated recommendation listAnimal welfareAnimal Charity Evaluators publishes its top charity and standout charity recommendations for year-end 2017. Top charities are Animal Equality, The Good Food Institute, and The Humane League. Standout charities of general interest are Compassion in World Farming USA, L214, and Otwarte Klatki. Standout charities of special interest are Faunalytics and Nonhuman Rights Project
Why Are the US Corporate Cage-Free Campaigns Succeeding?2017-04-11Lewis Bollard Open PhilanthropyOpen Philanthropy The Humane League Mercy For Animals The Humane Society of the United States Compassion in World Farming USA Review of current state of cause areaAnimal welfare/factory farming/cage-free campaignLewis Bollard, Open Philanthropy Project Program Officer for Animal Welfare, who brought passion about cage-free campaigns to the organization when he joined, provides a timeline of cage-free campaigns and an assessment of the success of these campaigns, and the role of the Open Philanthropy Project as a funder.
The effective altruism guide to donating this giving season2016-12-28Robert Wiblin 80,000 Hours Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense Cool Earth Alliance for Safety and Justice Cosecha Centre for Effective Altruism 80,000 Hours Animal Charity Evaluators Compassion in World Farming USA Against Malaria Foundation Schistosomiasis Control Initiative StrongMinds Ploughshares Fund Machine Intelligence Research Institute Future of Humanity Institute Evaluator consolidated recommendation listBiosecurity and pandemic preparedness,Global health and development,Animal welfare,AI risk,Global catastrophic risks,Effective altruism/movement growthRobert Wiblin draws on a number of annual charity evaluations and reviews, as well as staff donation writeups, from sources such as GiveWell and Animal Charity Evaluators, to provide an "effective altruism guide" for 2016 Giving Season donation
Suggestions for Individual Donors from Open Philanthropy Project Staff - 20162016-12-14Holden Karnofsky Open PhilanthropyJaime Yassif Chloe Cockburn Lewis Bollard Daniel Dewey Nick Beckstead Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense Alliance for Safety and Justice Cosecha Animal Charity Evaluators Compassion in World Farming USA Machine Intelligence Research Institute Future of Humanity Institute 80,000 Hours Ploughshares Fund Donation suggestion listAnimal welfare|AI safety|Biosecurity and pandemic preparedness|Effective altruism|Migration policyOpen Philanthropy Project staff describe suggestions for best donation opportunities for individual donors in their specific areas.
Staff members’ personal donations for giving season 20162016-12-09Natalie Crispin GiveWellElie Hassenfeld Holden Karnofsky Natalie Crispin Alexander Berger Timothy Telleen-Lawton Josh Rosenberg Rebecca Raible Helen Toner Sophie Monahan Laura Muñoz Catherine Hollander Andrew Martin Lewis Bollard Chelsea Tabart Sarah Ward Chris Somerville Ajeya Cotra Chris Smith Isabel Arjmand A political campaign GiveWell top charities International Genetically Engineered Machine Foundation UPMC Center for Health Security Donor lottery EA Giving Group GiveDirectly Center for Applied Rationality Malaria Consortium Animal Charity Evaluators Northwest Health Law Advocates StrongMinds Against Malaria Foundation Schistosomiasis Control Initiative The Humane Society of the United States The Humane League Mercy For Animals Humane Society International Compassion in World Farming USA The Good Food Institute Citizens for Farm Animal Protection The END Fund Causa Justa Planned Parenthood International Refugee Assistance Project Periodic donation list documentationGiveWell and Open Philanthropy Project staff describe their annual donation plans for 2016. Some of these are tentative and get superseded by further events. Also, not all employees are present in the document (participation is optional). Amounts donated are not included, per a decision by GiveWell

Full list of donations in reverse chronological order (7 donations)

Graph of top 10 donors (for donations with known year of donation) by amount, showing the timeframe of donations

Graph of donations and their timeframes
DonorAmount (current USD)Amount rank (out of 7)Donation dateCause areaURLInfluencerNotes
Open Philanthropy550,000.0022021-04Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/CIWF-general-support-2021Lewis Bollard Donation process: This is a followup grant to the grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/CIWF-USA-general-support-2018 (March 2018).

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grant "for general support. CIWF intends to use this funding to continue to seek implementation of existing cage-free reforms, pursue its meat reduction strategy and priorities, and to secure new corporate broiler welfare reforms."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): The grant is made right around the expiration of the previous three-year grant, so the timing is likely determined by that expiration.

Other notes: Affected countries: United States.
Open Philanthropy78,750.0042020-04Animal welfare/factory farming/chickenhttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/CIWF-USA-global-eggtrack-programAmanda Hungerford Lewis Bollard Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support the global expansion of its EggTrack program. This funding will support CIWF USA’s work tracking and reporting on multinational companies’ progress implementing cage-free egg commitments."
Open Philanthropy1,500,000.0012018-03Animal welfare/factory farminghttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/CIWF-USA-general-support-2018Lewis Bollard Donation process: This is a followup grant to the first grant https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/CIWF-USA-general-support made April 2016.

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: Grant "for general support. CIWF USA has been one of the major contributors to the success of corporate reforms for layer hens, and intends to use these funds to seek implementation of existing cage-free reforms and to secure new corporate broiler welfare reforms."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: The grant page does not go into reasons, but suggests that the reasons are similar to https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/CIWF-USA-general-support#Case_for_the_grant (reasons for the first grant). Excerpt: "We see this grant as an opportunity to expand our support for organizations working to improve the living conditions of animals on U.S. factory farms beyond our early grants on cage-free corporate campaigns."

Other notes: Intended funding timeframe in months: 36; affected countries: United States; announced: 2018-04-25.
Effective Altruism Funds: Animal Welfare Fund30,000.0052018-01-14Animal welfare/factory farming/chicken/cage-freehttps://app.effectivealtruism.org/funds/animal-welfare/payouts/3tRg1Hfwu46EQ8mskEGUOELewis Bollard Bollard is impressed with the track record of the grantee at corporate outreach, including the launch of EggTrack to push companies to fulfill cage-free pledges, and also has a high opinion of the leader, Leah Garces, and their focused approach. Open Phil already accounts for 50% of their budget, so will not fund more; moreover, its lack of an ACE recommendation and its welfarist focus mean it is unlikely to raise a lot of other money, hence the donation. Affected countries: United States; Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 20.00%.
Open Philanthropy30,000.0052017-05Animal welfare/factory farming/Latin Americahttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/compassion-world-farming-latin-america-broiler-chicken-welfare-researchLewis Bollard Donation process: Discretionary grant

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant "to support research into opportunities for broiler chicken welfare campaigns in Latin America." https://www.openphilanthropy.org/files/Grants/CIWF/CIWF_Market_Research_Proposal_in_Latin_America_2017.pdf has the market research proposal from the grantee.

Donor retrospective of the donation: Followup grants from Open Philanthropy to Compassion in World Farming USA, despite no specific plans to follow up, suggest continued satisfaction from Open Philanthropy in the grantee.

Other notes: Affected countries: Argentina|Brazil|Columbia|Chile|Mexico; announced: 2017-07-27.
Effective Altruism Funds: Animal Welfare Fund10,000.0072017-04-20Animal welfarehttp://effective-altruism.com/ea/19d/update_on_effective_altruism_funds/Lewis Bollard Grantee has played a role in recent US corporate campaigns for chicken welfare. Open Phil accounts for 50% of funding, so Open Phil may choose to not donate more due to dependence concerns. Affected countries: United States; Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 55.60%.
Open Philanthropy550,000.0022016-04Animal welfare/factory farming/welfarism/United Stateshttps://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/CIWF-USA-general-supportLewis Bollard Donation process: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/CIWF-USA-general-support#Our_process says: "We previously considered making a grant to CIWF USA for work on cage-free campaigns. We decided not to make that grant because CIWF USA’s work did not neatly fit into the specific framework of cage-free campaigns, and because we were concerned about its history of also working on less cost-effective campaigns. A few months later, we re-considered CIWF USA for a one-off general support grant. Based on conversations with Ms. Garces and a number of animal advocates, we decided to move forward."

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Intended use of funds: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/CIWF-USA-general-support#Proposed_activities says: "CIWF USA’s proposed budget calls for hiring two additional corporate engagement managers, an operational support staffer, and a public engagement manager. The need for a larger staff is primarily a result of CIWF USA’s approach to corporate outreach, which is more labor-intensive than that of other farm animal welfare groups with which we are familiar. CIWF USA is focused both on cage-free egg campaigns and broiler chicken welfare. It plans to run campaigns focusing on both producers and retailers. Campaigns with retailers will seek to persuade target companies to commit to sourcing their chicken from producers raising breeds with higher welfare traits in less cruel conditions."

Donor reason for selecting the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/CIWF-USA-general-support#Case_for_the_grant says: "We see this grant as an opportunity to expand our support for organizations working to improve the living conditions of animals on U.S. factory farms beyond our early grants on cage-free corporate campaigns. CIWF USA broadly shares our approach to farm animal welfare and is in the early stages of expanding the scope of its work to include broiler chickens, which we (and as far as we know, the vast majority of animal advocates) consider an underserved population of farm animals. We are reasonably confident in CIWF USA’s track record and ability to implement its model at scale."

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The grant page says: "CIWF USA has an annual budget of roughly $450,000, while CIWF UK has an annual budget of £6,477,213 (about $9.4 million). [...] CIWF USA plans on using the $275,000 per year provided by this grant to hire two new corporate engagement staff, one operations staff member, and a public engagement manager. Absent our funding, we are reasonably confident that CIWF USA would not expand significantly in the near future. CIWF USA has a history of steady but slow revenue growth and few obvious alternative funding sources."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/CIWF-USA-general-support#Our_process gives a hint as to timing: "A few months later, we re-considered CIWF USA for a one-off general support grant. Based on conversations with Ms. Garces and a number of animal advocates, we decided to move forward."
Intended funding timeframe in months: 24

Donor thoughts on making further donations to the donee: https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/CIWF-USA-general-support#Plans_for_learning_and_follow-up lists some goals, expectations, and internal forecasts but does not talk about a followup grant. https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/CIWF-USA-general-support#Our_process suggests that this grant is a "one-off general support grant" with no specific renewal plans.

Donor retrospective of the donation: Followup conversation with Leah Garces (Executive Director) and Dawn Rotheram (Development Director) at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/sites/default/files/Leah_Garces_Dawn_Rotheram_11-08-16_%28public%29.pdf on 2016-11-08. Followup grants from Open Philanthropy to Compassion in World Farming USA, despite no specific plans to follow up, suggest continued satisfaction from Open Philanthropy in the grantee.

Other notes: The grant page has a number of sources https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/us-policy/farm-animal-welfare/CIWF-USA-general-support#Sources mostly documents from mthe grantee. Affected countries: United States; announced: 2016-07-06.