Holly Baines
Bio
Holly has been working at Animal Charity Evaluators for 2+ years. She holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology where she researched human food choices, and a master’s degree in wild animal biology where she published research on the social behaviors of Gidgee Skink lizards. Prior to joining ACE, Holly spent four years working in wildlife conservation, leading campaigns to increase wildlife protection and inspire positive social change. She is passionate about using communications to promote ACE’s mission and help as many animals as possible.
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Hi Samo, thanks for your question! If you fill in all mandatory questions in the application form, that will be sufficient information to make our grantmaking decisions. You can include extra documents like the ones mentioned, but they won’t be the focus of our decision-making. In the second stage of the process, we usually ask follow-up questions to applicants if we need more clarification. Thanks, Holly
Hi Nathalie, thanks so much for your question and for listing these very important issues! At ACE, we prioritize animals that suffer in the largest quantities (such as fishes) and projects tackling the problem that causes the most suffering (such as industrial fishing and aquaculture). So, out of the list above, we would most likely fund a project on “Eliminating damaging industrial fishing.” Thanks, Holly
It really just comes down to the type of support you need. Through our Movement Grants program, we provide funding for both specific projects and general operational support, including salaries. Do you have a specific project you need funding for? If not, I would suggest applying for general operating support. You will not be favored for applying for one over the other. Thanks, Holly
Thanks for this question! Requesting more in the first stage is unlikely to hurt your chances of being awarded a grant provided you sincerely believe that being awarded more will substantially improve the impact of your project—we might well agree! The application process may just take more time. Depending on the size of the grant being considered (if it is over $20,000), we will often follow up with additional questions and to understand whether the applicant would be able to deliver the project with partial funding. Thanks, Holly
Wild animal suffering is one of our priority cause areas, so we welcome applications from those working to improve wild animal welfare. We prioritize applicants based on whether they are using novel interventions, target large numbers of animals, and/or operate in regions that are underrepresented in animal welfare. While we’ve previously funded more projects working on farmed animal advocacy, as you mentioned this is due to the fact there are limited organizations working on this issue. We would like to see more projects addressing wild animal suffering to fund through our Movement Grants! Thanks, Holly
Update: Thanks so much for all the great questions! Also, thanks to David van Beveren and the FAST Forum for hosting this AMA for us. We’ll be signing off for now but feel free to continue to post your questions over the next couple of days—we'll keep an eye on this thread and try to respond.
As always, if you have any questions about our work, you can also reach out to us on email, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, or via our website. Thank you and we look forward to receiving your applications!
If you’d like to support our Movement Grants program, all donations are currently being DOUBLED! Don’t miss this exciting opportunity to get your donation for animals DOUBLED.