California · Nonprofit
Animal Equality
Animal Equality (California) receives grants from 51 organizations whose IRS filings report $14,909,483 to it, the largest being VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM ($5,286,500). 32 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 89% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $6.0M
- Funders on record
- 51
- Grants received
- $15M
- Net assets
- $3.0M
What Animal Equality does
Mission
Animal Equality is an international organization working with society, governments, and companies to end cruelty to farmed animals.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Campaigns - During 2025, Animal Equality launched a cage-free accountability campaign targeting one of the largest global retailersin the food industry. Following sustained pressureincluding shareholder engagement, corporate negotiations, public protests and civil disobedience, and the release of investigative footage connected to the companys supply chainwe secured the companys cage-free commitment in March 2026. We also launched a cage-free accountability campaign targetingone of the largest global hotel chains, coordinated across Animal Equality teams in Mexico, Brazil, the UK, Spain, Italy, and Germany, demonstrating the power of international collaboration in advancing animal protection. In April 2025, Animal Equality secured a group housing policy from a large US based restaurant chain, helping spare hundreds of female breeding pigs each year from extreme confinement in gestation crates. We also joined efforts with the Open Wing Alliance in a campaign targetinganother large hotel chain over the companys support of caged eggs, including hosting a disruption inside the companys Phoenix headquarters. The campaign ultimately secured a win that is expected to spare nearly 320,000…
$2,694,490 spentof which $737,092 as grants54% of program spendingCommunications - In 2025, Animal Equalitys Communications and Marketing team achieved strong results across earned media, digital engagement, plant-based outreach, and online fundraising. The team secured nearly 40 earned media mentions highlighting U.S. work, reaching an estimated 17 million people through national, international, and local coverage, including investigative footage aired on CBS and protest coverage by prominent local TV stations. Online fundraising continued to grow, with the number of gifts increasing 129% compared to 2023 and online donation revenue rising 77% over two years. Retention efforts also improved, reducing cancellations by 15% from the first half to the second half of the year and preserving recurring revenue through a new monthly-donor portal, gratitude-focused retargeting ads, enhanced email automation, and post-cancellation recovery messaging. Paid social campaigns generated more than 500,000 online actions, a 49% year-over-year increase. The team also strengthened Animal Equalitys digital programs. Love Veg, the Plant based initiative, saw major growth, reaching 85,000 users, 2x the 2024 audience, and launched an improved, searchable recipe…
$1,839,793 spentof which $503,285 as grants37% of program spendingInvestigations - In 2025, Animal Equality presented 15 unique investigations filmed across our eight member countries and Argentina. Our work brought to light shocking images of pigs confined on a breeding farm in Kansas USA, suffering from wounds caused by the metal bars of the cages. The farm is linked to slaughterhouses that supply leading grocery chains in the US. In Italy, we released an investigation of a horse slaughterhouse. The footage documents routine cruelty and illegal conduct, including beatings, whippings, and conscious horses shackled and hoisted. We also released investigations into the conditions of goats and pigs in India and turkeys in Brazil, Spanish pig farms, and salmon in UK sea cages. Our expansion of investigative reach now includes Argentina and Uruguay, and in 2026, will include Indonesia. Animal Equality has spent considerable time developing professional standards for evidence management and analysis, submitting our findings for veterinary, legal, and legislative review in an ever-expanding global capacity.
$389,253 spentof which $106,482 as grants8% of program spendingOTHER Programs
$89,236 spentof which $24,411 as grants2% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2025 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $5,012,772.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2020 to 2021, from $2.1M to $5.3M (+147%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2020 6% · 2021 0%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
100% of Animal Equality’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (74% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 8 funders to 24 funders, grant income rose $905k → $2.2M.
15 of 51 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 89% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of Animal Equality’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 51 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
Animal Equality leans on a few funders — its largest provides 35% of grant income and the top three 74%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
95% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund Animal Equality.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 45% · 2018 72% · 2019 45% · 2020 40% · 2021 86% · 2022 34% · 2023 79% — growing more concentrated.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
42% of Animal Equality's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 63% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
89% of Animal Equality's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $1.6M that is directly attributable, 62% of it comes from California funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $13M arriving through sponsors registered in 11 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
Animal Equality is better cushioned than half of the 717 animals nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 717 animals nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like Animal Equality
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
84% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 4 related entities
- Animal Equality Germany Ev · exempt
- Animal Equality UK · exempt
- Animal Equality - Brazil · exempt
- Animal Equality - Italy · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Animal Equality: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds Animal Equality?
- Animal Equality (California) receives grants from 51 organizations whose IRS filings report $14,909,483 to it, the largest being VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM ($5,286,500). 32 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 89% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does Animal Equality have?
- IRS filings report 51 organizations giving $14,909,483 in grants to Animal Equality, 32 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Animal Equality?
- VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM is the largest funder on record, with $5,286,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Animal Equality find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Animal Equality →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 51 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing