Why We Work to Identify the Most Effective Charities Uses positive reinforcement to elevate the best performers and improve the movement Uses negative reinforcement to compel change in the worst performers and improve the movement Recommends particularly effective animal charities to donors Invites the most promising charities to participate in the evaluation process, and only publishes reviews with their approvalĪlerts citizens, consumers, and donors to inefficient and/or corrupt activities Independently investigates organizations under their scope Identifies and promotes the most effective animal charitiesĪims to oversee all organizations within the relevant sectorĮvaluates only the charities that seem likely to be among the most effective Provides oversight for governments, industries, or movements

Here is a summary of some key differences between a watchdog organization and ACE: In doing so, we contribute to the movement by providing positive incentives for charities that are carrying out effectiveness-oriented programs and fostering healthy organizational cultures to sustain them. Rather, we aim to identify particularly effective animal charities and direct resources towards them. We do not aim to monitor the entire animal advocacy movement or call attention to bad actors. Even though watchdog organizations are extremely valuable, we view ACE’s role quite differently. Watchdog organizations view their role as providing oversight for governments, industries, or movements. ACE is an evaluator that aims to find the few most effective charities, not a watchdog organization that aims to highlight bad actors. The answers to each of these questions is related to ACE’s role in the movement.

Don’t we have a responsibility to share all of our concerns about animal charities with donors?.Why do we allow charities to decline to be reviewed or to decline to publish reviews that we’ve written?.Why do we only publish charity reviews with the charities’ permission?.Why haven’t we reviewed certain well-known charities, like PETA or the World Wildlife Fund?.Why does ACE review such a small number of animal charities?.

Here are some questions we sometimes receive from our community:

Charity watchdog