“We envision a world where it’s widely understood that animals deserve moral consideration as individuals.” ~Phauna Philanthropy

 

Our Mission.

We want to empower people and usher in a better world.

 

Our mission is to empower people to reorient our society into one that is more just in its consideration of animals. We act through financial support, thought leadership and seeding new organizations.

We aspire to achieve the following in the next 20 years:

  • Replace animals and animal products within the food system in the United States.

  • Enshrine the basic rights of life and liberty for non-human animals into our dominant political institutions.

  • Transform cultural practices, behaviors and norms to better reflect the truth: that animals are beings that are here for their own purposes, not ours.

We have 5 core values that contributes to how we approach the people that we fund.

See our approach below.

  • Veganism and food systems transformation

    We believe that the regular practice of consuming animal-based foods is the primary obstacle to our vision. We prioritize projects which recognize the centrality of the food issue and behave accordingly.

  • Movement-focused approach

    We recognize that the scale of our vision is large, and achieving it will require sustained pressure. Too often, good ideas turn into actions which fade away into exhaustion, whether personal, financial, or through lack of social cohesion. To that end, we put priority on projects which are focused on increasing the capacity, endurance, and power of our movement.

  • Bold, strong and uncompromising

    We believe it’s important to treat all people with respect, whether they agree with us or not. To this end, we feel it’s important to be honest towards all parties about what we stand for. We don’t support watering down or compromising on our core values, and we encourage projects that take bold stances that honor the urgency and necessity of our mission.

  • Cultural change

    We believe that changing the dominant culture of our society is the essence of our mission, and is an end in itself. However, it is less visible and less obvious when it’s happening. For these reasons, we feel that cultural change is a neglected area within our movement and are excited by the wide-open potential of projects that focus on culture.

  • Levers of power

    We believe that power can be exercised for good, but concentrated power can easily lead to corruption and apathy. We are open to leveraging power in various forms. Centralized power (political, legal) is appropriate for enforcing negative rights, including a non-human animal’s right to life and liberty or the prevention of ecological destruction. Decentralized power (individual choices, grassroots organizing, non-violent direct action, economic power) is more appropriate for transforming culture. We’re excited about projects that understand and leverage the role of power in their theory of change.

Let us help you change the world.

Apply and let’s see if we’re a match! We’re looking forward to hearing from you!

Please note that we receive a large amount of application every month and are unable to respond to each one, but we do read all of them. Thank you for your time.