This page is for advocates in the process of starting or strengthening your organization! Consider this the starting point to get “Beyond the Check” support (i.e., non-financial resources) for your project, covering everything from the idea, legal setup, team, communications and fundraising! Join our #s-leadership channel to exchange ideas, advice and support with other leaders in the farmed animal advocacy movement! (Last updated June 2026)
Find this database useful? Tell us! 😊 💡 Have suggestions on how we can do better? Leave an anonymous comment. 📨 Want to make changes or contribute? Submit a resource here or email us at hello@joinhive.org. 🔗 Spot a broken link or outdated resource? Just email hello@joinhive.org or DM @Kevin Xia on Slack — it takes 30 seconds and helps keep this hub useful for everyone.
Free Project Consultations
Hive now offers free 1:1 consult calls for advocates with an early-stage idea or an active project that's hit a wall. In one session, a Hive team member will help you identify your most useful next steps and connect you to relevant resources and people.
Applications take 3-6 minutes: joinhive.org/project-consultation
A good all-rounder book on starting and running charities is this free online book by Ambitious Impact.
💡The Idea
Every good organization starts with an idea. Likely, the most important consideration for your impact is how you choose to tackle which issue. Here are some great resources to think through the “idea” part of your organization!
Problem and Landscape Analysis
Choosing the right problem to work on can be tricky, but it is arguably one of the most important decision you are making when it comes to starting a charity! Here are some resources to help you identify the right problem to tackle.
Animal Ask offers free Ask and Intervention prioritization consulting to help you identify the most impactful opportunities! You can also check out their existing research to identify possible opportunities that have already been scoped out.
Describes a step by step process to decied which charity to start.
Quick read with a few pieces of advice when researching what charity to start.
The Hive community is a great space to find new ideas and test existing ones! Just drop a help request to stress-test your idea , find new ideas or ensure that you are not duplicating something. We also believe that it is important for you to stay up to date on the movement in order to find your niche ! See Staying in the Loop for more information!
Some additional places to check out in order to make sure that your charity idea isn’t being implemented already, are topic-specific coordinators:
- Open Wing Alliance for cage-free chicken-related work
- Aquatic Animal Alliance for aquatic animal related work
- Animal Advocacy Africa for Africa-related work
- Asia for Animals for Asia-related work
Theory of Change
Crafting a proper theory of change, that is, a clear cause-and-effect sequence on how your activities lead to impact, is extremely important for you to understand your key assumptions and assure that your programs run as intended, but also for funders and other external stakeholders to understand what it is you are trying to do. Here are some articles to resources to help you out!
We have a #s-mel channel on Hive, led by The Mission Motor, where you can ask for advice on your Theory of Change! In fact, feel free ask any questions related to Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning in the channel or send a mail to contact@themissionmotor.org.
- Nailing the basics – Theories of change ⭐
- Theory of Change: Laying the Foundation for Right-Fit Data Collection
- Creating a theory of change (Course by Philanthropy University)
- Bonus: How does your Theory of Change fit into larger theories of victory?
Strategy
Need support with your strategy? Here are four great resources to get started with!
Scarlet Spark is a nonprofit that provides free leadership development and organizational support to animal protection organizations. Among other things, they help you set, refine, and communicate your strategy. They have monthly office hours (recommendation for new organizations!), monthly leadership workshops, and the People Skills for Animal People Leadership Program (PSAP). You can also apply for 1-1 consultations - subscribe to their newsletter to stay up to date on their announcements!
PEPR is a boutique professional services consultancy and operates as a US Public Benefit Corporation. They exist to strengthen the movement by partnering with organizations to be healthier & more effective, and to be equipped to accelerate & amplify their impact. Their work includes support across three pillars: People & Culture Total Rewards & Finance & Operations, and they partner with organizations in two ways by offering them bespoke solutions to answer their unique needs;
- through direct service engagements where they support day to day operations, and
- through programs and advisory services provided at no cost to the organization.
- Fundamentals of Nonprofit Strategy
- Essentials of Nonprofit Strategy (Course by Philanthropy University)
⚙The Setup
Properly setting up your organisation is a daunting, but essential step in making sure that you can focus on your programs. There are some operational, legal, structural and financial considerations to keep in mind and tackling all of these without previous experience can be very time-intensive. Luckily, there are a few organisations that offer their help and resources to learn more about it!
❓Who to ask about the legal and operational aspects
When we take on a client, ADP serves, in effect, as our client's “outside general counsel.” Our work is devoted to ensuring that each client has access to free services to meet their own internal legal needs.We provide our services—without charge—exclusively to animal protection and plant-based diet change nonprofits.
Focus
- Non-profit Formation, Organization, and Structure
- Employment Best Practices and HR
- Board Governance
- Social Media and Rights Clearance
- Contract Drafting, Review, and Negotiation
- Intellectual Property and Privacy Protection
- Fundraising
- Nonprofit Compliance and Tax Law
We help nonprofits and startups build, improve, and run their back offices so that they can focus on what is most important—their core mission.From improving internal systems to managing ongoing finances and payroll, we take care of all operations so that your organization can thrive and grow.
Focus
- Outsourced operations
- Outsourcing payroll, benefits, bookkeeping, and other routine processes
- 360° Back-office Setup
- Set up a robust back-office for your nonprofit, from incorporation and tax exemption to systems for finance, payroll, human resources, and administration.
- Operational Audits
- A complete assessment of your finance, HR, governance, and IT infrastructure and recommendations for improvement.
- Customized Operations Support
- Interim CEO/COO Services, Workflow Optimization, Recruitment, Form 990 & 1099, Bookkeeping Cleanup, Board Member Coaching and more
Aneeha and her team can provide complete back office coverage, which means that you will not have to think about most of the operations aspects in your organisation.
We deliver specialist consultation, implementation, and ongoing support in the areas where we have deep experience.
Focus:
- Finance
- Hiring
- Entity setup
- Audit
- Due diligence
- System implementation
The services Anti Entropy provides are structured to ensure the operational foundation of the EA ops community is solid and lasting. A strong operations foundation allows team members to focus their time on their core responsibilities and ensures that the organization is scalable and can thrive.
Focus:
- Operations Process Development
- Strategic Planning and Implementation
- Governance and Compliance
- HR Procedures and Structures
PEPR is a boutique professional services consultancy and operates as a US Public Benefit Corporation. They exist to strengthen the movement by partnering with organizations to be healthier & more effective, and to be equipped to accelerate & amplify their impact. Their work includes support across three pillars: People & Culture Total Rewards & Finance & Operations, and they partner with organizations in two ways by offering them bespoke solutions to answer their unique needs;
- through direct service engagements where they support day to day operations, and
- through programs and advisory services provided at no cost to the organization.
📚Resources on operational aspects
By utilizing the Logistically Platform, organizations gain high-quality, gold-standard resources at no extra cost, creating stronger and smarter administrative departments. The Platform allows organizations to save valuable Time and Money. Logistically’s goal is to address and solve the pain points that are commonly and frequently associated with the HR, compliance, operational, and financial support departments in nonprofit organizations.
Focus:
- HR
- Compliance
- Operations
- Finance
The Anti Entropy Resource Portal is a project to gather and build resources for the operations side of running an Effective Altruism organization.
Focus:
- Compliance Guidance
- How to Guides (Visas, Nonprofits, Grants)
- Handbook Policies
- GDPR Guidance
When launching an organization, you can either launch your own legal entity, or you can go with a fiscal sponsorship.
- On Fiscal Sponsorship
- Fiscal sponsorship, incubation, or ops support?
- Fiscal sponsorship for Nonprofits
- US-Based directory of fiscal sponsors
- 11 things to consider when launching an entity
- “So You Want To Start A Nonprofit” includes an extensive section on “Getting Your Organization’s House In Order” and Paperwork
Some potential fiscal sponsors to check out:
- Player’s Philanthropy Fund (PPF) - charges 6%
- Rethink Priorities Special Projects team - charges minimum 14% (enquire for up-to-date figure)
- Thrive Philanthropy
- SparkWell - charges 7%
- A Well Fed World - charges 5%
🤝The Team
❓Who to ask about hiring, managing and retaining your team
Scarlet Spark is a nonprofit that provides free leadership development and organizational support to animal protection organizations. They have monthly office hours, monthly leadership workshops, and the People Skills for Animal People Leadership Program (PSAP). You can also apply for 1-1 consultations - subscribe to their newsletter to stay up to date on their announcements!
Examples of organizational initiatives they support include:
- Company vision, mission, and values
- Goal-setting and strategic planning
- Diversity, equity, and inclusion
- Compensation design
- Recruiting and hiring systems
- Employee onboarding
- Employee, team, and leadership development
- Employee assessment
- Organizational culture and engagement
- Organizational design, capacity, and agility
When we take on a client, ADP serves, in effect, as our client's “outside general counsel.” Our work is devoted to ensuring that each client has access to free services to meet their own internal legal needs.We provide our services—without charge—exclusively to animal protection and plant-based diet change nonprofits.
Focus
- Non-profit Formation, Organization, and Structure
- Employment Best Practices and HR
- Board Governance
- Social Media and Rights Clearance
- Contract Drafting, Review, and Negotiation
- Intellectual Property and Privacy Protection
- Fundraising
- Nonprofit Compliance and Tax Law
Culture Canopy considers our clients unique needs, experiences, culture & ambitions, to provide strategic tailored & creative solutions which are right-sized for your organization - enhancing culture, performance, equity & belonging along the way.
We deliver specialist consultation, implementation, and ongoing support in the areas where we have deep experience.
Focus:
- Finance
- Hiring
- Entity setup
- Audit
- Due diligence
- System implementation
The services Anti Entropy provides are structured to ensure the operational foundation of the EA ops community is solid and lasting. A strong operations foundation allows team members to focus their time on their core responsibilities and ensures that the organization is scalable and can thrive.
Focus:
- Operations Process Development
- Strategic Planning and Implementation
- Governance and Compliance
- HR Procedures and Structures
We help nonprofits and startups build, improve, and run their back offices so that they can focus on what is most important—their core mission.From improving internal systems to managing ongoing finances and payroll, we take care of all operations so that your organization can thrive and grow.
Focus
- Outsourced operations
- Outsourcing payroll, benefits, bookkeeping, and other routine processes
- 360° Back-office Setup
- Set up a robust back-office for your nonprofit, from incorporation and tax exemption to systems for finance, payroll, human resources, and administration.
- Operational Audits
- A complete assessment of your finance, HR, governance, and IT infrastructure and recommendations for improvement.
- Customized Operations Support
- Interim CEO/COO Services, Workflow Optimization, Recruitment, Form 990 & 1099, Bookkeeping Cleanup, Board Member Coaching and more
PEPR is a boutique professional services consultancy and operates as a US Public Benefit Corporation. We exist to strengthen the movement by partnering organizations to be healthier & more effective, and to be equipped to accelerate & amplify their impact.Our work includes support across three pillars: People & Culture Total Rewards & Finance & Operations, and we partner organizations in two ways by offering them bespoke solutions to answer their unique needs;
- through direct service engagements where we support day to day operations, and
- through programs and advisory services provided at no cost to the organization.
We partner with purpose-driven companies, organizations, and individuals who are creating real impact for people, animals, and the planet. Through our personalized recruitment, coaching, and consulting services, we connect values-aligned people with values-led opportunities, helping conscious businesses grow and helping individuals thrive in careers that matter. With compassion, ethics, and alignment at the heart of everything we do, our goal is simple: to make the world kinder, one placement, one business, and one dream at a time.
📚Resources
- Managing to Change the World (or a newer version Managing in a Changing World) - non-profit management bible that many leaders have found useful. You can read the summary here. You can also check out the Management Center who wrote the books for resources such as templates.
- The Manager’s Handbook - a free high quality resource.
- Scarlet Spark Leadership Corner: Basic Leadership Skills
- The Leader Lab books
By utilizing the Logistically Platform, organizations gain high-quality, gold-standard resources at no extra cost, creating stronger and smarter administrative departments. The Platform allows organizations to save valuable Time and Money. Logistically’s goal is to address and solve the pain points that are commonly and frequently associated with the HR, compliance, operational, and financial support departments in nonprofit organizations.
Focus:
- HR
- Compliance
- Operations
- Finance
The Anti Entropy Resource Portal is a project to gather and build resources for the operations side of running an Effective Altruism organization.
Focus:
- Compliance Guidance
- How to Guides (Visas, Nonprofits, Grants)
- Handbook Policies
- GDPR Guidance
Includes: Job Posting Sample, Scoring Spreadsheet, Interview Questions, Reference Questions, Work Sample Phase Example, Offer Letter, Performance Profile, Employee Evaluation Form
Charity Entrepreneurship's online chat on early-stage hiring for new nonprofit start-ups covered critical aspects of the process, from deciding whether to hire to managing remote teams. The discussion highlighted the importance of thoroughly evaluating the need for new hires, tapping into a broad talent pool, and ensuring a structured and value-aligned application process to find the best fit for your organization.
📣Getting the word out there
❓Who to ask about branding and marketing
Providing marketing and campaigning solutions to non-profits, multiplying efforts towards solving the world's biggest challenges.
Their services include:
- Marketing Strategy
- Branding & Logos
- Creative Campaigns
- Campaign Support
- Web Design
- Social Media Campaigns
- Digital Marketing
- Graphic Design
- Advice & Consultancy
- Tailored Team Workshops
We offer the services that we believe will have the most powerful impact on your work. Branding and web design are the highest on the list! We recommend that every organization consider these two services first, before diving into the “extras.”
On Branding, their services include:
- Logo Design
- Brand Assessments
- Brand Expansion & Rebranding
- Audience Testing
- Visual Brand Guidelines
On Web Design, they partner with Vegan Hacktivists and can create a Squarespace website for you, and help you understand how to use and update it before handoff.
Additionally, they can support you with:
- Social Graphics
- Motion Design
- Documents
- Custom Projects
Good Impressions offer (free) Full Service or Advisory Sessions on the following:
- Paid Digital Ads: Drive engagement with your content, services, courses, contests, programs, fellowships, and events
- Conversion Rate Optimization: Increase your search presence on Google
- Measurement and Analytics: Understand and improve the impact of your marketing
We are an organisation of passionate animal rights advocates, leveraging cutting-edge technology to build a world without cages. We equip changemakers with the tools they need to amplify their voices and drive real impact, regardless of their budget. Our innovative solutions are designed with privacy and sustainability in mind, ensuring that advocacy efforts are supported by sound ethics and the best technology available.
Their services include:
- Websites Hosting
- Email Hosting
- Cloud Services
As well as other self-hosted solutions, tailored to your project’s needs.
EA Creative Freelancers & Agencies Database
Tip: You can ask for Pro-bono marketing and design advice by User-Friendly in our #s-ask-a-marketer channel!
Remember that you can post about your new/existing organisation in the #news and updates channel. As a rule of thumb, one update every month is ok to post. You can also post in other channels if your update/resource is appropriate to that channel
📚Resources
💸Fundraising
We have a separate Fundraising for Animal Advocates Resource Page with many more resources! However, we believe that these are great resources to get started with:
- An updated database of most funders in the farmed animal movement
- Fundraising Training Series
- Fundraising Essentials Course by Anima International
- Grantfinder: Funding Toolkit
- Ten Nonprofit Funding Models
- CRM Software Comparisons
- Fundamentals of Nonprofit Financial Sustainability
The #s-fundraising channel on our Slack is a great space to connect with other fundraisers, share learnings and seek out support. We also host monthly calls going through several basics of fundraising, such as pitching, storytelling or prospecting new donors.
🔔Networking and Staying in the Loop!
It is crucial for you to stay in the loop on what’s going on in the movement. You’ll need this to find your niche, understand what has been tried and failed/has been proven successful, find collaboration opportunities and coordinate with the rest of the farmed animal advocacy movement. There are several ways for you to do so.
Join Hive
One way to stay up to date is to join a community. Hive (that’s us!) has over 300 animal advocates from across the globe who can interact with each other on 100+ channels, resulting in structured and productive exchange. We also have a free bi-weekly Newsletter with the most with the latest updates, research, and opportunities in the movement.
Taking on a founder or leadership role in the nonprofit sector can be overwhelming and surrounding yourself around others in a similar position can be extremely helpful.
The Hive Slack has a #s-leadership channel full of people to support you! Join it here! If you aren’t on Hive yet, join us here.
The FAST Email List
If you are working part or full-time in our movement, you can apply to join the private FAST Email list, a list with 1,600+ animal advocates that allows members to share important information that aids in strategy and action for farmed animals and highly related fields. Learn more and apply here!
The EA Forum
The Effective Altruism Forum is a platform run by the Centre for Effective Altruism to facilitate discussions relevant to effective altruism and coordinate related projects. It is very active and you can filter the forum for posts with the tag “animal welfare” to stay up to date on relevant discussions news and research in the space!
The How I Learned to Love Shrimp Podcast
How I Learned To Love Shrimp is a podcast showcasing innovative and impactful ways to help animals. They seek to cover exciting projects that improve the lives of farmed animals, wild animals or accelerate building the animal advocacy movement. They have a new episode coming out every two weeks.
Attend Conferences
Conferences are a great way to network and meet other people who can support you in your efforts and give valuable advice. Check out our Conference Database here:
✈️Conferences Database: Farmed Animal AdvocacyOther Communities
Some other communities that you might be interested in joining:
R-Squared: “R-Squared Peer Groups were created exclusively for nonprofit leaders to expand their network, build community, and increase access to much-needed resources. R-Squared provides a safe, confidential space for leaders to tackle real-time issues, opportunities, and challenges.”
Rands Leadership Slack: “For a role as crucial as Leadership, there is a shocking lack of required training on the topic. Combined with a tremendous collection of impenetrable literature, leadership is an essential skill learned on the job. The Rands Leadership Slack (“RLS”) exists to help longtime, new, and aspiring leaders learn through conversation and sharing of ideas.”
🤔If/when to shut down?
Because our time and resources are limited, we should aim to stop underperforming projects as early as possible.
Here are some resources to help you plan and decide whether to shut down your project:
“When to shut down” session at EAG London 2024
Some animal and non animal retrospectives after shutting down:
📁Appendices
Appendix: Books, Courses, and Programs
List of resource recommendations
Charity Entrepreneurship: Recommended Resources
So you want to be a charity entrepreneur. Read these first.
The National Council of Nonprofits: Running a Nonprofit
Books
- How to Launch a High Impact Non-profit by Charity Entrepreneurship ⭐
- Managing to Change the World by Alison Green and Jerry Hauser ⭐
- The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
“In How to Launch a High-Impact Nonprofit, a team of experts who themselves have helped launch 18 evidence-based charities (and counting) break down what it really takes to build impactful organizations.
Even small charities can improve hundreds of thousands of lives each year if they are focused on cost-effectiveness and based on rigorous research. The authors unpack the profile of these rare, much-needed organizations and invite you to consider your own potential for success in what might be the highest-impact career path in the world.
This book is the distillation of years of both running and teaching effective charity practices. It forms the backbone of the annual Charity Entrepreneurship Incubation Program and is designed to help you understand the mindset of the most effective founders and how they shape their start-ups to maximize impact per dollar donated.
It’s a no-nonsense, accessible handbook. The authors tackle tough questions, shining a light on the limits and shortcomings of their knowledge and the challenges you’ll face. It’s also a practical resource guide where you’ll find direct examples, valuable templates, thoughtful discussions, and next steps.”
⭐ Notes by Peter Wilderford (Co-CEO @Rethink Priorities)
“Why getting results should be every nonprofit manager's first priority. A nonprofit manager's fundamental job is to get results, sustained over time, rather than boost morale or promote staff development. This is a shift from the tenor of many management books, particularly in the nonprofit world. Managing to Change the World is designed to teach new and experienced nonprofit managers the fundamental skills of effective management, including: managing specific tasks and broader responsibilities; setting clear goals and holding people accountable to them; creating a results-oriented culture; hiring, developing, and retaining a staff of superstars. This important resource contains 41 resources and downloadable tools that can be implemented immediately.”
“The Lean Startup approach fosters companies that are both more capital efficient and that leverage human creativity more effectively. Inspired by lessons from lean manufacturing, it relies on "validated learning," rapid scientific experimentation, as well as a number of counter-intuitive practices that shorten product development cycles, measure actual progress without resorting to vanity metrics, and learn what customers really want. It enables a company to shift directions with agility, altering plans inch by inch, minute by minute. Rather than wasting time creating elaborate business plans, The Lean Startup offers entrepreneurs — in companies of all sizes — a way to test their vision continuously, to adapt and adjust before it's too late. Ries provides a scientific approach to creating and managing successful startups in an age when companies need to innovate more than ever.”
Programs and Courses
- Charity Entrepreneurship Incubation Program
- ProVeg Incubator: Kickstarting for Good
- Nonprofit Ready
- Philanthropy University
“We give you two-month, cost-covered, intensive training designed by founders for founders. Our talented team of researchers and entrepreneurs will provide you with the best evidence-based intervention and help you find a perfect co-founder. Learn charity fundamentals, like theories of change, measurement and evaluation, cost-effectiveness analysis, fundraising, program design, and strategic planning, in realistic partner projects.”
“Kickstarting for Good is the world’s first incubator and accelerator programme aimed specifically at nonprofit organisations and impact initiatives working on transforming the food system. It is the new not-for-profit programme of the ProVeg Incubator, which is part of the food awareness organisation ProVeg International. [...] You’ll get to take part in an 10-week expert-led programme with a tailor-made curriculum, expert mentoring, and exclusive networking opportunities, culminating in a funding-focused Pitch Day. You’ll get to team up with like-minded co-founders, spend two intensive weeks in Berlin, and receive a grant of up to $5,000 to cover travel and accommodation costs.”
“We partner with experts in nonprofit management and online learning to make the best professional development resources available to you for free. [...] We've curated hundreds of free online courses, videos, and downloadable guides to support the most common nonprofit jobs including: Fundraising, Grant Writing, Leadership, Governance, Accounting and Finance, Operations, Marketing and Communications, Volunteer Engagement, and Program Management.”
“Free online courses for anyone making a difference, taught by leading social entrepreneurs and nonprofit leaders.”
Appendix: Templates, Checklists, and Samples
Often, you might roughly know that you have to do something, but not necessarily how it is supposed to look like! Luckily, you can find a ton of hands-on templates, checklists and samples on the following websites:
- Logistically has a platform for members that includes a ton of great templates around operational support! Membership is free, but you need to fulfil a few requirements.
- You can find tons of templates and tools around leadership and hiring on Scarlet Spark.
- Anti Entropy has a vetted knowledge base EA portal: Compliance Guidance, How to Guides (Visas, Nonprofits, Grants), Handbook Policies, GDPR Guidance.
- The Center for Election Science publishes their tax forms, annual reports, internal rules, and more as a matter of transparency.
- The Wallace Foundation’s StrongNonprofit Toolkit compiles resources to strengthen your nonprofit financial management
- Tools4dev has templates for Strategic Planning & Policy, Program Design, Monitoring & Evaluation, Participation, Capacity Building, Financial Management, Information Technology and Fundraising.
- Spring Impact has a toolkit aimed at the Strategy, Model and Implementation of scaling impact.
Appendix: Common mistakes and Lessons learned
Looking into other people’s experiences and lessons is a great way to make sure that you are on track and don’t fall into common pitfalls. Here are some great articles covering important learnings!