Additional context on how to interpret this spreadsheet can be found in the Room For More Funding section of Methods and Limitations 2023

Purple = ACE manual entry/assessment

Jan-May 2023

We do not project a sizeable increase or decrease in revenue in 2023, 2024, or 2025. We have projected a plateau, which reflects the economic outlook and challenges to key funders.

The organization maintains a reserve fund in case of fundraising issues or events out of its control that impact donors’ ability to fulfill pledges or renew their annual gifts. From time to time the organization, with the approval of the board of directors, may choose to withdraw money from the reserve to fund normal expenses or special projects. The targeted minimum amount of reserves is approximately 3-6 months of operating expenses, or is based on the obligations that the organization would have to cover in case it needed to close. Monthly operating costs are based on average expenditure over the course of a year, including staff costs (e.g. salaries, pensions, national insurance contributions) as well as discretionary costs (e.g. advertising, training, printing).

THL built up reserves from 2020 - 2021 to support our growth, and began spending them down in 2022 with the launch of new interventions and continued growth of the organization. Nearly half of our annual revenue currently comes from Open Philanthropy, and that grant ends in 2024. 2025 projections assume a continuation of that grant. Additionally, our second largest recurring commitment ends in 2023, and is not expected to be renewed, as the donor has changed funding priorities. That said, we expect our growth to level moving forward, and revenue / expenses to more closely align. We will continue spending reserves to meet our projected expenses, and have been working to grow and diversify our donor base to create a more resilient funding structure. In addition, we hope to increase our grant from Open Philanthropy upon renewal in 2025.

Expenses increased as we eased back into more corporate campaigns after pausing some activities due to COVID.

Expenses increased due to increased funding obtained for grants for OWA member groups and due to the launch of the APA grant program in 2022. In addition, in 2022 THL’s OWA made 2-year grants, which are booked to 2022 because THL uses accrual accounting but will not be paid until 2023. Approximately $1,300,000 of the grants awarded in 2022 will be paid in 2023.

Expenses increased due to creation of the new public policy program in the US in late 2021.

THL Mexico and THL Japan conduct producer outreach as it makes sense to advance cage-free progress in their local contexts. As THL Japan becomes independent from THL and establishes their own organization, we expect THL’s investment in this work to decrease.

In 2021 we restructured our internal research capacity. Staff of THL Labs, which provided movement-wide research on a variety of topics, were shifted to Rethink Priorities. The following year THL hired animal welfare specialists who conduct species-specific research to support THL and OWA member groups in exploring new interventions, crafting welfare asks, and informing corporate negotiations.

We do not plan to increase or decrease spending on this intervention.

A significant source of grant funding for digital veg advocacy ads has not been renewed for 2024 and 2025, and we are currently strategizing future funding opportunities.

There are no plans for significant increases in farmed fish at this stage. In 2022, a researcher explored potential fish welfare asks at THL. As THL is not prepared to take on this work due to funding constraints, the researcher went on to work at a fish-specific organization. THL UK will continue interventions for fish part-time.

In 2022 we invited returning OWA grantees to apply for multi-year funding. As we use accrual accounting this significantly raised the budget between 2021 - 2022. Additionally in 2022 we moved staff that were previously working on global initiatives in THL UK to THL and added a number of roles to meet the demands of the OWA that had grown from 5 groups to almost 100 in 6 years. As more experienced OWA groups reach the upper limit of the funding we are able to give, we are now seeking to move these groups to larger funders. This was the original and continuing intention of the OWA, to fund emerging organizations and ultimately move them on to larger funds with a more established track record. We anticipate this will free up some funding, and help us fund more new groups predominantly in Africa, Middle East and Asia.

THL Japan is in the process of separating from The Humane League for strategic programmatic reasons. Unlike THL Mexico and THL UK, THL Japan will be an entirely separate organization with a new name and brand, and will take a different approach programmatically, working with companies rather than running corporate campaigns. This change was led by staff of THL Japan due to strategic programmatic considerations and local cultural context, and supported by THL. We expect THL Japan to fully separate in 2023, though we are unsure of the exact timeline and may have some expenditures in 2023 depending on how long it takes for THL Japan to establish a new entity in Japan.