World Animal Day Grant
#Grants
About the grant
Ambassadors can apply for funding for projects undertaken in their own country by the organisation they work (paid or unpaid) for which must be a registered, not for profit, non-governmental animal welfare organisation. The grant is sponsored by Naturewatch Foundation.
Naturewatch Foundation trustees and advisors select those that have the best potential to make a significant, lasting and positive impact on animal welfare and are in the spirit of World Animal Day so will help the movement to raise the status of animals around the globe.
How much is the grant?
The amount awarded each year depends on the types of projects submitted. Comparative information on costs between different countries will be taken into consideration. More than one organisation may be selected as the recipient of the grant.
Funding criteria
Please check that your organisation fits our funding criteria before applying.
Eligible candidates for the grant must be non-emergency projects run by animal welfare organisations. Applications should set out why they should receive grant funding.
- The grant is only available to World Animal Day Ambassadors who work for registered, not-for-profit, non-governmental animal welfare organisations.
- The grant is not available to individuals.
- Dependent upon the project and its needs, the grant may be paid in stages and Naturewatch Foundation reserves the right to withhold funding at any point if the project is not carried out as originally agreed.
- It must be demonstrated that the applicant organisation is well governed.
- Please complete as many sections of the application form as possible and ensure the requested supporting documents are provided.
- The winners will be required to complete and return a Grant Acceptance Form before any funds are released.
- The winners will be required to provide regular progress reports with supporting photographs and specific information relevant to the project.
How to apply
- The grant formally opens on April 1st each year.
- Eligible Ambassadors will receive an email from World Animal Day HQ, with details of how to apply.
- All applications will be carefully and sympathetically considered and the winners are usually announced in August.
We look forward to receiving your application!

Past winners of our grant

2023
We’re delighted to share with you that the main winners of the 2023 World Animal Day grant are Jakarta Animal Aid Network (JAAN) in Indonesia. Working as a legal partner to the government, JAAN rescues, rehabilitates and provides veterinary care to stray and wild animals across the country – but does not receive government funding for the work they do. JAAN will purchase a mobile veterinary clinic that will help them with their vital work around Bali, Java and Sumatra. The mobile clinic will contain veterinary equipment, such as an anaesthetic machine, which will allow them to both transport and treat animals from the vehicle.T hey plan to use the mobile veterinary clinic to:
- neuter large numbers of stray animals in remote areas
- treat and move animals confiscated from cruelty cases
- transport wildlife between their centres on different islands, and
- release rehabilitated animals.
Working as a legal partner to the government, JAAN rescues, rehabilitates and provides veterinary care to stray and wild animals across the country – but does not receive government funding for the work they do.
There are two other well-deserving grant winners in 2023 – Cape Animal Welfare Forum (CAWF) for a Compassion Fatigue workshop and Swaziland Animal Welfare Society (SAWS) for educational materials.
We chose to award a small part of the grant to CAWF’s workshop as many animal welfare professionals become exhausted from the emotional burden that comes with working in the sector. CAWF acts as an umbrella organisation for 58 other animal welfare charities and not-for-profits. With the grant money, the organisation plans to host a workshop on ‘Compassion Fatigue in the Workplace’, which will be recorded and made available to the member organisations. They hope that, by holding this event, they will be indirectly helping animals by providing support to burnt-out professionals and empowering them in their animal welfare roles.
And, last but not least, we awarded the remaining grant money to SAWS to cover the cost of 10,000 educational leaflets that will be distributed within rural areas. The leaflets will contain information about how to care for animals and will introduce topics of animal welfare to communities with little to no awareness on the issue.
2022
In 2022, the World Animal Day grant was awarded to Lilongwe Society for the Protection and Care of Animals (LSPCA) Malawi for their work that aimed to stop the roadside sales of animals. This unethical practice saw hundreds of young animals being sold on roadsides prematurely every year, whilst also suffering from untreated preventable diseases and heavy parasite burdens.
LSPCA Malawi had been tirelessly working to address this issue over the last few years, working in collaboration with authorities to confiscate any animals being sold in poor condition, going on to treat and rehome them into secure homes. The organisation believed that it was possible to eliminate all roadside sales in Malawi, an ambitious goal that would make a lasting difference for thousands of animals.
The 12 month project took a multiple several pronged approach, which included increasing their confiscation patrols, securing prosecutions for existing cases, and running public awareness campaigns, both about pet adoption and the public health concerns linked to buying animals on the roadside.
The project was believed to be great success with the LSPCA believing that the problem is almost stamped out, after multiple prosecutions and animal rescues that have led to a huge reduction in the amount of vendors selling puppies and kittens on roadsides.
2021
In 2021, the World Animal Day grant was split between four different winners – with two larger grants and two mini-grants being awarded to well-deserving organisations.
The International Organisation for Animal Protection (OIPA) Cameroon
One of the two main 2021 World Animal Day grants was awarded to the International Organisation for Animal Protection Cameroon for their ambitious goals in they had place, aiming to provide free mobile veterinary treatment to 1,000 working donkeys and horses, delivering education to the communities they visited, as well as educational classes to school children between the ages of 7-13.
The 11-month project was a great success and the World Animal Day grant covered the large majority of costs incurred with OIPA Cameroon succeeding in delivering veterinary aid to a huge 1,200 donkeys, training to Zamia and Gazawa and education to 3,500 schoolchildren. This work saw animal welfare classes being created in schools, the formation of a village donkey welfare committee and the lives of many working equines being improved from medical treatment.
Africa Network for Animal Welfare (ANAW) Kenya
The second main grant was given to Africa Network for Animal Welfare (ANAW) Kenya, who had the goal of administering as many rabies vaccinations as possible to dogs in Mwala sub-county in one week. ANAW Kenya were chosen by the Zoonotic Disease Unit to be responsible for delivering rabies vaccinations to dogs within the Machakos county and prior to this project had vaccinated 34,517 dogs until the project was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The World Animal Day grant provided ANAW Kenya with the opportunity to restart the project.
ANAW Kenya managed to vaccinate a total of 1542 animals (primarily dogs, cats and donkeys) throughout the Machakos and Kajiado counties. This was in addition to the successful delivery of education to 6,000 community members within both regions.
Asociación para la Defensa de los Derechos de los Animales (ADDA), Bolivia
One of the mini-grants in 2021 was awarded to ADDA Bolivia, to allow them to deliver direct and indirect help to animals that desperately needed it.
They spent the funds carefully, managing to create and print educational resources about the plight of wildlife and how to care for domestic animals in the form of two banners and 1,000 leaflets. They also used the grant to cover dog-feeding operations, neutering, transport and the veterinary care required by a puppy in need.
Swaziland Animal Welfare Society (SAWS)
The other 2021 World Animal Day mini-grant was given to SAWS, who were able to print 10,000 educational leaflets full of information on how to properly care for animals. The aim of these resources was to provide basic information about animal welfare to improve the standards of care being given by those with animals, something that was particularly valuable in rural areas.
2020 – Awarded to Animed Arad, Romania, to spay 100 dogs and cats – all strays and pets from low-income homes. Santana is a small town of only around 13,000 residents so this project made a huge difference.
2020 – Awarded to HART Nepal, to neuter 200 dogs and provide information to owners about preventative healthcare for their pet.
2019 – Awarded to Liberia Animal Welfare and Conservation Society, for their work on educating schoolchildren on animal welfare and developing community engagement programmes.
2019 – two small grants were awarded to: Africa Network for Animal Welfare, Kenya, for their primary school animal welfare education work and ADDA Bolivia for educational resources.
2018 – Awarded to ‘People for Animals Siliguri’, India, for a mobile veterinary vehicle.
2017 – Awarded to the ‘Jakarta Animal Aid Network’, Indonesia, for a sun bear rehabilitation enclosure.
2017 – two small grants were awarded to: Swaziland Animal Welfare Society and ADDA-Bolivia for the creation and printing of educational resources.
2016 – Awarded to the ‘Kurdistan Organisation for Animal Rights Protection’, for the delivery of seminars and workshops on animal sentience, slaughterhouses and zoonotic disease.
2015 – Awarded to the ‘Tanzania Animal Welfare Society’ to deliver veterinary clinics for working animals.
2014 – Awarded to ‘People for Animals Ghaziabad’, India, for their work administering veterinary care to, and education on, working animals.
2014 – two small grants were awarded to: KACPAW for their neutering programme in Sri Lanka and ADDA Bolivia for their street dog feeding programme.