By ASPCA President & CEO Matt Bershadker

While animal shelters and rescue groups across the country reflect the uniqueness of their communities, they all share two fundamental and powerful qualities: a dedication to helping vulnerable animals and a constant need for a variety of resources and support to help them accomplish that goal. 

Much of that support comes from the community—including volunteers, supplies, foster caregivers, adopters and donations—but to implement bigger initiatives to improve the lives of animals, costs can range from tens of thousands to millions of dollars, and a larger helping hand is often required. Since 2001, the ASPCA has helped meet that need.

Late last year, we were proud to reach an amazing milestone: $200 million in ASPCA grant funding—more than 10,000 grants in all since 2001—provided to more than 3,500 animal shelters, municipal and governmental agencies, rescue groups, universities and other mission-aligned organizations and programs in all 50 states as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

In 2022 alone, we delivered 475 grants—totaling nearly $12 million—to more than 400 different organizations in 49 states, including 63 first-time grantees.

We distributed these grants for a wide variety of purposes, including building strong programs to rescue, shelter, adopt, transport and support animals during natural disasters; helping horses in need access veterinary care; funding groundbreaking animal cruelty research; supporting lifesaving animal relocation efforts; assisting farmers who want to transition to higher-welfare practices; and promoting humane legislation and policy initiatives.

Our grants are designed to not only solve short-term problems, but also enable and inspire recipients to continue improving and evolving—even after the grant funds are depleted.

The largest grant initiative in ASPCA history provided emergency support to animal welfare organizations nationwide during the first months of the COVID pandemic in 2020, resulting in the funding of $4 million to 83 organizations working in areas where community needs—including food and primary veterinary care—severely outweighed available resources.

Our grants are often given and used in innovative ways, addressing a wide range of critical needs and benefiting diverse animal populations.

Recent ASPCA grants helped our social service partners Food Bank for NYC, LA Regional Food Bank and Miami Farm Share provide pet food for the pets of their food bank clients.

A grant to Florida International University is funding research that can enable animal cruelty investigators to quickly and inexpensively test for the presence of canine or chicken blood at a suspected animal fighting location. Gaining this knowledge can substantially assist animal cruelty investigations and prosecutions.

A grant to support the Arizona Department of Agriculture enabled its crisis response teams to purchase a new mobile emergency command response trailer, giving them a secured space with independent power and temperature control and ensuring they have the resources to effectively respond to animals in need during an emergency.

Our funding for the American Association of Equine Practitioners' Vet Direct Safety Net program provides subsidies for veterinarians to treat horses whose owners cannot afford that care. 

Our grant to Food Animal Concerns Trust (FACT) enables that organization to provide grants to farmers so that they can meet animal welfare certification standards as well as the demand for higher-welfare animal products as an alternative to food from animals raised on factory farms. 

Grant funding to Animal Care Centers of NYC and Los Angeles County Animal Care and Control has helped those municipal agencies better support animal needs in their communities with advances in their programs, operations and staffing capability. 

Funding for Felines & Canines, a key ASPCA Relocation partner, has supported the relocation of more than 14,000 Alabama animals through its hub in the Chicago area and improved the standard of care for animals at the shelters where those animals originate.

A grant to Seattle Veterinary Outreach provided funds to purchase and outfit a retired ambulance as a mobile veterinary unit that helps individuals experiencing homelessness in the Seattle area provide necessary care for their pets.

Working closely with the Department of Defense, New York University is using our grant to fund a study of the link between animal cruelty and domestic violence in the military, laying the groundwork for more effective prevention and response to cruelty in military settings. 

Our grants to Socially Responsible Agriculture Project (SRAP) and Mercy for Animals (MFA) will save hundreds of thousands of animals from suffering by encouraging and supporting farmers to transition away from industrial animal-agriculture operations. SRAP hires and trains former contract farmers to work as advocates within the communities most harmed by industrial agriculture. MFA's “Transfarmation” program helps farmers transition to plant-focused farms raising crops for human consumption. 

Each of our grantees demonstrates passion, vision, resourcefulness, innovation and commitment, and it’s a privilege to support their essential and forward-thinking work.   Sometimes, the best thing you can do for animals in need is help a partner turn their compassionate vision into lifesaving action.

Might you be the next organization supported and empowered through an ASPCA grant? First, thank you so much for your dedication to animals in need. Second, I invite you to view current grant ASPCA grant opportunities here.