Fueling Advocates Initiative Grants Program

Key information: 

• These grants are offered to non-profit organizations to help them use academic research and researchers to bolster their work.
• Organizations eligible to apply for and receive FAI grants need not be located in the U.S., but they must be registered charities /groups in their own countries and comparable to U.S. 501(c)(3) organizations.
• Each applicant can request a grant amount from $2,000 (minimum) to $20,000 (maximum).
• The award period is nine months.
• Applications for these grants are accepted once a year within the Call For Application window. 

Examples of work FAI grants can be used to support: 

• Assist a group in an emerging economy to arrange and host regular meetings with academic experts in the local area.
• Defray the cost of adding an academic specialist to the team.
• Pay a staff member to spend one day a week on academic matters (e.g. prepare summaries of academic papers; manage a project on evidence syntheses that involves consulting academics regularly).
• For a team of independent “third party” academic experts to review and evaluate the effectiveness of a campaign.   

An actual grant and its outcome: 

• A $15,000 grant was offered to a group in Ukraine to commission local academic researchers from the most prestigious academic institutions in Ukraine to undertake economic-focused research regarding the use of cage-free egg production system, with egg producers as the target audience. Outcome of the grant:
  • Academic researchers who were commissioned came up with compelling data that show cage-free systems are excellent investments and make more economic sense than changing to enriched cages.
  • Initial feedback to the research findings from the government and egg producers is very positive.
  • The Ukraine group emphasized the importance of the report coming from researchers "with high credibility" in the eyes of the producers.