A guest blog from Joe Saxton, former Driver of Ideas at nfpResearch and consultant.

This blog looks at what the public feels about animals and to what extent the world of grant-making follows public sentiment. We use nfpResearch’s data from polling with the public and an analysis of the largest grant-makers and those who support animal welfare. The results are surprising.

Animals are one of the public’s favourite causes

The public loves animals: animal charities are one of the favourite causes in the regular nfpResearch public polling. In December last year, cancer was top of the list with 42% of the public saying it was one of their favourite causes to give to and animals are second with 29%. This is ahead of children and young people at 23%, health and medical (excluding cancer) 20%, and hospices and mental health both at 18%.

Animals are also continuing to be strong performers in public affection. Since 2010, cancer has dropped 9 percentage points in public affection (from 51% to 42%) and children have dropped 19 percentage points, while animals have dropped just 6 points (from 35% to 29%) – overtaking children and young people in the process.

The recent rise in pet ownership

This strong showing of public affection has been bolstered in recent years by the rise in pet ownership. This, in turn, was largely driven by the lockdowns in the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Statista, about 41% of households had a pet in 2020. By 2024, this had risen to 60% (that’s is around 3.2 million more pets; mainly cats and dogs).

This rise in pet ownership has been sustained by the continued trend of working from home post-Covid, as well as by the rise in pet paraphernalia. Remote cameras, automatic feeders and dog-walking services have all seen a dramatic rise in recent years – not just in the UK but across the developed world.

Which grant-makers support animals?

The mystery, then, is why so few grant-makers support animal causes, given how popular the subject is with the general public. Following a request from the Postcode Lottery, nfp’s analysis of the grant-makers who give to animal causes shows that few do so in practice.

The largest grant-makers overall give away tens, even hundreds of millions of pounds a year. The Wellcome Trust made grants of £1,210 million in the financial year 2023/24, while the Children’s Investment Fund gave away £439 million, and the Leverhulme Trust and the Garfield Weston Foundation gave away just over £100 million. These four alone cover many causes – but not animals.

The largest grant-maker, the National Lottery Community Fund, can only give to animal charities that have a human element and not directly to animal welfare. And many grant-makers also support environmental conservation but exclude projects benefitting only animals (animal welfare support can only be a secondary benefit).

nfpResearch analysis shows that the Postcode Lottery is the largest funder of animal welfare and animal charities, giving just over £13 million a year to a range of animal welfare charities large and small. The largest are household names, like the RSPCA and Dogs Trust, and the smallest are often regional animal charities like Cecil's Horse Sanctuary and Otterspool Animal Haven.

Other large animal welfare grant-makers include the Alborada Trust, the Michael Uren Foundation and the Pets at Home Foundation – though, of these three, the first two give to animal welfare and other causes, and the Pets at Home Foundation gave away £4.7 million in the year analysed (2024).

Why don’t large grant-makers give to animals?

It’s difficult to know why so few large grant makers want to support animal welfare. It may be for historical reasons – for example, that the grant-maker was started in memory of somebody who died of a particular medical condition. Most grant-makers are based on the legacy or wealth of somebody’s passions in their lifetime. Perhaps animals and high wealth don’t mix. It certainly is the case that there is a general sense amongst the great and the good that animal welfare is a bit of a frivolous cause (e.g. the ban on the National Lottery on animal welfare).

It's also probably not a coincidence that the Postcode Lottery is a new grant-maker, only just over 20 years old. Perhaps this has enabled it to give on a more meritocratic basis, shed the shibboleths of the past and mirror public sentiments more closely. Either way, as a life-long animal lover, I only wish that more grant-makers would follow the lead of the Postcode Lottery.