Accessible, affordable veterinary care is critical to the welfare of pets and to keeping pets with their families and out of shelters. Pet parents often cannot afford or access basic veterinary care, such as vaccinations or common treatments. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals ® (ASPCA®) aims to improve access to veterinary care (AVC) by leading systemic change in the veterinary field to make veterinary care more accessible to more pet parents. 

With support from Maddie's Fund®, a national family foundation established by Dave and Cheryl Duffield to revolutionize the status and well-being of companion animals, the ASPCA is requesting proposals for our AVC Research program. This program seeks to support research that advances knowledge in support of AVC and developing mechanisms for AVC implementation across the veterinary field. We invite organizations that meet the below criteria to apply for an AVC research grant.

A minimum of three grants will be awarded, with a maximum individual grant amount of $50,000. 

Eligibility 

Eligible Applicants

Investigators and/or research teams affiliated with US public or private entities such as universities, colleges, government agencies, veterinary hospitals and clinics, and other institutions. Applications from individuals will not be accepted.

Grant seekers must meet ASPCA Grantee Organizational Standards:

• If a past ASPCA grant recipient, you must be current on all reporting requirements.
• If a nonprofit organization:
  • Must be an incorporated or organized legal entity in good standing with the Secretary of State in the state where the organization is incorporated or organized
  • Must have a board of at least 4 members with a majority of independent members with neither board chair nor treasurer receiving compensation from the organization

Eligible Projects

The scope of this RFP is broad; the research can address AVC from any angle (e.g., medical, legal, AVC impact, program delivery, community engagement, veterinary engagement). 

Ideally, the research will establish tools or guidelines that other veterinarians and organizations can use to improve access to veterinary care. 

Projects must have a clear research question with an appropriate methodology to answer that research question. 

Projects with the primary aim of providing services or building infrastructure will not be considered. 

The ASPCA® was founded on the belief that animals are entitled to kind and respectful treatment by humans. Acting effectively on that belief requires a commitment to fostering a collaborative and compassionate culture and to principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion. We welcome and encourage diverse candidates to apply for our grant opportunities in the interest of working together to improve the lives of animals in need.

Download full requirements (PDF)

Grant Review Timeline

• June 15th: LOI due
• July 20th:  Invitations to submit full proposals emailed

How to Apply

Interested applicants should first submit a letter of intent (LOI) by completing an application via the link below. 

As part of your application, you will be asked to provide the following (see Companion PDF for additional details):

• Organization name, contact information, and 501(c)(3) status; primary investigator and primary contact name and information
• Project title; anticipated start and end dates
• Project budget (total requested; breakdown of income and expenses for the project)
• Project description (project justification; research question(s); methods; impact) 
• Research team (list/credentials; experience relevant to the project)

Please note that Airtable will not allow you to save your work and return later to complete your application. We suggest having all the requested information (above) prepared before entering to submit your application.

Questions? Contact us.

The ASPCA is pleased to announce a new funding opportunity to support research that advances animal welfare. The ASPCA Open-Access Publishing Fund (OAPF) is designed to support the dissemination of results of innovative and impactful animal welfare research. The program will subsidize article processing charges for selected articles, up to $5000 per article. OAPF funds apply to publication and processing fees for open-access, scholarly, peer-reviewed articles. 

Applications will be considered in the order in which they are received. 

Applications will be reviewed by a panel of animal welfare researchers and appropriate content experts. Applications should provide enough detail for the peer reviewers to assess the scientific quality of the proposed manuscript and its potential impact on animal welfare, including consideration of: 

• Alignment of research with the ASPCA’s mission and goals
• Demonstrated need 
• Likelihood manuscript will be published 
• Potential reach and impact if published

Funding Amount

The program will subsidize article processing charges for selected articles, up to $5000 per article.
The total funding amount currently available under this solicitation is $15,000 for 2022, with the potential for additional funds to become available later in 2022.

Eligibility

Eligible Applicants: 

• We invite applications from any field as long as the research has direct and compelling relevance to animal welfare. 
• Applicants must be citizens or residents of the United States. 
• Applicants may be independent researchers or a part of any of the following:
  • Public or private academic institutions
  • Other research institutions whether public or private
  • Animal welfare organizations, human service organizations, etc.
  • Government agencies
• Applicants should be able to demonstrate preparedness to produce scholarly work at a publishable standard, meeting all applicable ethical and regulatory requirements.
• Applicants may hold any role in their institutions/organizations--including, but not limited to, academic faculty, research scientists, research scholars, and graduate or undergraduate students working on mentored research projects. 
• Applicants may be successfully funded by the program only once per calendar year as the primary author.
• Funds will be dispersed directly to the publisher.

Eligible Journals: 

• Journal must be a quality, peer-reviewed scholarly journal. For example, indexed journals following transparent publishing standards suitable for their scope and reaching an audience appropriate to the research goals are suitable.
• To be eligible, a journal must provide unfettered access to the article immediately upon publication. 

Eligible Articles:

• Both empirical and review papers are eligible. Other manuscript types may be considered on a case-by-case basis.
• Within 6 months of receiving funding approval, articles must be submitted for publication with confirmation of receipt. 
• Applicants must not have paid the publisher already. Payment will come directly from the ASPCA to the publisher; no reimbursements will be made.
• All funding under this opportunity will be made public and awarded authors will be asked to include a statement in the final published paper that open access funding was provided by the ASPCA.
• Submissions are especially encouraged from the following priority areas: cruelty prevention and response, animal sheltering, applied animal behavior, increasing access to affordable veterinary care, community cats, equine welfare, and farm animal welfare.

Note: The ASPCA® was founded on the belief that animals are entitled to kind and respectful treatment by humans. Acting effectively on that belief requires a commitment to fostering a collaborative and compassionate culture and to principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion. We welcome and encourage diverse candidates to apply for our grant opportunities in the interest of working together to improve the lives of animals in need.

Download full requirements (PDF) 

Application Review Timeline

Applications will be considered in the order in which they are received. 

How to Apply

Complete an application via the link below.  As part of your application, you will be asked to provide the following:

• Brief explanation (500 words) of why you are seeking funding to publish your manuscript in an open-access journal
• Name of the journal to which article is being submitted and rationale for publishing in this journal
• Names of all authors and their affiliations and a brief CV of the lead author (and optionally for other authors)
• Disclosure of funding sources that supported the research, with an explanation of why funding was not available for open-access publishing of the paper 
• Total charges for open-access publication and total amount requested

Note: The maximum dollar amount that the fund will pay for a single article is $5,000 USD.

• A complete draft manuscript. The manuscript should be substantially complete and able to be submitted within a period of no longer than 6 months. It should not require any further substantive development but does not need to be completely finalized, copyedited, or formatted for submission.

Please note that Airtable will not allow you to save your work and return later to complete your application.  We suggest having all the requested information (above) prepared before entering to submit your application.
 

Please email your questions to us with the subject line "OAPF inquiry."

ASPCA Right Horse Adoption Partners and organizations participating in the Warm-Up Ring are invited to apply for a grant to support an increase in capacity and/or efficiency of programs aimed at adopting out retired racehorses. 

Funding requests for this grant initiative should focus on:

• Innovations that increase capacity, decrease length of stay, and/or improve adoption statistics. Examples:
  • training programs
  • foster placement programs
  • adoption programs
• Medical make-ready. Examples:
  • gelding
  • therapeutic shoeing
  • surgeries to repair racing-related injuries
  • collaborative programs with veterinary colleges

• Collaborations with industry partners to increase support for retired racehorses

Applicants will be evaluated on their potential (within the 12-month grant term) to: 

• decrease length of stay
•  decrease cost of care
• increase the number of horses who can be rehabbed, trained, and placed

Programs that test innovative ideas and encourage positive shifts from conventional attitudes held by some in the equine industry about rescue horses are welcome.

Grant Amount

Organizations are invited to apply for a grant for up to $60,000. Up to $300,000 in total is available for this grant opportunity.

Eligibility

ASPCA Right Horse Partners and active Warm-Up Ring participants are eligible to apply for this grant opportunity. 

The ASPCA® was founded on the belief that animals are entitled to kind and respectful treatment by humans. Acting effectively on that belief requires a commitment to fostering a collaborative and compassionate culture and to principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion. We welcome and encourage diverse candidates to apply for our grant opportunities in the interest of working together to improve the lives of animals in need.

Download full requirements (PDF)

Strong proposals will clearly articulate: 

• the problem/ challenge/ process the proposal aims to improve 
• the proposed solution
• the intended impact
• the number of horses who will be affected, and the increase over prior year 

Proposals must also include a detailed budget, including major line-item costs, for how the grant funds will be used.

Grant Review Timeline

• RFP will open on May 16th at 9 a.m. ET.
• RFP will close on June 17th at 5 p.m. ET. 
• Finalists will be notified via email on or around July 15th and invited to complete a formal application in our grant management system. 

How to Apply

Please submit an application by completing this form.

We recommend you prepare in advance the information listed in the companion guide to allow you to complete the form in one session.

Please be sure all requested information is included in your responses. Applications cannot be revised after submission.
 

Questions 

• For program-related inquiries, please contact the Equine Welfare team. 
• For application submission inquiries/technical difficulties, please contact the Grants team.

The ASPCA Right Horse’s shared goal is to massively increase adoptions so that all equines in need of support will be able to receive help. This grant opportunity is aimed at helping to realize this goal by supporting programs and processes that increase adoptions, focus on owner relinquishment intake, and/or help keep owned horses in their homes (through safety net programming).  

Grants will generally range from $10,000 - $150,000. Up to $500,000 is available for this grant opportunity. 

Eligibility

ASPCA Right Horse Adoption Partners, Industry Partners, and active Warm-Up Ring participants (defined as groups who are actively working to achieve the 13 criteria for Partnership and are participating on myrighthorse.org).   

Applicants must meet ASPCA Grantee Organizational Standards including:

• If a past ASPCA grant recipient, must be current on all reporting requirements 
• If a nonprofit organization 
  • Must be an incorporated or organized legal entity in good standing with the Secretary of State in the state where the organization is incorporated or organized 
  • Must have a board of at least 4 members with a majority of independent members with neither board chair nor treasurer receiving compensation from the organization 
  • Charitable registration must be current/active in the state of the Grantee’s primary location (for grants >=$25,000)

The ASPCA® was founded on the belief that animals are entitled to kind and respectful treatment by humans. Acting effectively on that belief requires a commitment to fostering a collaborative and compassionate culture and to principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion.  We welcome and encourage diverse candidates to apply for our grant opportunities in the interest of working together to improve the lives of animals in need. 

Download full requirements (PDF)

Strong proposals will:

• Clearly describe the problem/challenge you are aiming to solve 
• Clearly and succinctly outline the program or project
• Quantify the expected impact 
• Describe any expected barriers and how you plan to overcome them
• Declare how much this project will cost in total, how much is requested and how the funds will be used, using this template to fully outline budget 
• Share a plan for sustaining the work beyond the grant period

Grant Review Timeline

• RFP will open Wednesday, May 25, at 9:00 a.m. ET 
• Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis until Friday, September 2, at 5:00 p.m. ET or until all available funding is allotted, whichever comes first
• Submissions will be reviewed on a rolling basis. All applicants will be notified within one month of submission about the status of their request. Successful applicants will be invited to complete a formal application in our grant management system to ensure groups meet ASPCA grantee organizational standards.
• Groups are encouraged to submit their applications as soon as possible. 

How to Apply

Please submit an application by completing this form. 
 
We recommend you prepare in advance the information listed in the companion guide to allow you to complete the form in one session. 
 
Please be sure all requested information is included in your responses. Applications cannot be revised after submission. 
 

Questions  

• For program-related inquiries, please email the Equine Welfare Team.
• For application submission inquiries/technical difficulties, please contact the Grants team.