Olivia Addy
Billions of chickens suffer in cages and overcrowded sheds every year. Here’s how passionate groups around the world are changing that—and how we’re helping them do it.
When a small group of animal advocates in Czechia started their work to end cages back in 2018, they were taking on some of the largest food companies in the country. What they had was determination, a deep knowledge of their home country, and a fierce commitment to the animals suffering there.
Soon after they started their work, they got the backing of the Open Wing Alliance grant program. What happened next is the kind of story that makes you believe real change for animals is possible.
The problem no single organization can solve alone
Billions of hens around the world are still confined in cages so small they can’t spread their wings. Billions of broiler chickens—bred to grow so fast their bodies can barely keep up—are suffering in overcrowded sheds. The scale of the suffering is staggering.
The Humane League and our partners across the Open Wing Alliance (OWA) have made real, measurable progress. The US is now over 45% cage-free. We’ve secured thousands of cage-free commitments from companies around the globe. But the truth is, we can't be everywhere at once.
And honestly? We shouldn't try to be. Because the groups who can make the deepest impact in any given country are the ones who already live and work there. They speak the language—literally, but also culturally. They know which food businesses to target, which tactics will land, and how to navigate the local landscape in ways that an outside organization simply can’t replicate.
The challenge is that many of these groups are early-stage organizations led by advocates with big ambitions and limited resources. They don’t always have the funding to hire full-time staff or sustain the kind of long-term negotiations and pressure campaigns that actually move companies to act.
That’s the gap the OWA grant program was built to close.
What the Open Wing Alliance grant program does
The Open Wing Alliance grant program provides direct funding to local animal protection organizations so they can do the corporate campaign work that wins real protections for chickens. But it’s not just a check posted in the mail—it’s a genuine partnership. Since the program launched in 2017, we’ve awarded more than $14 million in grants to over 70 organizations worldwide—but the victories belong to the groups doing the work.
To be eligible, organizations must be members of the OWA and already engaged in (or actively working toward) corporate campaigns focused on cage-free or broiler chicken welfare. Grants can cover the things that make campaigns possible: full-time campaign and corporate relations staff, travel to meet with target companies, legal counsel, campaign materials, digital designs, and more.
Beyond the funding, OWA members receive a whole ecosystem of support: regional staff who understand local context, in-person training from our strategy experts, access to a resource library of over 200 tools and guides, webinars, a mentorship program, and the collective strength of an entire global alliance ready to amplify their campaigns. For smaller groups in particular, that guidance from more experienced alliance members can sometimes be just as valuable as the funding itself.
What this looks like in practice: the story of OBRAZ
Back to that Czech group we mentioned. OBRAZ became a grantee of the Open Wing Alliance in 2018, and what they accomplished in the years that followed is true testament to what passionate local advocates can achieve when they have the resources to match their vision.
With OWA grant support behind them, OBRAZ got to work running pressure campaigns, and they did it with a remarkably small team. Their first grant in 2018 helped them hire their very first full-time campaigner and a video editor. Their second, in 2019, brought on a corporate relations coordinator and communications staff. As they grew their team, they also drew on the advice of more experienced OWA members and THL staff, a network of peers who had run these kinds of campaigns before and knew what it took to win.
It wasn’t easy, and it wasn’t overnight. But step by step, OBRAZ ran sustained corporate campaigns targeting the biggest food companies in Czechia—and they won. Securing commitment after commitment for animal welfare, they built a strong track record that now includes more than 35 cage-free pledges from major businesses across the country. This is what the OWA grant program exists to make possible.
It was in 2020 that their work helped contribute to something even bigger: a nationwide ban on cages for hens, set to take effect in 2027. Let that sink in. A ban that builds on the foundation laid by corporate policies and provides set-in-stone legal protections for every egg-laying hen in the country. By 2022, OBRAZ had grown beyond the OWA grant program and moved on to larger funders.
Why local groups change everything
OBRAZ is one story. Across the Open Wing Alliance’s network of grantees, similar chapters are being written right now—in countries and communities where animals need advocates who know them best.
The OWA grant program is how we make sure those advocates have what they need to win. Because lasting progress for animals doesn’t come from one organization working in isolation. It comes from a global movement of advocates, each deeply rooted in their own communities, working in concert. The OWA grant program is built on that belief. When we invest in local groups, we’re not just funding one-off campaigns. We’re building the infrastructure of a movement that can sustain itself and grow—long after any single grant has been spent. Think of it as an incubator for the global animal protection movement, giving emerging organizations the resources, training, and network to grow into powerful forces for change.
Every commitment a grantee wins, every company that agrees to end its abuse of animals, every piece of legislation that follows. That’s the ripple effect of what these grants make possible. If you’re someone who believes in this work—who wants to see a world where animals are treated as the living, feeling beings they are—know that the movement you’re part of is bigger, and more powerful, than any one of us alone. Together, we’re building a future where no animal suffers for a corporation’s bottom line.
