Kirkpatrick Foundation staff joined Animal Grantmakers in 2013. Animal Grantmakers is an affinity group of foundations and organizations making grants to benefit animals.  Begun in 1999 with sixteen members, the organization now includes thirty-two organizations.  The group's mission is “to help maximize the effectiveness of work undertaken by animal protection funders for the communities they serve.” Animal Grantmakers believes in the following three pillars of impact: information, interaction, and inspiration. They work to: 

• Faciliate communication, education, and cooperation among philanthropic organizations supporting animals;

• Foster studies and provides information to grantmakers and other interest parties about animal philanthropy, its funding patterns, standards, trends, problems, and issues; and

• Encourage philanthropists and other grantmaking entites to make a significant commitment to funding that benefits animals.

Members of Animal Grantmakers must be engaged in grantmaking that benefits animals and whose giving is at a consistent, significant level on behalf of animal protection and is purely charitable in purpose. Funding interests of its members cover a wide spectrum of animal species and issue areas, including companion animals, captive and free-ranging wildlife, farmed animals, and animals used in research.  Louisa McCune, Kirkpatrick Foundation Executive Director, serves as the 2020 president of the board of directors of Animal Grantmakers.

To learn more about Animal Grantmakers, please visit animalgrantmakers.org.