Hatchery Fund 2026 Experiments

Investment, local elections, religious outreach, and a TTRPG

I’m pleased to present the first 7 experiments of the Hatchery Fund, and an additional 6 experiments that secured funding from another donor. Below those, I’ve also put together a list of 13 recommended experiments that were not able to receive funding. If you’re interested in funding these experiments or reading their full proposals, please contact me at zachary@hatcheryfund.org.

Since the Hatchery Fund focuses on innovation, I prioritized novelty as my main deciding factor. This led to a different portfolio of experiments than if I were focusing on other features, like scaling existing successes, reliability, or scope of impact. There were plenty of strong applications that would be valuable to the movement, but did not quite fit into the novelty model. I have not included those experiments in the post, since there are too many, but am happy to discuss them with anyone interested in directing funding to those initiatives.

Fund Experiments

29 — Community Kitchens for Plant-Based Cooking (Lawrence Phambana, Blantyre, Malawi, $750)
Can community-led “village kitchens” plus cultural storytelling raise household acceptance of plant-based meals in rural Blantyre? The idea is cultural rootedness, familiar Malawian dishes, and youth cooking competitions will make plant-based eating relatable rather than foreign. Women’s groups will run the kitchens and the experimenter will collect data on community behavior at home. Success looks like families cooking at least one plant-based meal per week at home; failure is people attending but saying they wouldn’t eat these at home.

51 — Islamic-Framed Farmer Outreach (Abdulhakeem Salahudeen, Zaria, Nigeria, $750)

Does Islamic framing (Hadiths, stewardship) move Muslim livestock farmers more than welfare-science framing (stress hurts productivity)? The idea is that religious obligation sticks better than economic self-interest for practices with no short-term payoff. Forty farmers will be split into two groups of 20, each getting a one-on-one conversation with a different framing. The experimenter will follow up with pre/post surveys and a 4–6 week check-in on actual practice change. Success looks like a more consistent change for the Islamic-framing group; failure is no difference or the framing backfiring as preachy. If successful, the experiment may lead to a replicable protocol for Muslim-majority farming regions across West/Central Africa.

56 — Social Gatherings for Next Generation of Activists (Jesica Bon Denis, Argentina, $750)
Does community and belonging recruit young people (18–30) into the movement better than the standard “join the cause” ask? The idea is that moralizing invitations trigger exit before a positive first experience, while friendship lowers the barrier to later involvement. Four low-pressure social events (~15 people each: vegan dinner, games, speed-friending) will target people who care about animals but don’t identify as activists. The experimenter will run pre/post surveys and a later check-in on whether anyone actually joined a group or attended another event. Success looks like sustained interest and new connections; failure is people enjoying the night out but going no further. The applicant brings 15+ years in the movement and frames this as a generational pipeline problem.

78 — Local Scorecard Canvassing (Katie Arth, Ventura County, CA, $500)
Can a pledge-and-scorecard canvassing model activate a durable “animal voter” identity and drive turnout? The idea is to tap into local identity, where party ID is weak, with the scorecard as the concrete activation tool. Tabling at farmers markets will convert engaged people with an “I vote for animals” pledge (button, QR-coded scorecard), followed by two pre-election emails and a voter-file cross-reference. Success looks like pledger turnout above comparable baseline; failure is turnout indistinguishable from it. The measurement is rigorous with separate QR codes for pledgers vs. info-seekers and voter-file segmentation by prior history to isolate who was actually moved.

85 — TTRPG for Animal Welfare (Fiel Aquino, Philippines, $750)
Can a cooperative tabletop RPG expand the moral circle to farmed animals without triggering defensiveness? The idea is layered: players inhabit pigs and chickens in a rigged resource economy they can’t beat through clever play (forcing a structural reading over pity), kapwa (FN) supplies a relational starting point, and burying the moral content in mechanics lowers defensiveness. The game is co-designed with advocates, gamers, and skeptics, then will be tested with different groups. Success will be measured by the Moral Expansiveness Scale, recorded debriefs, in-game behavior, and a persistence check; failure is players staying in puzzle-solving mode or flat scores on the Moral Expansiveness Scale. There are no cooperative board games for farmed-animal perspective-taking. If the game goes well with the pilot group, it may be scaled to other groups and eventually published.

95 — Increasing Investment in Alternative Proteins (Asampana Maxwell, Accra, Ghana, $750)
Will Ghanaian financial institutions engage on food-system investment, and which of four frames (Risk Mitigation, Market Opportunity, Food Security, or Animal Welfare) will be best for motivating that engagement? The idea is that economic frames (risk, market opportunity) land best and the welfare frame will be the weakest alone. The experimenter will reach out to ~30–40 banks and lenders with one of the four frames for each. For poultry-exposed institutions, the concrete ask is that the institutions require borrowers to meet GS 1404:2026, Ghana’s new national welfare standard, turning “higher welfare” into a lending condition. Success looks like ~8–10 meetings and directional patterns by frame; failure is consistent declines or no differentiation. The experiment is notable for testing the financial lever rather than consumer behavior.

79 — “Inside Job” Activist Training Program (Kinga Judit Kalla, $750)
Does breaking corporate advocacy into 5–10 minute micro-tasks lower the barrier enough to raise engagement, confidence, and long-term retention? The idea is compounding confidence: easy early wins build toward self-initiated advocacy. Participants will work through progressively harder tasks over 4–6 weeks, with the program also feeding the Plant Based Treaty’s “100 Cafés Challenge.” Success looks like 20–50 participants with 15–30 reporting feeling more effective, and half staying active long-term; failure is high dropout rates. The experiment centers onboarding and retention while supporting an existing corporate campaign.

Additional Experiments

4 — Just Food Systems Leadership Fellowship (John Nyambane, Kenya, $750)

Does a structured fellowship combining peer community, coaching, and micro-grants successfully transition students from passive interest into effective animal advocates? The idea is that providing a supportive environment and actionable steps lowers the barrier to sustainable activism. The experimenter will run a fellowship program where students receive training, materials, and small funds to implement their own advocacy micro-actions. Success looks like at least half of the participants undertaking meaningful advocacy activities during or immediately after the program; failure is participants merely attending sessions without translating their learning into real-world action. If successful, this could create a scalable pipeline for building dedicated student activists.

6 — Peer Engagement for Veterinarians (Sadiq Surajo, Nigeria, $750)

Can structured peer engagement and small stipends motivate veterinarians to participate actively in animal welfare activism? The idea is that while vets already care deeply about animals, institutional and social barriers often prevent them from taking public advocacy stances. Ten veterinarians will participate in a six-week program featuring weekly advocacy activities, with a small stipend to cover their time and internet access. The experimenter will use pre- and post-program surveys to measure shifts in attitudes, confidence, and willingness to take public action. Success looks like a measurable increase in active engagement and public advocacy from participants; failure is no change in behavior or participants remaining silent on welfare issues.

13 — 30-Day Advocacy Challenge (Ikeneche Ebubechukwu Favour, Nigeria, $650)

Can a 30-day “advocacy challenge” featuring small, low-pressure tasks recruit and retain new student advocates better than standard volunteer asks? The idea is that breaking activism into bite-sized daily actions within a supportive community prevents burnout and builds sustainable habits. Participants will complete simple daily tasks, supported by a combination of online coordination and small in-person meetups. The experimenter will track completion rates and follow up after the challenge to gauge ongoing interest. Success looks like a high retention rate throughout the 30 days and participants opting to continue their activism post-challenge; failure is a high drop-out rate or zero continued engagement once the challenge ends.

30 — Tilapia Quality of Life Improvement (Rachel Mugure Kabue, Kenya, $750)

Can a low-cost intervention—providing basic water-quality monitoring tools and support—lead to lasting welfare improvements in cage tilapia farms? The idea is that high mortality and poor welfare are driven by a lack of routine monitoring (like dissolved oxygen and pH levels), and equipping farmers with the right tools will incentivize better practices. After a baseline study along the Migori County shoreline of Lake Victoria, the experimenter will provide equipment (e.g., handheld dissolved-oxygen meters) and four weeks of support to local farmers. Success looks like farmers independently continuing to use the meters and record observations 60 days after the support period ends, alongside a measurable reduction in fish mortality; failure is the abandonment of the tools once the trial is over.

92 — Rabbit Welfare Champions Youth Group (Oliva IMANIBIRIMO, Rwanda, $750)

Can a youth-led peer support model improve rabbit welfare practices in rural farming communities better than standard, one-time technical trainings? The idea is that behavior change requires continuous encouragement, practical demonstration, and trusted relationships, rather than just isolated information drops. The experimenter will train 20 youth volunteers as “Rabbit Welfare Champions,” who will then provide ongoing support and demonstrations to local rabbit farmers over an 8-week period, focusing on proper housing, hygiene, and respectful handling. Success looks like clear, measurable improvements—such as cleaner shelters and consistent clean water access—in at least 70% of the participating households; failure is farmers reverting to or maintaining poor welfare practices despite the continuous youth-led intervention.

114 — Stray Dog Narrative Investigation (Aeshah El-Morsy, Egypt, $750)

Can an on-the-ground investigation uncover whether Egypt’s current “stray dog crisis” narrative is being artificially driven by parties with competing financial interests? The hypothesis is that the dominant public debate is a coordinated messaging campaign designed to benefit specific actors, rather than an organic crisis. The experimenter will conduct field research across multiple governorates—including deeply under-reported areas in Upper Egypt—to access witnesses, government offices, and field sites to document severe animal violations. Success looks like the final investigative report being utilized by a legal or academic voice outside Egypt and generating enough evidence to file a formal legal petition; failure is the inability to find concrete evidence of coordinated manipulation.

Shortlist

27 — Soybean Wara Leadership Demonstration (Ahmed Saheed Olaide, rural Nigeria, ~$980)
Can respected locals (elders, market leaders, corps members) eating soybean wara publicly strip its “poor man’s food” stigma and get people to choose it over animal protein? The idea is that everyone already knows wara — the barrier is what eating it signals socially, so a high-status demonstrator changes the meaning.

31 — Local Ingredient Culinary Challenge (Doe Kwabla Seyenam Nyamadi, Ghana, $970)
Can a plant-based cooking challenge using only indigenous Ghanaian ingredients make plant-based eating feel accessible to people outside vegan spaces? The idea is that veganism reads as foreign and expensive, so routing it through familiar local foods lowers resistance.

35 — Igbo Christian Congregation Outreach (Orji Peter Chibuzor, Southeast Nigeria, $930)

Does a pastor-delivered Sunday segment shift congregants’ attitudes and buying intentions on cage-free eggs and humane slaughter more under a biblical Creation Care framing or a food-safety framing? The idea is that the barrier is values-based rather than informational — so scripture-rooted stewardship should have more leverage than facts alone.

41 — Vegan Internships for Adjacent Allies (Zuleka Waldman, low-vegan-population country, $1,000)
Can non-vegan “allies” in adjacent professional fields be an effective recruitment and movement-building lever where vegans are scarce? The idea is that students exposed to animal material become influential professionals receptive to advocacy goals, easing the solo-advocate burnout problem.

43 — Listening Event for Advocate Recruiting (Gemunu de Siva, $1,000)
Can a music/listening event built around an album made from undercover-investigation field recordings reach people who’d never attend an advocacy event? The idea is that promoting through arts/cultural networks pulls in non-advocates who arrive for the sound art and stay for the stories.

68 — Animal-Welfare vs. Farmer-Centered Outreach (Gbolade Olumayowa Kujero, Nigeria, ~$1,000)
Can practical, farmer-centered messaging delivered through trusted peers engage poultry farmers more effectively than conventional animal welfare outreach? This experiment tests whether framing welfare around bird health, productivity, and disease prevention encourages farmers not only to adopt welfare ideas but also to share them within their own networks, creating measurable peer-to-peer diffusion of animal welfare practices.

70 — Newsletter vs. Direct Ask Recruiting (Anna Acsai, Hungary, $1,000)
Which digital volunteer funnel works better — newsletter-first (warm up, then ask) or a direct volunteer ad? The idea is that direct ads yield fewer but more active sign-ups, while the newsletter path is cheaper and higher-volume but leakier.

80 — Children’s Veg Fest (Naijha Wright-Brown, $1,000)
Does engaging kids through hands-on vegan cooking and youth speakers lower family resistance to plant-based meals? The idea is that children are empathetic and experiential, and that kid ownership of food prep drives household grocery decisions.

85 — Trauma-Informed Reflective Group (Leigh Tucker, $1,000)
Can facilitated peer-support groups reduce burnout and moral distress among animal-welfare practitioners and build psychologically sustainable org cultures? The idea is that nonjudgmental space to share values normalizes the struggle and seeds durable support networks, ultimately aiding retention.

88 — Vegan Taboo Student Tournament (Berna Köse, Turkey, $1,000)
Is an adapted Taboo game (cards on animal ag, speciesism, food systems) an effective entry point for veganism with non-vegan university students? The idea is that a game lowers the defensiveness that lectures and debates trigger, and that repeated explain-and-guess aids retention.

90 — Islamic Ethics vs. Traditional Welfare Farmer Outreach (Miftaudeen Abdulgafar, Zaria/Kaduna, Nigeria, ~$1,000)
Does Islamic ethical framing (Rahma, Prophetic tradition, the prohibition of Ta’dhib) shift smallholder farmers’ attitudes more than standard welfare framing? The idea is that a local vet activating an internal moral framework rather than importing an external one will be more effective at getting people to change.

93 — Animal Rights through Constitutional Values (Anjor Bhaskar, India, ~$850–1,000)
Does framing animal rights through constitutional values (liberty, equality, justice) reduce resistance better than direct animal-rights messaging? The idea is that in India, animal advocacy gets dismissed as casteist/elitist before the ethics land, and a constitutional entry point defuses that.

111 — Standup Comedy for Vegan Promotion (Pedro Garutti, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, ~$1,000)
Can a stand-up show featuring well-known comedians who aren’t known for animal advocacy reach people who would never attend a vegan event? The hypothesis is that an hour of laughter builds trust and lowers defensiveness before introducing animal issues. All ticket revenue will be donated to animal sanctuaries, and the performance will be released online for free to test whether the format can scale beyond the live audience.