Minneapolis, MN

WILD ANIMAL INITIATIVE INC

EIN 82-2281466

Environment & Animal Welfare Wildlife & Habitat Conservation

Mission

To advance wild animal welfare science by conducting research, funding promising projects and researchers, and supporting the research community with professional services, with the goal of understanding and reducing the suffering of wild animals.

IRS-recognized 501(c)(3) public charity Contributions are tax-deductible

Claim this page Visit www.wildanimalinitiative.org

About WILD ANIMAL INITIATIVE INC

Wild Animal Initiative (WAI) is a donor-facing 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Minneapolis, Minnesota that supports and produces scientific research on the welfare of wild animals. The organization funds academic projects, runs grant competitions, publishes research resources, and builds a community of researchers across ecology, animal behavior, welfare science, and related disciplines. WAI’s EIN (82-2281466) matches the organization’s public filings and the nonprofit’s own website. In recent years WAI has scaled its Grants Program (multiple seed, discovery and challenge grant rounds), received a major multi-year grant to expand operations, and continued to award grant funding to researchers globally (including active grant rounds and award announcements in 2023–2025).

Notable achievements

Major Open Philanthropy grant (2023)

Received a $6 million grant from Open Philanthropy in July 2023 to support the Grants Program and general operations, enabling multi-year expansion of research funding and capacity.

Established, growing grants program

Since launching its Grants Program WAI has disbursed substantial funding to dozens of research projects (including multi-round Seed, Discovery and Challenge grants), with recent rounds awarding hundreds of thousands of dollars — for example, 15 projects received $711,309 in grants in 2025 and earlier rounds funded dozens of projects in 2022–2024.

Field-wide influence and global reach

Expanded global footprint for funded research and collaborations (grant cycles in recent years have supported projects across many countries and research areas, with the 2025 cycle extending to 24 countries).

At a glance

Total assets: $7.6M
Annual revenue: $2.5M
Tax status: 501(c)(3)Public charity
EIN: 82-2281466
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Website: www.wildanimalinitiative.org
On Mahalo since: September 2026

Financial figures from the IRS Business Master File, the IRS’s registry of tax-exempt organizations.

Recognition

Recommended by Animal Charity Evaluators (ACE) across multiple years (ACE recommendation status from 2021 onward).

Major institutional funder support, including a significant multi-year grant from Open Philanthropy.

Maintains public transparency through published annual reports, audited financial statements and publicly available Form 990 filings.

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