2023 Zoetis Foundation Grantees

The Zoetis Foundation focuses its giving around three grantmaking priorities – Education, Well-being and Livelihoods. Across each of these focus areas, diversity, equity, and inclusion remain a top priority in the types of partnerships the Foundation engages with – enabling thriving and inclusive professions for veterinarians, veterinary technicians and farmers around the globe.

Education Grantees

It Takes A Village Foundation hosts a ‘Vet for a Day’ event, providing children from underrepresented groups with the opportunity to learn about veterinary medicine.

American Association of Bovine Practitioners Foundation (AABPF): in its second year of funding, AABPF has increased the number of scholarship recipients from 12 to 16 and has raised the scholarship amount from $5,000 to $7,500 to continue supporting exceptional students dedicated to bovine veterinary practice and sustaining the profession.

American Association of Swine Veterinarians Foundation (AASVF): in its second year of funding, AASVF continues to provide professional development opportunities for veterinary students to share scientific presentations at AASVF’s annual meeting. Funding goes to students whose posters are displayed, the selected oral presenters, and the scholarship recipient whose presentation is judged best overall.

American Association of Swine Veterinarians Foundation (AASVF): the AASVF/Zoetis Foundation Educational Debt Relief Grant program seeks to help offset veterinary student debt to expand access to veterinary education and to help ensure a diverse pool of veterinarians interested in swine veterinary medicine can pursue their career goals. The program will award 10 recipients with $7,500 each.

American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC) Dr. Catherine A. Knupp Scholarship: in its second year of grant funding, this scholarship aims to encourage more students to pursue research in veterinary science and is named in honor of Dr. Catherine A. Knupp, who retired as Zoetis’ President of Research & Development in 2021. Commemorating her many contributions to scientific innovation as a veterinary scientist and leader in human and animal health research and development, the scholarship will award 2 recipients with $25,000 each.

American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC) Veterinary Student Scholarship Program: in its third year of grant funding, the scholarship program will provide financial support to veterinary students, addressing the issue of student debt and the need to foster diversity in the veterinary profession. From 2021-2023, the Foundation has approved $4.4 million in funding for this program supporting more than 840 scholarships. 

American Veterinary Medical Foundation (AVMF): in its second year of funding, AVMF seeks to provide scholarship funds to support exceptional veterinary technician students, doubling the scholarship amount from $1,000 to $2,000 for 180 recipients to better respond to increased student need and provide meaningful financial support to each scholar.

College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University (CAU): facilitated by Give2Asia to support the Summer Camp Advanced Training Program of the Elite Cattlemen Program Alliance (ECPA) in China. The full-time 4-6 week advanced summer camp program is designed to support 40-60 members from universities and dairy farms and provide education on areas within the dairy value chain, including grassland management, forage processing, genetics and breeding.

College of Veterinary Medicine, China Agricultural University (CAU): in its second year of funding, facilitated by Give2Asia, CAU seeks to establish a specialized graduate faculty team comprised of 40-50 young graduate faculty members focused on veterinary clinical science in China.

Farm Journal Foundation (FJF): in its second year of funding, FJF continues its work to help alleviate veterinary student debt through two interlinked initiatives: activating the Veterinary and Farmer Ambassador Program and creating a Rural Veterinary Support Framework to address industry challenges at the community, undergraduate, and young professional levels.

It Takes a Village Foundation (ITAV): in its second year of funding, ITAV will scale the “Vet for a Day” program to attract underserved students to the veterinary profession, hosting 15 “Vet for a Day” events in at least five cities across the U.S. with the support of the Zoetis Foundation as a founding sponsor.

Kansas State University Foundation: US-China Center for Animal Health, College of Veterinary Medicine: supports pre-veterinary training for six Chinese DVM students at Kansas State University who will return to China at the completion of their DVM training from four American colleges of veterinary medicine with the knowledge and skills to support the growth and development of the veterinary profession in their home country.

National FFA Organization: in its second year of funding, National FFA continues its work to engage underrepresented populations and encourage their participation in agricultural education and the FFA. This includes the launch of a second cohort of the State Equity, Diversity and Inclusion collaborative supporting 10 states to develop state-level EDI plans.

The Foundation for the Horse, the charitable arm of the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP): in its third year of funding, the Foundation for the Horse has doubled the number of scholarship recipients from five to 10 and doubled the scholarship amount from $5,000 to $10,000 to continue supporting exceptional students dedicated to equine veterinary practice and sustaining the profession.

Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS): in its second year of funding, the Zoetis Foundation is providing support for WCS’s veterinary resident, Dr. Catherine M. Bartholf, who continues her three-year residency with the goal to receive training and mentorship in zoological medicine and surgery.

Well-being Grantees

Well-being Grantees - Zoetis
A veterinarian who has engaged in The Shanti Project's Veterinary Mental Health Initiative. (Photo credit Mark Primiano).

Australian Veterinary Association: this grant will help AVA launch the “Cultivating Safe Teams” program, delivering free psycho-social safety and mental health awareness training sessions to 50 veterinary workplaces in Australia. The program aims to empower veterinary teams, increase staff productivity, reduce absenteeism, and improve retention as well as individual well-being and satisfaction. 

Not One More Vet (NOMV): provides outreach services to veterinary professionals to improve mental health and support those in crisis through direct fiscal support and referral services, including microgrants of up to $1,000 for expenses such as therapy, medical bills, and living expenses.

Shanti Project Veterinary Mental Health Initiative (VMHI): in its second year of funding, the VMHI continues to provide evidence-based, culturally competent, and multi-level mental health support services to veterinarians by expert clinicians.

The Human Animal Bond Research Institute (HABRI): in its second year of funding, HABRI continues to explore the vital role of the human-animal bond in the health and well-being of people, pets, cultures, communities and for the practice of veterinary medicine across the globe through its research and education initiatives.

Vetlife: this grant will provide increased mental health counseling and cognitive behavioral therapy support for the veterinary community, expand volunteer helpline training, and improve online resources for those seeking guidance for mental health and related issues. 

Livelihoods Grantees

Veterinarians Without Borders provides community mobilization, agricultural training, as well as animal health assessments in South Sudan.

Instituto Biosistêmico (IBS): in its second year of funding, IBS expands its work promoting the development of sustainable, productive, and high-quality dairy farming among 1,800 producers in the Seridó region of Brazil. This is done through technical assistance activities and resources to help improve their financial stability.

Livestock Industry Foundation for Africa (LIFA): in its second year of funding, LIFA continues to carry out a public lectures series aimed at upskilling poultry farm technical teams through the Knowledge Update program, expanding their existing work in Nigeria and West Africa to six additional countries: Senegal, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Guinea Bissau, Togo, and Gambia.

National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) in cooperation with The Sustainability Consortium: in its second year of funding, NFWF continues to provide technical assistance to U.S. farmers to implement conservation practices that help improve farm operations while also generating benefits for native habitat and wildlife, such as providing dairy farmers the tools to improve habitat conservation on agricultural lands, improve local waterways, and strengthen the sustainability of their businesses.

The Nature Conservancy: this grant supports farmers’ adoption of regenerative agriculture practices in the Cerrado region of Brazil through technical assistance models. These technical skills will maximize farmer livelihoods and production, while also minimizing environmental impact, advancing the sustainability of their farms.

Uganda Crane Creameries Cooperative Union (UCCCU): in its second year of funding, UCCCU continues to establish farmer-led systems and tools that enhance the productivity, production, and incomes of smallholder dairy farmers in southwestern Uganda.

Veterinarians Without Borders (VWB): enhance the food security and livelihood resilience of livestock farmers in South Sudan by selecting community animal health workers and veterinary doctors to provide a number of key services, including vaccination and direct outreach to farmers in remote areas.

World Food Program USA: supports the United Nations World Food Programme’s climate resiliency programming in Kenya and Ethiopia. The grant aims to provide financial inclusion and linkages to veterinary services to enhance resilience against drought and improve the livelihoods of pastoralist communities. More than 80,000 pastoralists will receive integrated services including financial literacy and index-based drought insurance. 350 veterinary service providers will also receive capacity building support.

Humanitarian Relief 

American Red Cross: grant funding to help provide critical support for the humanitarian needs of communities impacted by the earthquake in Türkiye, including food, shelter, critical care items and first aid.

Zoetis Foundation Grantees Archive