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Why do charities join forces?
How Asia’s plant based advocates are working together
By the ACTAsia Compassionate Choices Network team · Updated 9 November 2026. ACTAsia launched and coordinates the Compassionate Choices Network. Registered charity, England and Wales, no. 1127625.
Charities join forces because big problems, like how a whole region eats, are too large for any one organisation. Working as a network lets groups share skills, campaigns and learning while staying rooted locally. Researchers call this collective impact. In Asia, ACTAsia’s Compassionate Choices Network unites 11 member organisations around compassionate, plant-based living.
Why one organisation is rarely enough
Some problems are simply bigger than any single charity. How Asia eats is one of them. The region is home to nearly five billion people, and the choices they make about food will shape animal welfare, climate and public health for decades. Meat and seafood consumption in Asia is projected to rise 78% between 2017 and 2050 (Asia Research and Engagement).
No one organisation, however effective, can change that alone. Different countries have different languages, food cultures, laws and media. What works in Shenzhen will not automatically work in Jakarta or Manila. Lasting change needs many local organisations moving in the same direction, and that is exactly what a well-run network makes possible.
What is collective impact?
Collective impact is the idea that organisations working on the same large problem achieve far more by coordinating than by acting separately. The term was popularised by John Kania and Mark Kramer in the Stanford Social Innovation Review in 2011, and it is now widely used by charities, funders and public bodies. Rather than each group running its own isolated projects, partners agree on shared goals and organise their work around them.
What are the five conditions of collective impact?
Kania and Kramer identified five conditions that successful collaborations tend to share. Here is how each one looks in practice in ACTAsia’s Compassionate Choices Network.
What is the Compassionate Choices Network?
The Compassionate Choices Network, or CCN, is a pan-Asian network of organisations that ACTAsia launched in 2021. It began with five organisations from Japan, Vietnam, India, mainland China and Taiwan, and now has 11 member organisations across Asia. Its impact report describes it as the only network dedicated exclusively to Asia, built on the recognition that solutions must come from within Asia itself.
Members are grassroots organisations with deep local knowledge, drawn from education, plant-based food, sustainable fashion and other sectors. They include groups such as ACRES, the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society in Singapore, and the Tuvalu Climate Action Network. You can meet the members of the Compassionate Choices Network
Why homegrown solutions matter
For decades, much international animal welfare work in Asia was led from outside the region. The CCN takes a different view: change lasts when it is designed by people who understand local culture, food traditions and family life from the inside. Members bring that knowledge, while the network provides tools, training and connections, so ideas that work in one country can be adapted, not simply copied, in another.
ACTAsia’s founder, Pei Su, has compared the network to an alliance such as the European Union or the G7: countries that share goals gain strength by acting together, and the CCN applies the same thinking to organisations.
What can a network achieve that a single charity cannot?
The clearest example is Plant Forward, the CCN’s annual campaign and Asia’s only regional campaign of its kind, run every May. In 2025, nine CCN members in seven Asian countries ran 44 events and reached students at 46 universities, according to ACTAsia’s 2025 Annual Review. In China, the campaign grew from four partner organisations in 2022 to 91 by 2025, and 78% of participants pledged to eat more plant-based food, as reported in the CCN and Plant Forward Impact Report
Across 2022 to 2025, the campaign recorded more than 6,000 behaviour change actions and engaged more than 45 universities and student groups and more than 100 corporate partners. The network also links its work to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the One Health approach, which connects the health of people, animals and the environment.
Are there downsides to working as a network?
Honestly, yes. Co-ordination takes time, members have different priorities and resources, and shared measurement is harder than it sounds across countries and languages. Collective impact works when a backbone organisation invests steadily in trust, communication and practical support. That is the role ACTAsia has chosen, because the alternative, many small efforts pulling in different directions, achieves far less.
How can I support animal welfare work in Asia?
- Support organisations based in the region, which understand local cultures and needs.
- Back the networks that help those organisations work together, since one gift strengthens many groups.
- Join or share Plant Forward each May, wherever you live.
- Follow and amplify local advocates on social media.
- Talk about compassionate choices in your own life: food, fashion and everyday products.
ACTAsia’s view. After twenty years, we have learnt that no single organisation, however determined, can change how a continent lives. What changes things is many trusted local voices, saying the same thing in their own words, at the same time. Our job is to help those voices find each other, grow stronger and be heard.
Where ACTAsia comes in
ACTAsia is an Asian-founded and Asian-led charity, registered in England and Wales (no. 1127625), with UN ECOSOC Special Consultative Status. It acts as the backbone of the Compassionate Choices Network, providing capacity building, shared campaign resources and coordination, while members lead the work in their own countries. ACTAsia’s analysis finds a pound goes around three times as far in Asia as in the West (Grant C., 2024).nearly five billion people, make lasting changes that are good for animals, health and the planet. ACTAsia’s analysis finds a pound goes around three times as far in Asia as in the West (Grant C., 2024)
Related reading
Members of the Compassionate Choices Network
CCN and Plant Forward Impact Report 2021 to 2025
Plant Forward: plant-based lifestyle benefits
Sources: Kania and Kramer, Stanford Social Innovation Review (2011); ACTAsia CCN and Plant Forward Impact Report 2021 to 2025; ACTAsia Annual Reviews 2021 and 2025; ACTAsia CCN member page; Asia Research and Engagement.
Frequently asked questions
Why do charities work together?
Because many problems are too big for any single organisation. Working together lets charities share skills, funding, learning and campaigns, avoid duplicating effort, and reach far more people, while each partner stays rooted in its own community. This approach is known as collective impact.
What is collective impact?
Collective impact is an approach in which organisations tackling the same large problem coordinate their work around shared goals rather than acting alone. The term was popularised by John Kania and Mark Kramer in the Stanford Social Innovation Review in 2011.
What are the five conditions of collective impact?
The five conditions are a common agenda, shared measurement, mutually reinforcing activities, continuous communication and backbone support, meaning a dedicated organisation that coordinates the collaboration. Successful partnerships tend to have all five in place.
What is the Compassionate Choices Network?
The Compassionate Choices Network is a pan-Asian network of organisations launched by ACTAsia in 2021. It now has 11 members working together to promote compassionate, plant-based living, and runs Plant Forward, an annual campaign across Asia every May.
What is a backbone organisation?
A backbone organisation coordinates a collective impact effort. It supports partners with planning, communication, shared measurement and resources, so members can focus on their own work. ACTAsia plays this role for the Compassionate Choices Network across Asia.
Which countries take part in Plant Forward?
In 2026, Plant Forward events were planned in China, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Singapore, Tuvalu and Vietnam, hosted by members of ACTAsia’s Compassionate Choices Network. In 2025, nine members in seven countries ran 44 events.
How can I support animal welfare work in Asia?
Support organisations based in the region, and the networks that help them work together, such as ACTAsia’s Compassionate Choices Network. You can also join or share Plant Forward each May and talk about compassionate choices in food, fashion and everyday products.
Education is urgent. Behaviour is learnt. And it is learnt fastest when many trusted voices teach it together. Support the Compassionate Choices Network.
