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Kickstarting For Good - High-Impact Nonprofit Incubation Program

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SebastianJoy

ActiveGrant
$2,631raised
$100,000funding goal

Project summary

A 10-week programme that offers an intensive curriculum with exclusive networking opportunities. The programme includes two intensive periods in Berlin and culminates in a funding-focused Pitch Day. Selected participants each receive a grant of up to $5,000 to cover travel and accommodation costs for the mandatory in-person sessions in Berlin. Further information can be found on the website at provegincubator.com/kickstartingforgood.

What are this project's goals? How will you achieve them?

Create more high-impact nonprofits and programs that help farmed animals and reduce greenhouse gases. Our team of founders, funders, mentors, and researchers will help participants identify the best approaches and right co-founder(s). Evaluate and validate participantsā€™ ideas, set up a budget, dive into cost-effectiveness, develop a theory of change, and learn the fundraising ropes.

Weā€™ll match participants up with experienced mentors and advisors from our international network and our team at ProVeg International. We are experts in non-profit management and dedicated to supporting participants on their entrepreneurial journey.

How will this funding be used?

Seed funding for promising high-impact nonprofits. With full funding, we can implement this without any limitations. However, any amount below that will still contribute to the growth of the newly established organizations, meaning no minimum funding requirement has been set.

Who is on your team? What's your track record on similar projects?

Team

Furthermore, we also have a large network of experts who serve as mentors for the program.


Track record

During the pilot program in 2023, Kickstarting For Good has successfully incubated several initiatives, including the following:

  • Vegan Thesis: Connecting academia and animal advocacy to empower research for a more human future by bringing together students, supervisors, and research topics. Founded by Joel Christoph and Yuxi Xia. Joel is currently the director of Effective Thesis, PhD researcher and speaks 8 languages, while Yuxi is a Master student and is awarded the Thomas J. Watson fellowship to travel the globe to research veganism.

  • Open Paws: An open source AI for the animal rights movement, providing free technical support to nonprofits and working with major AI labs to ensure that AI benefits all sentient beings. Led by Sam Tucker with 3 other co-founders. Sam founded 3 different vegan social enterprises in the technology space, worked full time at Vegan Outreach for 5 years and even developed websites and hosted a radio show about animal rights at just 11 years old.

  • The Freedom Food Alliance: Equipping consumers with science-backed information through reports, a fact-checking website, and international campaigns aimed at shedding light on industry malpractices. Founded by Robbie Lockie, with 24 years in digital media and the co-founder and board member of Plant-Based News, the largest vegan media organisation.

  • Will-Kirche-Tierschutz?: Challenging church-led institutions (kindergartens, schools, hospitals, etc.) ā€“ with their almost 40 million members in 23,000 congregations in Germany ā€“ about their animal welfare standards and plant-based offerings through campaigns. Led by Carsten Halmanseder, an animal rights activist for 20+ years, founder of Berlin-Vegan and prior head of volunteer management and pressure campaigning at Albert Schweitzer Foundation.

What are the most likely causes and outcomes if this project fails?

Insufficient funding could threaten the success of the nonprofits graduating from our program.

What other funding are you or your project getting?

We only have funding to run the program for this year, not to provide any seed funding for the most promising nonprofits graduating from our program.

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SebastianJoy

6 days ago

Progress update

What progress have you made since your last update?

Since the last time we posted:

  • Our second cohort received more than 400 applications from 70+ countries. 

  • We finished the cohort with a number of new initiatives spanning across different areas from policy change to corporate engagement, etc.

  • The initiatives supported from Kickstarting For Good have raised more than $5 million since 2022.

  • In the last three months, six of our 2024 graduates have raised more than $50,000 each. 

  • Secured additional funding to provide a total of $200,000 in awards for 2025 cohortā€™s graduating initiatives.

  • We have launched our new website with a new visual identity and brand. 

  • Consulted more than 200+ experts to identify high impact idea areas and ideas. 

Please check out our list of recent graduates: https://kickstartingforgood.org/graduating-initiatives/ 


What are your next steps?

  • Conduct idea roundtables at AVA Summit USA and Vegan and Animal Rights Conference, bringing together different stakeholders such as funders, mentors, experts.

  • Deliver workshops at conferences to spread the message around impact entrepreneurship and Kickstarting For Good.

  • From the identified high impact idea areas develop impactful ideas that participants without ideas can apply for.

  • Select 20-25 participants for our 2025 cohort. 

  • Conduct a successful programme incubating and accelerating at least 8 initiatives

  • Support the graduates with securing initial funding

Is there anything others could help you with?

Yes, there are number of things:
a) If you are familiar with animal/food system advocacy, please fill out our Idea Community Survey 2025: https://survey.proveg.com/index.php/544825

b) Most of our initiatives are not set up to receive small donations. However, if you are interested in providing significant funding to us or any of our initiatives, please reach out to sebastian@kickstartingforgood.org

c) We are currently looking for applicants for our 2025 incubation program. Please spread the word among aspiring or experienced social entrepreneurs! www.kickstartingforgood.org 

A very big "Thank you" to everyone who has supported us so far!

donated $100
Arepo avatar

Sasha Cooper

7 months ago

My partner and I made notes on all of the projects in the EACC initiative, and both agreed this was a standout :) Our quick and dirty notes:

Seed funding novel ideas seems v counterfactually valuable, and giving it to the best-evaled by an experienced team = win

<3

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SebastianJoy

7 months ago

Thank you, Sasha, we appreciate your trust! @Arepo

Marine-Lercier avatar

Marine Lercier

7 months ago

Interesting programme! šŸ‘šŸ½

NeelNanda avatar

Neel Nanda

7 months ago

The focus on animal charities is a key detail and easy to miss, I'd recommend putting it in the title and project summary

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SebastianJoy

7 months ago

Good point, Neel, we'll make this more clear next time. @NeelNanda

donated $200
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Great project - with high potential!

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I love this idea but would like to see more consideration to support of these orgs after they launch. Last I checked both Open Paws and Freedom Food Alliance, whilst both being great ideas, have yet to secure any funding.

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SebastianJoy

7 months ago

Thank you for the feedback, Thomas. Last year was our pilot cohort and we've been working hard to improve all aspects of the program (targeted promotion, selection process, pre-program, program content, engagement with funders throughout the process, program evaluation, post-program support, etc). Our graduates from last year have secured around $500,000 in funding so far and we do offer regular mentoring calls to all of them. The goal of this Manifund project is for us to be able to provide direct seed funding so that graduates are less dependent on quickly securing funding from other sources.
@EvolvingRichie

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@SebastianJoy That does sound more encouraging! Thanks for the update.

donated $100
Felix_W avatar

Felix Werdermann

7 months ago

Really cool initiative! Excited to see many new charities fighting for a change in the global food system!

donated $300
Carol-Destro avatar

Carol Destro

7 months ago

This project is amazing!!

Tomohaire avatar

Tom Oā€™Haire

7 months ago

Interested to donate. Can you elaborate on success rates and outcomes from previous pitch sessions?

donated $400
Chris_Eats_Plants avatar

Chris Popa

7 months ago

@Tomohaire Kickstarting For Good only started last year and therefore only had one cohort so far that has run through the programme. The track record in the description lists some of the most promising incubated charities.