Kickstarting for Good

Our programme to help launch and grow new nonprofits, impact initiatives, and social startups.

I want to apply!

Are you ready to rock the food world as a social-impact entrepreneur? Do you have a high-potential idea for a new initiative or organisation? Can your project make a difference in the food system? We are looking for the best founders to execute the ideas that will have the biggest positive impact on the world’s food ecosystem. 

What is it?

Kickstarting for Good is the world’s first incubator and accelerator programme aimed specifically at nonprofit organisations, impact initiatives, and social startups working on transforming the food system. It is the new not-for-profit programme of the ProVeg Incubator, which is part of the food awareness organisation ProVeg International.

The programme culminates in a Demo Day
For social startups, nonprofits and impact initiatives

Who is it for?

We’re looking for the best founders to execute the ideas that will have the biggest positive impact on the world’s food ecosystem. Don’t have an idea of your own? Not a problem – we’ve identified a whole series of potential initiatives that you could take on. Find out what they are below.

Why take part?

You’ll get to take part in an 8-week expert-led programme with a tailor-made curriculum, expert mentoring, and exclusive networking opportunities, culminating in a funding-focused Demo Day. You’ll get to team up with like-minded co-founders, spend two intensive weeks in Berlin, and receive a grant of up to 5,000 euros  to cover travel and accommodation costs.

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About Us

Kickstarting for Good is the world’s first programme focusing on high-impact nonprofits, impact initiatives, and social startups in the food and animal advocacy sector.

Our specialisation, your benefits:

  • Focus on impact: Kickstarting for Good’s programme is tailored to meet the objectives and needs of impact-focused social entrepreneurs in the alternative protein and animal advocacy space.
  • Integrated approach: We take an integrated, hands-on approach that combines incubation and acceleration together with learning and networking.
  • Network: We are part of an international food awareness organisation with a proven track record of spin-off interventions and organisations, along with a global network.
  • Ecosystem: The programme is part of ProVeg’s first-of-its-kind startup incubator with a unique position and ecosystem of founders, mentors, and industry professionals

The Programme

Our two-month programme offers an intensive curriculum with exclusive networking opportunities. The programme includes two intensive periods in Berlin in October and December; it culminates in a funding-focused Demo Day. Selected participants each receive a grant of up to 5,000 euros to cover travel costs and the time needed for the programme.

Our team of founders, funders, mentors, and researchers will help you identify the best approaches and right co-founder(s). Evaluate and validate your idea, set up a budget, dive into cost-effectiveness, develop a theory of change, and learn the fundraising ropes.

We’ll match you 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 you on your entrepreneurial journey.

 

Programme Overview

Before the programme starts, we will share a list of literature, websites, etc. in order for you to prepare yourself.

The programme kicks off with an intensive on-site session in Berlin from October 20–24. If you want to extend your stay in Berlin, you are invited to join the Alumni & Partner Meetup of ProVeg Incubator (24 October) and/or the New Food Conference in Berlin (25/26 October).

By the end of the first week, you will have carefully defined the project that you want to launch and established which co-founder(s) can complement your team.

The virtual part of our programme runs from November through early December. Each week, you will be expected to attend two or three sessions with our team, mentors, and/or other participants (usually on Tuesday and Wednesday), as well as complete assignments, which will take at least 20 hours a week per participant.

Join us for another intensive on-site session in Berlin, culminating in our Demo Day where you present your social-impact project to potential funders and guests.

How It Works

For our first cohort, starting in October 2023, you can apply now. The closing date for applications is 31 August. If you want to submit and work on your own idea, please apply as soon as possible to ensure we can get back to you in due time. If you want to implement an existing idea we propose, please see our list below.

If your application passes the first round of evaluation, we’ll let you know by the end of August. At that point, we’ll also send you trial tasks to complete, along with a link to a cognitive test. These tasks and the test must be completed within the first week of September.

From the second week of September, we’ll invite successfully short-listed applicants for interviews with our team. These may be followed by another round of interviews, where you will also get to talk to advisors and potential mentors.

By 22 September, we will let you know if you have been selected as a candidate for the programme. Selected candidates are eligible for a grant of up to 5,000 euros in order to participate in the programme.

Application Form

Ideas To Work On

Interested in working with us and other participants on existing ideas? We collect ideas that can potentially be highly impactful. Here are our current favourites: 

A professional association of plant-based chefs who work collaboratively to showcase and promote more plant-based cuisine around the globe. WSPBC will provide tailored services to member-chefs and inform the media, industry, and public about their work to elevate the profiles of both members and plant-based eating in general.

A global platform to identify impactful thesis topics for the plant-based and farmed animal movements and provide support to graduate students. Vegan Thesis will support thesis writers with free coaching, connections to supportive supervisors, and advice on writing and potentially publishing their thesis.

A new organisation focused on raising money for vegan advocacy organisations, initiatives, and projects from previously uninterested funders. “Meta-Fundraising” will seek to substantially increase counterfactual funding for vegan charities by identifying potential donors and grantmakers and creating personalised strategies to encourage them to expand their philanthropic scope.

A fellowship program to identify, support, and promote promising plant-based nutrition influencers via social and traditional media. “Nutritionists Fellowship” will work largely behind the scenes to amplify the voices of plant-based nutrition influencers, with an emphasis on reaching large and neglected demographics around the world.

An organisation or program that supports vegan and plant-based influencers to increase the reach and impact of their work globally. The accelerator for influencers will provide training, tools, and funding to help maximise their potential to encourage interest and trial of plant-based eating among their followers.

A global community of animal advocates providing marketing, communications, and design expertise to accelerate plant-based initiatives. The agency will provide experienced public relations, communications, and marketing support  to vegan organisations and projects to help them be as effective as possible.

A programme or organisation to encourage plant-based businesses to contribute a percent of sales to marketing and public relations for plant-based eating. The Vegan Checkoff Program will allow plant-based companies to pool resources and more effectively compete with Big Ag in the public sphere through strategic advertising and public relations efforts.

A reboot of the existing Early Action Network that connects and supports organisations, groups or individuals working on veg-friendly eating and food awareness education in schools.

Team & Mentors

Our team and our mentors will support you throughout your entrepreneurial journey. We'll give you access to a unique network of leaders and founders, non-profit and for-profit experts, scientific pioneers, bestselling authors and seasoned advisers from diverse backgrounds.

Michael Greger

NutritionFacts.org - Mentor

Michael Greger, MD, is founding member and Fellow of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. He is a physician, New York Times bestselling author, and internationally recognized speaker on nutrition. He has videos on more than 2,000 health topics freely available at NutritionFacts.org, with new videos and articles uploaded almost every day. Dr. Greger has lectured at the Conference on World Affairs, testified before Congress, and was invited as an expert witness in the defense of Oprah Winfrey in the infamous “meat defamation” trial. He is a graduate of Cornell University School of Agriculture and Tufts University School of Medicine. Three of his recent books— How Not to Die, the How Not to Die Cookbook, and How Not to Diet all became instant New York Times Best Sellers. His latest book, How to Survive a Pandemic, was released in May 2022. All proceeds he receives from the sales of his books go to charity.

Melanie Joy

Beyond Carnism - Mentor

Melanine Joy, PhD, EDM, is a Harvard-educated psychologist, international speaker, and organizational and relationship coach. She is the author of the award-winning book “Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows: An Introduction to Carnism” (Conari, 2010) now published in 13 Languages. She is also the author of “Powerarchy: Understanding the Psychology of Oppression for Social Transformation” (Berrett-Koehler, September 2019), “Strategic Action for Animals” (Lantern Books, 2018) and “Beyond Beliefs: A Guide to Improving Relationships and Communication Among Vegans, Vegetarians, and Meat Eaters” (Lantern Books, 2018), which won the Nebula Gold Award for best book on relationships and communication). Dr. Joy is also the founding president of the charitable organization Beyond Carnism, whose mission is to expose and transform carnism — the invisible belief system that conditions people to eat animals. She has given talks and trainings on six continents and in over 45 countries, and her work has been featured in major media outlets around the world, including the BBC, NPR, ABC Australia, and the New York Times. She is the eighth recipient of the Ahimsa Award, previously given to Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama, for her work on global nonviolence; and she also received the Peter Singer Prize for strategies to reduce the suffering of animals and the Empty Cages Prize for her contribution to furthering animal rights. Dr. Joy was also a lecturer at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, for 11 years, where she taught courses on privilege and oppression, psychological trauma, addiction, domestic violence, feminist psychology, and animal rights.

Hakeem A. Jimo

ProVeg International - Mentor

Hakkeem A. Jimo is Country Director at ProVeg Nigeria and co-founder of VeggieVictory, Nigeria’s first plant-based food company. He started VeggieVictory already back in 2013 as the first vegan restaurant in the country. VeggieVictory then upgraded to a product company launching Vchunks – another first in Africa’s most populous country and soon to be the third largest nation in the entire world. With a Nigerian-German background, Hakeem holds a master degree from University of Hamburg. Previously, he worked as a journalist and public relation consultant in West Africa.

Shirley Lu

ProVeg International - Mentor

Shirley Lu is Managing Director – Asia and Chief China Representative at ProVeg International. She is seasoned business leader, with extensive experience in the FMCG industry in B2C and B2B environments across Asia and non-profit in Greater China. Adept at developing and implementing strategies for complex and diversified opportunities with a track record of success in growth. Passionate about innovating and creating new prospects. A community builder and lifelong learner who embraces curiosity and grit.

Bruce Friedrich

The Good Food Institute - Mentor

Bruce Friedrich is founder & president of the Good Food Institute, a global network of nonprofit organizations, with roughly 200 full-time team members across affiliates in the U.S., India, Israel, Brazil, Singapore, and Europe (UK & EU). GFI works on alternative protein policy, science, and corporate engagement – to accelerate the production of plant-based and cultivated meat in order to bolster the global protein supply while protecting our environment, promoting global health, and preventing food insecurity. Bruce is a TED Fellow, Y Combinator alum, 2021 “American Food Hero” (EatingWell Magazine), and popular speaker on food innovation. He has penned op-eds for the Wall Street Journal, Guardian, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Wired, CNN, Foreign Policy, Nature Food, and many other publications. He has represented GFI on the TED Radio Hour, New Yorker Radio Hour, Recode Decode, the Ezra Klein Show, Making Sense (Sam Harris), and a variety of other podcasts and TV programs. Bruce’s 2019 TED talk has been viewed more than 2.3 million times and translated into 30 languages. He co-authored two books, contributed chapters or forewords to ten more, and has written seven law review articles. Bruce is also on the board of Food Solutions Action, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to accelerating agricultural innovation; he co-founded impact venture funds New Crop Capital and Clear Current Capital, though he has no financial interest in either fund; and he serves on the UN Climate Change Global Innovation Hub Working Group on Nutrition and Health. Bruce graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown Law and also holds degrees from Johns Hopkins University, the London School of Economics, and Grinnell College.

Nicoll Peracha

The Mission Motor - Mentor

Nicoll Peracha is a co-founder at The Mission Motor. She supports nonprofit organisations that strive for a world with a healthy climate, without factory farming and with enough food and development opportunities for all people. Nicoll has 25 years of working in emergency relief in conflict areas across the world, in the socio-legal sector and in youth protection services; such work has provided her with a broad range of experience and skills, such as strategy development, process development and team management. She loves using these skills to take people and organisations to a higher level.

Antje Räuscher

Senior Innovation and Partnerships Manager / Co-Head - ProVeg Incubator

Antje is in charge of running the accelerator programme and selecting and coaching the startups that the Incubator works with. She is a trained agricultural economist, with a focus on food security and has a Bachelor’s in International Business Management. Antje worked in business development for consulting companies, as well as startups, and in the international cooperation field before joining the Incubator.

Matthew Glover

Veg Capital / Veganuary / VFC® - Mentor

Matthew is an activist and an entrepreneur dedicated to removing animals from the food system. Having co-founded the global phenomenon Veganuary, and then the US-based NGO Generation Vegan (GenV), Matthew launched Veg Capital to provide early-stage investment to companies developing vegan meat, dairy, eggs and seafood replacements. More recently, he co-founded VFC, a vegan fried chick*n brand which marries activism with business, and seeks to spare the lives of chickens – the most abused land animals on the planet. He’s also part of the Sentient Ventures team, a £30m growth stage venture fund focused on alternative proteins.
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Want to be a mentor?

We are always looking for like-minded, mission-aligned mentors who are knowledgeable about the not-for-profit and plant-based/alternative-protein space. Perhaps you’re a founder who built your own charity or company from scratch or maybe you’re an expert in business models, marketing, impact evaluation, or fundraising? You can share your valuable expertise with our founders via workshops, talks, or Q&As!

If you’d like to get involved, please write to us and tell us how you can contribute.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

ProVeg Incubator is for food tech startups; Kickstarting for Good is for nonprofits, impact initiatives and social startups.

  1. Kickstarting for Good has a laser-sharp focus on the animal advocacy movement and the mission of reducing the consumption of animal products.
  2. We do not only work with full-fledged not-for-profit organizations but also programmes, initiatives, and social startups. At the same time, we are also open to working with and developing impactful revenue-generating ideas and models (e.g. for associations).
  3. Our programme is there to support at the ideation stage but also at the growth or repositioning stage for existing organizations.
  1. Intensive in-person sessions on site in Berlin (20–24 October, 8–12 December)
  2. Around 20 hours per week during the virtual programme phase from late October to early December

Yes, twice. It’s required to be present during the intensive weeks in Berlin, which would be at the beginning (20–24 October) and the end (8–12 December) of the programme.

Yes. Please apply jointly and list your co-founders and team members in the application form.

We think: yes! The ecosystem of today cannot solve all the pressing problems at hand. We need more specialized nonprofits, impact initiatives and social startups and also meta organizations that tackle those problems. We will be very thoughtful and intentional in our approach, however, and will only facilitate the launch of new organizations when there are compelling reasons to do so. Cost-effectiveness, problem-solution fit, theory of change and sustainability are crucial. Furthermore, our approach is very flexible: Apart from new organizations, we also support and work on initiatives or programmes that could be integrated in existing organizations.

We are constantly collecting and validating new ideas. For this, we connect with the community and collect their feedback. Curating, reflecting and developing that idea list is a constant process. Depending on the assessment and feedback we receive, we will promote and bring forward new ideas. The research and validation of ideas is a central part of the programme.

Absolutely not! You can join even without an idea, and can either choose one of the ideas provided by us, or can potentially join someone else already working on their own idea.

Yes. The program is shaped in a way that it is adaptable to already established organizations and initiatives in their early stage or at a stage of repositioning and pivoting.

Seed funding is crucial but we cannot guarantee that you will receive it. Having said that, we will connect you with potential funders and help you present your work in the most compelling way. We will also work with you on alternative business models as we see that the dependance on philanthropy alone can be a limiting factor for the ecosystem and the success of new organizations and initiatives.

Application Form

Our Team

Kickstarting for Good

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Location

Genthiner Straße 48
Berlin, Germany

Get in touch

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