Grant Guidelines

VegFund supports vegan activists — individuals and nonprofit organizations — who promote messages and behaviors that are 100% plant-based and free of animal exploitation.

Grantees must be 18 years of age or older. If you are a young activist under the age of 18, please contact us about partnering with an adult to receive a grant from VegFund.

Applicants who are not vegan or plant-based should be aware that the project proposed for funding must be 100% vegan and devoid of any animal exploitation, and the message must be focused on promoting veganism or plant-based living. In these cases, applications from non-vegans will be considered for funding if the above conditions are met.

Applicants must be individuals or nonprofit entities. VegFund does not support for-profit entities or fundraising events/projects for nonprofits.

Events must be open to the public: Eligible events must be held in public spaces. We do not fund events in private homes.

Funding for marketing expenses: Approval of marketing expenses will depend on the number of individuals you project to reach and how targeted your marketing plan appears. Quotes or estimates should be presented, if available.

Funding for food: VegFund will not reimburse the cost of alcohol but may consider funding events in which alcohol is available or served, as long as grant funds do not cover these costs. The food offered should be sample-size and cost about $1 per individual. VegFund does not provide funding for full meals, with some exceptions for special cases.

Ads or videos that promote illegal activities are prohibited.

Before submitting an application, we strongly encourage applicants to carefully review our grant program areas and choose the grant application that best applies to your proposed project.

VegFund asks you to submit applications at least one month ahead of the event or project start date. While we strive to return application decisions swiftly, we cannot guarantee a decision turnaround of less than four weeks. Grantees not based in the United States should allow at least four weeks for review due to requirements set by the U.S. Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control.

To begin an application, visit vegfund.org/apply, and select the grant category for your application. If you're not sure which grant application to choose, visit the Grants Overview page for more information on our different grant programs.

If you have never applied for a grant from VegFund before, you will be asked to register an account and complete an Applicant Profile to inform VegFund about your experience and motivations. You will only need to complete the Applicant Profile once, but can edit it at any time.

After completing the Applicant Profile, you will be able to start your application form. Be sure to provide as much detail as possible and to list your full project budget, even if you are only requesting a portion of this from VegFund.

You can save your progress and leave it as a draft. You can always come back to complete it and submit it when ready.

Important: Make sure you click "Submit" before leaving the page. Otherwise, your application won't be reviewed.

The application reviewers will read your full application, along with any other supporting documentation you included. If reviewers have additional questions about your project or application, they may send the submission back to you with requested changes or additional questions.

When evaluating, reviewers will consider the following questions, among others:

• Does the applicant have a defined plan in place to carry out the project?
• Is there a clear, itemized budget?
• Is there a specific start date and end date?
• For larger projects and events, is there a team in place, or is this a one-person-show?
• Does the project target a non-vegan audience?
• Does the project target a specific non-vegan audience, and is that audience well-defined?
• Does the applicant provide evidence for targeting these audiences?
• Does the project deliver a compelling vegan message?
• Does the applicant present clearly defined goals for the project?
• Is there a communications plan, if needed?
• Is there a clear plan for evaluating event/activity effectiveness?

If approved for a grant, you will be required to submit a report summarizing your grant activities, including your receipts and photos of the event or project. In most cases, grantees are reimbursed in full after their projects have been carried out. Your report is proof that you've completed your project to the best of your ability; it is also your request for reimbursement.

• Keep track of the number of individuals reached through your project. If you are organizing a Community Outreach project, keep track of the number of food samples you hand out, the approximate number of people you speak to, and the number of people who attend the overall event.
• Take pictures of your event, and try, in particular, to get photos of people taking part in your event — whether it’s an audience at a panel discussion or film screening, individuals enjoying food samples, attendees at a vegfest, or people taking part in a mentored challenge.
• Keep your receipts. Acceptable receipts are itemized statements from vendors; we do not accept photos of credit card or bank statements or photos of checks as proof of payment.
• Refer to your grant award email for the due date of your report. Please submit your report on time and with as much detail as possible. If you are unable to submit your report by the due date, please contact VegFund grant staff to request a project extension.

VegFund remits all grant payments electronically. The majority of our grants are disbursed as reimbursements after the project or event takes place.

Domestic grantees (based in the United States) will be paid using an electronic bank transfer via a third-party party ePayment vendor called Bill.com, which requires grantees to enter their Tax ID Number (or Social Security Number for individual grantees) and bank account information into our secure ePayment portal.

Foreign grantees (based outside the United States) will receive payment via PayPal or another electronic transfer service for countries that do not accept PayPal. If PayPal is not available in your country, please contact VegFund directly with questions.