VEGAN BUSINESS TRIBE

David & Lisa from Vegan Business Tribe

The pandemic has changed how we all do business, and it’s impacted vegan companies just the same as non-vegan. However, what vegan companies have that others don’t is a loyal, passionate community behind them who believe in their mission. We’ve seen countless stories of supporters, customers, friends and fans rallying around vegan brands in need over the last year, which is why business support platform Vegan Business Tribe have teamed up with the UK’s biggest crowdfunding platform Crowdfunder to help a group of their members go through a fundraising programme as a collective group. From mushroom beer to creating resources for schools to be more inclusive for vegan children, each business has set their own funding goals and are aiming to raise their own money, but coming together as a group has meant all the companies have been able to support each other in building their fundraising campaigns, swap tips, ask questions and get extra group support from both Vegan Business Tribe and the team at Crowdfunder. Crowdfunder have also created a special landing page on their website to promote all the members as a group, meaning if someone comes to support one vegan company, they may well see another who they also think deserves backing at the same time.

Crowdfunder was even able to provide us with one of their vegan team members, Nicole, as a dedicated point of contact

Many businesses turn to the idea of crowdfunding as a way to raise funds, but the idea of going into a crowdfunding campaign on your own, especially if you’ve never tried to raise money before, can be daunting. You hear stories of brands raising huge amounts going into hundreds of thousands of pounds, but only about a third of companies successfully reach their funding target. And the truth is that there is far more work to running a successful campaign than just recording a catchy video and putting up a funding page. Any people who come to your crowdfunding page are mostly brought there by your own efforts, and there’s a simple rule of thumb formula you can use: on average, 1 in 20 people who visit your Crowdfunding page will make a donation and the average donation amount is £50. Therefore if you wanted to raise £3,000 that will require you getting 1,200 people to visit your page. This is why promotion and publicity is the lifeblood of any campaign, and many companies look to build up an audience first before launch- ing a fundraising programme. And there’s certainly an amazing range of vegan businesses looking to raise funds as part of the project, with some looking to raise tens of thousands through to others just needing a couple of thousand to launch a new product or scale up their production. Victoria Carpenter from Happy Carrot Skincare is looking to raise £1,500 to add a new dry mask made from beetroot powder to her range of already award-winning vegan (and made completely from plants!) skincare range.

Victoria, founder of Happy Carrot Skincare

Victoria says: “After a year of no face-to-face events I’d really love to be able to extend the family of skincare superheroes and reach more people who I know I could give happy skin. My product testers are telling me ‘OMG! How nice does my skin feel after using this mask’ but buying the pots, labels, ingredients, product photography and covering legal aspects will cost be around £1,500 - however, I know the new product is amazing and totally believe in its success!” Victoria is not just offering products as rewards for her backers, but also an individual one-to-one workshop on Zoom where she will teach you how to make your own plant-based lip balms, including sending you the bundle of ingredients you will need to make it.

Founded by Lisa Fox and David Pannell, who have built a career helping high-street brands and large food manufacturers better understand plant-based customers, this is Vegan Business Tribe’s latest campaign to help vegan businesses during the pandemic. Back in 2020 they scrapped all their membership fees to the site when the pandemic hit, building an impressive community of over a thousand vegan businesses. They still continue this free tier of membership but last year also added live networking events, business clinics and launched the world’s first vegan business marketing course, which is all included in their £12.99 a month membership.

David Pannell said, “The topic of how to raise funds for a vegan business is one of the biggest questions we get asked by our Vegan Business Tribe members, especially at the moment when people are having to try out new ideas or pivot to new ways of doing business because of the pandemic - but the thing is, the money IS out there. The problem is linking up those people who genuinely want to support vegan enterprises to help them grow with the vegan businesses owners who need the funding. And this link up with Crowdfunder is how we’re looking to bring the two together in what has been a really difficult time for many. I was also very impressed with Crowdfunder - when we were looking for a partner we couldn’t find a purely vegan platform, but Crowdfunder’s ethical stance and the amazing community work they do has naturally attracted a number of vegan companies, and even employees, to the platform. Crowdfunder was even able to provide us with one of their vegan team members, Nicole, as a dedicated point of contact for our members while they were building their pages. We also have a number of Vegan Business Tribe members who have been through crowdfunding themselves, or are experts in raising vegan finance, and they have been helping to coach members, or have recorded interviews for ‘Rewards-based’ crowdfunding is one of the most accessible ways for a small business to raise money because a company doesn’t need to give away any equity or ownership in return, and many backers are now familiar with the process and how it works. Although there are no guarantees that a company will hit its funding goal, many find that the extra exposure that running a crowdfunding campaign brings is just as valuable as hitting the target amount. Lisa and David hope Vegan Business Tribe will be able to run the project again in the future. David continues: “Everyone is learning so much from going through this programme and I’d love to repeat it again in the future - I can see us running an annual crowdfunding programme with our members, getting more and more people on board each time to get even bigger publicity. I also hope that we’d be able to attract some ethical vegan backers or companies who would match-fund what the companies raise, or come onto our judging panel to pick a winner to give extra support to”.

You can back the companies throughout March to help them reach their goal in return for some amazing rewards and returns. You can see a full list of companies you can support by visiting the Vegan Business Tribe website at

www.veganbusinesstribe.com/crowdfunder

or on the Crowdfunder website at:

www.crowdfunder.co.uk/start-up-scale-up