ProVeg International: Grantee Spotlight (Q3 2026)

The Giving Green Fund is awarding a restricted grant to ProVeg International (ProVeg) to support its work in China to strengthen the conditions that enable alternative proteins to scale. 

ProVeg's work falls within our philanthropic strategy of scaling alternative proteins. Please see Giving Green's strategy report for more information, including potential risks and co-benefits, recommended sub-strategies, theory of change, funding need, and key uncertainties.

Last updated: October 2026

What Is ProVeg?

ProVeg International is a nonprofit organization that works to accelerate the transition to a sustainable global food system by making plant-rich foods and alternative proteins more accessible and appealing. It has offices in 14 countries across five continents. ProVeg International’s representative office in China was officially registered as an international nongovernmental organization (INGO) in 2022.

What Are We Funding, and How Could It Help Address Climate Change?

China is the world's largest consumer of meat, but has been historically neglected by funders seeking to reduce food system emissions. The Chinese government highlighted the role of alternative proteins in its national and provincial plans, and nonprofits can help direct funding to fill key research gaps. 

To guide its strategic direction, ProVeg China and the China Institute of Food Science and Technology (CIFST) jointly published the NeoProtein Blue Paper. Developed with input from 48 experts across academia, industry, and policy, the blue paper identifies the top 10 technical bottlenecks for alternative proteins in China. It is the sector's first strategic research and development (R&D) roadmap.

Our grant supports the first two years of ProVeg China’s three-year plan to strengthen China's alternative protein ecosystem. The plan brings together researchers and industry partners to advance priority research, support science-based regulatory readiness, and help promising innovations move from lab scale toward commercialization.

Why Do We Think ProVeg Will Use This Funding Well?

ProVeg China has built strong connections across the alternative protein ecosystem and demonstrated a track record of success. Its NeoProtein Blue Paper has been widely endorsed by key stakeholders and has helped shape research and funding priorities.

ProVeg China also recently launched the Food Innovation Challenge. It engaged more than 2,700 participants from over 220 universities and generated 380 research proposals, with support from more than 190 professor mentors and eight industry partners. ProVeg China also established an alternative protein innovation platform at Jiangnan University to advance priority research and strengthen collaboration between academia and industry.

ProVeg China also holds the only NGO seat on CIFST’s NeoProtein Professional Committee. Given its analytical approach to identifying key research priorities, its track record of shaping public research priorities, and its connections across the ecosystem, we believe it is well positioned to help scale alternative proteins in China.

We publish grant spotlights to offer transparency to Giving Green Fund donors and resources for those interested in the impact strategies each grant supports. Giving Green believes our Top Climate Nonprofits have the greatest impact potential for large, unrestricted gifts. For several reasons, we also disburse and recommend grants to other organizations surfaced through our research process for work that we believe is at least as impactful as grants to our top recommendations.

This is a non-partisan analysis (study or research) and is provided for educational purposes.

ProVeg International is a registered nonprofit in the U.S.