To identify potential donors for Lemontree, we have looked at nonprofit organizations with similar missions and evaluated their funders and/or board members, as well as sources such as AngelList, which provides the names of individual investors in food tech startups. - Replate is a food technology company whose mission is to redirect surplus food from companies to the communities that need the food. Their funders include Draper Richards Kaplan, Cisco Foundation, CalRecycle, Clif Bar Family Foundation, Kroger, General Mills, Full Circle Fund, and Stop Waste. However, we were unable to find the names of individual donors related to this organization.
- The Collaborative for Fresh Produce (CFP) tackles hunger and food waste. Its board members include Celia Cole, CEO of Feeding Texas, which is one of CFP's funders. We have included Celia Cole in the spreadsheet.
- Food Forward, a nonprofit tackling food waste, lists its donors in its annual report. Those contributing over $50,000 are anonymous, but three donor names are listed in the $25,000 and over category, but we could not find LinkedIn pages for them. They also list their corporate, foundation, and government donors, the largest of which is New Argosy Foundation. It is a family foundation led by CEO Jeneye Abele. We have included her information in the spreadsheet.
- The spreadsheet can be found here.
Summary of Initial Findings
We have determined that while identifying funding organizations that invest in food-related startups is fairly straightforward, the names of individuals who are likely to donate to an organization such as Lemontree may take a bit longer to identify.