New Harvest, the nonprofit nucleus of cellular agriculture, is in crisis. Emergency town hall on 6/10.

As New Harvest approaches 20 years since our founding, we are in a funding crisis. With five months of runway to survive and experts recommending companies extend runway by 18-24 months, we urgently need at least $2 million by July 31 to fulfill our budget for the year and make it through giving season while keeping impact high. 

I am no longer confident that New Harvest will raise our budgeted total for the year. We have $1,056,228 in the bank and will spend $201,209 every month if we stick to our budgeted expenses. Unless something changes, New Harvest will run out of money October 31, 2022. 

I am usually very optimistic, coming into this field a decade ago when cultured meat was barely more than science fiction. Optimism and a long game approach has pushed our work forward  and enabled New Harvest to literally build the field of cellular agriculture from scratch. But this recent economic downturn has forced our hand. The time has come to shift from a growth mindset to survival mode.

Over the next few weeks, I will have to make several challenging decisions about the future of New Harvest. Unfortunately, staff cuts are unavoidable in order to prioritize impact, supporting our research grantees, and extending our runway beyond October. 

I am hosting an open town hall during our upcoming conference on June 10th at 3:30pm EST to answer questions as best I can and discuss the future of New Harvest. If you can't attend in-person, you can tune in and participate via livestream by registering here. 
 

A bit about New Harvest: 

Like I said, we've literally build the field of cellular agriculture from scratch. New Harvest founded the first companies, funded the first PhDs, laid the groundwork for the National Institute for Cell Ag, and has had our work cited by the world's leading climate scientists in the latest IPCC report. Heck, we coined the term cellular agriculture. 

I am posting here because after sending out an emergency email yesterday, I received a flood of responses asking: What about OPP? Is New Harvest getting any EA funding? 

New Harvest's first supporters were EA and our founder, Jason Matheny, continues to be active in the EA world. Despite being recommended by Animal Charity Evaluators as a standout charity and our donor base swinging EA, we haven't seen enough support come through to really sustain us.

Here's how you can help: 

• Every dollar counts to make it through Giving Season. You can donate here.
• Attend our town hall on June 10 at 3:30pm EST (taking place on day two of our upcoming conference in Brooklyn). You can tune in and participate virtually by registering here. 
• If you're interested in making a major gift, get in touch at [email protected].
• Send intros and connections. Impact investors far outnumber those willing to philanthropically support an org building the root system and ecosystem that allow companies in the private sector to flourish. If you have suggestions for how to tap into the investment $$ sloshing around in alt protein, get in touch at [email protected].
• We’re on the search for new funders and grant opportunities (ideally grants with quick turnaround that we can apply for with an agile and skeleton team).  If you have any leads, please let me know (again: [email protected])

I sincerely believe this will be just one short part of the much longer New Harvest story. New Harvest isn't going anywhere, but we have to make rapid and drastic changes to survive.