Funding
How is MII funded?
The Material Innovation Initiative is an independent, non-profit, non-partisan organization devoted to accelerating the development of sustainable, animal-free next-gen materials through research, knowledge-sharing, and facilitating connections. We are dedicated to being a resource for material companies, scientists, brands, entrepreneurs, and others interested in fostering a global market for sustainable materials across the fashion, automotive, and home goods industries.
MII relies on charitable contributions from philanthropic foundations, corporations, and individual donors for our programs and operations-related expenditure. We also welcome sponsorship support for special initiatives, event series, and research fellowships.
What We Have Accomplished
With Your Help
- Since our founding in December 2019, we have grown from a $0 budget and 0 staff to an organization of more than 15 team members across 6 countries and 3 continents.
- We have established our core programming of Science and Technology, Innovation, Brand Partnerships, Communications, and Operations, and authored numerous highly respected and well-circulated reports.
- We have partnered with major industry players (link partner page) and hosted two conferences. We also established and run a next-gen material committee at the GlassWall Syndicate, a venture capital partnership with over 220 members.
- We have also served as a valuable resource to numerous material companies, brands, scientists, and investors.
- See some of our statistics, quotations about our work, and impact in our annual reports for 2020 and 2021. We would have never been able to do this without you. Thank you!
Nae Vegan shoes on beach – Credit – Nae Vegan Shoes x Piñatex
OUR Next steps
Our goal is to create a circular economy for the fashion, automotive, and home goods industries.
In the coming years, we plan to globally scale our work through bold and transformative action that will make the sustainable option the easy option. We are excited about introducing these areas of work in the future and we need your help:
- Influence policy-making: By introducing fresh ideas on policy-making to spur sustainable development of the next-gen materials industry.
- Supply chain shift: Creating knowledge pathways for circular business models and white space opportunities to clean up unsustainable supply chains.
- Strengthen data-driven research in the textile industry: By addressing the longstanding issues in the textiles industry’s environmental data analysis methods through our Environmental Data Coalition initiative.
FinaNcial Responsibility
MII TOP FUNDERS
We could not do what we do without the help of our most foundational funders, including:
Laudes Foundation
Open Philanthropy Project
Mobius
Food System Innovations
Annual Report 2021
The Material Innovation Initiative assembled a stellar team and made remarkable progress in 2021, despite the difficult global circumstances in the past two years. Our young non-profit received a standout charity rating in our first-ever charity assessment by Animal Charity Evaluators and a recommendation from Ezra Klein in the New York Times as one of the best nonprofits to support. This annual report explains our work and how we brought about social good by bringing businesses and innovators closer to each other in the next-gen materials industry.
MII’S Certifications
Support
We are creating a collaborative ecosystem for the development of next-gen materials that are high-performance, animal-free, more sustainable, and that are considered true replacements for some of the most damaging materials on the market. If you would like to support us, you can do so in the donation link below.