This Celeb-Backed Campaign Is Raising $1 Million to Help Vegan Restaurants Survive COVID-19 

Today, a new celeb-backed campaign #SaveVeganRestaurants launched to help revive vegan restaurants in danger of closing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to data gathered by social media network abillion, one-third of vegan restaurants nationwide are in danger of going out of business due to the impact of the pandemic. A majority (95 percent) of vegan restaurants rely on Instagram for their marketing efforts so a group of celebrities and organizations bound together to help give them a needed marketing boost and cash injection. The Save Vegan Restaurants campaign is organized by abillion, crowd-sourced discovery platform We Are Impactors, and activist organization Million Dollar Vegan. The campaign is backed by a group of celebrities, including musician Mýa, actresses Daniella Monet and Mayim Bialik, and many others—who collectively have 15 million Instagram followers. 

“Vegan restaurants are such an important part of our community,” Mýa said. “And because animal agriculture and meat consumption are the leading cause of climate change and global warming, vegan restaurants are also more likely to be aware of the environmental destruction to the earth, with eco-friendly serving materials reducing our impact and our carbon footprint.”

How you can help

Throughout the month of April, the #SaveVeganRestaurants campaign will use the collective social media power of its backers to support vegan restaurants through various initiatives. In addition to flooding Instagram with #SaveVeganRestaurants, participating celebrities will release videos to inspire fans to follow and support their favorite vegan restaurants. 

At the end of April, We Are Impactors will donate the production of a 30-second video commercial (a $5,000 value) to the United States-based vegan restaurant that gains the most Instagram followers for the month and Million Dollar Vegan will buy $1,000 worth of meals for those in need from the two runner-up restaurants. Vegan restaurants can be nominated for the Instagram contest by mentioning them in a wall post with #SaveVeganRestaurants and tagging @WeAreImpactors. 

Raising $1 million with restaurant reviews

In addition to drumming up engagement on Instagram, We Are Impactors is working with abillion to raise up to $1 million to financially support vegan restaurants. The free-to-use social media network has set up a Save Vegan Restaurants fund that automatically deposits $1 for every review posted about a vegan dish, and tagged with #SaveVeganRestaurants, from a restaurant on the abillion app. The fund will be open for the next 12 months and at the end of each month, funds raised will be dispersed to restaurants based on the proportion of reviews their dishes received. 

“Vegan restaurants are sacred spaces, making the world better, one delicious meal at a time. They have fed us when no one else would and are fighting by our sides for a more just food system. No superlatives can do justice to how truly remarkable these impact-driven small businesses are. But now they are in trouble. And we’re going to help,” We Are Impactors President Asher Brown told VegNews. “Our mission at We Are Impactors is to empower people to use social platforms to change the world. In this case, every follower that a restaurant gains is another potential customer, every #SaveVeganRestaurants post is another voice calling for action, and every review on the abillion app is a chance to raise money for restaurants in need.  Vegan restaurants have done so much for us, these small, easy actions can lead to big change. We hope everyone will join us to #SaveVeganRestaurants this April.”