Equal Exchange Donor Advised Fund
To make a donation to our Donor Advised Fund select "Equal Exchange" from the "I would like to donate to:" drop down menu.
What is a donor advised fund?
A donor advised fund is essentially a way to hold charitable funds at an established philanthropic organization. Some people like to think of DAFs as charitable savings accounts. As managers of our DAF at RSF Social Finance, we are able to recommend grants over time and donors to our fund receive a tax benefit.
As a for-profit company, we cannot accept donations or charitable funds so a donor advised fund is a great option for us to manage our charitable dollars without establishing our own non-profit. This allows us to deploy funds for development work with larger charitable ends with much less overhead than you might expect. In the case of our DAF, 95% of the dollars go directly to funding projects with our producer partners. The only cost of the fund is a small transaction fee charged by RSF Social Finance.
Countries and producer partners
Mexico: Finca Triunfo Verde, Comon Yaj Noptic, and Café Ecológico de la Sierra Madre de Chiapas (CESMACH)
Guatemala: Manos Campesinas
Colombia: ASPROCAFE Ingruma
Peru: Sol y Café
Why did we establish a donor advised fund?
As Equal Exchange celebrated our 30th anniversary in 2016, we went through a strategic planning process and produced a four year coffee sourcing strategy. In our coffee team strategic plan, we identified a core group of six producer partners who are key to the future success of Equal Exchange and share our values to develop a long-term partnership and innovate together. With this key group we are investing additional funds to support organizational development, technical assistance to farmers, income diversification, and gender equity projects.
With over thirty years of trying building a collaborative, equitable, and sustainable value chain with producer partners around the world, we understand on a much deeper level the extraordinary historic inequalities, marginalization, and challenges faced by coffee farmers. Our trade model cannot correct for all of these deep-rooted problems - we must complement our commercial work with collaborative development work. This is where we decided to experiment by establishing a Donor Advised Fund (DAF) with RSF Social Finance in early 2017 with the initial donation coming being part of Equal Exchange’s 2016 charitable contribution. We established the DAF at RSF Social Finance with an initial donation of $165,000 from the worker-owners of Equal Exchange.
We value long-term relationships with our farmer partners and focus on collaborative work that addresses the financial, social, and environmental needs of these farming communities. With our newly established Donor Advised Fund at RSF Social Finance, we plan to continue support of our key farmer partners as they work to combat the impacts of climate change, protect threatened ecosystems, and increase rural prosperity.
What kind of work are we funding?
Projects were funded in the fourth quarter of 2017 and represent a wide variety of work and priorities at each cooperative. The average dollar amount per project for grants disbursed in 2017 was $24,000. Here are a few of the grants funded:
Expanding vital coffee tree nursery work - Sol y Café, CESMACH, Comon Yaj Noptic
High-quality varieties
Availability of seedlings for members
Income diversification with beekeeping - Finca Triunfo Verde
On-farm field schools & training - Manos Campesinas, Finca Triunfo Verde
Engaging young people and building the next generation of farmers - ASPROCAFE Ingruma, Finca Triunfo Verde
Using mobile technology to gather information and make strategic decisions on an organizational level - Manos Campesinas
Beekeeping at Triunfo Verde in Mexico
What is next for the fund?
This is where we need interested allies and investors to help out! Our initial donation and vision are just the beginning. There is still a huge unmet need for dollars to invest in farmer-led projects. In 2018 we are evaluating the first round projects and their impact as well as opening a call for a next round of projects. We are seeking donations to fund this ongoing work.
Core group meeting in Seattle, April 2018 where we reflected on our achievements so far and planned for future activities.
Relating our work to the bigger picture: UN Sustainable Development Goals
All of the efforts we support at these cooperatives have community-wide benefits. Especially in the face of climate change, the economic opportunities created through increasing coffee production and farm resilience are felt throughout communities. Farmer cooperatives provide positive and direct externalities on the communities where they are based: rural economic development in historically marginalized markets, environmentally-sound farming practices that contribute to biodiversity conservation, and investment in infrastructure such as roads and internet that are vital to all community members. Our work is grounded in long-term collaboration with farmer partners and we can link our efforts directly to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The efforts of this particular project address the following goals:
Goal #1: No Poverty
Goal #5: Gender Equality
Goal #8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
Goal #10: Reduced Inequalities
Goal #12: Sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns
Goal #13: Climate Action
Goal #15: Life on Land/Biodiversity Conservation
Goal #17: Partnerships for the Goals
