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Equal Exchange donates $70,000 to 8 Organizations to Strengthen the Fair Trade & Co-op Movements |
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By Rodney North, The Answer Man
At Equal Exchange, we try to make a difference in many different ways. First off, we believe that "making a difference" shouldn't be an add-on, or a special project. We don't think it's good enough to run one's business in the same old way and then write a check at the end of the year. Rather, we believe that our day-to-day business should itself be transformative. Consequently, the lion's share of our contribution to society and the planet comes through the millions of pounds of Fair Trade (and usually organic) coffee, tea, and other crops that we buy and sell every year. Beyond that we also try to promote change through the way we run our Fair Trade operation. Namely we operate with a democratic co-operative business model similar to that our farmer co-op partners, and we continually engage in Fair Trade advocacy and public education.
But, with that said, we concluded over 10 years ago that not only was there a place for philanthropy at Equal Exchange, but that we needed it to achieve our mission. Our thinking is that the success of Equal Exchange is not enough, and that we want there to be a whole community, an ecosystem if you will, of successful and innovative Fair Trade initiatives and co-operative enterprises. Therefore, we decided that when we have profits (which thankfully we have had for 19 of the last 20 years) we should redistribute a portion of that money to other groups who may be small today, but who appear to have serious potential for advancing a more just, equitable and aware economy.
You can think of it as a decision to spread our bets. We hope Equal Exchange will always be here, and be strong, but along the way we want to assist the next generation of change agents who can help realize our 20 Year Vision for a "mutually co-operative community, of two million people, trading fairly one billion dollars a year, in a way that transforms the world."
More specifically, it is our policy to donate 7 percent of our net profits to such groups every year. (In the past we donated 10 percent, but we recently decided to invest 3 percent in other co-operative enterprises – an interesting story of its own we'll tell about in a future issue of What's Brewing).
This year, that amounted to $70,000 that we distributed among eight organizations. Some of the recipients work at the beginning of the Fair Trade cycle and are active in some of the farming communities we work with. Others work at the consumer end of the chain, engaging in public education and advocacy. And some are doing critical but unheralded work such as finding a way to provide capital or expertise to start-up worker co-operatives.
Altogether, we were excited by the variety and potential of the organizations we were able to help with this year's grants. We encourage you to check them out and to keep an eye out for them in the months and years to come.
THE RECIPIENTS OF EQUAL EXCHANGE’S 2009 GRANT PROGRAM
$14,000 - The Cooperative Fund of New England, for their new Cooperative Capital Fund
▫ This is an innovative fund of "cooperative capital" that will provide "co-op friendly" financing to new or expanding co-operatives in New England.
$14,000 - SweatFree Communities
▫ They are helping to redirect up to $100 million dollars in annual government procurement contracts toward non-exploitative garment manufacturers.
$11,000 - The New York Labor & Religion Coalition
▫ They have been promoting Fair Trade to 500,000 members of the New York State Teachers Union and now have plans to reach out to four million teachers and school administrators across the country.
$8,500 - The US Federation of Worker Cooperative’s Democracy at Work Institute
▫ The Institute will represent a unique and badly-needed nationwide network of advisors to assist in the start-up and expansion of worker co-operatives.
$8,500 - The Southern Alternatives Agricultural Cooperative (This co-op is a member of the Southern Federation of Co-operatives.)
▫ This will help strengthen a unique hybrid farmer/worker co-operative in Georgia who participates in Equal Exchange's Domestic Fair Trade program.
$7,000 - Red Tomato
▫ Red Tomato is a non-profit, Fair Trade organization based in Massachusetts and a partner with Equal Exchange in the Fair Trade banana enterprise Oké USA.
$3,500 - The Cooperative Development Institute’s Data Commons Project
▫ The Data Commons represent an exciting technology to enable co-operatives from any sector to freely share with one another every variety of data and information. If successful, this could help all co-operatives to better serve their members and operative more efficiently and effectively.
$3,500 - The Massachusetts Farmers Markets
▫ For an online database tool to expand the utility and appeal of direct farmer-to-consumer commerce.
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