Archive for August, 2009

Fundraising is becoming more selective, more thought-provoking than ever before. The consumer has more choices and can take the time to check out the Fair Trade, bird friendly, organic, single-origin coffee. Fund raiser groups will have brochures promoting specialty single-origin organic coffee products. What is single-origin? Sometimes this is a single farm, or a specific series of coffee beans from a particular country. The name of the coffee is usually the place where it was grown. Single- origin are noted for flavour, aroma, balanced acidity and body. There are two types of this coffee – Estate and Micro-Lot.

Estate coffees are a distinct type of single-origin organic coffee. They are generally grown on a single farm, which might range in size from a few acres to large plantations of many square miles, or a collection of farms which all process their coffee at the same mill.

Micro-lot coffees are another type of single-origin organic coffee from a single field on a farm, a small range of altitude, and specific day of harvest. Organic coffee farmers have recently bought into the concept of smaller batches called micro-lots, wherein the highest quality beans are isolated and processed at the farm.

Are you fed up with the same old products offered at fundraisers? Products that no one would buy if they weren’t helping a school, a church, a rotary club or other organization make money? Many people will place an order to help you, but won’t come back. Sustainable fundraising is necessary in a recession. In these tough economic times people have less disposable income, making fundraising more difficult. Fundraisers that market well are coffees which are organic, fair trade, shade grown, bird friendly, and also assist the poverty-stricken coffee farmers in other parts of the world.

The benefits to promoting organic coffee in a fundraiser are not limited to the consumer, but the farming community itself and the environment. Most traditional coffee plants are grown with fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, and other chemicals leaving residues; each has its own health and environmental concerns. By purchasing organic coffee, the fundraising consumer will be assured of drinking a healthful cup of coffee, knowing the farmers and their families are not exposed to harmful chemicals. This in turn, makes for a cleaner, healthier water supply and land for the wildlife and the people living in and working for the organic coffee farms.

By distributing fair trade coffee through a fundraiser, you can generate an optimistic outcome for many generations to come. Through fair trade standards the coffee farmers are paid a premium, greater than market price, for their products to help them move from a position of weakness to one of a secure and economic sustainable lifestyle.

Due to the shade tree canopy coverage, shade grown coffee ripens slower, keeps more nutrients and builds a more complex and flavourful cup than non-shade grown coffees. Shade grown coffee also helps to protect the natural ecosystem, preserving the natural diversity of the land through conservation and awareness of the need to stay bird friendly as well as to preserve other wildlife habitation, which will reduce erosion by trapping run off water.

One product people have not stopped buying during this recession is coffee. As coffee is the second largest legally-traded commodity in the world, you know people aren’t about to give it up anytime soon. However, some people have decided to spend less on coffee recently, but generally they haven’t given it up altogether. People who were used to spending anywhere from $1.50 up to $4 or $5/cup have had to become a bit more sensible, but they still love their morning cup and can’t get by without it.

Fund raisers can capitalize on this fact, sending out promotions of organic coffee, tea and hot chocolate, luring the consumer into supporting their cause instead – less money into the hands of corporate giants, more into the pockets of the actual coffee farmer.

The whole fundraising ideal will be successful if they give the consumer something they already use every day, but also lets them be aware of the positive action caused by thinking of others, of helping the environment and ultimately, helping themselves. If the fundraising consumer doesn’t look beyond their border, who will?

Ethiopia has been quoted as being the birthplace of coffee. In the Sidamo province of southern Ethiopia, on a plateau rising above 5,000 ft., the species coffea originated. It was from here the earliest traders transported coffee plants across the Red Sea to southern Arabia, now known as Yemen. There are four types of production system in Ethiopia: forest coffee, semi-forest coffee, garden coffee and plantation coffee. Ninety-five per cent of the coffee produced under these systems is organic. Your fundraising products have a story to tell.

The range of coffee beans include some still gathered from the wild trees where they grow. These are known as natural or unwashed coffees. Other Ethiopian coffees are processed commercially; Yirgacheff and washed Sidamo are two of these. Somewhere in between are the coffees of Harar (and other regions) which, while cultivated, are still processed by the dry or natural method.

Information for fund raising consumers should explain “washed coffee” means the fruit pulp is washed off the seed after picking. It eliminates the chance of off-tastes from overripe or fermented coffee cherries spoiling the flavor of the bean. The goal is a more standardized cup but this method uses intensive agriculture methods, high finance, and a mechanized process, not in the coffee farmer’s interest. Most specialty coffees are washed.

However, “unwashed or dry” processing permits the beans to dry completely in the sun on African beds or patio dried, for the first 24-48 hours after harvest, and before being milled from the outer pulp and skin. This causes a longer lifeline between the ripe fruit and the seed, giving a fruitier, more wine-like coffee flavor reminiscent of jam or berries. A generally preferred method, even though the dry processing takes more time, space, and labor, it needs comparatively little capital.

The major source of premium unwashed coffees are produced in Yemen, Ethiopia, and Sumatra. Among Ethiopian coffees, the Harar Moka and the unwashed Sidamo are the best known naturals.

It is a requirement for all exporters that they process their organic coffee to the country’s export standard. The Coffee Processing and Warehouse Enterprise is a modern, state-owned enterprise, which provides high-standard coffee-processing and warehousing services. The Enterprise has three production lines, each with the capacity to process five tons of coffee an hour, and with a storage capacity of 30,000 tons.

Ethiopian coffee has a slight taste of wildness, a high acidity and a full-bodied, fruit-like flavor. The unwashed coffees have an earthiness, and a distinctive character. Fund raisers should use the optimum organic coffee to offer to their consumers and the Fair Trade Ethiopian Sidamo is one of the best.

A recent field trip journey for five students chosen from the Community Social Service Worker Department at Douglas College was more of a life experience than they ever could imagine. They are sent for three months for practical training at a local hospital, the Ugandan Schizophrenia Fellowship, the high school and an Aids support organization – TASO.

Before leaving for Africa, the students must fund raise all of the costs of their trip. Fundraising assistance with Pistol & BURNES coffee shows how a community business is supporting the important work of our students.

The students have a blog of their own recounting their time in Uganda. An excerpt starts………..

“A year of planning and fundraising is behind us and we are finally about to embark on our adventure. We took some time in today’s meeting to reflect a bit on the past year. We all feel blessed for the amazing support we have received during our fund raising efforts. The level of generosity has been surprising and very appreciated. Without our friends, family, community members and the college, this trip would not have been possible”.

Without fundraisers that promote such products as organic coffee, tea and hot chocolate, students such as those who belong to this course at Douglas College, would have a more difficult time financing the experience of Uganda. The fact that this fund raiser was for organic coffee, tea and hot chocolate, also makes them aware of the problems facing a multitude of other countries in the world.

In fund raising, like any other business, sometimes it’s for the birds, or bird-friendly. Is it just another of the recent labeling trends used on packages of organic coffee? or is there something more happening. Before you promote your fund raiser with organic coffee, you should be able to tell your potential customers that shade grown coffee survives in a forest-like environment that provides habitat for a great diversity of species, especially migratory birds. It also allows several levels of growth and a wide variety of plants and insects for the birds to eat.

To someone considering purchasing organic coffee at your fundraiser, tell them the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center has used “Bird Friendly” to describe eco-sensitive organic coffee grown under specific standards, including “shade grown”.

Shade-grown for organic coffee is important because the trees of the canopy provide, among other things, leaf litter (which acts as a fertilizer), shelter for wildlife species that control pests, migratory birds, and the retention of moisture. Since organic coffee grown in the shade is slower-ripening, and often is drawn from aged cultivated plants, there is the idea that it tastes better, with more complex flavours which will appeal to your fund raising customers.

With all this attention, choosing the right organic coffee for your fund raising campaign should be your only concern. Environmental companies around the world are only now checking the consequences of ignoring the organic coffee farmers, the crops, the decline in migratory song birds and insects, telling us to wake up and smell the coffee!