Cauzal Coffee

Today continues our look at for-profit businesses that are doing good.  Cauzal Coffee not only employs socially responsible business practices, but also uses their proceeds and resources to help improve the world we live in.

Coffee is the second most traded commodity in the world. It's an $18 billion industry in the United States alone, with 3 out of 4 American adults purchasing coffee. With that in mind, Cauzal Coffee has committed themselves to using those facts to make a difference. Twenty-five percent of every sale goes to a humanitarian cauze. When you purchase from the company you not only choose from six blends, but also choose the cause you want to support: huger, poverty, human trafficking, HIV/AIDS, Disaster: Congo Crisis, or Unclean Water. Cauzal Effect helps people suffering from these tragedies.

The Cauzal Effect is a global movement that encourages generous and responsible living to benefit people in need. Nonprofit organizations are carefully selected; organizations that practice financial integrity and effective aid distribution in the six areas of global need previously mentioned.

The premium micro-roasted coffee starts with responsible sourcing, making organic and shade grown coffee available and using 100% post-consumer recycling materials for shipping boxes. By sourcing coffee through their roaster's Farm Friendly Direct program, Cauzal is able to support poverty stricken communities as they work to build a stronger future. This means paying farmers above market prices for their coffee, in addition to a premium that finances farm and community assistance projects such as tree planting, water treatment facilities, community centers, school buildings, and funding teachers' salaries. Each project is tailored to the needs of the local community.  Many of the programs Cauzal Coffee supports aid coffee growing regions.  

Cauzal Coffee also offers opportunities for individuals and nonprofit organizations to benefit from their philanthropic initiatives. Through MyCauze (for Individuals) and Our Cauze (for nonprofits), individuals and nonprofit organizations can have Cazual Coffee support their causes. MyCauze and OurCauze help generate financial support for your humanitarian cause. Purchases by your constituents gains your cause 25%- 33% of the sale proceeds. For more information on the programs and organization criteria please visit Cauzal Coffee.

Please visit Cauzal Coffee's site. It's a wonderful company, and it goes to show how making a simple change in brand can make such a huge difference. They provide great information about the causes they support, including stories about why their work is so important. There is plenty of information on how you can get involved, whether it's by purchasing coffee or fundraising for your own cauze.

John Legend

John Legend's mostly known as a grammy winning, multi-platinum artist, but today it's his philanthropic work that's getting recognized. Listed below are the organizations Legend has founded or advocates for. Inspired to create songs about the tragedies in Africa, Legend took those words and decided words weren't enough. And now he encourages us to move beyond words toward action. Please check out this amazing organizations, and visit their sites to find out more information.

The Show Me Campaign - Launched in 2007, the organization works to improve the living situations and prospects of victims of extreme poverty in Mbola, Tanzania. The mission of the organization is, "to fight economic and spiritual poverty through fostering sustainable development (personal, social, education, economic) at the individual, family, and small community levels. The Show Me Campaign is grassroots movement that engages all of its participants as agents of transformative change from the bottom up."

The Campaign supports Mbola, a remote village in Tanzania, in an effort to permanently lift itself from extreme poverty. The Campaign works with Millennium Promise and the local Mbola community to implement practical solutions to advance its mission. I highly recommend visiting the Show Me Campaign's website to see an outline of the seven initiatives to help this village. They range from providing fertilizer to help farmers to education and internet. They  not only provide relief, but also offer sustainable solutions. These life-changing initiatives can be secured for just $60 per villager per year over 5 years. 

Millennium Promise - their mission "is to support the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals to halve extreme poverty in Africa by 2015. To that end, Millennium Promise works with impoverished communities, national and local governments, and partner organizations to implement high-impact programs aimed at transforming lives on the continent and engaging donor nations, corporations, an the general public in the effort. Our work is premised on the belief that, for the first time in history, our generation has the opportunity to end extreme poverty, hunger, and disease." They envision the end extreme worldwide poverty by 2025.

"Millennium Development Goals are the world's time-bound and quantified targets for addressing extreme poverty in its many dimensions-income poverty, hunger, disease, lack of adequate shelter, and exclusion- while promoting gender equality, education, and environmental sustainability. They are also basic human rights- the rights of each person on the planet to health, education, shelter, and security." 

These eight goals are:

• Eradicate Extreme Hunger and Poverty
• Achieve Universal Primary Education
• Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
• Reduce Child Mortality
• Improve Maternal Health
• Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases
• Ensure Environmental Sustainability
• Develop a Global Partnership for Development

Management Leadership for Tomorrow (MLT) - a national nonprofit that develops African American, Hispanic and Native American young people for leadership positions in corporations, nonprofits, and entrepreneurial ventures where these minority groups are under-represented. The organization partners with MBA programs and blue-chip corporations to provide programming at critical career transition points: high school to college, college to early career, early career to MBA, and MBA to executive leadership. MLT provides high-potential minority talent with the skills needed to succeed. To date the organization has over 300 Career Prep alumni and 500 MBA Prep alumni.

The Gentlemen's Fund -  an initiative established in 2007 to commemorate GQ's 50th anniversary. The Fund has partnered with five charities and five celebrity ambassadors to support the five cornerstones essential to men: Opportunity, Health, Education, Environment, and Mentorship. As an ambassador, John Legend, raises support and awareness for organizations that embody these five principles.

For more information about these organizations, their work and how you can help please visit their websites.

The Heifer Project

In 1944, Dan West founded the Heifer Project with the hope of ending hunger by providing a source of food, rather than a short-term remedy.  More than 60 years later, the organization has served millions of families in 128 countries.

Their mission is simple: to work with communities to end hunger and poverty and to care for the earth. Their strategy is simple: have people share their animals offspring with others, in other words, "pass on the gift."

Passing on the Gift means that each family receiving a heifer, (a young cow that hasn't yet given birth), agrees to donate the female offspring to another family in need. Thus the gift of food is never ending.

Since it's start the organization has expanded its initiatives to advance its mission. These initiatives include: Agroecology, Animal Well-Being, Gender Equity, HIV/AIDS, Micro-enterprise, Urban Agriculture, and Young People's Initiatives.

The website is filled with information on the various programs and the many ways you can get involved. Please visit the site to learn more.

Academy for Educational Development

Academy for Educational Development's (AED) mission "is to make a positive difference in people's lives by working in partnership to create and implement innovative solutions to critical social and economic problems."

To achieve this AED implements more than 250 human and social development programs throughout the US and in more than 150 countries. The organization works with local and national partners, developing sustainable strategies, to improve education, health, civil society, and economic development.

Programs focus on education, economic development, health, HIV/AIDS, and leadership. AED uses a variety of approaches to combat these issues, including research and evaluation, behavior change, partnerships, social marketing, and training.

Founded in 1961, the organization "envisions a world in which all individuals have the opportunity to reach their full potential and contribute to the well-being of their family, community, country, and world." 

Please visit AED's website for more information on how you can contribute.  And for anyone concerned about how much money goes to running an organization of this size, 91% of expenses are directly related to AED programs. In other words, you know your dollars are going to support AED programs.