This year, Root Capital celebrates an important anniversary: 15 years of investing to grow rural prosperity in poor, environmentally vulnerable communities in Africa and Latin America.
Our collective efforts over these years have borne fruit, and we are gratified to take stock of the impact Root Capital has achieved: more than $650 million in financing to over 500 businesses, representing more than 750,000 farmers and 4 million household members who are sustainably farming more than 1.4 million hectares of precious land.
But those 15 years also represent the extraordinary commitment of people like you, true visionaries in the changing landscape of international development. The charitable donations that underwrite Root Capital’s programs and global operations are a testament to the dedication of our supporters — the champions of our work whose commitment sustains and inspires us.
As Root Capital marks this important anniversary, we ask that you consider extending that vital support with a tax-deductible donation or recurring commitment.
As you know, Root Capital is committed to growing impact in “the missing middle” of developing-world finance and improving the lives of millions of people in Africa and Latin America. And as we commemorate our 15th year, our impact continues to grow:
- Just six months ago, Root Capital hit another big milestone, approving our 1,500th loan. We extended a $250,000 trade credit loan to Nahualá, a Guatemalan organic and fair trade coffee cooperative and Root Capital client since 2008.
- This spring we announced the launch of the Council on Smallholder Agricultural Finance. This alliance of leading social lenders focuses on catalyzing a financial market, creating responsible lending practices that serve small and growing rural agricultural businesses and helping to build sustainable livelihoods for the world’s 450 million smallholder farmers.
- Working with Keurig Green Mountain, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Skoll Foundation, Starbucks, Stichting Doen, Open Road Alliance and others, we crafted the Coffee Farmer Resilience Initiative, a holistic approach to addressing the vulnerabilities of our coffee clients in response to the coffee leaf rust crisis.
These milestones would not be possible without your support. Help us celebrate the success we’ve achieved together, and join us for another 15 years of leading the way to a thriving market for small and growing agricultural businesses.
We’ll be celebrating our 15th anniversary in a variety of ways and in many places over the coming months. To kick things off, we’ve launched our ‘15 Voices’ blog series, a collection of 15 interviews with some of Root Capital’s friends and allies, individuals who share our goal of growing rural prosperity and are helping us move towards our vision. We'll post the links here as they go live:
Voice 1: Ralph Taylor, Root Capital's First Funder
Voice 2: Diane Ives, Fund Advisor at the Kendeda Fund
Voice 4: Gail & Tom Kaneb, Philanthropists and True Champions of Innovation
Voice 5: Matt Patsky, CEO of Trillium Asset Management, LLC
Voice 6: Deborah Drake, Root Capital's first Board Chair (2001-2007)
Voice 7: Wendy Schmidt, President of The Schmidt Family Foundation
Voice 8: Jonathan Rosenthal, Executive Director of Coop Coffees
Voice 9: Bonnie Cockman, Root Capital's former SVP of Finance & Operations
Voice 10: Rosario Castellon, Root Capital's former Senior Loan Officer, Nicaragua
Voice 11: Kevin Starr, Managing Director of the Mulago Foundation
Voice 13: David Lozano, Root Capital’s Financial Advisory Services Coordinator for Mexico
Voice 14: Charles Maina, Root Capital's Financial Advisory Coordinator for East Africa
What do you think?