Posted by Lula Perez  |  January 28, 2020

"What coffee variety do you think has the lowest quality?” Intelligentsia Coffee’s Director of Sourcing and Shared Value Michael Sheridan asked this question to a room of farmers and business leaders in Honduras last month. “Lempira!” came the unanimous reply. Michael asked a follow-up question: “What is the variety you have planted most on your farms?” Again, the room called out in unison, “Lempira!”

Topics: Advisory Services | Mexico and Central America | Partnerships | Stories of Impact |

Posted by Kate Hyder  |  December 10, 2019

La versión original de este blog apareció en inglés en el sitio web del Pace Able Foundation. La cooperativa cafetalera CECAFE se encuentra en Lonya Grande, el cual es un pueblo ubicado en la región montañosa de la región Amazonas, Perú, a un par de horas en carro de la ciudad principal más cercana. Los socios de la cooperativa viven aún más afuera, por caminos  serpenteantes próximos al Parque Nacional Cutervo.

Topics: Advisory Services | Digital Business Intelligence | En Español | Livelihoods | Mexico and Central America | Partnerships | South America | Stories of Impact |

Posted by Kate Hyder  |  November 5, 2019

This post originally appeared on the website of the Pace Able Foundation. The town of Lonya Grande sits in the mountainous region of Amazonas, Peru. It is here, hours by car from the nearest major city, that the coffee cooperative CECAFE has its headquarters. Members of the cooperative live even farther afield, down winding roads in the shadows of the Cutervo National Park.

Topics: Advisory Services | Digital Business Intelligence | Livelihoods | Partnerships | South America | Stories of Impact |

Posted by Lula Perez  |  September 26, 2019

Wiston Vílchez had barely turned 24 when he took over as general manager of the fledgling Flor de Dalia coffee cooperative in 2014. At the time, the cooperative consisted of a handful of families who sold their coffee to local brokers at rock-bottom prices. The brokers then sold the coffee on the international market with a huge mark-up—pocketing all the profit for themselves. 

Topics: Advisory Services | Livelihoods | Mexico and Central America | Partnerships | Stories of Impact |

Posted by Lula Perez  |  September 24, 2019

Duban Gómez Alvarado grew up expecting to one day enter the family business: coffee farming. The Alvarados have worked the flourishing fields of western Colombia for generations—but, in recent years, climate change has imperiled their crop yields. Simultaneously, the global coffee price has plummeted below the cost of production, leaving many farmers without a livable income. “For many years, we have been coffee farmers in my family,” Duban says, “but I am not convinced at the prospect of continuing with my family’s work.”

Topics: Partnerships | South America | Stories of Impact | Youth |

Posted by Will McAneny  |  June 11, 2019

Eighty kilometers outside of Nairobi, the Patel family’s macadamia factory buzzes with activity. In 2016, Mehul and Chirag Patel founded macadamia processing business Rainsun Nuts; every year since, they’ve doubled their sales. Between their office in Nairobi and their factory in the rural town of Sagana, they’ve created jobs for dozens of people—the majority of whom are women, and many of whom are under 35.

Topics: Advisory Services | East Africa | Partnerships | Youth |

Posted by Abigail Bok  |  April 26, 2019

The saw makes a grinding sound as Albert, a young Ugandan agronomist, maneuvers it back and forth slowly, cutting through the trunk of the coffee tree. His colleague Ambrose stands next to him, bracing the tree and readying himself to carefully lower it to the ground once the trunk is severed. They repeat the process, one, two, three times for a single tree, cutting away three small trunks almost to the stump—until there’s just a single spindly-looking branch remaining.

Topics: East Africa | Environment | Partnerships | Stories of Impact |

Posted by Alexandra Tuinstra  |  August 15, 2018

When actors across the coffee supply chain invest in quality, everyone benefits—from the farmer who earns better prices to the consumer who enjoys a better cup. Last month, we teamed up with specialty coffee pioneer Intelligentsia and coffee producers from across Colombia to learn how to make coffee better—for the people who drink it and those who grow it.

Topics: Partnerships | Peace | South America | Stories of Impact |

Posted by Will McAneny  |  July 11, 2018

This post originally appeared on the blog of the Rural and Agricultural Finance Learning Lab. Each year, more than 10 million young people across Africa enter the job market, competing for just three million formal jobs. As the continent’s youth population swells steadily towards a projected total of 800 million by 2050, this demographic crisis will intensify even further.

Topics: Advisory Services | Partnerships | West Africa | Youth |

Posted by Root Capital  |  June 15, 2018

We’re excited to share that we’ve been awarded a four-star rating from independent evaluator Charity Navigator for the twelfth year in a row. This top rating is given to nonprofits that demonstrate the highest standards of accountability, transparency, and financial health. Receiving it twelve years running places Root Capital among the top 1% of all nonprofits in the United States. What does this mean for you, as a supporter of Root Capital? It means you can feel confident that your donation is making a real difference, every day, for rural communities.

Topics: News and Announcements | Partnerships |