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.
Read moreTopics: Client Spotlight | Partnerships | South America |
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.
Read moreTopics: Advisory Services | Africa | Next Generation Jobs | Partnerships |
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.
Read moreTopics: News and Announcements | Partnerships |
Alongside several pioneering organizations in development finance, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) recently testified in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in support of a market-based approach to foreign aid. Root Capital is proud to partner with OPIC to connect smallholder farmers to global markets. Our CEO and founder Willy Foote submitted the following written testimony in support of OPIC's work to place capital where it's needed most.
Read moreTopics: News and Announcements | Partnerships |
For our client businesses in Peru, deforestation and climate change aren’t distant threats. They’re daily realities. Many of these coffee businesses are located at the edge of the Amazon rainforest, the largest contiguous forest in the world. But while it may seem limitless, this precious region is in danger of disappearing forever.
Read moreTopics: Partnerships | South America |
Para las empresas con las que trabajamos en Perú, la deforestación y el cambio climático no son amenazas lejanas, son realidades cotidianas. Muchos de estos negocios de café se encuentran en el borde de la selva amazónica, contiguo al bosque más grande del mundo. Pero aunque puede parecer que no tiene límites, esta preciosa región está en peligro de desaparecer para siempre.
Read moreTopics: Partnerships | South America |
Honey and chocolate are made to satisfy the sweet tooth, but these treats aren’t always a sweet deal for the smallholder farmers that produce them.
Read moreTopics: Mexico and Central America | Partnerships |
No woman should have to choose between caring for her children and pursuing a fulfilling career. In this Kenyan village, working mothers found a way to do both.
Read moreTopics: Africa | Client Spotlight | Gender Equity | Partnerships |
Pathological collaboration. It’s a phrase we use frequently at Root Capital — a phrase that speaks to our willingness to embrace partnerships in order to expand economic opportunities for as many smallholder farmers as possible. Earlier this year, I got to see that approach in action.
Read moreTopics: Africa | Partnerships |
Overlooking a village in southeastern Senegal. What do Silicon Valley and Africa’s Sahel have in common? At first blush, not too much. One is apps, algorithms, and acquisitions, and the other? Well, you might be thinking more of a woman in a field, tilling soil with a hand hoe, a vast horizon behind her. Over the last month, I’ve been fortunate enough to travel to both places – first to eastern Senegal to meet with Root Capital clients (agricultural businesses organizing hundreds of cashew growers and millet farmers across the remote region), and later to the Global Entrepreneurship Summit at Stanford University in Palo Alto, convened by President Obama. And I can tell you one thing: the very same entrepreneurial and innovative spirit that fuels Silicon Valley is alive and well on the last mile of dirt roads in the Sahel. The problem is, the world hasn’t supported agricultural entrepreneurs in the same way that Silicon Valley supports tech entrepreneurs. But what if it did?
Read moreTopics: Africa | Client Spotlight | Partnerships |
