Fair Trade Fundraisers

Posted by Nick Niesen on November 8th, 2010

Organizations everywhere are starting to see the benefits of staging certain types of fundraisers. As you may have discovered through trial-and-error, some fundraisers are simply more successful than others. We all want to raise as much money as we can for our respective organizations, but there are times when we ought to give pause to other considerations.

Coffee fundraisers have been massively successful in the United States and beyond. It should come as no surprise, mind you. Everyone loves coffee, especially really good coffee. It is estimated that over 200 million people in the United States alone drink coffee on a daily basis. At approximately one dollar per cup, you can imagine how staggering the profits can be. Organizations have an excellent opportunity to tap into this market, and to brew up massive revenues for their respective ventures.

The difficult part of doing coffee fundraisers, is convincing people to compromise their morning coffee routines. It may sound absurd, but many people feel very passionately about the coffee they drink. From what I have been told by some of our readers, Canadians are absolutely fanatic about Tim Horton's coffee. The challenge for people involved in fundraising, is to convince people to try something new. We have to appeal to their thoughtful side. It is for charity, after all.

One of our friends has had tremendous success by putting a new twist on the traditional coffee fundraiser. Instead of offering people unimpressive gift boxes of coffee, why not consider selling bags of Fair Trade Coffee? If you are not aware of the Fair Trade movement, you should be. It is essentially an effort to ensure that farmers in developing countries are properly compensated for their labor and their products. The movement also tries to address issues regarding the environmental impact of certain farming practices, as well as local economic sustainability.

There is a significant percentage of the population in America that truly cares about what is happening in the world today. The environmental movement has been going strong for decades now, and people have become both active and aware of the issues that affect citizens in America and beyond. These conditions create a wonderful opportunity for fundraisers, as we can give people an opportunity to support two wonderful causes; the Fair Trade movement and your organization! Let your conscience guide you in your fundraising efforts, and help make trade fair.