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FAQ
What is Coffee Kids about?
Our mission is to help coffee-farming families improve the quality of their lives.
How does Coffee Kids help these families?
Coffee Kids believes that coffee-farming families and communities hold the solutions to their problems. We work with community members to identify challenges they face and then partner with local non-profit organizations to develop projects that address these challenges on a grassroots level while respecting the cultural integrity, intelligence and ingenuity of the people we serve.
For more information on our partners, please visit our Programs page.
What types of programs does Coffee Kids support?
We partner with local organizations in coffee-farming communities to create micro-enterprise, health care, education and community-based projects.
We also coordinate exchanges among our partner organizations that we term encuentros to foment discourse and sharing among the groups and help them create new approaches addressing common problems.
How does Coffee Kids define a successful project?
Coffee Kids marks its success fostering stable, long-term, local programs that will serve their communities for years to come. Our goal is that projects become self-sustaining and no longer require financial support from Coffee Kids to continue. Partners who no longer need financial support from Coffee Kids remain in our network as resources for other partners.
How did Coffee Kids begin?
Coffee Kids was founded in 1988 by Bill Fishbein, a specialty coffee roaster and retailer from Providence, R.I. While visiting coffee-growing communities in Guatemala in 1988, Fishbein was deeply affected by the poverty and created Coffee Kids as a way to give something back to the families that grow coffee.
How is Coffee Kids different from other development efforts in coffee-growing areas?
Coffee Kids believes that all programs must be community-based and founded on the principles of sustainability. Income from the annual coffee harvest is not enough, fair trade and organic premiums are not enough. Coffee-farming families need education and economic options that can provide for year-round sustenance. We work in the world of coffee, but not in the commercialization of coffee.
Coffee Kids has a deliberate selection process for partner organizations to ensure that programs are sustainable and well-structured. We provide long-term support for our partners that allow time for ideas to take root in the community.
Where does Coffee Kids work?
Coffee Kids currently works with 12 partners in five countries: Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Peru. Several thousand families in over 100 communities benefit from Coffee Kids programs. To read more about our partners and our programs, please visit our Programs page.
What about other coffee-growing countries?
Poverty associated with coffee farming exists in almost every tropical country in the world. Coffee Kids would like to work with partners in more countries, but we are focused on developing well-run programs before expanding operations to other countries. With more funding, we can maintain the integrity of our programs and expand to other countries. Our partner COCLA in Peru marks our first foray into South America.
Who coordinates Coffee Kids’ programs in the field?
Coffee Kids partners with local partner organizations in the communities we serve. Our international program coordinators work with these partners to build their capacity to manage their own programs and ensure sustainability and future growth.
Does Coffee Kids engage in emergency and disaster relief work?
To the extent possible, we try to help when crises arise in the coffee-growing world. In 1998, in the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch, Coffee Kids was able to channel $17,500 in direct relief funds to communities in Nicaragua. Following the 2004 earthquake and tsunami in Southern Asia, Coffee Kids raised $320,139.40 and formed a partnership with ForesTrade to provide much-needed disaster relief services to families in Sumatra’s coffee-growing region of Aceh. In 2005, Coffee Kids helped raise funds for coffee-growing communities in Guatemala and Mexico affected by Hurricane Stan.
However, our primary goal remains one of developing long-term, sustainable programs.
Can I volunteer for Coffee Kids?
Since the communities we work with run their own programs, Coffee Kids does not offer volunteer opportunities. Some of our partners offer opportunities for interested, qualified individuals. If you have skills to offer one of our partner organizations, please download the volunteer application and e-mail it to International Program Coordinator José Luis Zárate at .
Volunteer Application (Word Doc)
Can I donate supplies?
Coffee Kids does not organize drives for supplies, we supply communities with the funds and assistance necessary to create their own programs. But if you do have a sizeable contribution, please contact us.
What is Coffee Kids’ annual budget?
Coffee Kids has an annual budget of approximately $1 million.
What percentage of donations to Coffee Kids goes to program expenses?
The percentage varies year by year averaging 75%.
How is the organization funded?
Business donations make up 87% of the budget followed by 5% from individual donors, 4% from in-kind donations of goods and services, 3% from foundations and 1% from merchandise sales.
Are donations to Coffee Kids tax-deductible?
Yes. Coffee Kids is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization.
Does Coffee Kids undergo an annual audit?
Yes. Every year, Coffee Kids hires an independent firm to audit our financial records. Audited financial statements are available upon request.
How many employees does Coffee Kids have?
Coffee Kids has four full-time staff and two part-time staff in our Santa Fe headquarters, and two full-time international program coordinators in our Oaxaca office. The founder, Bill Fishbein, works as a volunteer for the organization. Coffee Kids also has two volunteers in the United Kingdom coordinating efforts there (Coffee Kids UK).