The origins of Coffee Causes can be traced to when Christian aid worker Rob Purdue (Bright Hope World) gave Grant a sample of La Mai coffee at a board meeting for Bright Hope World where Grant is a Director. Lai Mai was a coffee brand servicing the New Zealand market that imported green beans from Thailand. The proceeds of this coffee went directly to support combatting child prostitution in Thailand and support the Northern Thailand farmers through marketing their coffee. Grant through his career as a corporate HR Manager could see the opportunities to translate this concept into the growing Australian coffee market. With both corporations and individuals becoming more and more socially conscious it made sense to combine the growing love of organic coffee with a way to directly support aid projects.

Mark Pearce, coffee roaster and barista from Brisbane

As Grant comments "it is surreal in a way looking at the sort of money needed by aid agencies to do many amazing things and comparing that to the $ spent every day by corporations. I figure if I can get a product like Coffee Causes into the corporate world then excellent projects can be sustained while giving corporations a great product they need to buy anyway!"

The evolution of this idea continued when Bright Hope World introduced Grant to an organisation Global Development Group they had partnered with in Australia. After some further research Grant also selected Kiva to ensure Coffee Causes have two wonderful organisations that could reach many different countries and diverse projects.

As Grant comments "Choosing what projects to support to begin with was really quite hard. Street dwellers in Bangalore or medical clinics in Nepal?" Coffee Causes has kicked off by selecting some of GDG's projects that Bright Hope World supported from around the world that focus on self sustaining outcomes. The aspiration of Coffee Causes is to sell lots of coffee and fund many, different projects.

Now that explains the Causes bit what about the coffee!

After brewing this idea for a while, Grant was introduced to Mark Pearce, an up and coming coffee roaster and barista from Brisbane. Mark had lived in Papua New Guinea (where he first discovered coffee) while a music retailer and immediately loved the idea of combining his talent as a roaster into this idea. Mark was invaluable in his assistance because Grant while a great coffee drinker was still a learner when it came to coffee retailing. Mark has in the past number of years clocked up numerous awards and accolades as a leading barista and innovative Fair Trade coffee roaster. Mark has kindly supported Coffee Causes by roasting for us his Golden Bean medallist blends.

As a customer of Coffee Causes you are not only supporting great causes but you are also enjoying some great coffee!

http://www.globaldevelopment.org.au/
http://www.brighthopeworld.com/coffee.asp
http://www.kiva.org/
http://www.hohidiai.org
http://www.ewb.org.au