A History of Impact and Success

CDF has helped literally millions of people across the globe to escape poverty by starting and strengthening cooperative businesses. From rural housing to healthy food, CDF has been “the spark that started the fire” for more than 65 years. Some of our greatest hits include:

• 1945: Was the source of funds that started CARE
• 1960s: Funded establishment of three agricultural mega-coops in India serving almost 75,000 cooperatives
• 1960s: Launched Worldwide Co-op Partners Program (predecessor to VOCA)
• 1960s: Helped establish Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Organization of Cooperatives of America, University of Wisconsin International Cooperative Training Center
• 1970s: Helped launch 5 cooperatives serving 130,000 Southwestern Native Americans
• 1970s: Co-launched Cooperative Housing Training Institute
• 1970s: Funded education programs resulting in the creation of the National Cooperative Bank
• 1986: Kaplan Fund created for Senior cooperative housing
• 1988: CDF given stewardship of Cooperative Hall of Fame
• 1990s: Kagawa, Homestead, Hillman-Dubinsky, Bowers, Sollars, Sullivan, NCBA Funds added to CDF via donation, investment and bequests
• 1990s: Founded Cooperation Works! (originally Rural Development Fund, with Federal grant)
• 2000s: MSI Foundation becomes MSC Fund; CDF Fund created
• 2005: Raised over $163,000 for relief for Katrina, Tsunami disasters; raised over $115,000 for 8 other disasters from 1988-2008
• Since 1988: Over 480 grants and loans totaling over $10m

Percolating of Persistence – The Story of the Pachamama Coffee Cooperative

Pachamama – the Quechua word for Mother Earth – is exactly how the organization wants to be viewed. Instead of reaping lands of their resources for profit, Pachamama coordinates partnerships with coffee growers in an effort to provide economic fairness with those involved. You see, while most people may look to coffee as a resource of value, Pachamama knows that it is the farmer that truly matters. Coffee imported from outside of the United States is often sold at an incredibly high rate once it leaves your brewery and is placed in the hands of the consumer. Sadly, the farmers who brought you that coffee don’t see near enough their fare share of that profit.

Pachamama sought to remedy this issue by establishing itself as a U.S. wholesale company composed of more than 150,000 farmers from Peru, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Mexico, and Ethiopia. What makes Pachamama stand out is the fact that they are owned and democratically controlled by the farmers whose coffee they sell. You heard it right. The coffee growers, the ones who “create” the coffee if you will, actually own the rights to what the produce. Such a simple concept is rarely found in a society that thrives on capitalistic techniques, and so, is that much more amazing when it does appear.

Here is how it works: Pachamama purchases its members best organic coffee at above fair-trade prices and imports them to the United States. Pachamama sells its coffee wholesale and retail via its website. Organic coffee is roasted daily in small batches and shipped the same day. Pachamama handles the financial transactions between the producer and the consumer, while insuring a quality product is delivered promptly. Customers receive a fresh, organic product in the most direct manner possible. All profits generated by the sale of Pachamama’s coffee then belong to the cooperative’s members.

The process isn’t the only positive thing about Pachamama either! According to Julie Cross of the Davis Food Co-op, Pachamama coffee is “exceedingly delicious”. Davis Food Co-op is where Pachamama first started selling its products, and is now the location of Pachamama’s first Café!

Pachamama is another great example of Cooperatives giving back to the community. If you want to learn more about their organization, call (510) 213-5366 or visit pachamama.coop.

The Beginning

Pachamama Coffee Cooperative

Leveraging a relatively small amount of money for a maximum effect makes for an excellent success story.

Pachamama Coffee is a cooperative owned by the thousands of family farmers whose coffee they sell, mostly through food co-ops. Members in unique coffee-growing regions of five countries- Ethiopia, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua and Peru- send their premium beans to be prepared, packaged and shipped fresh upon order.

Pachamama Coffee can be bought at cooperative grocers and through their website, www.pachamama.coop.

Pachamama received a $3,000 opportunity grant from the Sollars Fund in 2002, which they leveraged to obtain a grant of $20,000 from Nationwide's Dunlap grant program in 2005 to form the cooperative, expand its membership, and establish processes to get the world's best coffee to the US market.

The Hospital Cooperative

The Hospital Cooperative, formerly Public Hospital Cooperative, was formed in 2000 as a cooperative of 13, now 14, non-profit hospitals, 13 in Idaho and one in Wyoming. Its members enhance the health care and quality of life for the residents of their communities. The Cooperative’s mission is to strengthen regional health care by providing support and increasing value to members through shared resources, knowledge, and information. This is done through education, workforce development programs, improving services, providing technical assistance, and exploring opportunities for group purchasing.

CDF’s MSC Fund (Mutual Service Cooperative Fund) awarded two grants to The Hospital Cooperative: $12,000 in 2006 for joint training in rural hospitals and $16,000 in 2008 for educational materials for seniors and hospital-based health educators. Rural hospitals are isolated and often have no money for leadership training and it is costly for each hospital to bring in trainers or send staff to training at another hospital. With the help of the first grant, The Hospital Cooperative gave 44 hours of education and training to more than 150 staff at its 13 member hospitals, developed more than 24 learning modules that are available on the cooperative’s website, and held 3 leadership conferences for approximately 125 staff and 12 brown bag lunches on various health care topics. The Hospital Cooperative’s Cooperative Telehealth Network expanded the reach of this training by enabling people who could not travel to participate. With the help of the second grant, The Hospital Cooperative developed materials for seniors that address preventing falls and medication errors and making homes safer through training modules for hospital-based health educators. Hand-outs and a training manual were developed and will be revised and put onto CDs for distribution and 13-26 health professionals and at least 290 seniors will receive direct training.

It is difficult to measure, but The Hospital Cooperative believes that the quality and content of patient care have improved due to these projects supported by the MSC Fund.