California/Oregon
I am a humanitarian/development consultant (horrible thing really) and am spending some of my free time volunteering a sudanese/kenya women's cooperative producing shea butter. At present they are selling to retailers both in the US and Europe who mark up their product some 400% and benefit from labels such as organic, fair trade, etc.
In any case, their hope (and ours) is that we can help them sell direct claiming back some of the 400% mark up that the market is presently willing to pay. The idea is that they pay their workers at present rates (or slightly better) but that future profits go into community development funds that workers decide how to spend. We've already facilitators on the ground that have been working in a similar way with humanitarian and development grants. The idea is that the community stops asking for money and instead earns it themselves with their own profits.
They are registered in Kenya and Sudan as a private company limited by guarantee. But they are not officially "not profit" but in practice what small profit there is is presently going back into research and development and business development. In any case, the challenge we find is selling in US, UK and continental Europe and possibly the need for non-profit status or a business license. At present US sales are around 10,000 USD a year but could go up with some help on marketing to 50,000 to 100,000 USD/year.
Any documents, websites, or personal advice you can give will be most useful. The website will have a page on persons who provided us with such valuable advice along this process (the process is being documented) and you could chose to be referenced or not on that website.
Thank you in advance,
Bigamama
I am a humanitarian/development consultant (horrible thing really) and am spending some of my free time volunteering a sudanese/kenya women's cooperative producing shea butter. At present they are selling to retailers both in the US and Europe who mark up their product some 400% and benefit from labels such as organic, fair trade, etc.
In any case, their hope (and ours) is that we can help them sell direct claiming back some of the 400% mark up that the market is presently willing to pay. The idea is that they pay their workers at present rates (or slightly better) but that future profits go into community development funds that workers decide how to spend. We've already facilitators on the ground that have been working in a similar way with humanitarian and development grants. The idea is that the community stops asking for money and instead earns it themselves with their own profits.
They are registered in Kenya and Sudan as a private company limited by guarantee. But they are not officially "not profit" but in practice what small profit there is is presently going back into research and development and business development. In any case, the challenge we find is selling in US, UK and continental Europe and possibly the need for non-profit status or a business license. At present US sales are around 10,000 USD a year but could go up with some help on marketing to 50,000 to 100,000 USD/year.
Any documents, websites, or personal advice you can give will be most useful. The website will have a page on persons who provided us with such valuable advice along this process (the process is being documented) and you could chose to be referenced or not on that website.
Thank you in advance,
Bigamama