Great Coffee. Great Cause.
by Beth Barbee
Scott James and his wife Susan left Baylor with a sense of responsibility, feeling that they could actually make a difference in the world, and with a goal to be working with non-profits by age 35.
Scott started out the way most new graduates do, by working for big corporations helping them make money. After nine years of big business at companies like Microsoft and GE, James, 31 at the time, decided it was time to find the non-profit he was looking for.
ôMy personal mission statement is pretty simple, æhelp othersÆ. WeÆve always been able to do something with our tithe or with Habitat for Humanity and Agros Foundation, but we were looking for something more,ö James said.
ôI started looking around for non-profits in Seattle and the fifth time someone mentioned Pura Vida Coffee, I decided to look them up,ö James said. He set up a meeting with one of the co-founders. ôThat short meeting led to several longer sessions, and I joined the compnay three weeks later. It was an easy decision, to take all my skills trained on at Hankamer and Notre Dame and use them for a non-profit purpose,ö James, Pura VidaÆs Director of Marketing, explained.
But Pura Vida Coffee isnÆt a non-profit. Pura Vida is a for-profit company wholly owned by a non-profit 501(c)(3) devoted to giving back to the farmers and communities in the coffee growing regions of the world. Pura Vida is a Seattle-based coffee roaster that offers a full line of certified Fair Trade, organic and shade-grown coffees. Fair Trade standards help raise living standards for coffee farmers, while protecting the environment.
ôWe set it up that way to make it clear to everyone that we intend to always give away 100 percent net profits to humanitarian programs,ö James said. ôWe, the management team, will never get rich from this deal, nor be able to sell it to a larger coffee corporation for a profit, but thatÆs the whole idea.
ôWe decided to keep the for-profit status in order to keep the financial discipline and competitive nature that comes with being a for-profit company. We each have serious fears about the down side of non-profitsùthe slowness, the bureaucracy, the decision by committee.ö
Pura Vida has daily soup kitchens, computer centers, soccer teams and other activities for children in the farming regions of Costa Rica, with smaller programs in Nicaragua and Guatemala. Pura Vida aspires to expanding their programs into Africa, Venezuela and Brazil. The impoverished, harsh conditions plaguing coffee farming communities pressure its kids into prostitution, violence and drug-abuse at extremely young ages. Pura Vida not only wants to clothe and feed these children, but give them a sense of identity to push against the environment.
ôWe want the kids to feel like they are a part of something. æI belong to the Pura Vida soccer teamÆ or æI go to the Pura Vida computer centerÆ,ö James said.
Pura Vida is currently in its fifth year as the Harvard Business School business model, its longest-running case study to date. The idea was born six years ago by two Harvard MBA graduates, Chris Dearnley and John Sage. One was a local Costa Rican pastor setting up humanitarian programs; the other was leading marketing teams for Microsoft.
ôSharing our business model with others and showing them that it is possible to make this type of social enterprise work is one of our long-term goals,ö James said.
The James family, Scott æ94, SusanÆ93 and baby Justice (future BBA Æ24), lives on Bainbridge Island outside of Seattle.
For more information about Pura Vida, visit www.puravidacoffee.com.
