Costa Foundation FAQs
It is a registered charity (registered charity number 327489) set up in 2006 to put something back into coffee-growing communities.
The Costa Foundation has been set up under the charitable status of Charities Trust, which is already a registered charity. Charities Trust are handling the administration and finance of the Costa Foundation, and one of the reasons for using them is to minimise overhead costs. If the Costa Foundation is as successful as we hope it will be, we will apply for our own charity registration in the future.
Costa Foundation supports the coffee-growing communities by:
- Building new schools or extending existing ones
- Furnishing the new buildings
- Investing in water supplies
- Developing land for families to grow crops
- Building teacher accommodation
- Building latrines
- Providing transport to get children to school
- Part-funding Social Workers' salaries
- Maximising leverage opportunities for the communities
We recognise that without the farmers and co-operatives who grow coffee, we have no business. They are an integral part of Costa's success; giving long-term support where we can seems like a natural thing to do.
The Costa Foundation is funded through a number of mechanisms:
- Direct annual donation from Costa
- Match-funding by Whitbread and Costa
- National centrally driven campaigns
- Store Fundraising activities
- Individual team member fundraising
- Customer over-the-counter donations during national campaigns
- Payroll Giving contributions
- Cause related marketing activity
- Donations from partner organisations
- Costa - Direct donation from profits
- Costa - Funding the setting-up costs for the Costa Foundation
- Costa - Funding the cost of communication materials
- Costa – funding any centrally driven campaigns
- Whitbread - Matching employee fundraising pound for pound
- Whitbread - Matching new Payroll Giving donations pound for pound
The 'grant-application' process, which is there to provide additional resources for existing projects, has no time limit - this will ensure the long-term sustainability of the projects.
The first example of an additional grant can be seen at Mushasha School in Ntungamo, Uganda where the popularity of the new school built by the Costa Foundation in 2007 resulted in an additional 200 children turning up for lessons. Extra funds have been granted to build another two classrooms and a Headmaster’s office to facilitate this growth in numbers.
Costa works in partnership with its UK brokers who have a close relationship with the co-operatives in the countries we support. The decision-making process is based on the following set criteria:
- Identifying a real need in terms of education
- Must be in coffee growing communities
- Identifying a strong partner to support the delivery of the project in the countries we support.
Costa has looked specifically at countries, which supply its beans and then looked at how needy these countries are. Since being set up in 2006, the Costa Foundation has supported 12 school building projects in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Guatemala and Uganda. In 2009/10 we will be completing the construction of 5 projects - one in each of these five countries.
During 2007, we purchased coffee beans direct from the communities in Colombia, Uganda and Ethiopia in which we had built schools. In an effort to further support coffee farmers, our main focus has now shifted towards the ongoing procurement of Rainforest Certified coffee. As a result of this activity, 50% of our entire Mocha Italia blend worldwide will be from Rainforest certified farms by the end of 2009.
- We work closely with our Brokers who have long-term relationships with the Non Government Organisations and Co-operatives who are responsible for the day-to-day project management in the countries we are supporting.
- Regular project updates are provided and there is a robust auditing process in place to evaluate and measure progress. The staged release of funds is based on achieving agreed targets.
- Costa Foundation accounts are independently verified by Price Waterhouse Cooper to ensure transparency of payments direct to the projects at source.
- Colombia - Federacion Nacional Cafeteros de Colombia (FNC)
- Ethiopia - Oromia Coffee Farmers Co-operative Union (OCFCU)
- Uganda - Union Export Services Limited (UNEX)
- Guatemala: Federacion de Cooperativas Agricolas de Productores de Café de Guatemala (FEDECOCAGUA R.L), Fundacion Ulrich Gurtner Kappeler, The Neumann Foundation, Embden Drishaus & Epping Consulting and Insituto Mixto de Educacion Basica Por Cooperativa Santa Teresa.
- Costa Rica: Cooperativa de Servicios Multiples de los Productores de Café de San Vito RL (COOPROSANVITO R.L) and Consorcio Cafetalero de Exportacion R.L (CAFECOOP R.L).
Yes. In Colombia the local authority agreed to provide kindergarten facilities within the primary school we have extended and Intel decided to pilot an "Intel Casebook" (affordable laptops) pilot in the school as a result of our investment. This is being replicated in a new project at La Esperanza during 2009/10. Intel has recently donated digital blackboards to Anatoli School as a mark of their continued support.
In Kilenso Rasa, Ethiopia, electricity was funded and supplied to the High School that we have built. This was the first time this community had electricity and as a result, Phillips have donated 8 wide screen TV’s to enable remote education lessons from teacher's too far away to travel to the school.
In Guatemala, we are working on a joint initiative with Solidaridad to fund a Social Worker for 3 years so that they can run a "life skills" course for the community.
- Leaflets
- Website
- In-store Point-Of-Sale such as posters and table talkers during national campaigns
- Collection devices in store and head office during national campaigns
- Internal Competitions
- Quarterly internal magazines
- DVD footage of projects for store managers and team members
930 UK stores
417 International stores (across 24 countries)