What is a social enterprise?

Social enterprises are businesses whose primary purpose is addressing a social or environmental challenge rather than focus solely on creating profit for owners or shareholders. But that doesn’t mean we cut corners on our craft.

When you buy coffee and goods from Loam Coffee Roasters we’ll share with you how your purchases are helping incubate startups and creating jobs in overlooked communities.

HERE'S OUR SOCIAL ENTERPRISE PLAN IN ACTION

We're excited to share with you the steps that Loam Coffee Roasters is taking to fulfill its mission to invest in incubating startups and creating jobs in overlooked communities.

STEP 1 - ROAST AND SELL COFFEE TO RAISE FUNDS

We are a for-profit business, meaning we care deeply about our bottom line. The more successful we are with our bottom line, the more money we’ll have to fund our initiatives in southern Arizona. This means selling specialty coffee and Loam Coffee Roasters merchandise and gear. We are initially roasting coffee in Portland, Oregon.

STEP 2 - ESTABLISH A COFFEE ROASTERY AND CAFE SPACE IN SOUTHERN ARIZONA

The second step in our business plan is to open a cafe and coffee roastery in southern Arizona. Why? To create space in the town for a commercial venture, hire locals, and begin roasting coffee to cater to and serve communities throughout Arizona and the Southwest. That means we’ll be roasting coffee in Oregon and Arizona once we’re up and running. Also, to have a cafe and a public face to meet more of our neighbors throughout the Copper Basin.

STEP 3 - CREATE A LOCAL STARTUP INCUBATOR

The end goal of Loam Coffee Roasters is not simply about coffee. Instead, it’s about creating jobs. It’s also more than that. We don’t naively assume it’s our role to swoop in and begin selling specialty coffee, and everything will be solved. What lights our fires are helping, training, and funding everyday people (like us) who have a dream to start and run their own businesses. That’s why we’ll help incubate and catalyze new startups in the Copper Basin.

Where does your money go when you buy coffee or gear from Loam Coffee Roaster?

Businesses need to be profitable to survive. We all get that. At Loam Coffee Roasters, we strive to be as profitable as we can. Yet, at the same time, we are taking a portion of our profits and investing them into our social impact objectives. Namely, we're about incubating startups and creating jobs in overlooked communities.

Listed below are the 3 different ways (in progression) that we're investing our profits into.

BUY A HOME IN the copper corridor in ARIZONA

To be part of the community means living in the community. We want to buy a home (a fixer-upper) in town.

TRANSPARENCY

We’re excited for this opportunity to share with you how we’re spending our profits.

What are you trying to fund?

There are three initiatives in the Copper Corridor we’re going to fund through the sales of coffee and goods. (1) To buy a home to live in. (2) To buy (or lease) and renovate a commercial space for the roastery, cafe, and startup incubator space. (3) To build out and equip this space.

How much money goes to doing good?

Costs per bag of coffee are roughly $5-$7 … green beans, bags, labels, etc. If the bag sells for $15-$18, it means $8-$12 is "profit." However, part of that goes towards operational expenses like the coffee roaster (and upkeep) and paying staff for roasting, bagging, and shipping. We need to factor this in, especially since we'll be hiring and paying a coffee roaster in the Copper Corridor. To make it simple, we're dedicating $2 per bag to fund our initiatives.

Are you trying to make a profit?

Absolutely, yes! We are a for-profit business. Therefore, we want to be successful in what we do and how we do it. Also, the more successful we are, the more funds we can allocate toward our social impact initiatives.

Wait, buy a house? How is that part of being a social enterprise?

Obviously, any purchase, like a home, comes from income earned. Why is it important? So we can be part of the community.

How much will it cost to set up a roastery and cafe space?

That’s a great question, and we’re still working on those details.

Why a social enterprise?

We believe that businesses are under-utilized resources for solving problems. Not that we have the answers, but we want to leverage assets derived from a for-profit business to make a social impact. The business model means not being dependent upon donations. Therefore, the more successful we are, the more we’ll be able to fund our initiatives.

We're not limiting the scope of our work to one place. The long-term dream is to multiply locations. However ... we are taking one tiny step at a time.