Consumption as an investment in partner-producers
Interesting description of the innovation represented by the Hoop Fund, in Shareable.
Vera Churiloy:
“Now imagine if you could directly help the artisans and farmers behind these products with a small loan to improve their communities. By sharing the story with your network, the money might quickly multiply – it could grow large enough to cover a community handloom for the weavers in Peru, or even prevent deforestation. As the lender, you would develop a new relationship with both the brand you love and a community you support, while doing good in the world.
This idea, just launched as The Hoop Fund last Thursday at Hub SoMa in San Francisco, first came to Deborah Hirsh throughout her six years developing the U.S. market for Fair Trade Certified products at TransFair. She saw an opportunity to multiply the impact of fair trade using a similar model to Kiva’s, where average-income folks give loans to lift people out of poverty. Funded by social entrepreneurs like Kevin Jones from Good Capital, Hoop connects consumers to fair-trade producers in “a global movement of connected consumers.”
“We want to share the stories that create demand for the fair trade premium by forming connections to the producers,” explains Jones. “People haven’t told that story.”
The Hoop team calls it an experiment in invested consumption: an analytical assessment of the impact we make from what we consume, with what we get in returns. Jones believes no one’s mixed consuming and investing before.
By sharing in production costs and connecting to the makers, the Hoop prides itself in “creating an emotion” that’s been missing in the marketplace. On its website you can meet the makers behind organic, fair-trade goods, see what is being produced, and make a loan.”
