Coffee of the kuna: $30,000 In 30 Days

Abstract

Sixteen business students spent a week in Panama teaching an indigenous people, the Kuna, concepts such as savings. Upon returning to the states four students decided to do more. Increasing the villagers’ coffee yield, which was less than 33% of what it should have been, would generate profits needed for necessities like medical care and education. The villagers required a greenhouse, quality seed and cultivation workshops to increase yield, but this required money!

Calling its initiative Coffee of the Kuna (CK), the group tackled the challenging task of crowdfunding. Utilizing a site called DoingGood (DG), CK decided to raise $30,000 in 30 days by e-mailing all its contacts to request contributions. Unfortunately, crowdfunding usually requires teams to reach their goal or forgo all the money, and CK had only raised $8,763 by day 15, perhaps “swipers” to collect contributions, and accepted checks off site. CK also asked people who gave once to give again, established matching donations, and even sent personalized e-mails. Members organized or attended over a dozen events to solicit donations and generated extensive publicity, even being featured on a TV news show. But with just 24 hours left, CK was $5,228 short of its $30,000 goal. Exhausted, the group wondered what to do.

This project was funded in part by the Hagerman Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. The contents of this publication are solely the responsibility of the authors. To preserve anonymity of case participants, the authors changed the names of the company, students, advisors and University. In addition, they changed the name of the crowdfunding site.