October 17, 2010 | Read Time: 1 minute
The Hoop Fund is a new Web site that uses an approach popularized by Kiva to increase the market for fair-trade goods, such as chocolate and hand-woven clothing, and to help farmer and craft cooperatives in the developing world that make the products borrow money to improve their businesses.
Visitors to the Hoop site can buy Coral Red Jasmine rice grown by the Surin Cooperative in Thailand, but they can also make a loan to help the cooperative buy a freezer to preserve seeds from 35 threatened native rice species.
Giving people the opportunity to do both will create a stronger bond between consumers and the products they buy, turning them into advocates, says Patrick Donohue, chief executive and co-founder of the Hoop Fund.
“If you invest in the production of coffee, that’s your coffee too,” he says. “So you can go out and say to your friends and family, ‘I helped make this cup of coffee. You should try it out.’”
For more information: Go to http://www.jointhehoop.com.
