Each Cause in the Sharpen Daily Cause Portfolio develops its own campaign to promote this fundraising opportunity to its community. For example, a cause could include the Sharpen Daily website link or a personalized link (provided by Sharpen Daily) in an email campaign or newsletter. They could also include that link in social media posts on Facebook, Twitter, or an Instagram feed. That link will take them to the Sharpen Daily Coffee Company website to purchase coffee. At checkout, the buyer will enter a specific Cause Discount Code, which will ensure that every purchase will generate a contribution to the Cause that referred them. The more coffee purchased on behalf of a Cause, the larger the contribution to that Cause! Each month, purchases are tracked and contributions are sent to the appropriate Cause(s). Causes receive a minimum of 30% of net profit from every purchase and as much as 50%, depending on sale volumes. If you are interested in more detail about the fundraising tiers, please send us a note.

Download a one-page program description here.

The Sharpen Daily Cause portfolio comprises Causes that were either personally selected by Sharpen Daily or that requested to be included. In all cases, the Causes align with the social, cultural, and political worldview that Sharpen Daily has chosen to support. Causes can self-nominate to be included by completing the Cause Funding Nomination form.

Yes. Each month, along with payment that resulted from the prior month’s sales, we provide each Cause a list of all purchases and purchasers, including the name and email address of those that used their Cause Discount Code at checkout. 

No.  Simply put, we do not provide a donation receipt to every coffee purchaser because the administrative cost to do so would be prohibitive. We pass up to 50% of the profits from each coffee sale to your selected non-profit Cause organization. To accomplish this, Sharpen Daily Coffee Company operates as a for-profit business. 
Our mission is to pass on as much funding as possible to the Causes we support. We track every sale and pass through the appropriate funding to each Cause. If you would like to make larger tax-deductible donations to your Cause(s), we encourage you to do so directly to that organization.

Absolutely! Every listing in the Sharpen Daily Cause Portfolio includes a link directly to the Cause's website. You can donate on their site. Of course, we’d welcome you to grab some coffee while you are on the Sharpen Daily site and support your cause that way as well.  Supporting your Cause through the Sharpen Daily platform not only funds your Cause directly, it also helps us keep this platform running.

If you do not designate a Cause, a portion of your purchase will go into a general fund. Each month Sharpen Daily will choose a Cause to support with those funds.

Determining how to source our coffee was one of the most important aspects of establishing our brand. To make sure we get the best coffee for our fundraising customers, we partnered with a well-respected roaster who places top priority on high-quality sourcing of green coffee from reputable family farms. Our roaster is a small, third generation, family owned business that has built strong relationships with a select group of farmers and exporters/importers. This partnership allows us to get the freshest and most desirable coffee throughout the year from Africa, Indonesia, Central America, and South America.

Our roaster has chosen not to focus on these certifications when sourcing coffee. The primary reason is that such certifications don't provide any assurance of actual quality, which is what they focus on. In addition, acquiring these certifications is very expensive for both the farmer and the roaster to set up and maintain. Our roaster purchases coffee typically from small, family farms that are sustainably farming using compost and other natural fertilizers as needed to care for their crops. Our roaster abides by all local and federal regulations. For example, they recently participated in an event in El Salvador, sponsored by the USDA and the National Cooperative Business Association/Cooperative League (NCBA CLUSA), an organization that helps educate farmers on environmentally friendly and organic farming practices, along with supporting local coffee farms and businesses.

Green coffee is stored no more than four to six months on average in a climate and humidity-controlled room. Our roaster uses the most common coffee processing approach - washed. This process begins with removing the two seeds (beans) from the cherry fruit. The beans are soaked for some time in large baths to help the natural microbes eat away at the sweet, sticky mucilage layer surrounding the beans. The beans are then washed in a machine or a large channel to clean off any remaining mucilage layer. Washed coffees tend to be clean, transparent, bright, and more delicate in flavor.

Our roaster processes and roasts coffee nearly every day, driven by the order volume. In order to deliver fresh roasted coffee, we are not expecting them to roast and store large volumes ready for immediate shipment. Instead, we have chosen to work with a roaster who roasts only when there is sufficient demand for a particular blend. That is what we mean when we say “fresh roasted.” 

Unlike Amazon, we do not keep our product “in stock” and ready to be loaded on a waiting delivery truck around the clock. When you order Sharpen Daily coffee, your order will be fulfilled with the most freshly-roasted coffee possible. That coffee will either have been roasted in the prior few days or will be part of a batch roasted within a few days. In either case, when we say “fresh roasted,” we mean it. As a result, that means your order will ship within 2-5 days of being placed.

Be sure to read How quickly will my order ship? above.  You will receive a notice that your coffee has been shipped. As for the time it takes from there to get to you, plan on 3-5 days. We are working to keep the shipping cost down, so that we can keep the Cause contribution higher. We figure if we charge more for super-fast shipping, we’ll sell less coffee. That would mean raising less money for Causes. The latter is our priority, and we hope it is yours as well. Don’t worry! Your coffee will be freshly roasted and vacuum sealed to keep it that way when it arrives! With these considerations in mind, figure out how much you need, when you’d like it, and we’ll get it to you as soon as possible.