Bill Fishbein

Bill Fishbein Email and Phone Number

Executive Director at The Coffee Trust, long time advocate for small scale coffee producers @ The Coffee Trust
santa fe, new mexico, united states
Bill Fishbein's Location
Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States, United States
Bill Fishbein's Contact Details
About Bill Fishbein

I had a love affair with coffee when I was 19 years old, which I have followed ever since. In every business that I pursued, coffee has played a major role. My early ventures ended in financial disasters leaving me penniless. In 1984, I borrowed $4,000 from a friend to start again with a tiny cafe, Coffee Exchange, in Providence, RI . After several years, there were lines out the door, and I had a few hundred dollars in my pocket. Yet, I went into an emotional turmoil. I felt I was leaving a struggle that had been part of my life as long as I could remember. I didn't feel as if I had the right to leave that struggle. I felt there was honor in the struggle. That is when art intervened.I saw a Tennessee Williams play, Camino Real. It rocked me. Afterwards, I was able to understand myself as I never had before. I saw certain self-defeating patterns. I stopped one of those debilitating patterns immediately. (Ask me about The Quadrant someday.) My whole world changed. Through some Steinbeck novels, a number of sleepless night, and several intense dreams, I confronted the reality that coffee was not as generous to coffee farmers as it had been to me. It was 1988 and I traveled to Guatemala to meet coffee farmers for the first time in my life. What I saw both shocked and amazed me. I was overwhelmed by the poverty, and yet envious of the people, their love of life, their generosity, their dignity. I actually didn't know who was more impoverished. I wanted to learn from them. When I returned, along with Dean Cycon and David Abedon I co-founded Coffee Kids. It was the first non-profit to work exclusively on behalf of coffee farmers. Coffee Kids focused on helping coffee farmers create economic, health care and education opportunities separate from coffee. I left Coffee Kids in 2008 to start The Coffee Trust and deepen my commitment to coffee farmers in the war-ravaged Ixil region of Guatemala.The Coffee Trust has worked in one region, the remote, war-ravaged, indigenous Ixil region of Guatemala (pronounced ee-SHEEL) since 2008. In the Ixil region The Coffee Trust has worked with the local fair trade, organic coffee cooperative on organic agricultural initiatives. We work with the local women's savings and microcredit group that grew from 20 women to 2,000. We have supported health care, food sovereignty programs and continue to support local education, from primary school through the university.I have deepened my commitment to local, community-driven, self-managed initiatives and continue to learn from from my experiences, both good and not so good.

Bill Fishbein's Current Company Details
The Coffee Trust

The Coffee Trust

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Executive Director at The Coffee Trust, long time advocate for small scale coffee producers
santa fe, new mexico, united states
Employees:
8
Bill Fishbein Work Experience Details
  • The Coffee Trust
    Executive Director
    The Coffee Trust Apr 2008 - Present
    Santa Fe, Nm
  • The Coffee Trust
    Founder & President
    The Coffee Trust Jun 2008 - Apr 2022
    Santa Fe, New Mexico
    Farmer to Farmer DevelopmentThe Coffee Trust promotes grass roots development in the Ixil region of Guatemala supporting locally controlled development, based upon the shared learning principles of Campesino a Campesino. Programs focus on education, health care, food sovereignty and economic development. Due to the devastation of la roya, the coffee-leaf-eating fungus that has been destroying coffee plants throughout Central America, in 2014 The Coffee Trust added its Roya Recovery to program development.We also invest in an intensive capacity building effort that focuses on organizational development, and financial sustainability for our local partners.The overall goal is to provide each local NGO with the tools and the capacity to thrive with or without support from The Coffee Trust. In cases where there had been no local NGO, The Coffee Trust team of development professionals, agronomists, and local promoters act in that role until a local NGO can be formed. Currently, the Food Sovereignty Project is set the umbrella of Chajulense de Mujeres and the Roya Recovery Project is under the umbrella of Asociación Chajulense.Asociacion Chajuense (AC), the local, fair trade, organic coffee cooperative, was a beacon of hope in the Ixil region during Guatemala's brutal civil war. After the war, AC provided a home for the women's micro-credit project, honey production, and logistical support for The Coffee Trust; Now, Asociacion Chajulense is facing its greatest challenge since the war. The coffee-leaf-eating fungus, La Roya, devastated close to 80% of its coffee production in 2014.In 2014, The Coffee Trust began a Roya Recovery Pilot Project with 241 small-scale coffee producers from Asociación Chajulense. Effective Micro-organisms were used as a defense against the fungus and a series of organic, soil replenishment activities were implemented to nourish the soil, which had been depleted from years of neglect.
  • The Coffee Trust
    Executive Director
    The Coffee Trust Apr 2008 - Apr 2022
    Santa Fe, Nm
    The Coffee Trust works with the indigenous, Mayan Ixil coffee producers (pronounced we-SHEEL) in San Gaspar Chajul, Guatemala helping them to improve their organic agricultural practices, diversify their income and raise healthy families. The Coffee Trust does not follow a model in what we do. We do have certain principles that guide our efforts. We gave learned that it’s not so easy to help. That if you help even a little too much you can do more harm than good. We have learned that people hold the solutions to their own problems. Not granting organizations. Not major donors. And, not successful coffee roasters. The people who hold the solution to problems at origin are the people who live those problems day in and day out. The reason is that those solutions must fall within the margins of their own culture. Their own values and their own priorities. For 75 years trillions of dollars have been spent on international development by organizations that design projects from the top down. Over these years, not only has poverty thrived at origin snd around the world. There are actually more people in poverty today than there ever was and a case could be made that people are actually poorer today than ever before. It only takes an element of common sense to realize that this top down development doesn’t work. Besides,… nothing grows from the top down. Things grow from the ground up.We have learned that people learn best from their neighbors than from professionals. Learning from neighbors is empowering, as they believe they can do what their neighbors do. They wish they could be as capable as a professional. Learning from a professional is actually disempowering. We have learned that women are the most powerful people on the planet.We have had a great deal of experience in microcredit and gave learned that a microcredit program without savings is an exploitation, however with savings, the savings replaces the loan fund. The women pay interest to themselves.
  • Coffee Kids
    Founder And Executive Director
    Coffee Kids Jun 1988 - May 2008
    Santa Fe, New Mexico
    Coffee Kids was the first non-profit to work exclusively within the specialty coffee trade on behalf of small-scale coffee farmers and their families. Coffee Kids opened the doors for numerous sustainability movements, commercial as well as non-profit, to find a home in the specialty coffee trade, which in many ways has become characterized by its commitment to social responsibility at the origin of its supply chain. Coffee Kids continues to thrive today and is a sustainability leader in specialty coffee trade.
  • Coffee Exchange
    Founder
    Coffee Exchange Jan 1984 - Jun 1992
    Providence, Rhode Island
    Coffee Exchange's history began in 1977 as the heart of Providence Rhode Island's premier cookware store at the time, Cooks Connection. Coffee Exchange opened its own doors in 1984, as a small batch coffee roaster and has provided the expanding local and global neighborhoods with affordable fresh roasted sustainable coffee.All of Coffee Exchange's Green Coffee purchases support environmental sustainability by promoting organic agricultural practices and honest wages for farmers through fair trade pricing. All our decafs are Water Processed (using no chemicals).Coffee Exchange is the original home of two important coffee--focused non-profit organizations founded by Bill Fishbein: Coffee Kids, founded in 1988 and The Coffee Trust, founded in 2008. Through year-long projects - and at our annual New Years Day Fundraiser - we raise money to aid both of these organizations in their long-term commitments to helping coffee-farming families liberate themselves from their dependency on coffee for their livelihood and from the poverty that has so characterized their lives, and to help them build sustainable communities by supporting education, health care, food sovereignty and economic development.

Bill Fishbein Skills

Entrepreneurship Coffee Strategic Planning Marketing Strategy Nonprofits Fundraising Social Entrepreneurship Sustainability Leadership Non Profits New Business Development Small Business Public Speaking Business Strategy Marketing Business Planning Sustainable Development Food Strategy Capacity Building Management Organizational Development Public Relations Start Ups Event Management Economic Development Social Networking Grant Writing International Development Leadership Development International Trade Ngos Sustainable Business Corporate Social Responsibility International Business Strategic Partnerships Social Media Marketing Philanthropy Marketing Communications Community Development Agriculture Franchising Brand Development Strategic Communications Project Management Integrated Marketing Time Management Sustainable Agriculture Spanish Entrepreneur

Bill Fishbein Education Details

Frequently Asked Questions about Bill Fishbein

What company does Bill Fishbein work for?

Bill Fishbein works for The Coffee Trust

What is Bill Fishbein's role at the current company?

Bill Fishbein's current role is Executive Director at The Coffee Trust, long time advocate for small scale coffee producers.

What is Bill Fishbein's email address?

Bill Fishbein's email address is bi****@****mac.com

What is Bill Fishbein's direct phone number?

Bill Fishbein's direct phone number is +147943*****

What schools did Bill Fishbein attend?

Bill Fishbein attended Boston University, Rhode Island College.

What skills is Bill Fishbein known for?

Bill Fishbein has skills like Entrepreneurship, Coffee, Strategic Planning, Marketing Strategy, Nonprofits, Fundraising, Social Entrepreneurship, Sustainability, Leadership, Non Profits, New Business Development, Small Business.

Who are Bill Fishbein's colleagues?

Bill Fishbein's colleagues are Salvador Asicona, Laura Star, Skylar Dylan, Paula Rodriguez Marcucci.

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    New York City Metropolitan Area

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