Partnerships

In addition to partnering with farmer & artisan producer groups in the developing world, we also rely on a number of other partners as well:

• Brand Partnerships
• Faith Community Partnerships
• Student Partnerships
• Non-profit Partnerships

Brand partnerships

The Hoop welcomes partnerships with brands that practice fair trade principles and maintain long-term partnerships with the producers who make their high-quality products. Hoop brands can be farmer-owned brands, fair trade brands, or select mission-focused organizations working with producer businesses that can easily demonstrate traceability of product from producer businesses through to brand's finished product.

The Hoop adds real value to brand partners by:

1. Building customer engagement - the Hoop develops deep connections between consumers and the producers who make products they love. Consumer investment creates a sense of ownership and identity with a producer group and the affiliated brand.
2. Aggregating consumer microloans - the Hoop expands financing opportunities for producer groups to improve and grow their business, as well as providing new marketing opportunities for producers and their brand partners.
3. Aggregating consumer demand - the Hoop brings together an avid and engaged base of consumers onto a single platform, where committed brands can show off the work they're doing with producers and engage new consumers to join them.
4. Providing a promotional platform - the Hoop enables customers to support, engage, and show off their good actions, with tools for customers to share their favorite products and special promotions with their own networks.

Faith Community Partnerships

Fair trade is a movement that ultimately connects people to each other in pursuit of justice and empathy. Faith communities and fair trade have often joined efforts to promote sustainable and responsible purchases, and we are eager to continue this trend with your community.

An example of a faith-based collaboration is a partnership built with Every Voice Network, in which they created a 5-week curriculum on food, faith, and justice designed to help congregations consider the ways in which their experience of food shapes their lives and what steps they might take to more fully recognize food as a gift from God. The final session is a dinner kit provided by The Hoop containing the basic ingredients to feed 25 people as well as instructions on making the meal and questions for discussion.

Student Partnerships

If your student organization is interested in collaborating with the Hoop Fund, please contact us.

Non-profit Partnerships

In our efforts to promote values driven brands, the Hoop has partnered with non-profits to implement cross promotional efforts. The Hoop is proud of our collaborative relationship with Fair Trade USA and we are eager to forge new relationships with groups doing meaningful work in the space of fair trade, food justice, and human rights.