Tip Your Coffee Farmer

The Campaign

The campaign addressed the economic struggles of rural coffee farmers who lost 75% of their crops to a plant fungus that spread throughout Central America during the 2013 and 2014 coffee-growing seasons. The fungus proliferated due to unseasonal high temperatures throughout cooler coffee-growing mountain regions. The campaign was launched at conferences and with partnering coffee shops to raise funds for The Coffee Trust, a non-profit working with coffee farming communities in Central America. In collaboration with indigenous coffee farmers, the non-profit implemented low-cost, organic practices for resuscitating damaged crops and recuperating lost incomes.

The Work

I was commissioned by The Coffee Trust to create an advocacy campaign that generated over $100,000 in ‘tips’ or donations. I filmed, wrote, and edited a fundraising video, along with a series of short digital documentaries with coffee farmers in the rural highlands of Guatemala. I produced the campaign’s marketing materials ― brochures, postcards, posters, banners, and trade magazine adverts ― and created training packages for US coffee shop baristas to share knowledge and raise funds from coffee customers.

The Credits

Creative Director and Digital Video Producer Kelly Kowalski ▪︎ Graphic Designer Ezra Claytan Daniels ▪︎ Animation Adebukola Bodunrin

Leaflets, postcards, and posters for conferences and coffee shops.

Campaign video featured in US coffee shops.

Conference banner for The EM Challenge that asked visitors to drink the effective microorganism used to resuscitate coffee crops or make a donation to the campaign.