A-2.3

From IMPCT Coffee to Early Childhood Education in Poor Countries

Juan Diego Prudot
IMPCT Coffee

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Abstract

This paper attempts to answer the question of “how to make a social innovation sustainable?” by investigating a global social enterprise – IMPCT Coffee. Based on the LERP-PEARL two-stage model developed by Lin and Chen (2016), a case study on IMPCT Coffee was conducted. The first stage LERP is a triggering stage, denoting leader, execution, critical resources, and initial partners; the second stage PEARL is a self-organizing stage, denoting enlarged partners, stronger execution, activation, more resources and multiple leaders (PEARL). The story behind IMPCT Coffee - “truly ethical coffee for a better tomorrow” touches the hearts of many coffee lovers and attracts admirers to work in the shop.

The story started with four IMBA students - the IMPCT Team of National Chengchi University（政治大學）won the Hult Prize World Championship with USD1,000,000 start-up fund from the Hult Prize Foundation in September 2015. They proposed to build pre-schools “Playcare” in Latin American countries to improve the early childhood education, at the same time provide job opportunities for the care takers. The funding is to be given stage by stage, depending on the real progress of their plan.

After working for around three years, the IMPCT Team has total seven Playcare Preschools (named Playcare hereunder for brevity) with impressive influence on two regions: Africa and Latin America. To have a wide spreading influence through building more Playcares on more poor areas in more countries, the IMPCT Team knew that they need a sustainable business model to keep it rolling. As a result, they came up with a cycling benefit model by setting up IMPCT Coffee shop in Taipei, purchasing coffee beans from the areas they are helping, involving coffee consumers to give virtual bricks for building Playcare(s) in the area that produces the coffee they are drinking. The consumer is given a brick code number for every purchase, marking his/her contribution to a particular Playcare. This case study describes the origin and the current achievement of the IMPCT Team.
 
Keyword：IMPCT Coffee、Social innovation、Global social enterprise、LERP-PEARL model

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