In 2020, the Lemonaid & ChariTea Foundation celebrates its tenth anniversary. For us this was a welcome occasion to finally publish our first annual report. The annual report takes you on a journey through the history of the Foundation since 2010, explains how we actually work and introduces our many great project partners and organizations.
How exactly does our work actually look like? The Lemonaid & ChariTea Foundation wants to actively shape global social change and therefore supports local organizations in countries of the Global South. Our vision: All people have access to independent, self-determined and sustainable livelihoods. We are part of Lemonaid and thus part of a social business construct. A large part of our income is based on a sponsoring model with Lemonaid Beverages GmbH. We as the Foundation stand for the “Social” in Social Business. Although we are two separate organizations, we work together for the same vision. Paul, one of the founders of the GmbH and founding member of the Foundation, explains:
“We’re all in the same boat. One looks at the compass, the second corrects the course accordingly and the third one repairs the sails. But all three have the same goal”
Paul also likes to describe our construct as a self-sustaining system. In our annual report you can read about what is possible when a non-profit organisation does not have to act driven by donations, but can dare to rethink development cooperation. However, our independence does not mean that we have no control mechanisms. On the contrary, the team in the foundation is supported by our internal and external advisory board. The advisory boards are composed of elected Lemonaid employees and external experts from various fields and decide, among other things, which projects we support. We have put a lot of energy into the development of these structures in recent years in order to be able to implement the local project support of organisations in the countries where the raw materials of the company are produced.
By the end of 2018, we have supported 29 organizations with 34 projects in 7 countries and a land purchase campaign with this approach. The range of organizations and projects is as diverse as the project regions themselves. Since Lemonaid itself was founded out of a social business idea, and because the causes for many challenges in our project countries lie in an unfair access to the global economic system, we support organizations that are committed to creating the basis for (social) entrepreneurship and income generation in their project regions.
Our first annual report tells you about the wealth of ideas and professionalism of our project partners, as well as about the visionaries and activists behind the great projects – you can read all about it here.