{"id":1782,"date":"2017-05-31T19:22:08","date_gmt":"2017-05-31T23:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/?p=1782"},"modified":"2026-02-16T05:28:37","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T10:28:37","slug":"3-creative-non-profit-funding-ideas-refuge-coffee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/3-creative-non-profit-funding-ideas-refuge-coffee\/","title":{"rendered":"3 creative non-profit funding ideas from Refuge Coffee"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMoney Matters<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t3 creative non-profit funding ideas from Refuge Coffee\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\"Flannery\t\t\t\tFlannery Keck<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Got a hankering to travel? You might get the most bang for your buck in the center of Clarkston, Georgia. This little town is a UN refugee resettlement area, now home to folks from the Congo, Iraq, Syria and more. It\u2019s also home to Refuge Coffee, a 501(c)3 nonprofit that operates a coffee shop, catering business, and provides job training for refugees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In partnership with The Startup Van, we interviewed Refuge Coffee\u2019s founder, Kitti Murray. She walked us\u2014and all our Facebook fans\u2014through Refuge Coffee\u2019s story in a Facebook Live interview<\/a>. \u201cRefuge really grew out of a neighborhood initiative,\u201d she explained. She and her husband, who was a church pastor for many years and now works in the nonprofit sector, wanted to introduce their refugee neighbors to others in the neighborhood. \u201cWe did some block parties and would invite people to our home,\u201d Kitti said. The response was great\u2014the community clearly wanted more connection, more opportunity to build relationships. Kitti also loved coffee and coffee shops, but knew that was lacking in their Clarkston community. An idea started brewing\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kitti and her husband soon understood another need: job training. \u201cRefugees often have great skills and training from their home countries, but they don\u2019t have opportunities here,\u201d Kitti explained. They might be doctors at home, but it\u2019s a steep, expensive hill to climb to reestablish a practice here in America. Too often, they\u2019re left with less-than-ideal jobs, like those at the chicken processing plant. It\u2019s an hour and a half away from Clarkston, freezing cold, and doesn\u2019t give new arrivals a chance to learn any English, because they don\u2019t speak to anyone during the shifts. \u201cWe felt like we wanted to speak to the need to thrive, to build a life,\u201d Kitti said, instead of just surviving. \u201cSo we thought, what if we put this idea of a coffee shop together with jobs and with job training?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s exactly what they did. With the support of the community behind them, they raised funds, purchased a truck, and started serving coffee from it two years ago this month. Here, we\u2019ll take a closer look at three of Refuge\u2019s creative funding ideas that keep the lights on and the coffee percolating:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crowdfunding<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Right from the beginning, Refuge Coffee needed community support to pay for their 501c3 registration. \u201cWe did it with crowdfunding,\u201d Kitti explained. They used a platform called Pure Charity led by CEO Mike Rush. \u201cWe had already started a small social media presence, and people were beginning to catch onto that. We did a lot of in-home events to raise awareness, and everyone who came to one of those events, they donated through that campaign.\u201d All told, they raised more than $100,000 in funding to get their first coffee truck and get started. \u201cI was amazed that people would give money to an idea,\u201d Kitti said, but this crowdfunding effort showed her just how broad a base of support truly existed for the Refuge Coffee initiative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And when Refuge Coffee had come to fruition and was ready to grow, that broad base showed up again. Last fall, Kitti found out they may have the opportunity to purchase a physical location, and the community rallied to raise around $130,000 in funding to support that dream. \u201cIt was pretty scrappy, and we\u2019re still pretty scrappy,\u201d Kitti said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Creative events<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Beyond donations and revenue from their products, the Refuge team is always coming up with creative ideas to raise more money and connect the community even further. When we spoke with Kitti, they were planning a 5K run for more than 1000 runners. Registering for the event was another way for customers and neighbors to engage with Refuge Coffee, but it also created another opportunity for Refuge to give back. \u201cWe gave away over 100 registrations,\u201d Kitti said. \u201c250 of those registrations were for a one-mile fun run, and we did it absolutely free. We really want to err on the side of generosity whenever we can.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s evident in another unique event they put on, called Shop Refuge. They curate donated and new clothes from the community and local boutiques, and then they host a huge sale where each piece is priced at $2. When they started this event, Kitti said, community members would say things like \u201cI’ll volunteer, but I’m not going to shop\u2014that\u2019s for the refugees.\u201d Kitti was quick to clarify to them, \u201cNo, there\u2019s no us and them. We<\/em> are all going to shop, and it\u2019s going to be so much fun, and you\u2019re going to meet so many people.\u201d Sure enough, about 60 percent of the shoppers at the event are refugees and the rest are other members of the Clarkston community\u2014everyone comes together to enjoy the event and support Refuge Coffee. Some refugees are even purchasing these affordable clothes to send to family back home. All this generosity spills over, even beyond Refuge Coffee. \u201cWe send half of the proceeds to a group in Iraq that helps Syrian refugees, so refugees here get to help raise money for refugees there,\u201d Kitti said. In this way, they support their own business and the overall positive mission of Refuge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Community-building<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Refuge Coffee truly is a community effort, and it\u2019s a two-way street. \u201cWe\u2019re learning the value of monthly giving,\u201d Kitti said. \u201cThere are a lot of people who support us for $15 a month\u2014that makes a huge difference and helps us have sustainability.\u201d And that generosity goes right back to the people who need it most. \u201cWe gave all our refugee trainees bonuses at the end of the year last year, and we pay them well,\u201d Kitti said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That circle of support is a strong one. \u201cWhen you want to do good,\u201d Kitti explained, \u201cyou do good with<\/em> people, not for<\/em> them. Refugees are heroic people, and they\u2019ve not only been through a lot, but they also want to give back. We quickly cycle our job trainees into training others\u2014they do the work, they promote the mission, and they\u2019re really the reason it works.\u201d They\u2019re assets to the community, Kitti said, and each day offers another opportunity to create a refuge together.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Got a hankering to travel? You might get the most bang for your buck in the center of Clarkston, Georgia. This little town is a UN refugee resettlement area, now home to folks from the Congo, Iraq, Syria and more. It\u2019s also home to Refuge Coffee, a 501(c)3 nonprofit that operates a coffee shop, catering […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101,"featured_media":8068,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sage_video":false,"post_featured_image_hide":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[299,34],"business_type":[40],"lilypad":[],"context":[],"industry":[52,58],"persona":[96,97],"imagine_tag":[234,230],"coauthors":[656],"class_list":["post-1782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-money-matters","tag-cash-flow","tag-small-business","business_type-small-business","industry-food-beverage","industry-nonprofit"],"sage_meta":{"region":"en-us","author_name":"Flannery Keck","featured_image":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/05\/Kitti_Murray_Refuge_nonprofit_funding_SageAdvice.jpg","imagine_tags":{"234":"Enterprise Management","230":"Small business"}},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Sage Advice US","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/101"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1782"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35494,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1782\/revisions\/35494"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/8068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1782"},{"taxonomy":"business_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/business_type?post=1782"},{"taxonomy":"lilypad","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/lilypad?post=1782"},{"taxonomy":"context","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/context?post=1782"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=1782"},{"taxonomy":"persona","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/persona?post=1782"},{"taxonomy":"imagine_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/imagine_tag?post=1782"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}