SHARED INTEREST SOCIAL ACCOUNTS for the year ended 30 September 2006 Shared Interest Society Limited 2 Cathedral Square, An Industrial and Provident Society Groat Market, Registered Number 27093R Newcastle upon Tyne And NE1 1EH Shared Interest Foundation, Tel 0191 233 9100 Registered Charity Number 1102375 www.shared‑interest.com Social Accounts for the year ended 30 September 2006 Acknowledgements Shared Interest is very grateful for the help and advice received during the preparation of these accounts. We would like to thank everyone who has been involved, especially John Pearce, Chris Pay, Jane Gibbon and Keith Stamp for taking part in the Social Audit Panel and David Parker from Alpha Communication for supporting the preparation of the report. The Social Audit Network and Co‑operatives UK have both been a useful source of guidance and training. We are grateful to the staff team involved in the process of preparing this second set of social accounts, particularly Amy McIntosh, Francesca Smith, John Grady, Lis Dales and Tracy Bonham as well as to other staff who contributed to specific areas particularly, Claire Brown, Kirsteen Bonar, Phoebe Richardson and Stuart Raistrick. Finance for fair trade and support for disadvantaged producers 2 Social Accounts for the year ended 30 September 2006 Contents Page 1 Welcome 4 2 History and Background 5 2.1 Shared Interest 5 2.2 Social accounts 7 3 Vision, Mission, Values, Objectives and Activities 8 3.1 Vision and values 8 3.2 Mission 8 3.3 Objectives and activities 9 3.4 Main issues, achievements, conclusions and recommendations 11 4 Analysis of the Social Accounts 14 Objective 1 Lend to and work with fair trade producer groups and buyers 14 Objective 2 Promote a North‑South partnership 30 Objective 3 Strengthen the fair trade movement 35 Objective 4 Value our work force 39 Objective 5 Demonstrate co‑operative difference 49 5 Stakeholders, Methodology and Scope 61 5.1 Stakeholders 61 5.2 Methodology 62 5.3 Scope 62 6 Compliance 64 6.1 Compliance with statutory and voluntary codes 64 6.2 Legal structure and reporting 64 7 Social Audit Statement 66 8 Next Steps 67 Appendices 68 Appendix A to support Objective 1 Lending Appendix B to support Objective 1 Customer List Appendix C to support Objectives 2 and 5 Members Appendix D to support Objective 2 Producer groups and buyers Appendix E to support Objective 4 Staff questionnaire Appendix F to support Objective 4 Staff feedback Appendix G to support Objective 5 Customer satisfaction questionnaire Appendix H to support Objective 5 Customer satisfaction comments Finance for fair trade and support for disadvantaged producers 3 Social Accounts for the year ended 30 September 2006 1 Welcome Welcome to the social accounts for Shared Interest, covering the year ended 30 September 2006. This is our second social audit report and it builds on the good foundation laid with last year’s report. Once again, I hope that you will find the report informative, encouraging and perhaps occasionally surprising. Shared Interest Society is the world’s leading fair trade finance organisation based on volume of lending and focus on fair trade. For our borrower customers, both producer groups and buyers all over the world, we provide access to fair finance to develop fair trade. For the Society’s 8,402 members who invest more than £20 million with us, it is a chance to give some of the poorest communities in the world the financial backing they need to join the fair trade market place and trade their way out of poverty. Shared Interest Foundation is the sister charity to Shared Interest Society. It is a British‑based international development organisation whose mission is to support disadvantaged producer groups in using fair trade as a sustainable solution to poverty. The year 2005/6 has seen further consolidation of our work with partners in the fair trade and social lending movement. Our direct lending to overseas producer groups has grown. We have established pilot programmes for overseas representation in East Africa and Central America. The Foundation has led its first training programme for producers in Kenya. We have welcomed a new Managing Director, Patricia Alexander. Other staff changes during the year and an office move have made it a challenging year for our employees. We are indebted to their skill and commitment. Shared Interest’s customers are scattered all over the world and Shared Interest itself works through many local intermediaries to bring benefit to individuals and communities. This makes it difficult to measure directly the impact of our work. This report builds on last year’s first step in a continuous process of information gathering and reporting. We are continually seeking to better explore and understand the impact we believe we are making. We welcome feedback from Shared Interest members and from observers. You can comment directly by email to socialaccounts@shared‑interest.com. Philip Angier Moderator Finance for fair trade and support for disadvantaged producers 4 Social Accounts for the year ended 30 September 2006 2 History and Background 2.1 Shared Interest Shared Interest began in 1990, set up by a group of fair trade pioneers with a vision of a new way of investing money to reduce poverty. They created a financial co‑operative with the aim of using the members’ pooled capital to lend to disadvantaged producer groups in the poorer parts of the world. Shared Interest works with both the International Fair Trade Association (IFAT) and the Fairtrade Labelling Organisation (FLO) using international definitions of what constitutes fair trade. Fair trade contributes to sustainable development by offering better trading conditions to, and securing the rights for, marginalized producer groups and workers – especially in the developing world. Shared Interest chose fair trade because it closely matches its objective and provides a coherent, well defined international market in which to lend. Shared Interest Society provides financial services to fair trade businesses all over the world, both producer groups and buyers, providing much needed short term trade credit that enables producer groups to be paid in advance for their orders. It also provides some longer term loans to producer groups to enable them to improve their overall businesses. The various lending products that Shared Interest offers are outlined in section 4, Objective 1. Having been providing finance for fair trade for over 15 years, this year Shared Interest implemented the first stages of plans to develop an international presence. The intention is to have staff on the ground, working in partnership with customers allowing Shared Interest to operate on a truly international basis and hence be true to its mission. This year the organisation has recruited staff in Nairobi, Kenya, and in San Jose, Costa Rica. The East African regional office is shared with Traidcraft. The regional staff have three key roles: to increase Shared Interest’s impact through increased lending, to explore ways of widening access to fair finance and to identify opportunities for supporting producer groups by providing financial training. Over the coming years Shared Interest aims to continue the international expansion. In 2004 Shared Interest established a subsidiary charity, Shared Interest Foundation, with a mission to support disadvantaged producers in using fair trade as a sustainable solution to poverty. The Foundation is owned and controlled by the Society, and as such the financial accounts of the Foundation are consolidated into the Society’s accounts. To date the Foundation’s work has been funded largely by donations from the Society’s members and by sponsored activities. It is anticipated that grants will become a key funding stream over the coming years and fundraising work is on going to support this strategy. The Foundation is able to concentrate on very specific charitable activities that support the vision of Shared Interest and is able to engage and develop partnerships with NGO partners that find it is easier to work with another charity. The Foundation’s projects focus on providing education and training, particularly in business and financial management, thereby developing capacity within producer organisations and assisting them in improving their business performance. Other work includes widening access to fair finance and supporting the development of the fair trade movement. 2005/6 was the Foundation’s first fully active year and this is the first year that the Foundation’s activities have been included in the scope of our social accounts. The Finance for fair trade and support for disadvantaged producers 5 Social Accounts for the year ended 30 September 2006 Foundation widens the social impact of Shared Interest by complementing the services offered by the Society. The following table clarifies some of the key areas of work for the Society and Foundation: Society and Foundation – areas of work Society Foundation Lending to producer groups Grants for producer groups Producer capacity building through loans Producer capacity building through training Support the fair trade movement by providing Support to the fair trade movement by grant credit facilities and loans to buyers support (eg, to the Fairtrade Foundation) Sales focused research Research of benefit to the wider community Governance Shared Interest is an independent organisation with 28 staff located in 3 countries. Shared Interest Society is owned and controlled by its membership. It has a democratic structure, with annual meetings of members. Each member has an equal voice and vote, regardless of the amount invested. Shared Interest has an elected Council which monitors the work of its Board of Directors. The Council has the power to question the Directors and management and if it sees fit, to address the membership independently. To ensure the Council is a representative body it is comprised of a majority of members who have been randomly selected for nomination and other members who volunteer for the role.