Five Questions With: Karen Cooper

Karen Cooper recently joined Edesia Global Nutrition Solutions as chief development officer. Cooper is leading Edesia’s capital campaign to help build a new, state-of-the-art factory in North Kingstown, while also building a comprehensive and sustainable development program. Edesia is a nonprofit manufacturer of Plumpy’Nut, a nutritional paste patented by French firm Nutriset. The nonprofit’s mission is to help treat and prevent child malnutrition globally. Most recently the director of principal gifts at Plan International USA, a global child-centered community development organization, Cooper was named outstanding fundraising professional by the Association of Fundraising Professionals of Rhode Island in 2014. Here, Cooper discusses her new role at Edesia.

PBN: You have a background in philanthropy. How does Edesia’s mission of nurturing the world’s poorest children jive with your own sense of purpose?
COOPER:
Edesia’s mission is perfectly aligned with my passion to help the most malnourished children in the world survive and thrive. For the last nine years, I’ve worked in the international sector and I’ve devoted my career to helping children. The impact Edesia is making on saving the lives of the most vulnerable children is irrefutable. It is so clearly evident. And for those [for whom] seeing is believing, the photos of children who are transformed after treatment are proof.

PBN: One of your main priorities at Edesia is building its capital campaign to help fund construction of the new factory. How much do you need to raise and what are key strategies?
COOPER:
We have outgrown our space in Providence and need to ramp up production to keep pace with the global demand for Edesia’s ready to use foods. Ultimately, our goal is to reach more children with greater capacity through a new state-of-the-art facility in the Quonset Business Park. Our first-ever capital campaign will help us secure the $3.5 million needed for new equipment, an expanded laboratory, and an adjoining warehouse.
In the traditional way, the campaign will reach out to Edesia’s loyal friends and supporters, local, regional and national corporations and foundations, and the general public. We are committed to fulfilling our global mission rooted in Rhode Island, which keeps much-needed manufacturing and jobs in our state.

PBN: What will be Edesia’s priorities once the nonprofit breaks ground on the factory in early 2015?
COOPER:
Edesia’s main priority is, and will continue to be, reaching more children and other nutritionally vulnerable populations with highly nutritious specialized foods. Since our founding five years ago, we’ve reached more than 2.5 million children and counting – that’s millions of children who will be smarter, stronger, and healthier because of the miracle foods we produce right here in Rhode Island. The new facility will enable us to double our output to reach over one million children per year. It is also our priority to be a leader in our field in terms of quality, innovation and cost-effectiveness.

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PBN: A second charge in your position is the building of a development program. In what ways will you seek to improve fund raising?
COOPER:
Edesia has been fortunate to receive support through private contributions from individuals, friends and groups who have discovered us. We know we have the potential to do even more by boosting our efforts in philanthropy and private fund raising. Our development program will be strategic and goal-oriented, so we can maximize how charitable gifts help shape the future of Edesia through tried and true best practices.
It’s through all different channels. Individual giving is one component; direct mail and digital marketing are others. We’re a startup, so we know those are the best practices and we’re going to be instituting them here. We’ve had a communications program from the get-go but now we need to develop fund raising. Communications is usually a partner but it’s not necessarily the channel you’d use to fund raise.

PBN: Given Edesia’s ambitious long-term global outreach, what needs to happen with fund-raising and finances to sustain and grow this organization over the next decade or two?
COOPER
: Edesia is fortunate in the sense that it can mostly sustain itself through product sales and partnerships with humanitarian partners like UNICEF, the World Food Program, and USAID/USDA. However, philanthropic contributions are needed to help us innovate and find new solutions to imminent nutritional problems both at home and abroad.
For example, what can we do with our product matrix to prevent children from falling into the depths of malnutrition, not just providing ladders for them to climb out? How can we optimize our current products to lower their cost and consequently reach more children? Philanthropic contributions help us support innovations like these, which directly lead to more lives saved.

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