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Choose Wine, Choose Your Charity...Who Do You Drink For?
Vintners Charitable Cooperative (VCC) is the first social venture business that lets its customers choose wine and the charity they want to support. There are many wine labels and other wine programs that generously donate the proceeds from sales to many worthy causes, but unless you support the cause they do, it's not as motivating for you to buy. VCC lets its customers choose their favorite charity to support and gives 10% of online wine sales (coming soon!) and 25% of each wine club shipment (available now!) (excluding tax and shipping) to the charity you are passionate about.
We also want to celebrate the wine family or artisan that crafts exceptional, but not well-known wines and share their story. We believe that the story of the winemaker is an important one and one that has been overlooked outside of the industry. At the same time we want to champion the causes of great charities across the country. We want to support the critical missions and work that these nonprofit organizations do every day and provide a fun, easy way for their supporters to get involved and stay engaged.
Bringing these two together, VCC hopes to raise funds and visibility for nonprofit organizations while at the same time offering a unique opportunity for winemakers to showcase their product.
The idea was born out of the experience of founder, Mackie A. Barch. After leaving a job with an investment bank in the summer of 2006, Mackie decided to move to Buenos Aires, Argentina, to study Spanish and take some time off after the grind of long work weeks and 4:30am mornings. While in Argentina, a close friend of Mackie’s asked him to find wines for his import business. At the time, the Argentine wine market was booming. Mackie began going door to door, wine shop to wine shop, and eventually after much broken Spanish, met Victor Honore. Victor introduced Mackie to countless winemakers and winemaking families: Alberto Antonini, The Arizu family of Luigi Bosca and Vina Alicia, Hector Durigutti, and countless others.
On a trip to Mendoza that summer, Mackie also witnessed the extreme poverty of rural Argentina. After returning a few weeks later, he began to ask himself how to bridge the gap between the wine industry and charity, and at the same time introduce these wonderful people, these winemakers, to main street America. Thus the Vintners Charitable Cooperative was born.
A few years later, Mackie came across an article in Advancing Philanthropy written by Adrienne D. Capps called "Gastronomy and Giving." In it she explained the unique intersection of food/wine and fundraising. Mackie reached out to her and in the spring of 2008, Adrienne was immediately on board. With more than a decade of experience in the nonprofit sector, Adrienne was the perfect compliment to Mackie's work in the wine industry.
VCC was launched in September 2009.
Mackie A. Barch
Founder & Managing Director, East Coast
mackie@charityvintner.orgMackie Barch is a third generation Washingtonian. Mackie’s father had always been a wine lover and Mackie grew up in a house with Harlen, Turley, and other cult wines. After leaving Friedman, Billings, Ramsey, a D.C. investment bank, Mackie traveled through South America and discovered his passion for wine and interest in charity. He returned to join a small Florida wine importer as Director of Imports. After several years in the wine industry, he started several of his own business ventures and currently serves as Executive Vice President of HealthRite Pharmaceuticals and Director of Sales for Clotamin, a firm which has developed a unique and complete multivitamin formulated without vitamin K to meet the special nutritional needs of people taking blood thinning medications. Mackie also holds a seat as Kensington Town Councilman in Maryland where he currently resides. Among other high priorities for this position, he seeks to overturn Maryland's ban on wine importing. In addition, Mackie is a volunteer for the National Alliance for Thrombosis and Thrombophilia (NATT) and holds a B.S. from the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Adrienne D. Capps, CFRE
Managing Director, West Coast
adrienne@charityvintner.orgAdrienne has spent her career committed to the nonprofit sector serving as a professional fundraiser. She has raised nearly $20 million for a variety of causes, including at-risk youth, mental health, and higher education in Virginia, New York and California. A Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) since 2004, Adrienne is a frequent guest speaker and has published several articles and book chapters, the latest of which is for the Nonprofit Guide to Going Green. On this project, she served as an editor and authored the chapter on 'Green Fundraising.' Adrienne is a food/wine writer for several local and regional magazines in Northern California, including Edible Sacramento, teaches cooking classes, maintains her own food blog, Vegetarianized and blogs for Sacmag.com, and serves as treasurer of Swish, a NYC-based gay-straight alliance. She holds a B.S. and B.A. from the University of Richmond, a Certificate in Fundraising Administration from New York University, and an M.B.A. from Pace University.