January 27, 2010
The Story of the Birth of Agent for Change wines
Agent for Change wines is a portfolio of wines launched in 2008 to raise awareness and donate a significant portion of the proceeds to worthy charitable organizations.
A4C as a Concept
The idea of a socially significant wine clicked into my consciousness (while meditating) as I was building my wine company. Coinciding with the growth of Martellotto wines was my increased immersion into yoga not only as a physical practice, but also as a philosophy for living and doing business. I began my yoga practice with sincere dedication in late 2007, following a week-long retreat at the Chopra Center in San Diego, CA.
My original concept was to produce a socially significant wine and invite a Hollywood celebrity to be the face of the brand to help market the wine. Driving demand for the wine while telling a story about a good cause or charitable organization while selling wine seemed logical to me. If the Girl Scout’s could achieve self-sufficiency and sustainability by selling cookies, then why couldn’t wine be utilized as a girl scout cookie for adults. Many non-profits can’t legally be involved in wine production, let alone sales and distribution of wine. Given the relationships I’d developed with winemakers, wineries, and retail/restaurant clients, I believed I could bridge these people through the concept of this wine with a purpose. I was in a unique position as both a wine maker and owner of a wine distribution company, and given my background I was compelled to figure out how I could share the abundance and wealth in my life.
Greg’s Background
I was inebriated early on by the Jesuits with this concept of being a “Man for Others”. While in college at Stanford, I studied humanities and completed the pre-medical school requirements. I was involved in recycling food for homeless people and leading students on volunteer tours to learn about homelessness. Later, in graduate school at the University of Texas I completed a Masters Degree in Public Health. Some of my work involved travels to the US-Mexico border to learn about migrant health issues and health disparities and health indicators. For this reason, it made sense to me give back 50% of the proceeds of the sale of the inaugural wine to support organizations (I didn’t know which one at the time) that helped to provide healthcare to the migrant farm workers who complete the vast majority of the hard farming work in our country. In particular, migrant farmers pick the grapes that go into our wine.
A4C Launch in the midst of Recession
In the midst of the recession in October 2008, I pulled $35,000 out of the business and invested into this concept and I called the wine, Agent for Change. There was certainly some trepidation about doing this given the economic climate. However, I was increasingly feeling called to do this. I am not a millionaire or wealthy or a person with a history of philanthropy by any means, but I know that one day I will be and I figured why not start doing and acting like the person I wanted to be, rather than wait until I have created a fortune to become the most effective person I can be. I knew in my heart that this was an opportunity to take my yoga ‘off the mat’ and implement a strategy to give back to the community. I believed this project could help define the wine company and communicate to the world our corporate values of being good citizens, of giving charitably, sharing abundance, and leveraging expertise for the greater good.
When I launched the brand, I knew of one or two other small wine brands that operated in a similar way to my concept. However, they were donating only 10% of profits to charity. I knew that my competitive advantage of partnering with wineries to make good wine at a fair price and direct distributing it, I could give away more. So, I wrote on the back of the first release of 500 cases of Zinfandel, 112 cases of Sauvignon Blanc, and 112 cases of Cabernet Sauvignon-Merlot blended wine the following: “The Agent for Change portfolio of charitable wines creatively combines good wine with good works. Thanks to your purchase, 50% of the profits from this wine will be donated to community-based, non-profit organizations that tirelessly work to care for our uninsured and underinsured. Improving our health status and eliminating health inequity are attainable goals. Drink Good Wine. Do Good Works. Become an Agent for Change.”
At the time of the launch, in a post 9-11 era, immigrant issues were rampant and President Bush was spending a lot of time and money related to tightening the border, building a fence between the US-Mexico, and protecting our homeland. There was certainly a fair amount of suspicion and witch-hunting, and I never concurred with this political mindset. It doesn’t mesh with a yogic approach of living or a life trusting in our innate goodness and living love either.
There was another aspect of launching this wine brand. I was increasingly inundated by charities and non-profits to make a wine donation for some kind of auction or event. It shocked me how impersonal and frequent these letters, phone calls, and anonymous emails arrived. I suspect somewhere, somehow these non-profits find value in this type of marketing, but I find it exhausting and fruitless. I wasn’t clear on how a donation of wine would really benefit the charity or how it would be a marketing benefit for my brands. With the launch of the Agent wines, I now had a reply for these charities about how they could be involved with us, and how they could work toward achieving self-sufficiency by using wine to raise funds in an on-going way for their activities.
Goal: To make businesses be more charitable and charities more business-minded.
I considered applying for 501 (c) 3 status and forming a non-profit entity, but I looked at social entrepreneurial ventures like Google’s charitable projects, and realized that the charitable entity might hinder the flexibility for the project. I can still imagine forming a non-profit entity that has the sole function of multiplying the model for various other charities and takes charge of doling out the profits raised from wine sales.
Over the next two years, I envision the Agent for Change portfolio of wines to expand significantly to 6-12 wines. As this is a negociant wine brand, meaning I buy finished wine and blend it and then market the wine under the Agent label, there is great flexibility in the production and an opportunity to rapidly increase production based on sales. I would like to see the Agent for Change wines create meaningful partnerships with progressively minded charities that join us as marketing champions. These charities will understand that the more wine we sell, the more money the charity will receive. I can see that the Agent wines will develop regional flavor and many individuals will volunteer to support the brand and marketing effort. I can imagine a wine that is marketed in the southeast US that raises funds for hurricane relief. I can imagine wines that help support jazz education, environmental issues, and other wines that contribute to an array of global health agendas. It’s very fun to imagine what this trip is going to be like. I also envision Agent for Change as a concept traveling to other countries. It’s not a coincidence that Agente por el Cambio, Agente per il Cambio, and Agent pour Change are virtually identical in Spanish, Italian, and French. I would love to launch this concept in these three wonderful wine producing countries within the next three years. I’ve already identified potential winery partners, I just need to find the right means of capitalization, sales and distribution abroad.
In the meantime, thank you for reading about Agent for Change and please tell your friends about our intentions behind this wine project. We need as many Agent for Change advocates as possible. In fact, if you’re interested in becoming an ambassador please reach out to me.
Cheers,
Greg Martellotto
