Life is worth living. I reject apathy. I engage the world, my city, and myself to make an impact for good. And we have super good coffee. We think so, anyways.
Downtown CREDO is built around three ideas: Meaning. Impact. Community. With 4 name-your-price coffeeshops, strong relationships with local organizations and neighborhoods, a co-working community of creatives, a social enterprise accelerator, and an annual parade celebrating diverse communities... CREDO is a statement of belief that is moving us to action. A mission to improve the quality of lives in our nations cities by cultivating networks of meaning, impact and community. Instigated by the CREDO… Life is worth living. I refuse to merely exist. I pursue a life of meaning and purpose, fulfillment and joy. The world is not yet as it ought to be. Neither is my city. Neither am I. Yet, I reject apathy and despair. I engage the world, my city, and myself to make an impact for good. I am not alone. I press through narcissism, isolation and self-sufficiency striving to live in authentic community.
Part of our credo says the world is not yet as it ought to be. Neither is our city and neither are we. But we reject apathy and despair, believing we can make an impact for good. We knew from the beginning that didn't make sense for downtown for you to have a coffee shop unless it was donations only. What surprises people sometimes is how ready people are to imagine their potential to live with impact. It's really fun how people get coffee from credo because they come in and it looks But then they make their order, they make their drink, and then they ask how much do I owe you and we get to tell them that you decide. And then even pass that the opportunity to partner with organizations that also, corporately, want to be a part of meaning impacting community and intersecting that with the business of the coffee shop has allowed us to open other coffee shops. I started downtown credo with a dream that my city ought to be different because I was here. Coffee was a great way to convene community together in a space and then invite people into global impact. So we opened the coffee shop six months after we started the non-profit and just took cash and let people name their price and made them coffee. We pretty quickly realized we needed a cost-effective way to receive credit cards. Technology can be a really good accompaniment to our tool to extend your mission but to let your mission guide your decision about what tools you incorporate. We don't put a register in between us, we don't dictate to people how much things cost. So all of our technology has to dovetail with that core mission. So I think the best decisions you make about technology are not only which tools you incorporate but which you leave on the table. Social media and a digital world, for one thing, makes broadcasting your mission much easier. We've never built a marketing budget in but the word has spread very organically as people become a part of something and then want their friends to be a part of it with them. My name is Ben Hoyer and I'm the Executive Director for Downtown Credo.
