Community Partnerships
We've always believed that great coffee is only part of what we do.
Another part is showing up for the communities and landscapes that make our work meaningful. Our community work spans from the river connecting our communities to the trailheads, events and stage.
Russian Riverkeeper
The Russian River is the living thread connecting our two communities and Russian Riverkeeper has been its most tenacious defender since 1993.
Through science-backed advocacy, policy work, and hands-on cleanup efforts, they protect and restore the watershed for the benefit of current and future generations. Their volunteer Clean Team has pulled over a million and a half tons of trash from the river, and their floodplain restoration work is helping the region adapt to climate change and recover salmon populations.
For Black Oak, this partnership is deeply personal: our Ukiah and Healdsburg cafes are connected by this river. We donate 10% of profits from our Redd Seasonal Blend to support their work, and we show up with coffee and drink cards to fuel their annual river cleanup volunteers.
California State Parks Foundation
For over 50 years, California State Parks Foundation has been the leading statewide voice advocating for a sustainably funded state park system that remains open, protected, and stewarded for future generations.
They fight to keep California's 280 state parks accessible to everyone and work to build climate resilience into those landscapes for the long haul. At Black Oak, the natural beauty of Northern California is inseparable from who we are, so this partnership felt right. Our new line of certified organic coffees, with each named after a favorite trail in NorCal, donates 10% of profits to support the Foundation's work. Every bag is a small act of stewardship: great coffee grown sustainably, named for places worth protecting.
Ukiah Players Theatre
Ukiah Players Theatre has been bringing live performance and genuine community connection to our small town since 1977, building the Ukiah Playhouse through donated labor and proving that theater doesn't require a big city zip code.
Their commitment to producing everything from the classics to original pieces created for, by, and about Ukiah has made them a cultural anchor in Mendocino County.
Black Oak is a major underwriter, and we donate coffee and a brewer to keep their volunteer actors going through long rehearsal nights. Over the years we've also employed a lot of those same actors, people who show up for their community on stage tend to show up everywhere else too, and that's exactly the kind of person we want on our team. Supporting UPT is an easy call for us: it's a community institution that makes Ukiah a richer, more interesting place to live.
Mendocino County Soccer Academy
Started by word of mouth in 2013 with a small Grassroots Academy in Ukiah, MCSA now serves nearly 1,000 children per year across Mendocino County, offering programs for every age and skill level with a focus on creativity, confidence, and character.
Their total soccer program promotes self-esteem, teamwork, good citizenship, and all-around growth, not just results on the pitch.
Black Oak is a proud major sponsor. We see every day how much a well-run youth program means to a community like ours. Investing in MCSA is investing in the next generation of Mendocino County, which is exactly the kind of long-term community commitment we believe in.
World Coffee Research
World Coffee Research is the only global organization taking a coordinated, collaborative, worldwide approach to scientific research into coffee, with a mission to grow, protect, and enhance supplies of quality coffee while improving the livelihoods of the families who produce it.
Their work ranges from breeding climate-resilient varieties to running hundreds of farmer field trials across dozens of countries.
Black Oak participates in their Checkoff Program, which means a portion of every pound of coffee we purchase goes directly to WCR's research. Our importers match those contributions, amplifying the impact. It's one of the most direct things a roaster can do to invest in the long-term future of coffee.
Grounds For Health
Women represent roughly 70% of the labor in coffee. Since 1996, Grounds for Health has provided women's health programs in coffee-growing communities, including HPV screenings and life-saving treatment for cervical cancer, a nearly 100% preventable disease that still kills hundreds of thousands of women annually in the regions where coffee is grown.
Our Female Farmer program sources 100% of its coffees from female-owned farms and cooperatives, and we donate 10% of profits from that line directly to Grounds for Health. It's a program we're proud of because it connects the coffee in your cup to the people who actually grew it, and makes sure some of that value flows back to them in a meaningful way.
We take our commitment to being an agent for positive change in our community seriously. Since Black Oak Coffee opened in 2012, we’ve supported more than 100 community organizations who are making a difference on the North Coast and beyond.
