independent.com

Ali and Charles Banks, of Cultivate Wines

http://www.independent.com/news/2012/jun/02/cultivate-wines-grow-charity/

Cultivate Wines Grow CharityBy Matt Kettmann (Contact)

Ali Banks Talks About the Santa Barbara-Based Wine-Meets-Philanthropy Project

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Already home to an impressive number of nonprofit organizations, Santa Barbara is nowheadquarters for one of the more inventive philanthropy tools on the planet: Cultivate Wines, acompany that sells fine wine from all over the world, sets aside 10 cents off every dollar earned, andthen distributes $100,000 each quarter to the charities that get the most votes viacultivatewines.com. Though open to nonprofits everywhere, the Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation,Santa Barbara Aquatics Club, and Storytellers Children’s Theater are Santa Barbara organizationsthat have participated in the past, and right now, Child Abuse Listening Mediation, or CALM, is oneof the 30 groups vying for this quarter’s cash, with $50,000 going to first place and $10,000 going toeach of the five runners-up.

Courtesy Photo

“The Give,” as this program is called, is the brainchild of Ali andCharles Banks, who moved to Santa Barbara in 2000 when theypurchased Jonata Winery but stuck around after selling that property acouple years ago. The globally sourced wine selling part was inspiredby the exotic apparel-finding J. Peterman catalog of the 1980s, butthe philanthropy side is an example of “conscious or connectedcapitalism,” explained Ali, and she hopes the idea, which started lastNovember, is contagious. “Our country as a whole needsentrepreneurs to take responsibility for the future and the revival of theAmerican economy,” she explained. “If we can be successful and be aresponsible exercise using wine, hopefully we inspire otherbusinesses to do the same thing.”

The response from the nonprofit community has been “incrediblypositive,” said Banks, but she warned that it does require a full-scalecampaign. “You cannot wine depending on just the public to choose your cause and vote,” sheadvised. “You have to spread the word.”

And it’s turning heads in the wine world too, with morethan 100,000 visits to the site each month. “There’s not alot of wineries getting that kind of traffic,” said Banks.“Every winery tells the same Mad Libs — your aspectand your soils and your stainless steel tanks — but really every winery story is almost the same.With Cultivate and The Give, we put a story in the glass, but we really want the story of Cultivate tohappen after. What do you do with those wines? What does The Give inspire in other lives? It’smuch more of an ongoing story of us and our wine.”

4•1•1To vote for Child Abuse Listening Mediation (CALM), see cultivatewines.com today.