--- title: "The Montara Circle" url: https://wearenotforsale.org/montara-circle/ publisher: "Not For Sale" --- Design to Action · Social Innovation # The Montara *Circle* Where entrepreneurs, activists, and community leaders design businesses that end trafficking. Not For Sale’s invitation-only workshop where field knowledge becomes investable enterprise. Two days, one challenge, a company as the output. Watch the story 2011 First Circle held Montara, California $2M+ Returned to Not For Sale via REBBL alone 3 Continents where the format has been applied 5+ Enterprises born from the methodology ## The bridge between a root cause and a *business* that addresses it. The Montara Circle is Not For Sale’s design-to-action workshop: a concentrated, invitation-only gathering where entrepreneurs, investors, technologists, and community leaders from vulnerable regions are challenged to design for-profit business solutions to [modern-day slavery](https://wearenotforsale.org/learn/what-is-human-trafficking/) and [ecocide](https://wearenotforsale.org/learn/what-is-ecocide/). It is the mechanism through which the [Impact Stack](https://wearenotforsale.org/impact-stack/) moves from research to enterprise. Named after the coastal village south of San Francisco where the first session was held in February 2011, the format has since been replicated in Amsterdam and adapted into the [Entrepreneurship Challenge](https://wearenotforsale.org/projects/uganda/) in Uganda and Rwanda. “The community must be in the room. The solution must be commercially viable. The enterprise must sustain itself without ongoing philanthropic subsidy.” The Three Principles of the Montara Circle The Method ## How it works From frontline data to a company that changes economic conditions on the ground: four stages, then the enterprises they produce. STAGE 01 #### Field Research Frontline teams identify at-risk communities through direct work with survivors and vulnerable populations. STAGE 02 #### Community Needs Identified Field teams map the economic vacuum, the opportunity gap that makes communities vulnerable to trafficking. STAGE 03 #### Montara Circle Convened Two intensive days. Cross-sector participants design enterprise-based interventions for viability and mission. STAGE 04 #### Enterprise Launched The best ideas are incubated through Just Business, co-founded by David Batstone and Mark Wexler. The goal is a company. Enterprises it produced [REBBL](https://wearenotforsale.org/social-innovation/rebbl-drinks/) [Dignita](https://wearenotforsale.org/partners/dignita/) [Entrepreneurship Challenge](https://wearenotforsale.org/projects/uganda/) [Not For Sale Ale](https://wearenotforsale.org/human-trafficking/not-for-sale-ale-2/) February 2011 · Montara, California ## The *idea* that became a nationally distributed brand. Fifty entrepreneurs, technologists, investors, and Peruvian community leaders. One challenge: design a for-profit business solution to human trafficking in [Peru’s Amazon](https://wearenotforsale.org/projects/peru/), where indigenous communities were trapped in debt bondage and forced into illegal gold mining. San Francisco Giants pitcher Jeremy Affeldt pitched the winning idea: a beverage company that would source ingredients directly from those same communities, creating economic demand that would structurally reduce vulnerability. That idea became [**REBBL**](https://rebbl.co/), sourcing Brazil nuts from the [AFIMAD cooperative](https://wearenotforsale.org/projects/peru/) in Madre de Dios, distributed nationally through Target and Whole Foods. $2M+ returned to Not For Sale’s programs to date via REBBL The Output ## What came out of the *Montara Circle*. From a two-day design session to a nationally distributed brand: the road from Montara to $2M+ returned. Feb 2011 The Montara Circle Fifty cross-sector leaders convene in Montara, California, to design a business against trafficking in Peru’s Amazon. Day two Affeldt’s pitch SF Giants pitcher Jeremy Affeldt pitches a beverage company sourcing from vulnerable indigenous communities. [The idea](https://wearenotforsale.org/social-innovation/rebbl-drinks/) REBBL conceived The winning concept becomes REBBL: Roots, Extracts, Berries, Bark & Leaves. [Launch](https://wearenotforsale.org/social-innovation/rebbl-drinks/) REBBL launches Sourcing Brazil nuts from the AFIMAD cooperative in Madre de Dios, Peru. Scale Target & Whole Foods National distribution puts REBBL on shelves across the United States. [Today](https://wearenotforsale.org/impact/) $2M+ returned REBBL returns 2.5% of net revenue: over $2 million to Not For Sale’s programs to date. ### REBBL **R**oots · **E**xtracts · **B**erries · **B**ark · **L**eaves: the beverage brand that turned the first Montara Circle into structural economic demand for the communities most vulnerable to trafficking. ## What the Montara Circle has *produced*. Five enterprises built on the principle that a commercially viable business is the most durable form of impact. ↗ Beverage · Peru ### [REBBL](https://wearenotforsale.org/social-innovation/rebbl-drinks/) Born from the February 2011 Montara Circle. A nationally distributed beverage brand sourcing from AFIMAD cooperatives in Madre de Dios, communities vulnerable to trafficking. Returns 2.5% of net revenue to Not For Sale. $2M+ Returned to Not For Sale programs to date · distributed through Target & Whole Foods ↗ Restaurant · Netherlands ### [Dignita](https://wearenotforsale.org/partners/dignita/) Amsterdam’s social restaurant where 100% of profits fund survivor training through Not For Sale Netherlands. ↗ Seed Fund · Uganda & Rwanda ### [Entrepreneurship Challenge](https://wearenotforsale.org/projects/uganda/) The Montara Circle format adapted for refugee communities. Not For Sale seed-funds every pitch; top winners receive two years of salary. ↗ Craft Beer · USA ### [Not For Sale Ale](https://wearenotforsale.org/human-trafficking/not-for-sale-ale-2/) A craft beer that donated 100% of profits to Not For Sale: consumer product as mission delivery. Coffee · Thailand & USA ### St. Clare Coffee Specialty-grade coffee from Akha hill tribe communities in Thailand, employing survivors in the SF Bay Area. ## Watch the *Circle*. [YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/@NotForSale) ## Interested in hosting a Montara Circle? The format is replicable. If you work in a community facing trafficking or ecocide and want to convene a design session, we want to hear from you.