world type co operative industry financial services fair trade founded 1990 headquarters 2 cathedral square groat market newcastle ne1 1eh tyne & wear key people patricia alexander managing director number of employees 36 website www.shared interest.com shared interest society limited is a fair trade financial co operative based in the united kingdom formed in 1990 . today it provides credit and financial services to fair trade producers retailers importers and exporters throughout the world . shared interest works with both fairtrade international formerly known as fairtrade labelling organizations flo and the world fair trade organization wfto . in 2004 the shared interest foundation was formed as a charitable subsidiary providing training and support services to producers complementing the financial services offered by the society . shared interest received the queen s award for enterprise in 2008 . 1 2 3 4 contents 1 history 2 structure 2.1 shared interest society limited 2.2 shared interest foundation 3 the nature of the financial requirement 4 the finance mechanism 5 references 6 external links 7 see also history edit shared interest was the brain child of mark hayes then an investment banker with 3i now an academic economist at cambridge who was the first managing director from 1990 1999 . inspired by the success of traidcraft in harnessing socially responsible investment for the finance of fair trade hayes approached traidcraft founder richard adams in 1986 beginning a collaboration that culminated in the formation of shared interest in 1990 as a special form of co operative saving and loan society . 5 the initial 100 000 funding subsequently repaid for the launch of the society came from traidcraft joseph rowntree charitable trust and a similar co operative established in 1975 in the netherlands now called oikocredit . however the creation of shared interest was finally made possible by the action of sial scottish churches action for world development investment association limited an oikocredit support association who provided the first 200 members and 300 000 of capital . oikocredit was shared interest s main channel for lending in its first five years . once shared interest had reached a capital of 4m 1994 a planned transition took place to establish its own lending business by the creation of a clearing house with what is now the world fair trade organization to finance directly fair trade between the global north and global south and increasingly within southern markets themselves . shared interest continued to support oikocredit by the issue of loan stock until 2005 after which oikocredit established its own uk office . structure edit shared interest society limited edit the society is incorporated as an industrial and provident society a legal structure similar to a building society or credit union . its membership is almost entirely composed of uk individuals some 9 000 in 2012 who invest withdrawable share capital 28.2 million in 2011 which is used to provide credit facilities to organisations engaged in fair trade . the society had 34 staff 2012 mostly in the uk with established regional offices around the world . the society is unusual in having a council of ordinary members as well as a board of directors . both bodies are elected ; the council acts as a select committee which scrutinises the work of the board . furthermore a majority of the members of council are nominated for election by a process of random selection similar to jury service in the interests of wider participation . shared interest foundation edit in 2004 shared interest society ltd. established a subsidiary charity to provide business and financial management training for fair trade organisations as well as grants to support individual organisations and the fair trade movement as a whole . to date the foundation s work has been funded largely by donations from the society s members . the nature of the financial requirement edit international trade and production involves long processes which take much time . for example many months elapse between the sowing of a crop in the tropics and the final purchase by a consumer of a finished product in a european supermarket . the money laid out at each stage of production and distribution is called working capital . for smaller producer organisations to access international markets on terms consistent with their independence if at all requires access to working capital by both producers and fair trade distributors beyond what is available from banks . normally this extra working capital would come from profit maximising shareholders in some form or from accumulated past profits . shared interest provides unsecured finance similar to trade credit . shared interest can do this only because its own members are prepared to accept the risk of loss on their investment in shared interest and to accept the limited and currently lower financial returns resulting from the high costs of dealing with emerging organisations in the global south . 6 the finance mechanism edit the diagram illustrates the lending process the order is placed by a buyer e.g. a coffee importer with the producer e.g. a coffee farming co operative shared interest makes an advance payment on behalf of buyers to the producers the producer is able to borrow an additional amount against that order to cover their expenses the goods are delivered the final payment is made to the producer ; the buyer re pays the credit provided by shared interest references edit chapter 5 of nicholls alex and opal charlotte 2005 fair trade market driven ethical consumption . london thousand oaks and new delhi sage publications isbn 1 4129 0105 7 moore geoff 2004 . the fair trade movement parameters issues and future research . journal of business ethics . 53 73 86 . doi 10.1023 b busi .0000039400.57827 . c3 . supplementary material from the published and audited directors reports and accounts for the periods ending 30 september 1990 2006 filed with the registrar of friendly societies at the financial services authority . the queen s award for enterprise worldaware award 1998 mackenzie c. ; lewis a. 1999 . morals and markets the case of ethical investing . business ethics quarterly . 9 3 439 452 . doi 10.2307 3857511 . jstor 3857511 . external links edit shared interest society ltd fairtrade international the world fair trade organization shared interest society fair lending for fair trade see also edit v t e fair trade core topics history of fair trade fairtrade certification fair trade and politics fair trade impact studies fair trade debate alternative trading organization trade justice trade justice movement sweatshops body shopping worldshop federations fairtrade labelling organizations international world fair trade organization network of european worldshops european fair trade association fine fair trade federation international resources for fairer trade irft certification fair trade certification flo international standard setting and producer support flo cert inspection & certification international fairtrade certification mark fair trade certified mark labeling initiatives asociaci n del sello de productos de comercio justo fair trade association of australia and new zealand fairtrade mark ireland the fairtrade foundation association max havelaar france stichting max havelaar max havelaar stiftung switzerland fairtrade canada fair trade usa formerly transfair usa alternative trading organizations alter eco artisans du monde caf direct ctm altromercato divine chocolate equal exchange equal exchange trading rainforest alliance gepa the fair trade company handcrafting justice serrv international traidcraft twin trading ten thousand villages veja sneakers campaigns fairtrade town list of fairtrade settlements fairtrade fortnight make trade fair no sweat world fair trade day media black gold 2006 film brewing justice book category fair trade retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title shared interest & oldid 659469860 categories fair trade organizationsco operatives in the united kingdomeconomy of the united kingdomethical bankinghidden categories pages using infobox company with unsupported parameters navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 27 april 2015 at 11 44 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view