Donuts for Darfur Raises Dough for Refugees

Four students set out to make a difference. Now they are running a budding nonprofit that is helping to change the world.

The donut: a simple, tasty and delicious snack. But in the hands of Danny Sexton (far right, at right) and his friends, donuts are more than indulgent pieces of pastry. They are a way to raise money for people in need, and quite possibly change the world in the process.

Sexton is just a freshman at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio, but don't let his young age fool you. He's also the CEO and founder of Concordia Humana, a new, student-run charity that has already raised thousands of dollars for refugees in Darfur.

It all started back in 2008, when Sexton was a junior in high school. After hearing about the humanitarian crisis in Darfur and how some organizations were helping, he decided he could help too. He recruited a few friends, got a local grocer to donate 600 day-old donuts, and Donuts for Darfur was born.

That first donut sale at St. Xavier High School in Cincinnati raised $600 in just three hours. "It all came together," says Sexton. "We did a good thing with our first sale."

Since then, the Donuts for Darfur idea has morphed into Concordia Humana, an actual nonprofit, run by Sexton and his friends, and with chapters at five different universities around the country. Concordia Humana means "human harmony" in Latin, a phrase the new organization describes as its ultimate goal.

A Tasty Start

Spurred on by their first event's success, Sexton and his friends Peter Beaucage and Ryan Finke (both now also college students as well as officers of Concordia Humana) tried it again a few months later. This time, their Donuts for Darfur sale netted $1,200. The event still stands as their most successful to date.

A local chain, Busken Bakers, donated nearly 1,000 donuts for that second event, but the team quickly realized they were going to sell out before they met demand. "Our biology teacher actual went out and bought an additional $300 worth of donuts out of her own pocket and gave them to us to sell," says Beaucage. "It's the generosity of others like this that has impacted how successful we've been."

Helping Directly

Sexton decided that the money they raised would go to the Jewish World Watch for their Solar Cooker Project, an initiative that provides solar-powered cookers to women and their families in three refugee camps. Every $30 the team raised bought a solar cooker and a year's worth of cooking supplies for a family in need.

"We were looking at different organizations that did humanitarian work in Darfur," says Sexton. "They're all good projects across the board. But we saw the solar cooker project and knew it had a tangible impact. If people buy 30 donuts, one family in Darfur can cook for a year."

Having their money go to a specific project, not just generically "to Darfur," gave their fundraising efforts a legitimacy it might otherwise have lacked. "We're not just selling donuts, there's a good cause behind it," says Sexton "We've talked to people who were on the fence about the cause, and when they found out what it was going to, they were much more supportive."

One of the reasons the Donuts for Darfur fundraisers have succeeded is that they group tries to keep things light. "If you make a project seem daunting and overwhelming, you don't get a response," says Kyle Hird, the group's treasurer and the latest person to come on board the Concordia Humana team. "That's not part of our philosophy."

"We're kind of a happy organization," says Sexton. "That invites people into the conversation."

So far, the organization has sent $9,000 to Jewish World Watch, providing solar cookers to 300 families. They expect to send another $3,000 in the next month or so, with a goal of raising a total of $25,000 by this August.

Little Things Can Have A Big Impact

Donuts for Darfur fundraisers are being scheduled through the summer and the team is already looking at their next projects, including what they call the Spare Change Initiative.

"We got the idea after I read a few Nicholas Kristof articles," says Beaucage, referring to the Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist. "For 41 cents — one quarter, one dime, one nickel and one penny — you can buy a dose of pneumonia vaccine and a week's worth of Vitamin A. For the change you get at McDonald's, you can make a difference in the world."

That sums up the Concordia Humana approach: "A lot of people doing little things can affect change in a big way," says Sexton.



Photos courtesy of Concordia Humana.