Forget about selling candy bars, cookies and wrapping paper. IBean Coffee wants nonprofits to wake up and smell their coffee.

The Colorado Springs company changed its business model in January to partner with nonprofits on fundraisers — the groups put their custom labels on gourmet coffee and keep $3 per $12 bag sold. In a few months, iBean Coffee has seen its sales jump 400 percent, said owners Troy and Jen Smith, and nonprofit causes from USA Judo, to schools, to a homeless shelter in Michigan, to medical research in Illinois, to the local Friends of Aquatics are keeping a slice.

“Right now a lot of groups are in the same proverbial boat. Fundraising is down, and people are looking for a practical solution,” Troy Smith said. “It’s exciting to us to help an athlete go to the Olympics, or help a scout, or a private school, or a public school trying to keep their art program or band program alive.”

The smell of freshly roasted coffee permeated the air on a recent afternoon as Paul Pegler and Nelson Coon meticulously measured 12 ounces into each bag, sealed them up, and shipped them off for a Cub Scout pack in Littleton.

“It does take some accuracy. It’s pretty fun work,” Pegler said.

The workers are clients at Pikes Peak Behavioral Health Group. As part of their effort to build an ethical business, the Smiths decided to forego a machine to bag and label their coffee and hire people in need instead.

“Obviously, we would be helping nonprofits on the front end of our operation,” said Jen Smith, a former civilian professor of research methods and statistics at the Air Force Academy who now runs her own statistical consulting firm. “But we can help them on the back end as well. And quite frankly, we couldn’t do it any better than these guys do it.”

She’s a well-informed fan of Pikes Peak Behavioral Health Group’s efforts to put disabled or disadvantaged people to work, and a former board member for the organization. “I’ve studied the data (on the employment program) and I know it works,” she said. “It empowers people and it changes lives.”

At the same time, the Smiths are not shy about their goal to grow their business. They’ve run a boutique coffee company for several years. Troy Smith, also a real estate developer, is a coffee connoisseur who developed his own blends and even ran a retail outlet for a time. 

“We are very clear with people,” said Troy Smith. “We are a coffee company that decided to fundraise.”

The idea to branch out into nonprofit fundraisers came when a friend’s child asked them to sponsor his baseball team. The Smiths had a “midnight idea” that they could help not only a kid’s baseball team but all flavors of nonprofits.

They see coffee as a welcome addition to the tried-and-true fundraiser items.

“I think people are worn out seeing the same products out there,” Jen Smith said. “We’ll order a butter braid, but we don’t eat it.”

Among the points in their sales pitch: coffee is not loaded with fat, it’s a product that is used by half of adults already so it’s not a pity purchase, and it’s a product that adults can sell as well as children.

That makes them a suitable partner for organizations such as USA Judo, who might not want to sell unhealthy or kiddie products.

Organizations can choose to fundraise partially or completely online. The online portion of iBean’s fundraising program, at ibeancoffee.com, launches on June 12, with more than 20 nonprofit partners already on board. The online sales will offer groups one more advantage — coffee buyers can pick a cause on the web site and that group will keep their share of the money, so it’s a fundraiser with residual sales. And groups can sell with an e-mail blast or Facebook posting instead of door-to-door.

“If a customer likes the coffee, goes online and reorders 12 times, the organization that originally sold it will get paid 12 more times,” Jen Smith said.

Paul Pegler of Pikes Peak Behavioral Health Group measures coffee while packaging it for a Littleton, Colo., Cub Scout fundraiser Wednesday, June 2, 2010. The group has partnered with iBean Coffee which sells its coffee through nonprofits as a fundraiser. Photo by CHRISTIAN MURDOCK, THE GAZETTE