While Hugh Jackman is known for his acting, singing and producing, fewer people are aware of his involvement in Laughing Man, a booming coffee empire with a social conscience.

It all started when Jackman met 27-year-old coffee farmer Dukale during a trip to Ethiopia in 1999 as an ambassador for World Vision.

Detailed in last year’s movie Dukale’s Dream, the meeting inspired Jackman and friend David Steingard to launch Laughing Man Coffee, a marketplace for farmers (including Dukale) in developing countries enabling them to sell their goods in the US.

Seven years later, Laughing Man has two cafes, a coffee-supply business that ships globally, and a foundation set up to fund educational programs, community development and social entrepreneurs around the world. Jackman puts 100 per cent of his profits from the growing business into the foundation, while its other partners each contribute 50 per cent.

Together, Jackman and Steingard share the vision that business can be a vehicle for positive change. To find out more, Third Sector caught up with Laughing Man Coffee CEO David Steingard to talk coffee, fair trade and what it is like working with Jackman…

Third Sector: How did you become involved with Laughing Man Coffee?

Steingard: It was a really organic process, actually. My family was in a coffee business a long time ago, with a cafe in Soho, New York, in the ’70s.

Before I became involved in coffee, I was a criminal prosecutor. I was looking to leave that and get back into the coffee business. There was this great rebirth of coffee – especially with a lot of social-conscious coffee companies – and a blending of all these public interest things such as creativity, law and business.

I had been friends with Hugh for more than 10 years, and he had just returned from Ethiopia, working with World Vision Australia as its global ambassador. He had met Dukale and was inspired. Hugh then spoke at the UN … but he wanted to do more.

I randomly mentioned I was thinking of getting into the coffee business. Hugh loves coffee, so he said ‘Why not?’.

We thought that if we are going to use Hugh’s voice, then we wanted a more Paul Newman vibe. It has been about seven years with the cafe and it has been a really organic process.

What does Laughing Man Coffee look like now?

We launched and screened the Dukale’s Dream movie, and we are working on a really cool project right now. What we want to do is social entrepreneurship and education – all the different streams of thought connected with social entrepreneurship.  

The film is a great vehicle for this. It has Hugh in it, which makes it more approachable. People love it. It’s a genuine journey.

Seven years ago, Hugh said he wanted to help but didn’t know what that meant. Now we have our cafe and we sell coffee all over world.

We want to bring the film to schools, and that is the main project we are working on now. We are trying to develop a curriculum and figure out what that looks like. Is it a standalone project? Does it wrap up in two hours, or is it a 10-week curriculum?

Your mission is entrepreneurship, education and community. Tell us about the community aspect.

The best example of this is Dukale. He is a model farmer in this program. He gets to teach people in his community.

What we want to see is resilience before a crisis. We want to see strong communities that can help each other and be strong. Characters like Dukale make a community stronger. That is what we mean by working together, educating and sharing.

Have you seen anything similar to the Laughing Man Coffee model?

Starting a business is a big trend, and I think people are doing this with a far more humanitarian point of view. People are realising that capitalism can be a force of good.

The growth of Snapchat is because it is honest and somewhat unfiltered. That is the generation that is going to be starting business, and they want that same honesty.

A brand is like a person – you want someone you trust and can get along with.

Are you looking to expand beyond two cafes?

We are always looking for spaces, We want to find areas where we can become part of the community.

I am very keen on great customer service. We hire really well for that, so as we grow we want to maintain that. We also ship our coffee all over the world.

How have you seen any shift in what consumers want?

What I love about our brand is that we have an approachable type of ethos. In our cafe you can read about the foundation.

“Fair trade” is not a rare or uncommon term. You walk into our cafe and you can see a picture of Dukale and his wife. She is running a cafe, not chopping firewood any more. That level of education starts to tip the scale.

Consumers need to understand the power behind the brand – to realise they have made a change without doing much. And that is our responsibility as much as it is the consumer’s.

What role does Hugh play for your brand overall?

Hugh said it was not a very Australian thing to put his face all over the brand. The Hugh angle has been so low key that people who have been coming to our cafe for a while take time to realise his involvement. I believe most people think we are just weird fans [laughs].

On a larger scale, he clearly does have an impact, but that needs to be used authentically and needs to be done right. Hugh is loved and respected … in my mind, he really is the Paul Newman of this generation.

I couldn’t ask for a better founder. We talk all the time. He is involved. It is a big part of his life. He isn’t just putting his name on it.

We live in a culture where people respond to celebrities. In this case, we are doing something good and authentic, and this comes across. .

Fast forward five years: what are your dreams?

I want a proper global presence and for Laughing Man to be a household name with more cafes. I want the whole Laughing Man experience to expand, and to highlight the foundation. The doors are wide open, and we have so many ideas.

I think there is a strong paradigm shift in that people are being really precise about where the money is going. The world is becoming more transparent.

This article was originally in Third Sector’s print magazine- subscribe here.