Mocha Club

For my rhetorical source, I chose to use a website for a nonprofit organization that helps provide relief and development projects in Africa. Themochaclub.org is a website for the Mocha Club, whose motto is ‘giving up the cost of a few mochas a month’ to support the projects they’ve been working on. The Mocha Club is an organization supported by some of my favorite artists (Matt Wertz, Dave Barnes, Drew Holcomb & the Neighbors, Steve Moakler, Andrew Ripp, etc.). The support is normally shown through having a Mocha Club table beside their merch table, and normally the artist will participate in trips that the Mocha Club organizes to head over to the different countries in Africa. I actually signed up to join the Mocha Club at a Matt Wertz show, and later got to work the Mocha Club table at a show for Andrew Ripp and Steve Moakler (that was a super cool experience). By using these artists, they are creating an appeal to ethos: because I love Matt Wertz and his music, I’ll really like supporting this organization that he supports and loves too. And I do! Not because of Matt Wertz, but without his show being that conduit for me finding out about the Mocha Club, I wouldn’t have gotten plugged in with an organization that’s super dear to my heart. Features on the website include a link to becoming a campus rep, Jimmy Needham kicking off a tour solely in support of the Mocha Club and one of its projects, and a link to the Mocha Club’s online store.  At the bottom of the page, there’s a way to sign up to join the Mocha Club, pick which project/organization your money goes to (I support Clean Water!), then join the club itself. They repeatedly emphasize that you’re literally giving up two or three trips to Starbucks a month to make such an impact among these people, because honestly that’s what you’re doing.