Our Mission & Impact
Our mission
Our mission is to develop the skills of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities through employment, education and training. We believe that all people have the ability to thrive when given the opportunity to learn in a supportive environment.
Who we serve
Katerco Coffee exists to create paid work for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in the Richmond, Virginia area. In 2025, the unemployment rate for people with a disability in the United States was 8.3%, about twice the rate for people without a disability (4.1%). Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Persons with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics, 2025.
What we do
We are a small-batch craft coffee roaster, and coffee is how we pursue our mission. Roasting, packing and shipping are real jobs with real skills, which makes a roastery a natural place for employment, education and training.
How your purchase helps
Katerco Coffee is a nonprofit. Proceeds from every bag go back into our mission of employing people with disabilities. Three bags of coffee fund about one hour of wages.
Purchases from our store are not tax-deductible. Donations to The Thrive Foundation, INC are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
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Our story
Keri Lee was a Special Education teacher in Chesterfield County, Virginia who noticed something extremely important while teaching High School students - after graduating, there are not many paying jobs for these members of our society.
Soon after coming to this realization, the idea for Katerco Coffee was born. Established in 2019, the original concept for Katerco Coffee was a local coffee shop in the Richmond, Virginia area that would employ, educate, and train people with disabilities. The Thrive Foundation, INC, the 501c3 nonprofit that operates Katerco Coffee, was formed to allow our community to make tax-deductible donations toward our success.
After spending months scoping out a location for the shop, and having preparations made for construction, the Coronavirus pandemic took the nation by storm. Keri and the team at Katerco Coffee made the difficult decision to put the in-person coffee shop on hold for the time being and began to brainstorm ways to continue our mission.
As an answer to this unfortunate situation, Katerco was launched in May of 2020. As a local, small-batch, craft roaster, Katerco Coffee excels in producing some of the finest coffee ever consumed. This amazingly roasted coffee is paired perfectly with our continuing mission of providing employment opportunities to people with disabilities, and we are proud to have made this change.
In the news
Richmond Times-Dispatch: Chesterfield teacher to open coffee shop that employs people with disabilities
CBS 6: Teacher aims to open Chesterfield coffee shop
About the organization
Katerco Coffee is operated by The Thrive Foundation, INC DBA Katerco Coffee, a 501(c)(3) public charity. We were founded in 2019 and operated as Thrive Coffee until April 2024.
EIN: 83-4625247
Address: PO Box 1562, Midlothian, VA 23113
Phone: (804) 464-7324
Email: hello@katerco.org
The Thrive Foundation, INC is listed in IRS Publication 78 as eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions. As a small organization with annual gross receipts of $50,000 or less, we file IRS Form 990-N. You can verify our status by searching our EIN in the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search.
