Rango Honey: Social Mission as Business Model

Founded in 2015 on what company president Jason Zimmerman describes as a “simple and pure promise – to offer only the highest-quality raw, natural honey from the Sonoran Desert,” Rango Honey has grown to the point where it now harvests raw honey and bee pollen from more than 1,500 hives located throughout the Sonoran Desert. 

“By far the most challenging component of starting and growing Rango Honey has been plugging into the massive broker and distributor networks in the grocery and specialty foods industry,” Zimmerman says. “But as the industry becomes familiar with the quality of our honey and our social mission, they quickly are becoming advocates and fans.”

A social aim drives this for-profit business. “The company made a commitment early on that all profits would go to provide assisted living housing for adults with autism and other special needs,” explains Zimmerman. Noting the founders are successful entrepreneurs who have experience building numerous businesses, he says their experience founding successful methadone clinics in the early 2000s that set the standard of care nationally for individuals with opioid and heroin addiction “was the catalyst for providing the same high-end care for autistic adults.”

Zimmerman relates, “As passionate as Rango Honey is about offering the most extraordinary honey available, we are even more passionate about giving back. That’s why we have committed that all profits will go to fund safe and nurturing assisted-living housing for adults with autism and special needs. Instead of simply donating money, we wanted to create something that the autism community could benefit from for years to come. From this vision came the creation of our first assisted-living facilities for adults with autism and other disabilities, two of which are in the Phoenix area.”

Noting, “We are committed to this cause as it is very personal to us,” Zimmerman says there is constant attention on finding ways to streamline and minimize costs and, therefore, maximize the amount the company can give — while continuing to maintain the highest quality product and delivery methods in the business. “As we have grown, we made sure from the beginning that we allocated enough capital to make our mission a success, and we’re accomplishing that mission.”