RSF borrower Indigenous has been pioneering fair trade fashion for years, and the recent tragedy in Bangladesh shows how much their work is needed. Indigenous is now offering to share its transparency and labor practices with the rest of the fashion industry, and urging consumers to demand ethical fashion.
Here’s a taste of what Scott Leonard, Indigenous CEO and co-founder, has to say about the current situation and what’s possible:
“Many fashion industry executives claim full transparency is too hard to accomplish, too elusive, too big to get their arms around. At Indigenous we believe they are not trying hard enough, and they are not using the right tools. This Fall every INDIGENOUS garment will include a QR code on its hang tag. This code launches our ‘Fair Trace Tool’ application. The Fair Trace Tool shares the story of the artisans who make our clothing, information about our supply chain and social impact survey data.”
Seventeen years ago, Indigenous co-founders Scott Leonard and Matt Reynolds were picking burs out of hand-knit South American sweaters before delivering them to The Nature Company. Today, their company produces a full line of premium fashion knits sold online and at 500 independent stores, as well as clothing for major brands and private labels hanging on racks at the likes of Bloomingdales, Neiman Marcus, and Nordstrom.
That might not sound like lightning progress, but consider this: Indigenous works with a supply chain of more than 1,500 artisans from small knitting groups around the world; pays fair living wages; and uses organically grown fibers, low-impact dyes, and handmade fabrics. They pioneered Fair Trade certification for apparel and developed the Fair Trace Tool™, which lets consumers see their clothing’s supply chain. And they’ve done all this in an industry where labor conditions cause ongoing protests and “organic” often translates to “unfashionable” or “unaffordable.” Viewed in that light, Indigenous looks like a revolution.
INSPIRATION
The spark was Leonard’s travels in Ecuador. “I had seen firsthand that women were not necessarily being honored for their weaving and knitting skills,” says the Indigenous CEO. “They weren’t being paid the wages that they could have been, or they didn’t have the opportunity to apply those skills to the marketplace.
“We really wanted to make a difference in the world with women in economically marginalized communities,” Leonard says. “We thought that bringing in fair wages and technical assistance, and marrying environmentally friendly fibers with more sophisticated designs, was a way to do that.”
INNOVATION
Indigenous had two major problems: quality control and financing. “How do you elevate a cottage industry’s quality control? When you’re dealing with 1,500 artisans and they’re in pockets of three to 30, how do you aggregate their work and have continuity and consistency that’s truly premium? There were a lot of quality-control glitches, from fibers to knitting, to consistency of sizing and fit, to timing of delivery,” says Leonard, a serial entrepreneur whose past businesses include an environmentally friendly surf shop.
Indigenous President Reynolds, who is a store buyer and has a background in developmental economics, adds that systems integration was a major issue. “We’re dealing with a unique production model—it’s diversified, it’s spread out—and we had to create a new systems model,” he says. “That took a lot of time and collaboration and money.”
Financing was a huge obstacle. “It’s not just that we were a start-up, visionary company trying to do something no one else had done,” Leonard says. “But once we collect an order and give it to an artisan, how does that artisan pay for the fibers, and if they’re the lead, how do they pay the other people in the group? They don’t want terms. They do the work and they want to be paid.”
Looking for a better way to finance its supply chain, Indigenous began engaging with RSF around 2001. “Conventional banking was just not going to work. That our balance sheet was not looking so great was a difficult hurdle,” says Leonard. “RSF provided working capital, helped us to formalize our financial strategies, and helped us attract other socially minded investors.”
RSF encouraged Indigenous to include a section on social returns in the business plan for its Series A funding round. That ended up being the aspect some investors were most impressed with, Reynolds says, adding, “RSF has been a pioneer and supportive spirit in trying to push the social and environmental return aspect into financials and into evaluating the success of a business.”
In 2010, RSF provided Indigenous with a PRI Fund loan to assist in creating standards and procedures for the Fair Trade apparel pilot program and to develop the Fair Trace Tool, which allows shoppers to scan a hang tag QR code to find out where the garment originated, who made it, how the fibers were raised, and what the social impact was.
“We hope that by educating people to actually look into things, they’ll see how clothing can be made responsibly,” Reynolds says.
IMPACT
Indigenous has worked with its longtime suppliers in South America to obtain Fair Trade certification, and the company was the only clothing manufacturer certified in South America as of mid-2012. On top of that, the Fair Trace tool is a breakthrough that could change how organizations verify supply chains and microfinance results, Leonard believes.
Indigenous now runs at a profit and has invested in RSF’s Social Investment Fund as a way to help other social enterprises grow (and earn a competitive return, Reynolds points out). In addition, Leonard and Reynolds have created a donor-advised fund with RSF to support their artisans’ communities through grants.
“We are proud to say that we are now hanging next to mainstream, high-end fashion design brands in stores across the country, and we were able to do that without sacrificing values,” Reynolds says. “The other thing is that even though we still are a small business, we’ve put over $20 million into the artisan and organic supply chain, and that has really affected lives.”
VITALS
Company name INDIGENOUS Impact area Food and agriculture RSF relationship Former working capital borrower, current PRI Fund loan recipient, Social Investment Fund investor, donor-advised fund advisor HQ Santa Rosa, CA Revenue About $6 million annually Employees 15 Communities served Weavers and knitters in South America and elsewhere; U.S. consumers
In my work here at RSF, I consciously try to embody our values. One that stands out among these is Trust—ensuring that our work is direct, transparent, and personal, based on long-term relationships. This week I was struck by the outstanding display of this value by RSF community member, Indigenous Designs.
Indigenous Designs is a pioneer in ecologically and socially conscious apparel. Since 1994, Indigenous has provided high quality fair trade organic cotton clothing produced by a network of over 1500 highly skilled artisans and knitting cooperatives in the developing world. The company is committed to supporting fair trade wages and artisan cooperatives, utilizing organic and environmentally friendly materials, and increasing consumer awareness of eco-fashion. In 2010, RSF provided Indigenous with a PRI loan to create the very first standards and procedures for US apparel and home goods Fair Trade Certification.
Over the last 2 years, Indigenous has accomplished this and much more. The company piloted the first Fair Trade Certification program 2010, and received their Certification from FairTrade USA in 2012.
And last week Indigenous, embodied the direct, transparent, and personal nature of their work with the release of the Fair Trace Tool™, a mobile enabled web-technology using QR codes. In sharp contrast to the hidden doors and dark realities found in much of the fashion world supply chain, Indigenous invites consumers to experience the origins and stories of any garment they purchase and the artisans behind the work with the simple click of a button.
“The Fair Trace Tool™ is one more way that Indigenous is raising consumer awareness of the vital importance of fair trade fashion to artisans in the developing world, and to the environment. It is part of our commitment to create fashion that honors the people who wear it, and the people who produce it,” says Scott Leonard, Indigenous Designs Co-founder and CEO.
As consumers, it is our common responsibility to know and value the sources of our goods. Thank you to Indigenous Designs for opening the door to such a connection and for setting such a strong example of transparency in the apparel industry.
Check out this video to learn more about how the Fair Trace Tool™ works.
http://youtu.be/aKFs28bZUgQ
Jillian McCoy is Senior Associate, Communications at RSF Social Finance.
In 2009, the RSF Mezzanine Fund, L.P., provided mission aligned growth capital to Guayaki, a social enterprise that imports certified organic, rainforest-grown yerba mate from South America. This funding relationship was designed to provide Guayaki with the capital to grow without requiring a liquidity event, such as a company sale or IPO, which could ultimately compromise its mission and values.
Two years later, Guayaki has indeed grown. With a strengthening brand, and the launch of a new canned maté line, the company’s sales have grown 25%, to $12 million in 2010. As Guayaki has matured as an organization, their financing needs have changed as well. We at RSF are pleased to continue this journey with them and recently closed a second loan to Guayaki, this time from the RSF Social Investment Fund. As a more established organization, Guayaki is now ready for senior debt and we are proud to provide them with a line of credit to support their continued path to success.
At the heart of Guayaki’s success is its innovative business model, Market Driven Restoration. This model links customers’ purchases to its partner farming communities in the rainforests of Argentina, Paraguay, and Southern Brazil. These indigenous farmers, using sustainable practices, harvest the yerba maté, generating a renewable income stream that enables their communities to improve their lives and restore their lands. Guayaki works closely with the farmers, and encourages the cultivation of the plants under the native rainforest trees. The company also provides technical advice on how to create nurseries, and helps with managing the organic growing process from cultivation through harvest. Guayaki then buys what is produced at fair trade prices. Farmers are able to repopulate their rainforest with native trees, while earning a living wage in fair working conditions.
http://youtu.be/-mA4lwRd7Z0
The company is ultimately working toward a mission to steward and restore 200,000 acres of South American Atlantic rainforest and to create at least 1,000 fair wage jobs by 2020. To date, they have restored some 20,000 acres of rainforest.
Since the start of this relationship, RSF has deeply believed in the mission of Guayaki, especially under the leadership of its CEO, Chris Mann. “The General Partner believed in Chris’ integrity and capability to drive higher revenue and profitability levels that would eventually allow them to attract a lower cost of capital—whether through RSF or another outside financing source,” said Joe Avenatti, Managing Director of the RSF Mezzanine Fund. “Fortunately, Chris was successful in doing just that and decided to stay within the RSF community.”
Guayaki will use some of the funds from this loan to pay off the remainder of their debt from the original Mezzanine financing. Not only is this a great step forward for Guayaki, it also marks the second realized investment for the RSF Mezzanine Fund.
Preserving the company’s mission and values has always been of great importance to Guayaki’s leadership team when seeking capital to help finance the company’s success. At RSF, we seek financial transactions that are direct, transparent and personal, based on long-term relationships. Our continued relationship with Guayaki exemplifies our commitment to these values and we are proud to partner with this incredible organization through their next phase of development.
To learn more about Guayaki please visit their website at http://guayaki.com/.
This loan was made possible by the investors of the RSF Social Investment Fund. To learn more about how you can help RSF make more loans to social enterprises like Guayaki, please visit http://rsfsocialfinance.org/services/investing/social/.
Jillian McCoy is Communications Associate at RSF Social Finance.
In recent years, the US consumer market has become increasingly aware of the value of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), a form of agricultural distribution inspired by Rudolf Steiner’s economic lectures. Consumers receive fresh, local, organic produce while supporting the economic viability of small farmers. CSAs connect customers to the people and land that produce their food, and offer farmers who traditionally struggle in an industry dominated by large-scale industrial agriculture, the means to sustain their business. However not all of our favorite crops, such as let’s say – coffee beans – are likely to be staples in our weekly CSA box or found at our local farmers’ market. For consumers eager to have this same direct connection with their coffee, RSF borrower, Pachamama Coffee Cooperative, just delivered the solution.
Bringing the CSA model to an international scale, Pachamama now links coffee enthusiasts directly with small farmers from Africa, Central and South America. Earlier this month, Pachamama launched CoffeeCSA.org, the first large-scale coffee CSA.
Photo credit, Olaf Hammelburg, courtesy of Pachamama Coffee Cooperative
Connecting small organic coffee farmers with the large North America consumer market has been 10 years in the making. In 2001, the Pachamama Coffee Cooperative began organizing the membership and assembling the farmer-driven board of directors which governs the cooperative’s work. Now the 100% farmer owned cooperative is comprised of over 140,000 farmers in Ethiopia, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua and Peru.
Customers have the opportunity to sign up for a monthly or annual membership to receive home delivered coffee from a specific farmer of their choice. This coffee makes its journey from the farmer to San Francisco where it is roasted and subsequently shipped to individual households from Pachamama’s headquarters in Davis, California.
In line with the benefits of traditional CSAs, consumers can relish in the fact that all profits go back to the farmers themselves. Furthermore, long-term subscription to the CSA provides farmers with the stability to withstand market changes and secure the capital for the next year’s crop.
Of course we at RSF are thrilled to share this development of one of our community members but we’re not the only ones excited about CoffeeCSA.org. The launch has received notable attention in publications such as The New York Times and The Huffington Post!
To learn more about the Pachamama Coffee Cooperative and to sign up for your coffee CSA membership visit http://www.coffeecsa.org/.
The Pachamama Coffee Cooperative is a borrower of the RSF Social Investment Fund. To learn how you can help support innovative organizations like Pachamama click here.
Jillian McCoy is Communications Associate at RSF Social Finance.
Former RSF borrower Indigenous Designs has just received another loan from RSF, this time in the form of a Program-Related Investment (PRI). Indigenous Designs is a Fair Trade fasion and certified organic apparel company that sources from over 1,000 hand-knitting artisans located primarily in South America. The new loan from RSF will specifically support Indigenous Designs as they work with TransFair USA to create the very first standards and procedures for a U.S. apparel and home goods Fair Trade certification. The program with TransFair aims to provide an opportunity to create new “Best in Class” methods surrounding supply chains for Fair Trade and organic certifications in the clothing industry. Two of the major goals of Indigenous Designs’ involvement in the project include empowering and protecting the farmers and artisans producing the cotton, materials, and clothes, as well as educating the public about organic cotton clothing and Fair Trade apparel.
For Indigenous, their supply chain often begins with a farmer in the field where chemical-free organic cotton is grown. The organic cotton then migrates into the hands of the artisans who knit the fibers into garments, which are finally made available to the consumer. Since their founding in 1994, Indigenous has been a leader in responsibly sourcing natural and organic fibers. “Pioneering companies like Indigenous Designs will pave the way for consumers to demand more information about working conditions at factories and farms where their clothes are made,” says Todd Stark, TransFair COO, of the collaborative project between the two organizations. Watch this short video to hear some other perspectives (including that of RSF CEO Don Shaffer) on the exciting progress Indigenous Designs has made in their field:
(This is a continuation of a post from 10/29/09, which you can read by clicking here.)
Each afternoon of The Economics of Peace conference there were workshops related to the many facets of money and financial systems. Monday there were four offerings. RSF President & CEO Don Shaffer led a packed workshop entitled “Social Finance: Building Regional Capital Markets.” Through a brief presentation and small discussions, the group explored: what would the economy look like if active and diverse regional capital markets were developed? What will it take to create more place-based markets and means of exchange? Can we rebuild our sense of community self-reliance in relation to national and international economies?
Also on Monday afternoon, Norman Solomon addressed the barriers and opportunities of “The Green New Deal.” He explored how the quest for green sustainability might merge with the drive for economic justice. He presented what some of the new strategies need to be, and the challenging dynamics of the current situation in the media, financial systems, and the psychology of economic crisis. Charles Eisenstein led a workshop on Sacred Economics, the title and subject of his forthcoming book. This workshop explored the many perspectives of gift economics. He talked about the history of money systems that organically encourage sharing instead of competition, egalitarianism instead of polarization of wealth, and the building of social, natural, cultural, and spiritual capital, instead of their destruction. As a step toward peace, he proposed the radical idea that all workshop participants make investments that earn 0% interest. Trent Shroyer led “Sustainable Economic Cultures,” which looked at several models of sustainable economic practices including: Gandhi’s Swaraj, the no-growth movement in Europe, and examples of Ivan Illich’s post-secular vernacular domains.
On Tuesday, four more workshop sessions followed a panel presentation on complementary currencies. C.J. Callen, Pilar Gonzales, and I led a conversation on “Money, Race, and Class.” This facilitated conversation served as a safe space to talk about some of the most complicated and unaddressed issues in economics and our financial systems. The approach allowed for a depth of conversation that supported listening and speaking in such a way as to allow for transformation in the participants’ way of thinking.
Following the morning plenary theme of local living economies (as articulated by Judy Wicks and Stephanie Rearick), Kelley Rajala and Derek Huntington of Sonoma County GoLocal Cooperative and Mary Rick of BALLE presented “Accelerate the Sustainability Movement in your Community.” They worked with the processes of forming a values-based network, mapping the resources of the community, developing sustainability policy, and implementing community-based financing models. This workshop was well attended as there is significant interest in re-localizing economies and understanding what that means from economic, cultural, and political perspectives.
Richard Logie, the founder of GETS (Global Exchange Trade System), led an introductory workshop on what the elements of a complementary currency or credit clearing exchange might look like so that participants would have a context for working in this innovative business-to-business system. He used the lessons of VISA and the European Union to demonstrate the work of creating new agreements, setting up a framework of exchange methodology and standards so that users of the system can work toward mutual ownership of it. Richard also led a much longer, more detailed workshop on Thursday entitled “Get Real! With Currency: 50 Questions You Should Ask Before Starting Your Own Exchange.” The final Tuesday workshop was led by David Ransom on “Taking a Leap: A Marxist Look at Social Change in an Epoch of Economic Revolution.” Ransom looked at the impact of technology in relation to the value of labor and posed the question about whether the current economic revolution will bring about a social revolution as more and more of the work force is displaced.
Wednesday afternoon saw four workshops that touched on a wide range of topics. Sam Keen addressed the topic “Money and War: The Quest for a Moral Alternative.” He focused on the issue of social and economic justice as the avenue for achieving peace. Woody Tasch, author of Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money, presented his work under the same topic. Tasch has been developing the notion of patient capital as an approach to investing that will rebuild local economies and change our attitudes about expecting or extracting short-term returns on investments that tend to bring about ecological and cultural degradation. Osprey Orielle Lake led the workshop “Respect for the Global Commons.” Lake was the artist-in-residence for the conference and also spoke about the value and beauty of our environment and natural systems, and the rightful use of these precious compromised resources. The fourth workshop was offered by Bev Bell and Mateo Nube. Named “Towards a Just Ecological and Economic Transition,” they presented the stories of those directly impacted by the financial crisis. They showed how those communities have developed practical solutions to the challenges through community self-determination. What they demonstrated was that economic security and ecological sustainability need not be in opposition if worked through with transformative power.
Thursday, following a panel discussion on fair trade, Andrew Kimbrell went into much more detail about the concepts and practicality of “Salmon Economics” in a workshop. Bob Graham, one of the pioneers and leaders of micro-enterprise, led a practicum called “The Next Step After Putting Micro-entrepreneurs into Business—Helping Them Become Successful.” With a focus on Central America, he spoke about the fact that while micro-credit has made credit accessible to millions of people at the bottom of the pyramid, rates of poverty have not changed. He proposed a new direction for micro-credit as a tool to alleviate poverty in a more systemic and sustainable way.
Friday morning, prior to the closing session, there were three workshops offered. Daniel Pinchbeck presented “Why We Launched Evolver: A Social Network for Conscious Collaboration.” He spoke about his involvement with the new technologies of the internet as a way to engage with provocative and important questions such as: could the social technologies of the internet help us replace many of our financial transactions with exchanges based on trust and reciprocity? Can a social network be designed to help reengineer our current society, offer new ways for people to collaborate, and organize for social change? Julianne Maurseth led a workshop (“Purpose and Outcomes for Conference Participants”) designed to weave together many of the insights gained at the conference. And myself, Pilar Gonzales, and Katrina Steffek led a conversation called “What If…” which explored scenario thinking for the new economy. This participatory workshop elicited from attendees the tools they had gained throughout the week and then asked them to imagine how they will apply them to their home, organizational, or work life—their real life economies.
On Friday, the conference conveners each shared some appreciations and closing reflections on the conference, and I would like to leave you with my own closing comments summarizing the week: “During our journey here together in Sonoma we have been traveling new economic terrain, challenging social terrain, and transformative cultural terrain. I put this in the progressive tense—not because we are a room full of tense progressives—but, because the work of economic change will yet be hard, and seem long. Let’s take joy in every step forward, practice forgiveness so that it can heal, and, finally, trust in the nature of wisdom, the wisdom of nature, and in the aspirations of the human spirit as we see each other anew in our economic life. May peace be with you.”
John Bloom is the Director of Organizational Culture at RSF Social Finance. If you enjoyed this post, look for John’s recently published book, The Genius of Money, now available from steinerbooks.org.
“The Price is Right” is one of the longest running television game shows in the relatively short history of the medium. The show’s capacity to draw audiences, I assume, is based upon the viewer’s pride in knowing the MSRP [manufacturer’s suggested retail price] of everything, and then seeing if the contestants know it too. The show capitalizes on one of the essential functions of television in that products that might normally be advertised for a hefty fee are instead featured as the content and focus of the program itself. Talk about product placement!
Given that the program was first broadcast in 1956, it would seem that its producers took quite seriously the following dictum from the Art Directors Club Annual No. 34 of 1955: “It is now the business of advertising to manufacture customers in the comfort of their own homes.” That defined a profound intention for commerce in the emergent medium of TV. I think it is fair to say that 54 years later that intention has transformed culture and extended its reach into the depths of identity formation. For a consumer culture, price is queen, not just for a day, but every day.
A manufacturer’s suggested retail price, finding its source in the capitalist maxim of charging what the traffic will bear, is designed to play on the conditioned desires of the consumer. It is a positioning game show in and of itself, and as a consequence, it tends to be devoid of concern for the costs or consequences to human and natural ecological systems.
What if, instead of being a unilaterally manipulated mystery, price setting became a social process that took into account ecological stewardship and all the needs of the people affected by it? What if a price actually could be tied to the true costs of an object’s production and distribution—including real wages, environmental restoration and other constructive supply chain practices? What might this associative price-setting process look like and how would it be practiced?
One functioning and accessible example can be found in Community Supported Agriculture [CSA]. Though CSA now refers to a wide range of financial arrangements between eaters (consumers) and farmers, it originated in Europe in the context of biodynamic farming. Further, it is significant that both the farming and the economics of it were based upon Rudolf Steiner’s insights and share a set of deep core values about the presence and purpose of spirit in our practical activities.
In its archetypal form, a CSA is an association created between an enterprising farmer and a community that is committed to supporting the farmer in his or her vocation. Digging into the assumptions lodged in this statement unearths some radical concepts about farming as a livelihood that are in many ways diametrically opposed to the way most of our food reaches our tables. First and foremost in the association, there is a direct and personal relationship between the farmer and the eater. Second (and central to this article), the annual (not seasonal) share price is set by the association in conversation over the needs of the farm and farmer. The budgetary outcome is to be able to maintain and develop the farm, to take care of the farmer’s personal needs like health insurance, and also cover the costs of producing, harvesting and transporting the food. The result is that the farmer is no longer at the whim or mercy of the marketplace. There are no distributor costs added; in fact, there are absolutely no externalized costs anywhere in the system.
What is created as well is that the association serves as a community of shared risk. If there is a drought and no food can be produced in any given season, the farmer will still have the income to carry on and prepare for the next season. This is an innovative picture of sustainability in which the eater/consumer is not paying for the food, but rather providing support for the farmer so that she can both steward the fertility of the soil and grow the food. Price and pricing are no mystery in this model. Instead the price is both right and real—the result of transparency, social engagement, long-term relationships, and the collaborative process called association.
CSA is a working successful example of an associative price-setting model, and its structure is transportable to other arenas in which there is an entrepreneur who can provide products or services for a community. Mutuality is at the heart of the practice, and price serves everyone’s needs, not just the manufacturer. The deep value structure in associative pricing is that, as we become more effective in meeting real human needs through economic activity, the benefits of that activity will be equitable. It is appropriate to mention the rise of cooperative business practices and the rapid growth of fair trade, among other innovations, as further indicators of a fundamental shift toward a more associative view. Though differing in corporate structure, they represent multi-stakeholder, community-based visions. They share the challenges of scalability and have had some successes, while recognizing the primacy of human values as essential to healthy economies. I would ask: What are the limits of community and enterprise working in association? And, what are the long-term consequences of not getting the price right?
John Bloom is Director of Organizational Culture at RSF Social Finance. If you enjoyed this post, look for John’s forthcoming book, The Genius of Money, on steinerbooks.org. Additionally, cooperative and associative economic models will be discussed at The Economics of Peace conference taking place October 18 – 23 in Sonoma, CA. For more information, visit: www.economicsofpeace.net.
The Incas of ancient Peru began each day with a toast—to Pachamama, the goddess of the earth. They called it “challar,” which means “to feed and to give drink to the land.” Peruvians still carry on this ritual today by toasting to Pachamama before every meeting or festivity and by sprinkling a small amount of drink on the floor, before enjoying the rest. In this way, they honor their “good mother,” the Earth.
These same principles of regeneration, respect for the land, and respect for those who work the land has inspired the business strategy of the Pachamama Coffee Cooperative, a global enterprise owned by more than 150,000 family farmers in Ethiopia, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Mexico and Peru. Pachamama is a leader. It’s the first farmer-direct, California-based coffee cooperative representing family farmers. With a loan from RSF, Pachamama has strengthened and expanded its operations now selling to more than 100 accounts in 18 states. The co-op launched its farmer-direct organic coffee line in 2006, supporting and promoting farmers who grow crops organically, producing a more healthful drink as well as ensuring nutrient-rich soil for the children of these farmers—the farmers of tomorrow. The beans make their way from the farmers to Pachamama via one of five regional cooperative producer groups (the owner members of Pachamama). One of these is COCLA of Peru, a current borrower client of RSF.
Priya Haji, Co-founder of World of Good, with artisan basket weavers
Back in 2005, Hurricane Stan displaced hundreds of thousands of people in Central America, including artisans from a cooperative in Panajachel, Guatemala. The women, makers of jewelry, not only lost their homes but also alternative livelihood from the decline of the local economy brought on by the halt in tourism.
A large order from World of Good following the hurricane played an important role in providing a way for workers to regain stable employment and better living conditions. “World of Good’s order really helped these women provide for their families during this period of hardship. At the same time, World of Good’s orders have definitely played an important role in improving standards of living in our partner communities,” says Ruth DeGolia from Mercado Global. “For the first time, all of our partner artisans’ children of age to attend elementary school were enrolled this year.”
World of Good, a loan recipient of RSF, is a for-profit social enterprise headquartered in Berkeley, California. The company partners with national retailers like Whole Foods, Wild Oats, and Follett Campus Bookstores to bring, using Fair Trade practices, artisan handcrafts from around the world to the U.S. market.
Priya Haji, CEO and co-founder of World of Good, explains why RSF’s loan is important at this time: “The primary impediment for most artisan groups to participate in the U.S. consumer market is access to capital. Through the working capital loan from RSF, World of Good is able to ensure that access to capital is not a barrier to entry. As a standard fair trade principle, we pay artisans a 50% deposit upon placing an order so they can work on production with sufficient resources and benefit from economic development through trade. With the RSF loan, we are able to place larger orders and work with a greater number of groups.”
“RSF is pleased to begin its foray into social enterprise lending with World of Good,” says Esther Park, senior lending manager at RSF. “The world needs more companies that are creating positive social impact.”
For more information, please contact www.worldofgood.com.
