Sunset Magazine Showcases Our Bamboo Bowl, Dec 2nd Ladies Night Out

Did you know Sunset Magazine has a circulation of 1.25 million? For the holidays Sunset puts out their 100 Fresh Holiday Ideas issue, reaching all those readers and shoppers. This year’s ideas issue included our Vietnamese-made bamboo fruit bowl as one of their 100 picks, and we’re receiving oodles of orders coming in from Washington state down to Texas and over to Washington D.C.—even abroad. For one of a kind creative gifts that you won’t find elsewhere, visit Shopping for a Change’s online store. Be sure not to miss our clearance sale page as well.

For the 3^rd year in a row we are setting up many of our offerings in a beautiful, inspiring display at the Domenico Winery in San Carlos, CA for their annual Ladies Night Out Holiday Shopping Extravaganza. The event is for the ladies, but men can crash the party too. Fine wine (no-host wine bar and light appetizers) mixed with holiday shopping in a lovely, hospitable winery—sounds like the perfect shopping opportunity. We invite you to join us 6-9 pm on December 2^nd 2014. Admission is free. We’ll see you there.

Domenico Winery1697 Industrial Rd, San Carlos, CA 94070, (650) 593-2335

Give Back Globally On Giving Tuesday, December 2, 2014

We all know of Black Friday, and have become acquainted with Cyber Monday, but are you familiar with #Giving Tuesday? #GivingTuesday is a day when people around the world come together to give back. Founded in 2012 by the 92nd Street Y and the United Nations Foundation, #Giving Tuesday grew out of a response to commercialization and consumerism in the post-Thanksgiving season.

Recognized as the first Tuesday following Thanksgiving, #Giving Tuesday has become a time for charities, families, businesses, community centers, and students around the world to come together for one common purpose: to celebrate generosity and to give.

It’s a simple idea. Just find a way for your family, your community, your company or your organization to come together to give something more. Then tell everyone you can about how you are giving. Join us and be a part of a global celebration of a new tradition of generosity. Together we are bringing change to the world through our Shopping for a Change^® business model. Your purchase creates work and a fair income for our artisans, helps the U.S. based nonprofit of your choice, and also funds our next community improvement project: 2 preschools for children of our artisans in Bangladesh.

Here’s a great idea. Combine the #Giving Tuesday celebration with your Holiday shopping. We’ve added more beautiful and fun fair trade items to our online store to meet your shopping needs: purses, accessories, jewelry, home décor pieces, and then some. Please visit our store during your holiday shopping times and celebrate giving.

SFAC’s Stacey Horowitz Writes for Fast Company Magazine

Shopping For A Change founder Stacey Horowitz recently wrote an insightful article for Fast Company business magazine called 6 Steps to Building a Purpose-Driven Business. In the piece she discusses her perspectives and advice on starting a business (through her experience starting the nonprofit Shopping for a Change) and seeing it through its initial years of growth and challenges. Her 6 steps include: Take It Slowly, Do Things Differently, Don’t Go It Alone, Master The Art Of Fundraising, Be Prepared To Go Off-Road, Look At Your Accomplishments—Not Just Your To-Do List. Click here to read full article. 

She writes: I’ve ridden over many potholes while building the (Shopping for a Change) business, and the journey has been slower than I expected. Despite some angel funding, we’ve had to bootstrap our growth. As a result, I wear many hats, and we’re still an all-volunteer organization.

Because of these ongoing challenges, I have to remind myself to look back at our achievements rather than focus solely on where I still want to take the organization. In the four years since our launch, the business has grown from partnering with 11 artisan groups in Africa and South America to over 40 artisan groups spanning four continents and 28 countries, touching more than 25,000 lives domestically and abroad.

Fundraising for Shopping For A Change continues strongly during the 60-day Indiegogo campaign that began on September 5^th. There are 8 days left to contribute and participate in this crowd-funding effort that will take SFAC to the next level. Please visit our Indiegogo campaign here to contribute as a prelude to the upcoming Holiday Season. Click here to visit the SFAC Indiegogo contribution page. 

Southern Lady Magazine Features Our Ventana Necklace

The Southern Lady magazine—which celebrates and inspires women of the south—included the fair trade necklace Ventana Necklace in its Savvy Traveler section. This is a show-and-tell section that features special items that are particularly good for travel. The Ventana Necklace—from the Faire Collection, and made by artisans in Ecuador, South America—was laid out at the top of the page under the heading: Cute for a Cause, with a brief intro reading: Show support for fair trade practices with this stunning necklace, handmade by artisans in Ecuador. Other items surrounding the necklace included metallic luxe luggage on wheels, sunglasses, a gauzy scarf and a small purse with a plethora of pockets. The Ventana Necklace is available for purchase as part of our jewelry collection. Click here. One of our first Shopping for a Change partnerships was with Faire Collection and we carry many stunning pieces from them. The artisans from Ecuador who make this necklace and many others have greatly expanded their workshops and employees since working with Faire Collection, beginning in 2008.

For fair trade jewelry Christmas Holiday shopping and many other categories, please go here to explore all we offer this season. 

Guatemalan Women Seeing Great Improvement in Lives: Fair Trade Work

Recently, as a result of fair trade employment among Guatemalan women, there has been a huge increase in individual and community purchasing power. The increase in global fair trade purchasing in fashion items (including jewelry) which highland Guatemalan women are particularly skilled at making has meant a corresponding increase in what they are earning from the fair trade guilds or companies they’re working for. Some have seen a three to four fold increase in their take home pay. This translates into the ability to invest in their children’s education, bring meats and fruits into their diets, build additional rooms in their homes, and buy their first plots of land. Considering that Guatemala has the third highest malnutrition rate in the world at 54.5 percent, this is truly welcome news, and speaks for the expansion of fair trade employment in Guatemala. It also means that fair trade fashion items from Guatemala and other South American countries are having an impact on global fashion, and becoming a viable competing force.

At Shopping For a Change we have  partnerships with several South American fair trade artisan groups and manufacturers including Altiplano of Guatemala. Please visit our jewelry section to shop for many items from South America. Fair trade eco friendly jewelry from SFAC combines fashion trend aesthetics, highest quality and handmade crafting, and socially conscious buying in which each piece bought helps many. And, in addition, we are nonprofit so not only are the artisans paid fairly, but your purchases are funding community improvement projects in the artisans’ communities focused on  clean water, health care and education, as well as supporting U.S. nonprofits of your choice.

Fair trade jewelry shopping, including for upcoming holiday Christmas season, shop here>

Fair Trade Product Real Growth: Global Retail Sales Increase 15%

Here is an inspiring and satisfying fact for all fair trade consumers: retail sales globally of fair trade products—from jewelry to clothes to purses/accessories and more—grew over the past year by 15%. And this is no small number. Sales of fair trade crops and goods reached $7.3 billion in 2013, so this increase is very significant. It means that working men and women in developing economy countries are earning more for themselves and their communities, and more people are being hired. We at SFAC are proud to be a part of this growth. We deeply appreciate our customers who make all of this possible with their purchases and socially conscious commitment. Our sales are in the USA and Canada and it is the US which has led the world in increased fair trade purchasing. There are many more growth initiatives in place to boost fair trade awareness and purchasing for 2014.

One of the hottest items in the fair trade products world are purses and handbags. Fair trade eco friendly purses handbags (including tote bags) is surpassing jewelry in terms of online searches and purchases. The selection of purse items has grown enormously for fair trade and friendly to the environment. If you’re thinking you need a new purse or handbag for yourself or as a gift for someone, please visit our excellent, fashion-savvy collection. We believe we’ve found the best of the best. We feature many styles and sizes, crafted from a range of natural materials. Please visit our purse collection here. 

How long are your arms?

Long enough to feed a child, pet a dog, hug a loved one, and plant a tree. What if I told you your arms were long enough to also make a difference halfway around the world?

As you may know, we have just embarked on a 45-day Indiegogo campaign to raise funds to expand our operation. We are excited to announce that in just over a week we have raised just over $10,000 of our $50,000 goal!

As a non-profit with no paid employees, this money will enable us to pay for new inventory, update our marketing materials, hire a professional photographer and graphic artists, expand our reach through public relations, and finance our first paid employee to assist me. All of these expenditures are vital to the growth of our business, so we can continue to help communities both abroad and at home. 

Please help us expand our outreach by sharing our campaign link - http://igg.me/at/shoppingforachange - with your network. We could not have gotten this far without your support, and we hope you will consider a donation of any amount to enable us to continue empowering others and transforming lives. 

When you go Shopping for a Change®, you help improve the lives of disadvantaged artisans around the world, mostly woman, by creating steady employment for them. In turn, you enable them to put food on their tables, a roof over their family’s heads, and afford them the ability to educate their children, including the girls.

Thank you for your support!
Stacey