Winter Blowout Clearance Sale On Fashionable Fair Trade Products

With the 2014 holiday season drawing to a close, we hope you enjoyed the special warmth of gift giving, celebration, and being with family and friends. Is there such a thing as fair trade champagne for a New Years party? We’ll have to look that up. 

It's nearly 2015 and we’re very excited about the upcoming opportunities for fair trade online shopping at Shopping For A Change. We are busy sourcing & buying new items for this coming year. 

Help us make room for these new artisan products by shopping our Winter Blowout Clearance Sale with 10 – 90% off on 84 different products including jewelry, accessories, home décor, purses and more. 

We're completing our most successful year yet in serving the public with fair trade eco friendly products that are all hand made. Now is your chance to get some of these finely crafted, beautiful and socially conscious items at greatly reduced prices. 

And remember, we are an all volunteer nonprofit--no high administrative salaries here. When you shop with us your purchase is truly helping the artisans who made them, their communities, and other nonprofit institutions you select during the checkout process.  

Happy New Year and Happy Shopping

SFAC Listed in CNN’s 2014 Do-Gooder-Holiday-Gift-Guide

CNN’s annual Do-Gooder-Holiday-Gift-Guide just came out on the CNN website, and we are very proud to have a product included from Shopping for a Change amongst the chosen few recommended by CNN. Selected was our very colorful, Rainbow Hat that all infants  (and parents) will love—handmade by fair trade artisans in Bangladesh. It is on slide 11 of the CNN article’s slide show.

 

The CNN article starts out:

It's the month when we get stressed over the perfect gifts to give to family and friends. Are they foodies or travelers, lovers of movies and music, busy parents who need a break or children who love the latest electronic gadgets? Or would they be happier with something crafty?

With all the buying and selling going on, it can be hard to remember the point of the season for many people: Spending time with family, celebrating the religious holidays that inspire the season, and doing some good in the world.

You still have time to do your holiday shopping with us. We can ship items out overnight in time for your gift giving. Start by going to our home page and while there, be sure to check out our holiday bargain sale page with many popular items on sale right now. 

Our Holiday Sale Page Offers Too-Good-to-Pass-Up Bargains

Fair trade holiday gift shopping is one of the hottest trends this season. Most people think of fair trade as coffee, tea, chocolate and another agricultural products, but fair trade now covers the entire gamut of finely crafted items including jewelry, accessories, clothing, shoes, purses, home décor, toys and more.

Shopping for a Change’s online store has an entire department dedicated to bargain sales for holiday gift buying. Browse our virtual sales shelves to view fantastic bargains ranging from 10 – 50% OFF, including best sellers in jewelry, clothing, accessories, home décor. All are handmade and green eco friendly.

Not only will you find great prices on all of our fair trade items, but your gifts truly give back in multiple ways: to the artisans who make them, their communities and to U.S. based nonprofit organizations that our shoppers choose during the checkout process.

Quantities are limited so stop by soon! www.shoppingforachange.org

Stacey Horowitz, Founder SFAC, Featured on KRON 4 Bay Area News

Stacey Horowitz—founder and CEO of Shopping For a Change—appeared on San Francisco Bay Area news channel TV KRON 4 on November 29^th to talk about her nonprofit fair trade online site, a number of the unique products she’s offering for the holiday season, how she got started and the artisans she works with globally. Interviewed by Will Tran of KRON (go here to see interview)—who was enthused about the story and the SFAC products on display in the studios—Stacey told how her nonprofit and fair trade products are unique. While holding up an extraordinarily beautiful purse made by Brazilian women completely out of pop can tops, she explained how SFAC uses all profits to directly help the artisans (mostly women), their communities with education and living resources, and nonprofits which the shoppers choose during the checkout process.

The Brazilian pop top purses are a big hit, and all styles are selling fast. Stacey purchased and has carried her own Greta style pop top bag for close to a year,  saying everywhere she takes it, women and men alike stop her to comment on it. Get one for your loved ones (go here).

In the KRON interview Stacey told how SFAC was founded following a trip to Peru after witnessing the poverty of craftspeople there who were mothers with families and individuals truly struggling in all expressions of life that we might normally take for granted. Stacey wanted to help make a difference, and see the artisans and communities around the world grow in prosperity.

Will asked if the items SFAC carries are affordable,  to which Stacey explained that absolutely they are affordable, costing no more than items that are made and marketed conventionally. From home décor to jewelry, accessories, kitchen, table wares and more, Stacey explained how the products are well priced while still paying the artisans fairly and enabling the customers’ purchases to help fund community improvement projects abroad and support their choice of domestic nonprofits.

Still need to do your holiday shopping? Visit the SFAC online marketplace now, or very soon for fabulous collections and great bargain sales (before they run out). Tell all your friends and relatives too. 

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.