Shopping for a Change®

Three simultaneous events led to the creation of Shopping for a Change. As I approached age 50, I felt a stronger need than ever to make a difference in the world, and wanted to do so on a global scale. That same year our son’s class, embarked on a philanthropic project that we found both educational and truly inspirational. It was then over winter break 2008-2009, during our family vacation to the Galapagos Islands and Peru, when I realized but for an accident of birth, I could have been any one of the artistically talented women whom I witnessed struggling as the sole supporters of their families. And that those mothers and I shared these basic needs and desires: to feed, shelter and educate our children. I arrived home no longer the same person as before I left. Realizing these shared struggles exist for women around the world, due to illness, abuse, war, unemployment and death, I felt compelled to create a business model in which I could help those less fortunate, both here and abroad.Shopping for a Change® was develop ed to empower these talented artisans, predominantly women, and their impoverished communities, with means to transform their standards of living in economically sustainable ways. In addition to paying the artisans up front for their creations, our nonprofit organization splits the net proceeds from your purchases in two ways: we fund Community Improvement Projects abroad with a focus on clean water, health care, and education; and afford you, the consumer the ability to direct net proceeds to a U.S. based nonprofit organization of your choice at checkout. Each year SFAC shares the net proceeds from our sales: contributing half to fund Community Improvement Projects in one of our artisan communities, with a focus on clean water, health care and education (as seen below); and the other half to various U.S.-based nonprofit organizations chosen by our customers during their checkout process.