Shopping for a Change™ is a web-based platform through which artisans, consumers and charitable organizations create a symbiotic relationship.

Throughout the world, low-income communities of talented artisans do what they can to survive. Willing to work, they exist under conditions of poverty and hunger, without a sustainable means with which they can raise their standards of living. Presently, donations to charitable organizations are down. Consumers are becoming more socially conscious. They are giving more thought to how products are being made, and where they spend their dollars. Volunteerism is up.

Shopping for a Change™was designed to assist the talented artisans in raising their standard of living, provide charitable organizations with more donations, and further encourage a sense of social consciousness.

Shopping for a Change™ was established for the following humanitarian purposes:

...to create an extended global marketplace for fair trade products by artisans, artisan co-ops, and companies that employ these artisans, predominantly female, from economically disadvantaged areas throughout the world. This will help all of these people provide a sustainable way of life for their communities thereby raising their standards of living, health, and well being;

...to receive direct donations in order to provide greater net proceeds to the low-income communities producing the fair trade products;

...to create a marketplace where consumers may purchase the artisans’ products and suggest the direction of proceeds from their purchases to the charitable organizations of their choice, thereby creating positive “change” for all those parties involved;

…and to promote volunteer action in local communities, nationally and abroad.

We strive to help our artisan groups blend current global market trends with their indigenous traditions. We also support our regional communities  through internship programs with local educational institutions. Chosen student interns gain real world, nonprofit experience working with us on projects involving e-commerce, graphic design, website management, marketing, advertising, public relations, fundraising, and social media.