Sustainable Products for the Home and Kitchen; Organic and Fair Trade Food and Beverages; Ethical Shoes, Apparel, & Accessories
Choosing holiday gifts that create social impact will do so much more than bring joy to the people who receive your presents. This holiday season, choose to support social ventures that are creating a positive impact in communities all over the globe. To help you find ethically and sustainably made gift items that make an impact, we’ve put together this list of social ventures from around the world. Each of these socially conscious gift options is produced by recipients of the SOCAP Entrepreneur Program. Learn more about this year’s SOCAP entrepreneur cohort — and support a social venture below to feel good about your holiday shopping in 2022!
Sustainable Products for the Home and Kitchen
Imani Collective
Ethically made by empowered artisans in Kenya – Imani Collective started in a small village outside of Mombasa, Kenya. Our founder, Jenny Nuccio, traveled there looking to help fund education projects for kids. As she got to know the families she realized that the children who were struggling the most came from single-income homes where their mothers did not have many job opportunities and often sold fruit for mere pennies a day. Jenny fell in love with the people and decided to move to Kenya full-time to learn from and invest in the community.
Tierra & Lava
We believe you shouldn’t have to compromise with natural skincare – you can have a product that is both kind to your skin and the earth. All of our ingredients are locally sourced in an ethical and transparent way so we can ensure quality at every part of their journey; from inception to the final product. We build relationships with our farmers and financially support them so they can carry on the legacy of their disappearing traditional cultural practices. Many of our ingredients are grown in our very own organic garden, ensuring the utmost level of care. Because we are so connected to where our ingredients come from, we work to preserve their natural integrity – using as close to their whole, raw, and unadulterated forms as possible.
LIKHA
LIKHA is a retail/wholesale brand that brings modernized artisan home goods and fashion accessories to markets across the globe. Our mission is to provide sustainable livelihoods to community-based artisans in the Philippines through access to markets that realize the true value of their craft while preserving culture and tradition.
Organic and Fair Trade Food and Beverages
Pezzy Pets
We work with artisanal fishermen in Mexico to turn the tide against the hated, invasive “devil fish” and upcycle it into single and limited-ingredient pet treats that are great for pets as well as the environment. We have also begun to process other invasive fish species like the lionfish and bluestripe snapper in the US and Mexico.
Coconut Whisk
Coconut Whisk is a mission-driven vegan & gluten-free baking mix company that helps busy families create healthy indulgences & positive kitchen experiences. Our yummy-tasting baking mixes are easy-to-make, dietitian-approved, dairy-free, egg-free, gluten-free, peanut-free, soy-free, non-GMO, and made without preservatives or artificial ingredients. From pancakes to muffins to cookies, we make sure to create products that are better-for-you yet indulgent.
NEMI Teas
NEMI Teas is a London-based tea company and social enterprise focused on empowering refugees. NEMI provides refugees with employment and leadership opportunities within its business of manufacturing and distribution of tea across both retail and wholesale channels in the UK and Europe.
Burlap & Barrel
Burlap & Barrel is a Public Benefit Corporation building new international food supply chains that are equitable, transparent, and traceable. We’re working towards ending inequality and exploitation in food systems that disenfranchise skilled farmers. We do this by connecting smallholder farmers to high-value markets; educating consumers about the impact of product traceability on human rights; and sourcing unique foods with a terroir that are grown biodynamically and organically using traditional techniques.
Black Mamba
My husband and I started Black Mamba for the simple reason that we were nuts about chilies! But we soon learned that they’re an amazing way to empower people and the planet too. We’re passionate about uplifting Swazi women and their families and now work with 60 women (and men), providing them with a sustainable income, to help them improve their lives.
Rooted Fare
We create unique, ready-to-use Asian sauces to make cooking Asian comfort foods easy and efficient for young, busy Asian Americans who are new to cooking, by partnering and profit-sharing with experienced immigrant chefs to capture those cornerstone flavors.
Iburu Coffee
Iburu LTD is a Kenyan-based social enterprise offering smallholder coffee farmers an alternative platform through which they earn consistent and reliable income, while positively contributing to climate action and biodiversity.
Ethical Shoes, Apparel, & Accessories
Someone Somewhere
We seek to connect you with the thousands of artisans who live in vulnerable conditions to boost their development and contribute to their well-being. We combine their traditional crafts with pieces designed for you, creating products with a positive impact both for those who use them and those who make them. Through fair trade with artisan communities, we can contribute to the development and preservation of their traditions.
Nanay Kids
NANAY is a Bolivian company dedicated to the production of Alpaca and Llama knitted baby and children’s clothing. Nanay is a socially conscious company, and Fair Trade certified. We work with 600 native local knitters who are heads of the family and provide the main income to their homes. Ninety percent of our knitters are women. Our main mission is to constantly create jobs and increase hand labor, to improve the living standards of the knitters by searching constantly the growth of our markets for the products.
NAECO
Your purchase of NAECO products helps support our mission to reverse damage to our ocean. We are 100% for the planet, and through our commitment as a 1% for the Planet member company we donate to ocean conservation organizations like Surfrider Foundation. We are very excited to now be planting a piece of coral for every purchase (with the option to plant more) together with our partner Coralive. We always prefer reusable to single-use and please remember – the best way to keep single-use plastics from getting in the ocean is to stop using them.
ONEOFEACH – The African Academy of Fashion
The African Academy of Fashion established by ONEOFEACH, have deliver Garment Construction and Fashion Accessory Making program for unemployed women youth from underserved communities in Cape Town, South Africa. Participants receive practical and hands-on training of the fundamental principles, techniques and knowledge that will enable them to utilize the skills of constructing garments and accessories. Our aim to boost employment of women while reinvigorating the traditional artisanal craft and manufacturing industry in Africa.
Prison Art
The Prison Art Project (NGO) was established in 2012 following its founder Jorge Cueto’s dream of creating a large rehabilitation program in Mexican penitentiaries. The foundation developed a training plan that offers the art and design skills needed for imprisoned people to be employed in the production of high-quality fashion products. Please note: Prices listed on their website are in Mexican Pesos.
Soko
We are a women-led, people-first ethical jewelry brand and tech-powered manufacturing platform built to connect artisans in Kenya with the global market. We use mobile technology to connect marginalized Kenyan artisans directly to the global marketplace. Unlike centralized factory production, we use technology to enable the human workforce. Through a continued exploration of form, materiality, and artisan techniques, we create jewelry collections comprised of evolved classics and subtle statements to celebrate your uninhibited self-expression.
