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Kiva + Etsy = Elevyn:
How to Change The World One Basket a Time
Pick up a handmade village craft in your local store and you may be rewarded with a warm fuzzy feeling that you’ve helped a poor villager in a remote location. After all, you’ve created demand for his craft. Surely, he’ll be rewarded accordingly.
…Right?
Look a little closer and you’ll see a very different story.
How much of the money you spend really makes it to the maker or artisan who created the item? Let’s see - The store will take a cut, so will the wholesaler, and don’t forget the agents who source the crafts directly from the villages. In the end, the maker – arguably the most important person in this process is left with next to nothing, sometimes getting under 10% of the final sale price.
Elevyn changes all that.
Through the help of local partners, Elevyn helps to connect poor artisans and villagers directly to customers around the world. The result? By cutting out all the middle men and their bottom lines, the maker now gets close to 85% of the final sale price.
You may have heard of Etsy.com, a community specialized in selling hand-made items directly on the Internet. Think of Elevyn as Etsy for the poor. Elevyn stocks everything from belts, baskets, and jewelry to coasters, music instruments, and key chains. All beautifully handcrafted by village artisans.
Sustainable Development
Both Kiva.org and Elevyn.com works on the basis of sustainable charity ie. engaging in charitable activities which help these people lift themselves out from poverty in the long run.
Kiva.org works on the basis of microloans helping small business owners in poor countries. Elevyn picks up where Kiva leaves off by connecting these people to the world and giving them a pool of demand which would otherwise never have existed for these villagers.
Engaging the community
On top of direct contributions to the maker, a certain portion (around 5%) is also donated to a charitable cause, ranging from tree planting to women’s groups.
Elevyn also organizes artisans so they can get together to achieve greater economies of scale and specialization as well as raise awareness about the value of the goods they produce. Working with field partners to help out with the orders and dealings on the Internet, Elevyn is also committed to capacity building in terms of electricity and Internet access via satellite in these villages.
Yes, you can make a difference
People get jaded when the money they donate goes into a giant fund, never knowing who they helped and what their impact truly was. Elevyn offers complete transparency where you will be able to see where all the money goes to the exact cent when you make a purchase. You will also be able to see how much money any particular villager has made in real time, and the impact your purchase had on his life.
Elevyn has also built-in trading features which allow negotiation and buying in bulk, and allows tracking of shipments so you know where your package is during transit.
Built by Malaysians, now helping Malaysians
Who’s behind this grand vision, you ask? Malaysians. That’s right. 3 of them. Devan Singaram, Mike Tee and Puah Sze Ning make up the group called Elevyn. In fact their first village in the program is from Sabah (They plan to go beyond the shores of Malaysia of course).
They are partnering with Soning Craft which was founded by sisters Mazeline and Malina Soning, who ventured into the crafts business to help craftswomen in their village to sell their crafts.
All the way from Kampung Tinangol in Kudat, Sabah, East Malaysia, they first ventured to the capital city Kota Kinabalu setting up a small stall to showcase the fine crafts from the talented craftspeople from all across Sabah.
Realizing the need to explore other markets to help better the economic status of the SINOMPURU Women’s Group in their village, Soning Craft hooked up with Elevyn to be the very first shop to launch on Elevyn.
Also, because a rising number of rural schools and clinics in Sabah are now equipped with Satellite Internet and Solar power, their aim is to get these people on board Elevyn as well.
Thinking of getting someone a truly meaningful gift? I can’t think of a better place to start looking. Visit: Elevyn.com.
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