SOLIDARITY FOUNDATION 

Organizational Vision
Citizen Base Strategy
Results

Organizational Vision

The Solidarity Foundation’s entrepreneurial arm, the Solidarity Trader, embodies the intersection of the Foundation’s two-pronged vision: 1) to provide dignity to people through work; and 2) to inspire collaboration within the community to overcome poverty. Dating back to efforts taken during the dictatorial Pinochet era to provide labor to political prisoners and income to their families, the Foundation is rooted in the belief that people crave work both for its financial and personal rewards. The Foundation acknowledges that labor can provide the outlet for even the most challenged individuals to improve the livelihoods of them, their family, and the community.

Citizen Base Strategy

The store’s bright primary colors and a courtyard filled with a display of earthenware bowls en route to Italy frame the path leading to the office of Ashoka Fellow and the Solidarity Foundation’s Executive Director Winnie Lira. The combined physical structures highlight the integration of the Foundation and the store. As the distributor of the hand-made crafts by groups of women micro-entrepreneurs, assembled and trained by the Foundation, the store is both a means and an ends towards the Foundation’s goal. It not only provides the bulk of the Foundation’s and the women’s income, but also creates the Foundation’s marketing image, facilitates corporate partnerships, and builds community support. The Foundation organizes low-income women groups in the metropolitan and outlying regions of Chile’s capital to help them refine their crafts to meet the public’s standards. It works directly with nearly 500 people—87% of which are women—generally poor and/or uneducated, and often isolated. Since the Solidarity Trader is their only available market outside of local bazaars, it is their only real hope. And as their products gain visibility, so to do the problems encountered by small-scale producers.

Professionalize the Community Workforce

To overcome some of these barriers, as well as guarantee the products’ quality and conformity, the Foundation sponsors five kinds of trainings. The women learn how to administer their organization (formal or informal), manage funds, oversee quality control, meet external demand, and give back wisely to their immediate community. Through these interactions, the Foundation ultimately determines the quantity and quality of the products for sale in the Solidarity Trader. This arrangement guarantees that there will be both a flow of the right goods and, resultantly, income. The Solidarity Trader’s profits are reinvested 100% into the Foundation to continue its expansion and outreach.

Build a Niche Market and Compete with the Best

Meanwhile, the Foundation has built a series of relationships to guarantee market demand outside of international requests and the sales from its two metropolitan stores. Most importantly, the Foundation has won bids on government contracts to supply educational products (e.g., games, toys, puzzles, etc.) to nursery and elementary schools. Because its products are locally made, culturally appropriate, and even gender specific, the Foundation has beaten competitors such as Fisher Price and Mattel. Through these long-term agreements, the Foundation is able to guarantee near full-time labor for more than 50% of the participating women.

Sew Ethics into Every Product and Relationship

The Foundation has placed a premium on ethical behavior in order to maintain its image and credibility. For example, in one of its large sales to the local division of a multinational corporation, the Foundation insisted that the sale be legally recorded as a purchase from the store instead of a tax-free donation to the Foundation, contrary to the corporation’s initial proposition. The Foundation recognizes that its ethical behavior is fundamental to the success of both the business and organization. After all, the success of the store is the measure of success of the Foundation itself. As Winnie Lira expressed, “I believe that we can compete with the big businesses as long as we don’t abandon our mission, which is the real quality of our product.”

Results

The combined sales from its two locations in Santiago, Chile and from its 44 shipments overseas (to 18 countries, primarily through Fair Trade Networks) represented 42% of the Foundation’s budget in 2002, allowing it to decrease the already miniscule support from Foundations from 5% in 2001 to 3% in 2003. Meanwhile, every client—individual or corporate—is challenged to confront the issue of restricted market access, whose effect can be minimized simply by supporting the Foundation.

This interaction with the public has resulted in other flows of support: volunteers helping to run the store or make special Christmas packaging out of donated newspapers; in-kind donations of fabric and wool for pre-Columbian art reproductions; the provision of computers and office supplies; designs for new products and marketing tools, etc. These real demonstrations of solidarity nourish and achieve the very mission of the Foundation.

Attributing much of the recent increase in sales due to the Foundation’s internal acceptance of the Solidarity Trader as a legitimate commercial enterprise, a concept that was initially uncomfortable for the citizen organization, the Foundation has since hired marketing professionals for the store. The immediate effects are already apparent through a recent email and direct mail outreach campaign that resulted in two major contracts with PricewaterhouseCooper and Coca-Cola to supply them each with Christmas cards. Lacking any personal contacts within these businesses, the store succeeded in finding this new market by persistent contact, sending high-quality samples and follow-up letters, and encouraging the corporations to ride the wave of Corporate Socially Responsibility.

Within three years, the Foundation aims to be working with 800 people, have an additional store (complemented by photos and texts describing the women’s lives), and increase their exports and international reach by more than 50%. Its new on-line catalogue is also anticipated to boost revenue.