Fair Trade Only Works Because.....

By Rebecca and Glenn Fadner

Fair Trade only works because people believe in it and "vote" for it with their shopping dollars. Whether it's coffee or chocolate or our KVI products, it first takes people to believe that EVERYONE ~ from the producer to the retailer ~ has a right to make a fair and living wage.

Subsequently it requires individuals to choose to spend their money purchasing Fair Trade products.

Entrepreneurs Tackling Africa's Problems

By Marita Greenidge

Check out the New York Times' blog Freakonomics for a great post on what some people are doing to further development in Africa. Click here. A few tidbits:

• Using entrepreneurship
• Using venture capital for technology development
• Helping those affected by HIV/AIDS

Why rely on aid if you can find innovative ways to help your country?

Slavery? Today?

By Rebecca and Glenn Fadner

Slavery ended in 1863 when Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, right? Guess again! Slavery is "alive and well" throughout the modern world!! Oh, it's illegal in over 80% of the countries, but it still exists. In fact, estimates range from as "low" as 4 million to as high as 27 million people enslaved, with the US State Department settling on around 12 million. Contrast that with an estimated 4 million slaves in the US immediately before the Civil War.

Trafficking in human beings is "tied for second" (with illegal arms) as the second largest criminal activity in the world (after the drug trade). And if you think it only happens "over there", think again! The US is both a destination and an origination point for victims of trafficking.

Because combating the trauma of those rescued out of trafficking is central to the mission of our supplier STOPStart, we are taking the opportunity to become more informed about the scourge of human trafficking and how to combat it. We will be attending the first Global Forum on Human Trafficking in Carlsbad, CA on October 8-9.

We'll have more to share from what we've learned, but we want to encourage YOU to become more informed as well. Here are several resources to assist you:

• "Not For Sale" - David Batstone A look at examples of human trafficking worldwide AND how a number of organizations are working to combat it.

• www.notforsalecampaign.org - Up-to-the-minute information on how people are organizing to combat modern-day slavery

• The Salvation Army Human Trafficking site

We encourage you to become informed and involved!

Big Decisions, Big Developments & Big Balloons!

By Glenn Fadner

Gershwin wrote, "Summertime, and the livin' is easy..."

The month of August has had a "slower" pace for us if you measure it in miles travelled. This month we've only done one "show" and it was close to home. It has nevertheless been an extremely eventful month for KVI.

Probably the most significant event for us was Hagar International's decision to "spin off" Hagar On-Time! (H-OT!), their textile business that manufactures all of our Hagar Design products.

I'm not going to go into all the details here because it will make this too lengthy. You can click this link to get all those details. The condensed version is that in order to conserve finances for their social programs, Hagar International sold H-OT! to a group of like-minded Australians who will operate it under the name STOPStart. Look for our products to begin carrying the STOPStart logo in the near future.

Hagar's decision and the "challenging" economic climate provoked us at Kingdom Ventures to examine our own business model. The picture that I got as I reflected over the past four years was that when we first started out, it was somewhat like duck-hunting - we used a shotgun with scatter-shot which is bound to hit SOMETHING if you sent it into a flock of ducks. That technique worked well in bringing us to where we are, but it won't take us any further. We need to be thinking much more strategically if we're going to grow KVI. It's going to take a "rifle" rather than a "shotgun".

So with several big gulps, we took the steps of applying to exhibit at two more trade shows: Another one in Boston in September and (BIG gulp) one in San Francisco in February. The costs involved are scary. However, it does give us opportunity to be in front of more people who understand and promote Fair Trade.

Finally, we just made the decision to attend the Global Forum on Human Trafficking being held in California in early October. In addition to the opportunity to become better equipped to speak to issues around human trafficking, we will be able to meet face-to-face with the new Executive Director of STOPStart, who will also be in attendance.

Yes, August has been a significant month ~ one filled with change, flexibility, adaptations and preparing for growth. Now it's off to the Festival of Balloons in Dansville, NY this weekend. If you are anywhere in Central New York, stop by and say hello! It's a GREAT time with terrific weather and a view of those balloons in flight that truly IS out-of-this-world!

Using Entrepreneurship to Combat Global Poverty

By Marita Greenidge

"Multiply the population of the US by three. That’s how many people around the world live on about a dollar a day.

Do it again and now you have the number closer to $2. About forty percent of the world lives on $2 or less a day.

What’s that like? What happens to you when you have two dollars a day to live on. It’s almost impossible to imagine. I mean, $2 is the rent on your apartment for about 45 minutes. $2 buys you one bite of lunch at a local restaurant...

And yet, two billion people survive on that sort of income. "

Those are the opening lines from Seth Godin's post last week Friday. You should definitely read the entire post here. Godin speaks about why entrepreneurship is so important to social and economic development. The focus eventually turns to the Acumen Fund, a non-profit Seth will be working with. I particularly like the Acumen Fund because they seem to share our ideals here at KVI. Here's an explanation of what they do:

"Acumen Fund is a non-profit global venture fund that uses entrepreneurial approaches to solve the problems of global poverty. We seek to prove that small amounts of philanthropic capital, combined with large doses of business acumen, can build thriving enterprises that serve vast numbers of the poor. Our investments focus on delivering affordable, critical goods and services – like health, water, housing and energy – through innovative, market-oriented approaches." - Acumen Fund Wesbite

So the idea is that charity alone is not the answer because it creates dependency. However using charity and investing in projects that have the potential to offer the world's disadvantaged ways to support themselves negates the need for continual charitable donations. This is very important because it means that if charitable dollars run out, persons aren't instataneously transported back to poverty. Donations become more like investments than hand-outs.

This is why we at KVI believe in Fair Trade and helping our artisans find marketable solutions to their economic problems. We are facilitators giving artisans connections to distribution channels they wouldn't normally have so that they can chart their own entrepreneurial course.

Of course this brings into question what happens when we aren't there to facilitate but that's a discussion for another post when we'll talk about why succession planning is so important.