Business Members

• Fashion Apparel & Accessories
• General Gift

ABBY ALLEY is a people-first, planet-focused, fashion brand offering you our exclusive, high-quality designs that are brought to life through long term, mutually empowering relationships with our artisan partners in East Africa.

• Fashion Apparel & Accessories
• Jewelry

Aeshaane by Shilp is an award-winning slow fashion brand that celebrates the work of crafts people from rural communities in India. The Ahimsa silk weave began with the simple thought of creating ‘cruelty-free' fabric and has grown to embrace the ancient technique of hand block printing exploring hues, pattern, color and texture. This global brand blurs the line between traditional and modern by paring artisanal techniques with striking geometrical patterns. Free from the burden of seasons and trends, these exquisite pieces include silk scarves, loungewear, and upcycled jewelry crafted from natural fibers, in designs that remain striking and relevant for years to come.

• Fashion Apparel & Accessories

Handmade jewelry inspired by a Chicago woman's travels in India. Incorporating vintage amulets, gemstones, old brass, religious talismans, tassels, and carved stone, each piece is unique. Anokhi Green practices fair trade principles with the goal of giving back to the Jaipur community where it all began.

• Fashion Apparel & Accessories
• Home Decor
• General Gift

Charmed by the people on Ghana and the vibrancy of their culture while visiting the country on a mission trip, founder Terri Neil was inspired to find a way to expand the market for Ghanaian artisans so they could better support themselves and their families. Within a year, Artisans of Ghana was created with a mission to expand economic options for its artisans & to make Ghanaian products available to consumers in the United States.

• Home Decor
• General Gift

Since 2009 when established as a not-for-profit NGO, BFTA has worked relentlessly to spread the fair trade message in Palestine and started linking Palestinian producers to global fair trade markets. Over the years, we worked to build free trade bridges with European countries, mainly Germany and The Netherlands, and have recently made inroads into the USA, thereby expanding our artisans’ opportunities to distribute and sell their products into larger markets. In 2015, BFTA became the first guaranteed member of the World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO) in the Middle East. And since then, we have been promoting producers specializing in olive wood, embroidery, mother of pearl, olive oil soap, felt wool, and recycled products, through multiple marketing channels that include trade exhibitions in Europe and, more recently, our move into e-commerce to meet online demand.

• Fashion Apparel & Accessories
• Home Decor
• General Gift
• Babies & Kids

Blossom Inspirations is a fair trade company working with artisans & their communities to produce toys, ornaments, and women’s fashion accessories. Each product was designed and produced in a such a way that positively affects their artisans, wholesalers, retailers, consumers, and the environment.

• Fashion Apparel & Accessories
• General Gift
• Bath & Beauty

Bright Endeavors is a non-profit social enterprise job training program for young moms in Chicago. Bright Endeavors partners with young moms in a 2-generation approach that puts families in control of their goals and unleashes their potential. Through hand crafting home fragrance products, graduates of the job training program embark on their career and parenting journeys equipped with the skills, network, and confidence to enter into the workforce.

• Fashion Apparel & Accessories
• Home Decor
• General Gift

Campo is a social good company. We are dedicated to creating new and exciting products while benefitting the people and communities with whom we work. We ensure fair wages are paid to all of our team members and contractors and work with them to build up their communities, solving day-to-day issues.

• Home Decor

Earthfoam is an independent, family-owned company making mattresses delightful from tree and sheep to shop and sleep. We make our products from only all-natural, organic, and fair trade-certified materials.

• Home Decor
• Food & Beverage
• Bath & Beauty
• Health & Wellness

ALLIED MEMBER Eco & the Flamingo was created in order to make environmentally responsible products accessible to their community, while also prioritizing livable wages along the supply chain. They strive to make sustainable living more available and inclusive.

• Fashion Apparel & Accessories

Every Ecodunia product has a story - from the hands that made it, to where it came from and how it was made. When you carry an Ecodunia bag, you are providing a dignified work opportunity to those left behind by the global economy.

• Health & Wellness

Empowerment Collective is a nonprofit (501c3) organization, dedicated to ending exploited labor, forced marriage and extreme poverty. Empowerment Collective is inviting good people, businesses, governments and media to join together and invest in the 7 Keys for Global Human Rights. The 7 keys are: Protected Environment, Clean Water, Nutritious food, Safe Shelter, Quality Education, Health care and Access to Technology. The 7 Keys hold the power to unlock the door of freedom to millions of people so they can realize their full potential. Currently we are implementing 7 Keys Projects in Terai, Nepal. Terai is a highly populated area of Nepal where women frequently bear 8 – 10 children, many who do not survive infancy. It is a place where humans are trafficked for sex, labor and domestic servitude. Children are forced to work, women have no rights, and girls are forced into marriage at a young age. Through a dedicated and passionate team, we are building a society where every person is free to be a leader, change maker and problem solver.

• Fashion Apparel & Accessories

Fair Anita is a social enterprise that exists to create opportunities for women and girls, selling cute + ethical + affordable jewelry and accessories made by over 8,000  women in 9 countries. We partner with female artisan collectives and provide them with fair wages, long-term employment, and business development opportunities. By paying artisans at two or three times the minimum wage, we generate income for women that helps them respond to violent gender dynamics in their community. By committing to reliable partnerships, we help our partners grow their businesses and provide more women with paths to economic independence. By connecting resilient and talented artisans with new markets and customers, we're helping women be leaders in their communities. We aim to create a community of women who celebrate, support, and invest in one another's success, building a world where we can all thrive-- no matter our geography.

• Fashion Apparel & Accessories

The Fair Shirt Project was born out of a desire to build awareness of fair trade among men and to give men more fair-trade clothing options.  All TFSP products are made at Work+Shelter, a social-enterprise cut-and-sew manufacturer in New Delhi, India, that provides training, employment opportunities, and access to education and basic needs through its not-for-profit wing.

• Fashion Apparel & Accessories
• General Gift
• Jewelry

Handicraft Soul supports social change and sustainability through craft by establishing fair trade partnerships with social enterprise groups and independent artisans in South Africa and Ghana. The company works directly with its artisan partners to purchase their handmade goods and pay them a fair wage upfront for their work, which supports employment opportunities. By building long-term relationships and connecting unique products to new customers, Handicraft Soul hopes to see artisans and their businesses flourish!

• Food & Beverage

Heray Spice is a local business based in Chicago Illinois with a social mission to help farmers with better wages while helping chefs with the freshest and highest quality spices from Afghanistan. The business's owners are a group of Afghan immigrants and farmers who have been traveling back and forth between US and Afghanistan to source the best saffron and other spices directly from local farmers. To import the highest quality saffron and pay our farmers better wages, Heray farms are owned by local farmers who have a partnership to only supply saffron for Heray Spice. The farmers are paid based on fair-trade principles and are organized in a farmers co-operative based in Herat Afghanistan where they come together for trainings on food safety, standard packaging, and safe processing of saffron. The business is proud to help farmers cultivate saffron instead of poppy, and make a better living for themselves while making the world a better and safer place for everyone.

• Fashion Apparel & Accessories
• Home Decor
• Bath & Beauty

HHPLIFT creates jobs and career paths for people in Chicago with significant life barriers to employment. They are also a direct provider of jobs to people from underserved communities in Chicago through their 1eleven® Program.

• Health & Wellness

The Hive Supply Company is a high quality, local beekeeping business that manages beehives, sells beekeeping equipment, offers education, and makes and sells delicious honey and delightful beeswax candles from Chicagoland.

• Fashion Apparel & Accessories
• Home Decor
• General Gift

ILAVA aims to become one of the leading, socially responsible fashion brands in the industry by offering the best quality attire and lifestyle items at a price point that reflects the brand's ability to give back. More importantly, ILAVA wants to create a culture where women will embrace the uniqueness and versatility of African clothes without feeling out of place in mainstream society. By celebrating women, entrepreneurship, education, and success against all odds, ILAVA will continue to grow ahead of the curve and offer unique products to service the ILAVA woman. In addition to this, ILAVA will continue to give back to the country of Tanzania and other global south countries through amazing programs, partnerships, and sponsorships. ILAVA derived from Nyamwezi, a Tanzanian tribal language which means "It Can Be Done!".

• Jewelry

Indie-Pendant is a Chicago-based jewelry design house founded by GIA-certified graduate gemologist Anjali Raj Hansoty. She works with Fair Trade Certified companies in India to produce small-batch and one-of-a-kind designs. Women (specifically) and community empowerment are concepts she believes in and promotes. Indie-Pendant offers modern contemporary designs made with traditional workmanship. Bespoke commissions are welcome.

• Food & Beverage

JUST HAITI, Inc. focuses on the poorest communities of Haiti, transforming both the consumer and producer through a just and dignified relationship. Our Fair and Direct Trade business means we purchase coffee directly from the grower associations, with no intermediary organizations. The up-front price we pay is higher and we return all profits from the sale of the coffee directly to the coffee growers and their families. This puts more money in their pockets. Drink coffee, grow justice!

• Food & Beverage

Lacuna Cacao believes in a just world where people are paid a fair price for their labor, which leads to economic independence. We work with more than 300 farmers and their families in the country of Nicaragua where we have developed training and operations at centralized fermentation facilities in four distinct regions of the country that produce and export quality cacao and cacao products to the U.S.

• Fashion Apparel & Accessories
• Home Decor
• Food & Beverage

The Little Traveler is a retail store in Geneva, IL, that sends travelers to scout throughout Europe and the Far East to bring back the most wonderful treasures. Visitors will find an ever-changing collection with new shipments arriving continuously. Be sure to check out their Fair Trade Gallery!

• Fashion Apparel & Accessories

Malia Designs is a socially responsible fair trade brand that designs and sells handbags and accessories. The company was formed to increase economic opportunity for women in Cambodia and to support organizations that fight human trafficking in Southeast Asia.

• Fashion Apparel & Accessories

Marketplace: Handwork of India is a pioneering non-profit that empowers women in India to break the cycle of poverty as they become leaders in their work, their homes, and their neighborhoods, and affect lasting change in their communities. Marketplace works with over 400 artisans in 11 cooperatives that produce high-quality women’s apparel and home decor. They learn skills such as sewing and embroidery and participate in all aspects of running their cooperatives. In addition, programs offer educational and enrichment opportunities designed to help the artisans overcome personal, cultural, and financial obstacles.

• Fashion Apparel & Accessories

Mata Traders is a Chicago-based fair trade apparel and accessories brand. Their products are handmade using artistic traditions such as block-printing and embroidery, combined with flattering design and a flair for color. That’s just half the story – Mata provides fashion with impact. For their producers, it’s an opportunity to make a better life for their families.

• Food & Beverage

Metropolis Coffee is one of Chicago’s most well-known coffee brands, and several of their beans are certified fair trade and sold in local coffee shops and grocery stores. Metropolis is committed to building community & investing in Chicago-area employees, including a partnership with Aspire Coffeeworks, providing jobs roasting their coffee beans for Chicagoans with disabilities.

• Fashion Apparel & Accessories

Milagros envisions a better world for girls and young women: a future in which each woman has economic opportunity and a recognized voice in her home, her workplace, and her community. Milagros jewelry and crafts are completely hand-made by young women in the Gracia program. All profits are directed back to the girls, helping to meet their daily needs, funding the training program, and providing emergency funds for special needs.

• Fashion Apparel & Accessories
• Home Decor

Motif is a friendly business that connects the amazing artisans of Bangladesh with fair trade buyers worldwide since 1998. Their on-trend lines of accessories and home decor are made from local materials using only traditional techniques, which ensures many livelihoods are benefitted in the making of each product. Now available to retailers in the US via Minga Fair Trade Imports.

• Home Decor
• General Gift
• Jewelry

In OCHABE, using vegetable fiber we bring to life the ancestral weaving techniques of Usiacuri, Atlántico Colombia, through the creation of artisanal pieces made by indigenous Colombian Women, making ethically and high quality products for other conscious businesses. We are grateful to be able to support a community that weaves dreams from day to day with their hands and with their souls.

• Home Decor
• General Gift

Ornaments 4 Orphans® is a fair trade, social business. We sell handmade products made ethically in developing countries. We work in Uganda, Kenya, Peru and Nepal with 12 artisan groups in over 20 communities. Our organization directly impacts 500 families, 1000 children, and countless others. We actively invest back into the communities we work to provide jobs, prevent orphans, and preserve families with vulnerable children.

• Fashion Apparel & Accessories

Production Mode, a Chicago-made line of apparel and accessories, draws on the strengths of the art, design, and activist communities in Chicago and beyond. Featured on the cover of Billboard Magazine, their collection is made to order at their Chicago studio, which allows them to minimize ecological and financial waste. Production Mode is committed to fair trade practices, including transparency through their supply chain, paying living wages to the weavers, tanners, cutters, and stitchers who produce their pieces, and reducing their environmental impact. Production Mode’s showroom and production space is open to the public.

• Fashion Apparel & Accessories

RefuSHE is a nonprofit organization that protects, educates, and empowers orphaned, unaccompanied, and separated refugee girls and young women in Nairobi, Kenya. The Artisan Collective is RefuSHE’s peer-driven social enterprise program that empowers refugee women with the education and opportunities they need to become skilled, confident, and economically independent entrepreneurs. The collaborative arts-based curriculum allows members to express themselves creatively through the design and production of hand-dyed scarves and textiles, acquire transferrable leadership and business management skills, and earn an income to support themselves and their families.

• Fashion Apparel & Accessories

Re:new Project exists to provide employment in a safe space for refugee women to thrive. Through our free sewing class, we hire Artisans to sew and create beautiful one-of-a-kind goods. All products are made from upcycled materials locally in the Chicago suburbs by refugee women who have resettled in our community.

• Home Decor

A handmade lifestyle brand, Sobremesa by Greenheart supports fair trade, environmental sustainability, and conscious consumerism. The word ‘sobremesa’ means ‘over the table,’ and our name is inspired by the Spaniards’ tradition of lingering after a meal to savor the conversation and company of others. We celebrate the traditional methods used to create our goods, and every item has a story, whether it’s about the revival of a glass-blowing factory in Guatemala or a weaving cooperative whose name is inspired by the rhythm of traditional foot looms. Each product is designed to empower the artisans and strengthen their community. Sobremesa, a division of Greenheart International based in Chicago, embodies our organization’s mission to connect people and planet. By sharing the story of our products and the artisans who make them, we invite each consumer to become aware of their impact on the global community.

• Home Decor
• General Gift

Soko Space is a fair trade, woman-owned company based in the Chicago area that specializes in personal, home, and garden items from Africa. They purchase directly from producers and provide small grants to expand businesses in producer communities. With their profits, they help to fund Global Alliance for Africa’s therapeutic arts program and community library.

• Fashion Apparel & Accessories

Extreme poverty in the Philippines affects about 19% of the population or 18.4 million people. SORA Products is empowering talented women by providing markets for their hand woven products so they can provide sustainable income for their families and experience holistic transformation through this missional business partnership.

• Fashion Apparel & Accessories

I am a new entrepreneur and want to surround myself with like minded people. I have a mission to give back and empowering women in less fortuant situations. Being a women, I feel it is important to show little girls and women worldwide how powerful they are by gaining independence. My mission is to Soothe Souls Globally One Enevelop at at Time by giving back to communities in need and offering sewing lessons to women in order to gain employment, financial freedom & power to rise up and support themselves.

• Fashion Apparel & Accessories

Promoting natural products on the current market is a difficult task. We have to compete with a lot of products from multinational vertically integrated companies, so in this task having any kind of support from like minded activists is always a good push not to give up. At Super Slippers, we truly believe in sustainable consumption and natural products, especially when they are made with great craftsmanship. We are happy to be a part of this local family of fair trade companies, so we support independent and entrepreneur women in Central Asia.

• Jewelry

Susan Wheeler uses fairmined 18 karat gold and recycled platinum to create unique and timeless jewelry. Handmade right here in Chicago, Susan Wheeler Designs melds modern and traditional design qualities, creating the highest quality jewelry and accessories with a truly unique texture.

• Fashion Apparel & Accessories

SUSU Accessories is a fashion accessories brand whose products are handcrafted by the indigenous Wayúu people of the Guajira peninsula, divided between Colombia and Venezuela. “We want to be part of a new fashion paradigm. We choose to deal with clients and distributors who identify with our Fair Trade philosophy and who value our ancestral roots. We want to be recognized as “The Thread Between Two Worlds”; the Arijuna (modern) world, and the traditional Wayúu world. We are the brand that creates new, high fashion designs that are compatible with contemporary fashion trends, without losing its Wayúu ancestral essence.”

• Food & Beverage
• Bath & Beauty

Sweet Beginnings LLC makes the family of beelove products, an all-natural line of raw honey and honey-infused body care products. They extract their honey from their all-natural urban apiary in the heart of the North Lawndale Community in Chicago. Not only do they resepect the earth in the production of their products, but they also provide importation transitional job opportunities for area residents who struggle with barriers to employment.

• Fashion Apparel & Accessories

Taylor Tall is founded by Taylor and Nathaniel, a couple on a mission to change the fashion experience for tall women. Creating garments that accommodate a wide range of tall figures is challenging, but their strong sense of curiosity spurred the creation of a new approach to garment production. At Taylor Tall, our work is fueled by our passion for understanding the intricacies of how clothing fits. We strive to improve every aspect of the clothing you wear from the fit and construction to the fabric and finish. We believe your Taylor Tall garment should feel different than every other piece in your closet. We hope to make shopping for your true fit effortless

• Fashion Apparel & Accessories
• Home Decor
• General Gift
• Babies & Kids
• Bath & Beauty
• Jewelry
• Health & Wellness

Ten Thousand Villages Evanston is a non-profit, fair trade retailer of artisan-crafted home decor, apparel, personal accessories and gifts, including coffee and chocolate, from across the globe. We’re a way for you to shop with intention for ethically-sourced handcrafted wares - and to share in the joy of empowering makers in ten thousand villages.

• Fashion Apparel & Accessories
• Home Decor
• General Gift
• Food & Beverage
• Babies & Kids
• Bath & Beauty

Ten Thousand Villages in Oak Park, IL, is a fair trade retailer of artisan-crafted home decor, personal accessories and gift items from across the globe. Featuring products from more than 130 artisan groups in some 38 countries, they are part of a network of over 390 retail outlets throughout the United States selling Ten Thousand Villages products.

• General Gift
• Babies & Kids

Terra Experience was started in 1999 as a very small, socially responsible business to help Mayan friends in Guatemala earn some additional income for school supplies and other needs of their families. They sell handmade doll clothes that are just the right size for American Girl dolls, which look similar to traditional Guatemalan huipiles, but take much less time to make.

• Home Decor
• General Gift

TerraKlay is a social enterprise, committed to connecting entrepreneurial-minded artisans, with limited resources, from small communities in India to a more vibrant global market. Working directly with artisans, TerraKlay brings a curated line of home goods and decor that are elegant, sustainable, ethical. It is built on the idea that refined living does not have to come at the cost of hurting the people or the planet.

• Fashion Apparel & Accessories
• Home Decor
• General Gift
• Food & Beverage
• Babies & Kids
• Bath & Beauty

Tree of Life Imports was founded in 1989 during El Salvador's civil war as a means to bring the art of la palma to the American market. Since then, we have focused our attention on several Latin American communities to help provide equal opportunity for all to work, including women and the rural poor. All of our products are handmade by artisans in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico. Tree of life imports is committed to fair trade and economic justice. We pay a fair price that has allowed our producers to greatly increase their standard of living.

• Fashion Apparel & Accessories
• Home Decor
• General Gift
• Babies & Kids
• Jewelry

Tulia’s Artisan Gallery seeks the finest accessories and home décor handcrafted in Colombia. As the country recovers from generations of violence and internal displacement, Tulia’s mission is to show that art is the other Colombian export, and works to source this art directly from artisans working to preserve ancestral lands, culture, and traditions.

• Fashion Apparel & Accessories
• Home Decor

Venture Imports supplies beautiful and unique gifts from Kenya. Venture Imports is a company dedicated to providing employment to people in developing countries by giving them access to North American markets.

ALLIED MEMBER The Weaving Mill is an artist-run industrial weaving studio in Chicago that combines design, production, textile education and research-based practices. We created limited editions of functional textiles, apparel and artist's projects. Working with people of diverse textile experience, we aim to fill the space between the hand and industrially made and bring the mechanics of textile production into wider view.In partnership with social services agency Envision Unlimited, we provide textile education workshops for adults with developmental disabilities and host an annual artist residency program.

• Fashion Apparel & Accessories
• General Gift
• Babies & Kids

The Winding Road features collections of beautiful handmade scarves, shawls, handbags, and children’s toys from around the world. They seek out small, fair trade compliant suppliers who use eco-friendly fabrics to provide ethical and sustainable accessories and gifts. The Winding Road also participates in several markets and trade shows in the Chicago area and provides wholesale product options to retail stores and museum shops.

• Fashion Apparel & Accessories
• General Gift
• Babies & Kids

WORK+SHELTER’s mission is to make it easy for organizations and consumers to purchase wholesale quantities of high quality, ethically made, customized sewn goods. In pursuit of a more just world, we employ women in need and when possible use other social enterprises, natural fibers, recycled, organic, or otherwise eco-friendly inputs.

• Fashion Apparel & Accessories

WorldFinds is a design-driven brand of jewelry and accessories that empowers women through fair trade. Our sustainable styles transcend all seasons, and collections range from minimalist to statement pieces. A large part of our collection includes designs handmade from repurposed textiles. Our colorful jewelry uses upcycled Kantha and Sari textiles, so they are one-of-a-kind and incredibly kind to the Earth. These handmade designs create dignified work for our artisan partners in India, and support education projects to provide impact in their communities.

• Fashion Apparel & Accessories
• General Gift

Y’abal Handicrafts is a Guatemalan artisan organization that supports indigenous women’s weaving cooperatives, providing them with local and international markets. Y’abal seeks to increase the opportunities and quality of life for women in the Western Highlands of Guatemala while preserving the traditional art of back-strap weaving. Mixing the traditional with the contemporary, Y’abal creates modern and stylish products that maintain centuries-old cultural symbols and weaving techniques.

• Food & Beverage

ZACHI is an organic premium chocolate brand that combines the best cacao in the world, "Fine Aroma Ecuadorian Cacao", with ingredients that enlighten the body and mind. ZACHI was born in honor of Zamora-Chinchipe, the province in Ecuador´s Amazonian region where traces of cacao were found in ancient artifacts dating back to more than 5,000 years ago. This important discovery established Ecuador as the native birthplace of cacao.