Our Mission
Ten Thousand Villages of Raleigh provides vital, fair income to low-income artisans by marketing their handicrafts and telling their stories in North America.

●  We educate our local community on the power of alternative trade to address the root causes of poverty.

Actions Behind the Words

At Ten Thousand Villages of Raleigh, we live our mission every day. It is a wonderful, constant reminder to us that what we do is so vitally important to the lives of thousands of people around the world. Our mission isn’t just a set of words on the wall. It is a living statement that guides our every action.

We promote cultural diversity and the development of a just
and sustainable global economy.

At Ten Thousand Villages of Raleigh, we provide vital, fair income to artisans from diverse cultures around the world. The artisans, who live in Africa, Asia, Latin America, South America the Middle East, and the Caribbean, would not otherwise have access to North American markets. Instead of being unemployed or underemployed, they receive fair and livable wages. Their income helps to pay for food, education, health care and housing for themselves, their families and their village communities. And their rich cultural traditions are reflected and reinforced in the home furnishings, jewelry, fashion accessories and a range of unique collectibles and gifts they make by hand.

Tens of thousands of artisans in more than 35 countries are part of the 115 artisan groups from whom Ten Thousand Villages purchases the items for sale in the store. We offer a 50 percent advance payment as operating capital to artisans and pay in full when an order is shipped. Our buyers ensure regular visits with artisans where they live and work, and continuing orders provide these artisans with stability, self-sufficiency and respect, and room to hope and dream.

As a non-profit retail store, any “profit” beyond operating expenses is used directly or indirectly to further support the artisans. We use these funds to extend our message in the community, purchase more merchandise directly from artisans, and start new stores, making artisans’ products available to more markets.

In 2006, Ten Thousand Villages of Raleigh reached $732,000 in total sales at our Cameron Village store – a record for the store and the second highest among all Ten Thousand Villages contract stores in the North America. While the majority of the sales were in-store, more than $5,550 of the total sales came from school sales and other offsite sales in the community. An additional $111,000 in sales were made from our first-ever seasonal store (October – January) in North Raleigh’s Triangle Town Center, for a grand total in 2006 sales of $843,000.

We provide hope to impoverished artisans by marketing their crafts in accordance with fair trade principles.

Ten Thousand Villages is the largest fair trade retail organization in North America , a founding member of the International Federation of Alternative Trade (IFAT), and member of the Fair Trade Federation (FTF). Both the IFAT and FTF aim to improve the livelihood of disadvantaged people in developing countries and to change unfair structures of international trade. Ten Thousand Villages of Raleigh purchases products only from carefully chosen organizations that are members of the IFAT and FTF.

For the artisans, fair trade means education, hope, sustainability and dignity, and working in fair and safe working conditions while creating the quality products sold in our store.

We safeguard natural resources by marketing products made using environmentally safe manufacturing processes and materials.

Many products created by the artisans are made using environmentally sustainable resources or are handcrafted from reused items. The artisans recycle cut metal from steel drums to create beautiful wall hangings. They recycle newspaper to craft trivets and coasters. They make tote bags and coin purses from recycled plastic bags and jewelry from recycled soda cans. When crafting with wood, only fast-growing, sustainable harvested woods (like shesham and bamboo) are used as raw materials, and, when possible, artisans’ techniques are altered to use less water where it is scarce. These are just a few of the many ways that Ten Thousand Villages ensures environmentally safe and sustainable production of the products sold in our store.

We educate our local community on the power of alternative trade to address the root causes of poverty.

We bring ethics to the marketplace by providing an understanding of who made the items and who benefits from the payment of them. Telling the artisans’ stories allows us to provide a glimpse into the beauty of other cultures while at the same time we share the impact that fair trade has on the lives of others.

We share these stories and the messages of fair trade with students and adults in the community who desire to learn more about fair trade and what we do at Ten Thousand Villages of Raleigh. In 2006, we conducted 26 in-store presentations for 287 students and chaperons, with an additional 500 students reached at an onsite elementary school presentation. Our adult community programs reached 264 people over the course of 11 presentations at churches, universities, and civic and community organizations.

Much of the education actually occurs in the store as customers shop. Our exceptional volunteer sales associates, who contributed 6,402 hours at our Cameron Village store in 2006, talk with customers as they visit the store to enlighten them about our mission and the artisans’ works. Those volunteer hours reflect nearly 50 percent of the total sales associate hours at the store. Additionally, our volunteers contribute hours to checking in merchandise, managing the mailing list database, and developing and maintaining the Web site.

Ten Thousand Villages of Raleigh also is governed by a volunteer Board of Directors, which meets bimonthly to plan and approve initiatives that will achieve the organization’s mission and to safeguard the assets and future viability of the organization. Board members also contribute their time on various committees, giving community presentations and at special events held at the store.

People Behind the Mission
We are pleased to share with you our numbers that illustrate the successes of 2006. But to be sure, we are much more than the numbers. The efforts of our team at Ten Thousand Villages of Raleigh represent people and relationships, and a most sincere belief in the mission. Our success and continuous striving are actually illustrations of just how much we care about the artisans and introducing our customers to the idea of fair trade and how it benefits our artisan partners around the world.

2006 by the Numbers