Oct 5, 2018 | Blog, News From the Frontlines
Serving as the largest nonpartisan convening alongside the United Nations General Assembly, the 2018 Concordia Annual Summit was held on September 24-25 at the Grand Hyatt New York.
The 2018 Concordia Annual Summit heard from the following speakers: Jennifer Lawrence, Oscar-Winning Actor and Board Member of Represent.Us; Michel Temer, President of Brazil; Kristalina Georgieva, CEO of the World Bank; Bernard-Henri Lévy, Philosopher, Filmmaker, and Activist; Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber; Danilo Medina, President of the Dominican Republic; Dr. Tom Coburn, Former Member of the United States Senate; Bradford L. Smith, President of Microsoft; Luis Almagro, Secretary General of the Organization of American States; Lorena Castillo de Varela, First Lady of the Republic of Panama; Liz Schrayer, President & CEO of U.S. Global Leadership Coalition; Thomas F. “Mack” McLarty, III, Former White House Chief of Staff under Clinton Administration; Thomas S. Kaplan, Environmentalist, Philanthropist, and Investor; Andrew Liveris, Former Chairman & CEO of Dow Chemical; David Batstone, Co-Founder of Just Business, Not For Sale, REBBL, Dignita & Z Shoes Organic; Michael Sneed, Executive Vice President of Global Corporate Affairs & Chief Communication Officer at Johnson & Johnson; HRH Princess Lamia Al Saud, Secretary General and Member of the Board of Trustees at Alwaleed Philanthropies; Jan Saumweber, Senior Vice President of Responsible Sourcing at Walmart; Premal Shah, President & Co-Founder of Kiva; Jay Collins; Vice Chairman of Corporate & Investment Banking at Citi.
Read more about the event here: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/2018-concordia-annual-summit-to-feature-jennifer-lawrence-michel-temer-kristalina-georgieva-among-others-300709408.html
Oct 5, 2018 | Blog, News From the Frontlines
Over its first 40 years in the diamond business, Vancouver’s Spence Diamonds focused almost exclusively on a mass radio strategy featuring ads that many people loved to hate. While memorable, the ads resulted in negative perceptions of the brand, as some people “thought that the quality of the product was just as bad as the ads,” as a Spence case study puts it.
As Spence’s new CMO, Veeral Rathod plans to take the company in another direction. Named to the role a month ago, Rathod believes the brand can leverage its competitive advantage – an extensive product offering and customer-centric strategy – to further grow its business in markets across North America.
Rathod (pictured, right) co-founded American menswear brand J. Hilburn, which built its business around offering custom-tailored clothing for men, and sees many parallels between the apparel and diamond industries. He replaces Frank Hamlin, who became the brand’s first chief marketer in May, only to leave for a role with American video game company, GameStop.
While leading J. Hilburn, Rathod spent little on traditional paid marketing, choosing to focus instead on building a brand focused entirely on the customer. And he believes Spence has laid the groundwork for a similar strategy.
Read more about Not For Sale’s influence on this diamond business here: http://strategyonline.ca/2018/09/18/how-spence-diamonds-new-cmo-plans-to-grow-the-company/
Sep 25, 2018 | Blog, News From the Frontlines
The anti-human trafficking nonprofit Not For Sale has been working with victims around the world–from Thailand to Uganda to Peru–for nearly a decade, but after years of effort, its staff realized they weren’t helping solve the problem at its core.
“It really struck me that I could be building 10,000 shelters and I wouldn’t really address the root causes of trafficking, nor would I make a dent in the 30 million-plus people who were caught in the practices of human trafficking around the world,” says Dave Bastone, the nonprofit’s co-founder. “So I said, why don’t I come up with a more viable business strategy?”
In Lima, Peru, many of the children they met who had been thrown into the sex industry had come from the Amazon, where indigenous families were struggling as illegal logging and mining threatened their livelihoods. If the economy was stronger, Bastone thought, kids would be at less risk of trafficking. A brainstorming session led to an idea to spin off a new startup: Rebbl, a drink company that sources ingredients from the Amazon, and, later, from other impoverished parts of the world. “We wanted to create a profitable venture that would bring back viable economic platforms in the Amazon,” says Bastone.
Read more about Rebbl and Not For Sale here: https://www.fastcompany.com/90212399/these-health-drinks-are-also-fighting-human-trafficking
Jul 5, 2018 | #NFSInvestsUganda, Blog, Innovate For Good, News From the Frontlines, Uncategorized
An Experience Like No Other
Today’s guest post contributor, Jordan Broom-Hall, is employed by Not For Sale partner brand Spence Diamonds. Jordan recently joined a team of representatives from Spence Diamonds to assist with Not For Sale and Spence Diamonds’ Entrepreneurship Challenge, and visit Not For Sale Uganda. In today’s post, Jordan shares his perspective on the experience, and Not For Sale’s impact.
Upon acquiring a position as a Diamond Consultant with Spence Diamonds in 2014, I NEVER would have imagined that I would be traveling across the globe to Uganda to take part in anything like Not For Sale and Spence have designed. Making a difference in peoples’ lives is only the beginning of what we, as a team, are accomplishing there! Together, we are giving hope to those in desperate need, and we are providing them with basic living necessities such as clean water, education, and the ability to lead more comfortable lives. In turn, the people in Uganda are providing each of us more than they could ever know… The refugees we interacted with and got to know had such a joyful presence! I have never seen so many smiles before in one place!
My experience on the trip to Uganda was nothing short of amazing, life changing, emotionally charged, and the most rewarding experience I have EVER been a part of. Terra, Dave and Mark from Not For Sale are some of the most genuine and driven people. Their passion for what they do exudes and imprints on everyone they meet. It was impossible for me not to enjoy myself when in their presence!
Perhaps one of the most compelling and beautiful memories from this trip is the moment we learned that the students of the refugee school had come in on a Saturday for an EXTRA day of school just so that they would have the chance to meet and play with us. When we arrived, our emotions were already heightened, and we were greeted with a ‘roar’ of cheers that could be heard a mile away! After a 5-hour bus ride on quite treacherous roads, it was the most uplifting feeling to have that energy welcome us. When the bus doors opened the sound of children echoed through and filled my eyes with happy tears! When we exited the bus the kids were grabbing our hands and giving us hugs; It was quite literally one of the most happy moments of my entire life, not just of this trip. It pained me SO MUCH when we had to load onto the bus and head back. I could’ve stayed there for the entirety of the trip.
As a company that takes a different approach to our industry and truly wants to give back and make a difference on those affected from poor practices, I am optimistic for the changes and growth we can encourage and support over the next few years with Not For Sale in Uganda. What has been accomplished already is motivating enough, but to see the future projects unfolding is something that will drive me to push my team and the company to perform that much stronger! Knowing that every day we go to work and do what we do best impacts an entire refugee community across the globe brings an overwhelming sensation over me, and that feeling of ‘good’ is something I want to share with the world! I am crossing my fingers I can be chosen to go again next year.
Author Biography
Jordan Broom-Hall began his career in the wedding and engagement industry at the age of 19. He imagined and brought to life ‘Atmosphere Wedding Planning & Event Design’, an international award winning and thoroughly sought-after design company that reached as far as Mexico and the Caribbean with his unusually beautiful and modern design hand. Broom-Hall was an exclusive planner to such celebrities as country musician, Brett Kissel. He also held a standing position on Breakfast Television as a weekly guest on The Bachelor Panel, and design mentor for holidays and wedding / event trends.
He began his career with Spence Diamonds in 2014 as a Diamond Consultant and is currently the acting Store Director of the Edmonton location.
Jordan currently resides in Edmonton, Alberta – Canada with his husband, Mathew, and his 3-year-old son, Bennett.
Learn More about The Entrepreneurship Challenge and Not For Sale’s work in Uganda!
Jun 29, 2018 | #NFSInvestsUganda, Blog, Innovate For Good, News From the Frontlines, Uncategorized
Meet Simon
This post is the first in a series of three, as we introduce you to the three top finalists from June’s Entrepreneurship Challenge with Not For Sale and brand partner Spence Diamonds. Profiles for our third place winner, Esther, and second place winner, Benard, are also available on the Not For Sale blog.
Steps Toward Change
Our first place winner for this month’s entrepreneurship challenge with Spence Diamonds is Simon Marot Touloung! Simon’s brand-new sandal making business is only 4 months old, but shows great promise.
Originally from South Sudan, Simon came to Uganda in 2000 when he was just 8 years old. Simon moved around from one refugee settlement to another during his childhood and teenage years. While living in Rhino refugee settlement, Simon received a scholarship to attend university. After graduating, Simon eventually moved to Kiryandongo refugee settlement and joined together with 5 other refugee youth to found a peace building initiative called the African Youth Action Network (AYAN) in 2015. To date, Simon’s initiative has trained 162 refugee and host community youth in peacekeeping,, leadership and video editing.
The youth that Simon mentored through AYAN often complained that they didn’t have anything to do, or any way to support themselves. Simon decided that a shoe-making enterprise could be a good solution.
Using recycled tires and a borrowed sewing machine, Simon learned how to make stylish sandals from discarded materials.
In the past few months, Simon has trained and hired his first two youth sandal-makers, Willy and Pouk, with hopes to quickly expand and hire more youth! He hopes to set up a workshop that can train many youth in skills that they can someday take back to their countries of origin to open new businesses.
In addition to use funds to support his workers, Simon uses profit from sandal sales to continue funding AYAN. The funds that Simon received through the entrepreneurship challenge will be used to set up his training workshop and hire new employees.
Jun 29, 2018 | #NFSInvestsUganda, Blog, Innovate For Good, News From the Frontlines, Uncategorized
Meet Benard
This post is the second in a series of three, as we introduce you to the three top finalists from June’s Entrepreneurship Challenge with Not For Sale and brand partner Spence Diamonds. Profiles for our first place winner, Simon, and third place winner, Esther, are also available on the Not For Sale blog.
A Piggery With A Purpose
The second place winner in our #NFSInvestsUganda Entrepreneurship Challenge is Benard Ocaya! Benard entered the challenge to present an innovative business idea for a community-based piggery. Piglets are given to members of the community at no cost to care for and raise. When the animals are sold, they share in the profit! The overall vision for the business is to help vulnerable youth, widows, and families become self-reliant through training them in entrepreneurship skills and giving them an opportunity to support themselves.
Our Entrepreneurship Challenge judges and mentors were struck by the potential scalability and impact of this piggery. With its well-planned business model, hundreds of community members will benefit not only from the income their participation will ensure, but increased nutrition and access to education as well. Benard hopes that the business will also effectively fight illiteracy by giving families the resources to purchase the school materials their children need.
Orphaned as a child, Benard has overcome many difficult circumstances to become the successful young businessman he is today. His own story fuels his passion to support orphans within the Kyangwali Refugee settlement and neighboring areas where the piggery business is based and currently employing 54 people- 45 community members and 9 staff. The funding received through the Entrepreneurship Challenge will be used to grow and strengthen the business and employ more community members.
#NFSInvestsUganda
If you’d like to learn more about the “why” behind the Entrepreneurship Challenge, you may read an introduction to the project, as well as our project wrap-up and initial impact report here on the Not For Sale blog. For regular updated on our impact-focused projects aand programs around the world, be sure that you’re signed up for our upcoming newsletters!
