The Socially Conscious Market Place features: 1. products of nonprofit ventures that fund the mission and 2. for-profit socially minded businesses who are measuring a double/triple bottom line.

2011 VENDORS

Little Nappers is the first company in America with the mission of providing a career path to some brilliant people who happen to have Aspergers, a form of Autism.  As we grow, we will seek to hire those fantastic people who are “”different-minded”" to handle our logistics, inventory, packaging, printing, wherever the need fits the skill.  The owners son has Aspergers and she created Little Nappers to ensure he will have a job when he graduates from college in 2023.  Along the way we hope to educate Corporate America and our government about people with Autism and create an understanding, acceptance and willingness to hire these uniquely talented individuals.  We also want to work with companies who have a giving heart.  Join us as we seek to provide portable bedding to those affected by tragedies.  Most recently, children in Haiti and Japan…whenever families are displaced from their homes and need a place to sleep, Little Nappers wants to be the very item that gives them rest and separates their skin from the ground.

Greenling – Built from the ground up around the simple idea that people needed a way to get fresh, nutritious food and we needed to do it in a way that did not damage our environment. Greenling’s mission is to help create sustainable communities through an alternative food distribution network.  Our core values are centered around helping people build relationships with their farmers and their food.  We work with local farmers and vendors whenever possible and deliver fresh organic and local food right to people’s doorstep for the same price as the grocery store with free delivery.  We strive for sustainability not just in our product but in everything the company does and touches.  We investigate all vendors for a match in these core values and mission.  We’ve proven the concept and developed a great resource for people and farmers to connect through our innovative business model. We won “Best Local Food Company” in the Austin Chronicle’s Reader’s Poll for four years running, as well as the Austin Business Journal’s “Going Green” award for environmental stewardship.

Banner Theory - Turning unsustainable waste into sustainable good.  We take discarded vinyl billboard banners and upcycle them into useful and durable bags and home accessories.  All of our products are manufactured in Dallas with fair wage and an ethical supply chain.  This local eco-conscious vision extends beyond our products, as a percentage of our sales go directly back into local initiatives focused on doing good.

Green Mountain Energy – We provide 100% pollution free electricity from renewable resources for our customers.

Noonday Collection offers distinctive accessories for you and your home that are handcrafted, with love, by artisans from around the world. Every purchase helps create a pathway out of poverty for the one who made it. Furthermore, a portion of the proceeds also help place orphans in families. Through fun trunk shows and an inspired website, we are enabling women in all seasons of life to be a voice for the oppressed.

Dallas Lighthouse for the Blind – The mission of the Dallas Lighthouse for the Blind is to provide employment, training and rehabilitative services to North Texans who are blind or visually impaired. The social impact the Dallas Lighthouse makes is in the blind/visually impaired community. Employment encourages people with visual impairments to seek economic independence, take personal responsibility and succeed socially. To be able to support one’s family, to own a home, to pay taxes are responsibilities not limited to the sighted community. Dallas Lighthouse employees embrace these responsibilities.

CHOOZE = Shoes that Empower and Elevate. We invest 100% of profits in programs that enable women to lift themselves out of poverty.  Out purpose is to empower kids to celebrate their individuality, creativity, and their power to have a positive impact.

Springer Design Studio (SDS) creates refined, hand-crafted woodwork. Our mission is to divert wood from disposal as an act of reclamation. By repurposing wood that would otherwise be labeled municipal waste and sent to the landfill, SDS provides the Dallas/Fort Worth area with a sustainable source of furniture, millwork, and accessories.

Demeter Project is a socially-responsible organization whose mission is to reinvent the American workplace, beginning with the service industry. Through business ventures like It’s A Grind Coffee House and Chill Bubble Tea, Demeter Project provides employees with the opportunity to earn a living wage (which is $13.50 in Dallas County, versus minimum wage of $7.25), healthcare benefits, and a workplace characterized by ethics and respect. We believe financial profit is important, but does not have to come at the expense of human relations and dignity.

TIN - As a wholly-owned business of Catholic Charities, Diocese of Fort Worth, Inc., the Translation & Interpretation Network (TIN) is dedicated to offering organizations that deal with Limited English Proficient (LEP) populations the language services they need to provide optimal, efficient and cost-efficient services. With over 70 languages and dialects spoken by over 150 highly trained interpreters and translators, TIN has become the premier language services provider in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Soap Hope is a company with a strong vision: carry all natural products at great prices, then take all of the yearly profits and invest them into non-profit programs that help underprivileged women around the world lift themselves from poverty.  Soap Hope was started to serve as an example to other businesses for how they can adopt a socially conscious model for themselves.

The PLAN Fund – We provide loans, training and business development services to credit-challenged entrepreneurs who could not otherwise access these resource. By providing a combination of both financial capital and intellectual capital, we empower the poor to take care of themselves. We are not only teaching people to fish — we are giving them loans so that they can buy their own fishing boats!

Haitian Creations – When you purchase a purse or jewelry from HaitianCreations.com, 50% of your payment goes directly to that artist. Every one of our products contains a tag bearing the name of the woman who handcrafted that item.  Your contribution to this program through your purchase will be a part of giving these Haitian women the ability to be self-sufficient, to support their families, and to have the independence they need in a society where this is often difficult. Thanks for being a part of this very important effort!

WORN is a socially conscience business of Fort Worth Catholic Charities. The mission of WORN is to provide refugee women living in the United States a supplemental source of income, empowering them to rise above poverty. Each circle scarf is hand knit by women who have survived the afflictions of their war-torn and poverty-stricken homelands.

Garden Inspirations – We are on a mission to teach those in our community all about sustainable living. We feel that it’s valuable to teach where your food comes from and how to grow your own.  While inspiring those around us to become more sustainable, we teach garden classes – brew compost tea – and grow vegetables for our clients.

Belltower Chapel & Garden is wholly owned and operated by ACH Child and Family Services. Belltower Chapel & Garden seeks to financially contribute to the mission of ACH Child and Family Services and provide supportive employment and economic empowerment to foster youth.

New Directions Initiative – To decrease poverty by providing job training to economically disadvantaged adults through social enterprises.

WekeWater, L³C is a sustainable charitable organization whose purpose is to geometrically scale a global franchised organization that provides safe water in developing nations.  Over half of donation funded water systems are inoperable within 2 years of installation – WekeWater is funded by equity and sustained by revenue thus providing a long term solution by creating businesses for the poor to help themselves.

Real Food Alliance is a nonprofit organization that fosters relationships between local, eco-friendly farms and schools. We establish, cultivate and preserve these farm-direct relationships and provide educational resources for our Dallas-Fort Worth community. RFA envisions a community where local, nutritious food is available for all children to enjoy. We create change, breaking conventional food chains, one bite at a time.

The Montgomery Urban Tree Farm (“MUTF”) commits to growing superior, high quality, healthy, vigorous trees using environmentally responsible farming techniques for sale to the local, retail, and wholesale markets.

 

2010 VENDORS

Banner Theory – Free Lisa Designs – We believe that it is time for a revolution. Choices we make in what we buy and how we live have a ripple effect in the world around us. Therefore, we are dedicated to creating goods that are as much a unique fashion statement as they are a principled choice.  We take discarded vinyl billboard banners and upcycle them into useful and durable bags. Our bags are manufactured locally with fair wage and an ethical supply chain. This local eco-conscious vision extends beyond the bags, as a percentage of our sales go directly back into local initiatives promoting sustainable living.  Turning unsustainable waste into sustainable good (and they’re good looking, too).  www.bannertheory.com, www.freelisa.com

Café Momentum – Provides an establishment that will change lives by empowering culinary students that had been previously homeless, adjudicated or disadvantaged men and women. We help this underserved portion of our community to achieve self-sufficiency through life skills, job training and employment in the food service industry.

Center for Nonprofit Management/ Community Wealth Ventures Partnership – The mission of the Center for Nonprofit Management is to build stronger communities by increasing the performance and impact of nonprofit organizations.  Fulfilling its mission since 1980, the Center for Nonprofit Management annually helps 5,500 staff and board members of more than 1,300 nonprofit organizations develop better management and governance skills through consulting, education and training programs.  The North Texas Community Wealth Initiative, delivered by the Center for Nonprofit Management in partnership with Community Wealth Ventures, is a multi-faceted approach to driving regional change. The program helps nonprofits attain greater mission impact by launching social enterprise business ventures and applying socially innovative approaches to enhance their work’s effectiveness.  www.cnmdallas.org

The Community Cloth – A microenterprise initiative empowering refugee women in Houston. It targets economic, educational and social goals through the provision of seed grants, training, and peer support, and by expanding market opportunities for refugee women artisans. As a collaborative of several refugee-led and refugee-serving organizations, and their supporters, The Community Cloth supports women who want to create and sell handmade, indigenous arts and crafts such as woven bags, knitted scarves, household goods, baby clothing, and more. Through producing and selling their wares, the women have an opportunity to express their culture and heritage, learn new skills that will assist them in transitioning to life in the US, and obtain much-needed supplemental income. All profits from sales go directly to the artisans.  www.tinyurl.com/communitycloth

Demeter Project – Improving the average workplace to improve our community. We invest in, seed, and create new business ventures in our mission to redefine and to demonstrate the role income-generating organizations should take with all affected stakeholders and to reinvent those business practices that shape the American workplace. Many of us have experienced the workplace as a place of emotional poverty. We strive to balance and enhance the role of business in our lives. ?Demeter Project was started by executives from the nonprofit and corporate sectors to meet two goals: We are making some simple changes that are traditionally discouraged by profit-first business models: e.g., we place higher value and more pay on a service job and allow for unexpected life problems in scheduling. We believe financial profit is important, but does not have to come at the expense of human relations and dignity.  www.demeterproject.com

Green Mountain Energy – The nation’s leading competitive retail provider of cleaner energy and carbon offset solutions, was founded in 1997 “to change the way power is made.” The company is the longest serving green power marketer in the U.S.  Green Mountain offers consumers and businesses the choice of clean electricity products from renewable sources, such as wind, as well as a variety of carbon offset products. Green Mountain customers have collectively helped avoid over 11.3 billion pounds of CO2 emissions, which is as much as over 478 million trees would absorb in one year. www.GreenMountain.com

Hot Slings – A locally based baby product business whose mission is to provide high quality products to parents and caregivers that make attachment parenting and bonding easier in today’s busy world.  In addition to manufacturing our products in to North Texas to support and sustain our local economy, we are proud supporters of The Princess Alexa Foundation, a 100% volunteer run 501c3 with a mission to celebrate the childhood spirit of seriously ill children though dress up and play. We leverage our resources to help their mission with distributions and consulting.  http://www.hotslings.com/

Mindful Learning, LLC is a company dedicated to bridging educational gaps in the community by using the power of qualified teachers, mentors, and presenters to provide engaging tutoring, mentoring, and teacher education program. Our primary goal is to increase student performance through direct contact with students through after school programs or through teacher education programs.  www.mindfullearning.org

Product Education and Resources aka PEAR 1O1 – An organization providing a web based tool that educates subscribers about packaged foods for the ala carte, convenience and vending machine markets. PEAR101′s target subscription pools are private school markets, the nonprofit sector, public school districts, corporate wellness, hospitals, and vending machine operators. PEAR101′s web based software fills a large market void by bridging the gap between administrative standards being enforced by state or federal laws and foods being offered by a variety of markets. PEAR101 offers a timely solution that enables consumers to meet nutrition standards, helps school districts save money, creates sales for product manufacturers and food distribution companies, creates buying pools to lower purchasing price, and helps to educate subscribers of products that meet stringent nutritional standards.

Project 7 – A company that is passionate about social change. For every purchase of a Project 7 product, the company donates 50 percent of its profits to seven areas of critical need in the world – Build the Future, Feed the Hungry, Heal the Sick, Help Those in Need, Hope for Peace, House the Homeless, and Save the Earth. Non-profit organizations supporting any of these seven areas of need can submit applications to Project 7. Seven of these organizations, one from each area of need, will be voted on a by consumers and supported by product proceeds for the upcoming year. Currently, Project 7 manufactures bio-bottled water, gum, mints and T-shirts.  http://www.project7.com/

Soap Hope – A for-profit business with a deeply integrated social mission to end poverty.  Our customers buy their favorite all-natural brands online … we invest all the profits for women in poverty around the world. We call our program “Good Returns.”  Soap Hope invests 100% of its profits every year into sustainable anti-poverty organizations. These non-profit partners use the funds to provide loans, training, and support services to women in poverty around the world – training them how to start and run their own small businesses. This “teach a woman to fish” model can permanently lift whole communities from poverty, providing families with the resources and skills they need to be self sufficient. Soap Hope is also a model for teaching others how to integrate a social mission into a for-profit business.  Our vision is to teach 1,000 entrepreneurs the Good Returns model, thereby creating one billion dollars in capital to deploy toward ending poverty.  http://store.soaphope.com/

Mi Escuelita Preschool – Founded in 1978, is a leader in the area of preschool aged second language learners.  Long known for its award winning English language program, Mi Escuelita provides children from all cultures with the early learning skills and language intervention necessary for them to excel in school.  With an estimated high school dropout rate of over 60% in the Latino community, Mi Escuelita addresses the language barrier at the age when language skills are developed allowing children to enter school on equal footing with their peers. In the summer of 2010, Mi Escuelita will bring its expertise in language instruction to a new audience.  Partnering with the renowned Anita N. Martinez Ballet Folklorico and Preston Hollow Presbyterian Church, Mi Escuelita will host “The Passport to Mexico” program.    The program will provide Spanish language instruction, an introduction to Mexican folk dance and art.  The program will culminate in a full costume dance recital where all children will have an opportunity to showcase what they have learned.  http://www.miescuelita.org/

2Enju – This is SLOW FASHION, good for the environment and the people that live in it. Founded in 2005, 2Enju is a North Texas based women’s wear fashion line using local sweat free production, fair wage, and ethical supply chains.  As proprietor and chief designer at Make Shop and Studio and The Pin Show, Julie McCullough Kim is the creator of 2Enju.  The line has can be found in boutiques all across the country and strives to inspire change the way we produce American made fashion.  http://www.2enju.com/