Ten Thousand Villages Austin

Celebrating 10 years of fair trade in Austin

2013 - 2014

Annual Report

How can you help? Here are several ways:

Think fair trade first! How many items on your shopping list can be purchased fairly? Clothing, coffee, chocolate, linens, birthday gifts, and many other items are available at Ten Thousand Villages.

Connect with us through social media and help spread awareness in Austin about our events, sales and mission.

Twitter: AustinVillages

Facebook: TenThousandVillagesAustin

Volunteer with us! We only require 2 shifts a month-that’s  only 8 hours! Promote fair trade journeys to your neighborhood educa-tors. They are fun, educational and great for spreading fair trade awareness. Plus now educators get a 15% discount.

Schedule a benefit shopping night with your non-profit or donate a percentage of sales to the non profit of your choice.

Join a committee! The marketing and outreach teams are always looking for people who want to help.

~Make a purchase through Amazon Smile and pick us! ~Link  your  Randall’s  remarkable  account  to  #  13291.   ~Link us to your BBVA Compass bank account.

Ten Thousand Villages Austin 1317 South Congress Avenue Austin, TX 78704

Austin.tenthousandvillages.com Provide a sustainable fair trade market place in central Texas to expand opportunities for disadvantaged artisans in developing countries. Educate the local community and build an intercultural understanding of fair trade.

Our Inspiration…

The inspiration for our name—Ten Thousand Villages—came from a Ma-hatma  Gandhi  quote:  “…India  is  not  to  be found in its few cities but in the 700,000  villages…we  have  hardly  ever  paused to inquire if these folks get suffi-

cient  to  eat  and  clothe  themselves  with.”  To  us,  each  village  in  the  world  represents  a  unique,  distinctive  people…offering  extraordinary  products  born of their rich cultures and traditions.

Opportunities FOR ARTISANS

Ten Thousand Villages works to improve the livelihood of thou-sands of skilled artisans in 35 countries. Product sales generate income for artisans who would otherwise be unemployed or un-deremployed, enabling them to provide food, education, health care and housing for their families.

The Artisan Special Needs Fund is used to assist artisan groups with extraordinary expenses, such as disaster recovery, or to en-hance their ability to produce a marketable product.

In Bangladesh, a long history of extreme poverty means that women searching for employment often have the most dire of choices, including dangerous, unregulated factories or work in the sex  trade.  For  those  who  live  in  the  country’s  many  rural  areas,  there are very few jobs at all. But through social enterprises that train women to create handicrafts from local ma-terials like handmade paper and recycled sari fabric, the artisan group Prokritee provides safe, dignified opportunities for women. to earn life-changing income. Fair wages enable families to purchase food and clothing, to move from dwellings made of mud into more durable structures and to send their children to school.

Board Members Joanie Cooksey--President Lata Karna-Vice-President Penny Schmidt—Treasurer Aerin Toussaint—Secretary Doug Irving Alan Vondrell Andy Mere Lori Steiner Ohiana Torealday Judy Schneringer Store Staff Kitty Bird--Store Manager Jessica Uramkin- Volunteer Coordinator Becky Garcia--Countess Becca Ruiz/Leti Bueno—Chief Story Teller Christa Young—Admin Assistant Will Andrews—Bookkeeper Lead Volunteers Donna Durbin Lisa Goering Kathy Henderson Carmen McFarlin Maggie Merchant Sue Bridges Lauren Evans Lauren King Rebecca Dull Jessica Killeen Catherine Givens Miraya Alexander 2013 Sweat Student Nazia Subedar Interns Jackie Busch Daniela Lam Tori Jimenez Nicole Nagel

Mission Statement The carved heart river stones from Haiti are soaked in water, and then carved by hand with chisels and saws. After sanding these hearts, artisans apply beeswax for luster. Riverstone comes from a mountainous region of Haiti known for its stone carving. Master stone carvers working for CAH have even had their work displayed in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, DC!

Volunteer Statistics $22.55: Average value of one volunteer hour accord- ing to Independent Sector Analysis 477: Average volunteer hours per month $10,756.35: Average monthly volunteerism value 87 New Volunteer Welcome Shifts, with key recruit-ment months being November (for the Christmas holi-days), March (after successful Spring student recruit-ment) and June (as summer started)

Annual Events

International  Women’s  Day  Celebration  and Awards Ceremony: Four days of benefit shop-ping nights in March culminating with an award ceremony honoring outstanding women nomi-nated by the Austin public.

World Fair Trade Day Challenge One week where fair trade challengers eat, drink, wear and use fair trade all week. Each day participants post pictures creating awareness of fair trade through their social networks. One Reason Why: a fair trade art sale and fund-raiser where fair trade crafts are put on display in an art gallery setting. Also includes silent auc-tion, cocktails, food and international entertain-ment. Fair trade for Ugandan artisan, Namusisi Margret, means she can use basket weaving skills she learned as a young girl to earn income to buy food and clothing, take her children to the doctor and send them to school. Fair trade guarantees work for Taureg people of Niger, who are master silversmiths creating jewelry rich in culture and

symbolism where each piece of jewelry is a good luck charm.

Mai Vietnamese Handicrafts produces coiled magazine products. The company was founded in 1991 as a program to assist Vietnamese street children who could not pay for school tuition and lacked the necessary legal pa-pers. Since schooling in Vietnam is now offered for free, Mai has expanded it's focus to marginalized ethnic minorities and disadvantaged women in rural regions. Mai works with several craft production companies by provid-ing marketing and design assistance, and 90% of the 1,669 artisans working for Mai are women.

2013– 2014 Fiscal Year Financial Statement

Net Sales for fiscal year 2013-2014 increased $20,000 or 3.8% compared to FY2012-2013. However, we experi-enced higher Cost of Goods Sold, compared to the previous year, which resulted in an increase of Gross Profit of only 2%. Ten Thousand Villages Austin was very fortunate to see a significant increase in charitable contributions to the or-ganization from a variety of sources, including shoppers, One Reason Why attendees and Amplify Austin do-nors. We ended the year with a 6.7% increase in total assets with a healthy cash balance and inventory level.

2013– 2014 Fiscal Year Achievements Ten Thousand Villages was nationally recognized by Forbes for the seventh year in a row as one of the World’s  Most  Ethical  Companies.  

The fourth annual fundraising event—One Reason Why raised $12,000 for Ten Thousand Villages of Austin and the Power of 5 to send girls to school in Nepal. The Austin Ten Thousand Villages store donated more than $2,000 to local non -profits through Benefit Shopping Nights including Austin Montessori School, Society of St. Vincent De Paul, and VSA Texas. A $3,300 contribution was made to Different Rhythms Foundation, to hire two rangers to police an ele-phant migratory path in Kenya. Ten Thousand Villages was instrumental in accomplishing this goal. 2014  6th  annual  International  Women’s  Day  Events  brought  another  round  of  fabulous  women  together  who  Austin  honored  with  the  prestigious  Ten  Thousand  Villages  International  Women’s  Day  Award.  Winners  included  Diane  Crowe  with  Crowe’s  Nest  Farms,  Missy  McCullough  of  Animal  Trustees  of  Austin and Robin Rather with Collective Strength. Once again the event was hosted by former winner-Sarah Hickman. 270  Singing  bowls  were  rung  unanimously  in  honor  of  the  Dalai  Lama’s  birthday  in  July  of  2014  at  the  Texas State Capitol Open-Air Rotunda. The goal was to set a Guinness World Record (still waiting to hear the official word from Guinness).

Committee Goals and Accomplishments

Marketing Analyzed market and media data to create a new media plan that more effectively reaches potential customers. Conducted an online sur-vey and focus groups to better understand cus-tomers. Adopted a new marketing brief to help make promotion of local events more strategic and cohesive across all channels.

Board Development Refined organizational needs and recruited members to meet them. Personnel Continued to update and revise HR manual. Reviewed job descriptions to reflect the needs of the store and the work of staff.

Outreach Development of fair trade journeys which can accommodate grade school level children as well as customers who want a more hands on story telling shopping experience Operations Completed evaluation of space expansion op-tions at our current location. Preparing to expand and relocate in Austin.

Ten Thousand Villages –Austin Stats Total Traffic: 116,000 # of Sales: 17,000 Average conversion rate: 15% Average price per transaction: $32.44 Sales per sq/ft: $436.86 Avg units per transaction: 2.58

Fiscal year sales since store 2004

The Year in Numbers Artisan Support Snapshot as of March 31, 2014 Countries from which we purchased ............... 34 Artisan groups ................................................ 114 New items introduced ..................................... 612 Craft purchases from artisans ............ $7.5 million Buyers’  trips  .................  28  groups  in  10  countries  

"Through volunteering at Ten Thousand Villages I've learned so much about fair trade and other cultures. It amazes me how great the impact is to the artisan groups and their communities. The staff at the store goes out of their way to ensure that we know we are making a difference. Volunteering at Ten Thousand Villages has really helped me feel a connection to the city and the community since moving to Austin." - Rebecca Dull, volunteer since January 2013

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“Strategic Goals 2011 Address Staffing Needs Expand Successful Events Expand Community Awareness

Provide a sustainable fair trade marketplace in central Texas to expand op-portunities for artisans in developing countries, educate the local commu-nity, and build an intercultural understanding of fair trade.

Principles of Operation

Ten Thousand Villages is a business with a compassionate mission. We maintain integrity in our actions and relation-ships and market quality products from diverse cultures around the world. We build sustainable long-term trade rela-tionships with artisans and strive to ensure fairness in all as-pects of our work.

• We work with small scale artisan groups who bring eco-nomic justice and hope to the poor.

• We trade with artisan groups who pay fair wages and dem-onstrate concern for their members’ welfare.

• We choose handcrafted products that reflect and reinforce rich cultural traditions, that are environmentally sustainable and that appeal to the consumer.

• We provide consistent purchases, cash advances and prompt final payments to artisans.

• We build sustainable operations and market fairly traded crafts through a variety of sales channels.

• We use resources carefully and value volunteers and staff who work with us.

• We cultivate a strong brand identity that distinguishes us as a leading fair trade retailer and wholesaler.

• We market quality products that are crafted by artisans who are economically marginalized.

• We educate customers about fair trade, artisans’ lives and their cultural heritage.

• We seek to delight customers with superior service and beau-tiful, handcrafted, fairly traded goods.

“I  really  enjoy  volunteering  at  Villages  of  Austin.    I  like  the  projects  I’ve  worked  on  including  inventory,  working  the  register,  merchandising,  and  customer  service.    I’m  interested  in  learning  all  areas  of  retail.    One  day,  I’d  like  to  have  my  own  retail  shop.”  - Lauren King, volunteer since 2012

Ten Thousand Villages

in the community Green Gate Farms Multicultural Refugee Coalition Foundation for the Homeless Nobelity Project Texas School for the Blind (TSBVI) Departure Lounge

Total (Unrestricted) Revenue:

Sales $ 562,727 Contributions 4,801

Interest In-come 293 Other Income 2,907

Total Revenue 570,728

Cost of Sales

Cost of goods sold 301,950

Gross Profit 268,778

Operating Expenses 245,743 Change in Net Assets 23,035

Beginning Net Assets 229,556

Ending Net Assets $ 252,591

TEN THOUSAND VILLAGES OF AUSTIN (A Nonprofit Corporation)

STATEMENT OF ACTIVITIES

For the Year Ended June 30, 2014

TEN THOUSAND VILLAGES OF AUSTIN (A Nonprofit Corporation)

STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION

As of June 30, 2014

Assets

Current Assets: Cash and cash equivalents $ 160,182 Accounts Receivable 3,059 Inventory 92,125 Prepaid 1,500

Total Current Assets 256,866

Office equipment, net of accumulated deprecia-tion 11,755

Total Assets $ 268,621

Liabilities and Net Assets

Current Liabilities Accounts payable & accrued expenses $ 6,304 Deferred revenue 9,726

Total Current Liabilities 16,030

Total Liabilities 16,030

Unrestricted Net Assets 252,591

Total Liabilities and Net Assets $268,621