The Founding Story

The Story of Global Goods Partners

Global Goods Partners is a fair-trade, nonprofit organization dedicated to alleviating poverty and promoting social justice by strengthening women-led development initiatives for marginalized communities in Asia, Africa, and the Americas. It was founded in 2005 by Catherine Lieber Shimony and Joan Shifrin to create income generation opportunities for women, their families, and their communities.

In the face of great challenges, women continue to emerge as leaders in education, food security, economic development, and health. They come together to support each other and their families by forming small community-based organizations that collectively offer healthcare, education for children, women's literacy programs, safe houses, sustainable agriculture practices and human rights trainings. Many of these women are also talented artists who seek to continue their cultural traditions of weaving, sewing, embroidery, and other arts. Their collective efforts translate into new sources of income and opportunity.

Joan and Catherine, in their work supporting development initiatives around the world, met many of these dynamic women who were creating beautiful textiles and handmade pieces. They recognized that these small women's groups throughout Africa, Asia, and Latin America were creating a ripple of positive change. They decided that the most effective way to support the efforts of these women's groups was to help them gain access to the US market for their products. Once women are able to provide a stable income and short-term security for their families, they can begin to plan for longer-term community development. Therefore, while GGP seeks to address some of the most immediate needs that these women have, it also offers its members support as their organizations grow and develop, through technical consultations and small grants for both programmatic needs and capacity-building support.

When Catherine and Joan first set out to identify viable markets for women's groups in the US, they did so as development professionals and women's rights activists, and also as mothers. As their children entered school and became involved in different fundraising schemes to benefit their schools, Joan and Catherine began to question whether the wrapping paper or chocolate that they were being asked to buy was made in socially responsible ways. This led them to develop a socially conscious fundraising alternative. The Global Goods Partners program provides women with much-needed markets, which lead to social empowerment, and raises the awareness in the US of the circumstances in which these women live and work, while also supporting schools across the country with important resources for education.

The organization has recently expanded its model to include partnerships with other not-for-profit organizations and companies interested in supporting fair trade.