Yesterday Prosperity Candle’s Founding Partner, Siiri Morley, wrote a blog about running a triple bottom line business to empower women that was picked up by ForbesWoman. The article discusses how Prosperity Candle works to manage social responsibility, financial viability, and environmental responsibility as a fair trade social venture. Read more about Siiri’s perspectives as a “human rights entrepreneur” who strives to find a balance between business and impact.
Women 2.0, a website that advances women’s voices in founding and running companies – of all types – is a fantastic resource for women and entrepreneurship. We’re honored that our Founding Partner, Siiri Morley, wrote a guest blog for Women 2.o about running a triple bottom line business. In the blog she discusses the challenges (and joys!) of running a triple bottom line business that focuses on social, environmental and financial returns. Learn more here about how Prosperity Candle juggles these priorities to empower women economically from places like Haiti, Burma and Iraq.
Thank you to UMCOR for this incredible video highlighting our partnership. As Founding Partner, Siiri Morley, notes, UMCOR has helped Prosperity Candle get fair trade membership, supported our candle production, and will be helping us as we grow our work beyond working with women from Burma and Iraq to expand into Haiti.
Learn more:
We are delighted to be partnering now with UMCOR (United Methodist Committee on Relief). UMCOR shares many of our core values of supporting people in distressed parts of the world, empowering refugees in the United States, promoting fair trade, and being an active and engaged global citizen. We first began speaking with UMCOR in the summer of 2011 and are delighted to note that we are now in partnership with them to better align our shared goals.
In their own words, “As the humanitarian relief and development arm of The United Methodist Church, UMCOR transforms and strengthens people and communities.”
Moo Kho, Mee Mee, and Naw with their candles for UMCOR
To launch our partnership, UMCOR has ordered a record-breaking 5,000 candles to give to each person attending the United Methodist Church’s upcoming annual conference later this month. We have customized our tin candles with their logo and messaging about their mission to “bring hope in times of crisis.” Each candle comes with a storycard about our partnership and the story of the woman who made each candle. Thanks to UMCOR’s support, the Burmese refugees we work with were employed full-time for 3 months!
Naw works on packaging the candles that she made for UMCOR
Every candle donates 10% to UMCOR’s work in the United States to support refugees. These candles can also be purchased directly from our website, as well.
Thank you to UMCOR for also helping us become a Green America member and for supporting our World Fair Trade Organization membership application.
UMCOR Prosperity Candles
Read more about UMCOR’s support of fair trade products and organizations here in their recent news update.
Siiri Morley (Prosperity Candle) & Elizabeth Peteo (UMCOR Haiti) meet to discuss our work in Haiti
We look forward to having UMCOR’s team visit us later this week to create a film about our partnership in preparation for World Refugee Day in June. As we begin preparing for our expansion into Haiti with our women-focused candle-making opportunity, we look forward to deepening our relationship with UMCOR and their work in Haiti. We had the great fortune of meeting with the UMCOR team last week in Port-au-Prince, Haiti!
Read more about partnership opportunities with us here.
Thanks to the support and encouragement of our new partner, UMCOR (United Methodist Committee on Relief), Prosperity Candle is now a Bronze Member of Green America.
Green America’s “mission is to harness economic power—the strength of consumers, investors, businesses, and the marketplace—to create a socially just and environmentally sustainable society.” We have gone through their certification process to demonstrate our commitment to operating our business in a way that promotes fair trade, social justice, and environmentally sound business practices.
The Prosperity Candle team is in Haiti this week preparing for our next candle-making adventure! With the support of some wonderful partners, we will be creating a new candle-making workshop here in Northern Haiti. Our business model aligns closely with the development goals of the State Department and USAID, so we had the unique opportunity of meeting with Secretary Hillary Clinton’s Chief of Staff, Cheryl Mills.
Founding Partner Siiri Morley and Haiti Project Lead Rusty Barber meet Cheryl Mills in Haiti
As she toured Caracol, a business development site in Northern Haiti, she learned about Prosperity Candle’s innovative business model to empower women as entrepreneurs in distressed parts of the world. We shared with her our goals of helping women rebuilding their lives with a market-driven, sustainable business model and the global scope of our work.
Cheryl seemed excited about our concept and agreed that women, especially in Haiti, are an untapped resource that can create incredible change.
We look forward to seeing more of your team in the future, Cheryl!
Thank you to Exhale Magazine for featuring Prosperity Candle in its recent piece about the Pipeline Fund’s expansion into Boston. Click here to read more.
In February, Siiri Morley of Prosperity Candle made a pitch to a unique group of women learning to become angel investors in women-led social ventures. The women were organized by the Pipeline Fund, which has a mission to empower more women to become angel investors. Pipeline is working to direct as much capital from women to women-led social ventures. We believe that this model can be incredibly powerful, so we threw our hat in the mix!
Thank you to Carrie Saldo of WGBY’s Connecting Point (a PBS affiliate) for her thoughtful story on Prosperity Candle. We are proud to have this feature come out in the midst of Women’s History Month.
Take a look for a behind the scenes look at our work, the women making the candles (and teaching Carrie!), and our new International Women’s Month products.
Prosperity Candle from WGBY on Vimeo.
Thank you to Carrie’s team for helping us share the light and connect more people with our gifts that give back.
We’re officially launching our Prosperity Candle Sisters on the Planet candle with Oxfam America today at their Sisters on the Planet International Women’s Day Summit in Washington DC. Our candles are proud to be participating in a global sisterhood of women working collaboratively to invest in women and fight hunger.
10% of each candle supports Sisters on the Planet. As always, each candle is made by a woman refugee from Burma rebuilding her life. The name of the woman who made each candle is included on the label so you can connect with her and send her a message.
We’re proud to be gifting a Sisters on the Planet candle to Sisters on the Planet global ambassador, Kristin Davis.
We’ve been talking a lot about ways to celebrate international women’s day in our recent blog posts, so we thought we’d share which events we’re attending this week (and which we wish we could!) to commemorate the occasion. It is the 101st anniversary of the event, after all! We hope you can attend some of these fantastic events. Which others should we know about?
Photo credit: Women in the World Foundation
Women of Vision Annual Conference & Lobby Day, March 4-6th, Washington DC
Women of Vision/World Vision chapter leaders and members are gathering in Washington DC for their National Conference. Their theme this year is “Every Woman Has a Story.” The 2 day conference is followed by a lobby day. Prosperity Candle is exhibiting throughout the conference.
United Nations Association of Greater Boston Film Screening, March 5th, Boston
The United Nations Association of Greater Boston is hosting an event entitled “War Redefined: 2012 International Women’s Day Celebration” on March 5th. They will be screening War Redefined, the final film in the Women, War & Peace series, and featuring a panel discussion after the film with series executive producer Abigail E. Disney, Ambassador Swanee Hunt, Dr. Amani El Jack, and Sahana Dharmapuri. RSVP here. Our team hopes to be there!
Vital Voices and the Economist Panel Discussion, March 6th, Washington DC
Vital Voices and the Economist are teaming up to present an event entitled: “The 2012 Women’s Economic Opportunity Index Launch: Engaging Women in the Workforce – An Economic and Business Imperative”. They are bringing together a diverse panel to discuss women in the workplace. RSVP here. Siiri Morley from Prosperity Candle will be attending.
Oxfam Sisters on the Planet International Women’s Day Summit, March 7th, Washington DC
Oxfam America is hosting their Sisters on the Planet International Women’s Day summit this week in Washington DC to connect and inspire their Sisters on the Planet ambassadors and rally them to create change during their lobby day. Siiri Morley from Prosperity Candle will be attending to highlight our new Sisters on the Planet candle.
ICRW Panel Discussion, March 7th, Washington DC
Join the ICRW for a panel discussion entitled “The Bottom Line: How Big Business Is Empowering Women and Girls.” This Passports to Progress event will take place on the eve of International Women’s Day, March 7. A diverse panel of corporate and social enterprise investors – including PBS Newshour, QVC, Coca Cola, Criterion Ventures, and Women’s World Banking – will discuss how and why big business interests are banking on the future of women and girls half a world away. RSVP here. Siiri Morley from Prosperity Candle will be attending.
Women’s Education Project & BRAC USA Panel Discussion, March 8th, New York City
The Women’s Education Project (WEP) and BRAC USA, in partnership with the Asia Society, are hosting a panel discussion to celebrate the 101st International Women’s Day on March 8. Special guests and leaders of non-profit organizations will discuss how integrated, innovative approaches to micro-finance, health, education and gender equality training have empowered women in Asia to improve their lives and take steps out of poverty, and how these Asia-born solutions are being adapted in Africa. RSVP here.
Join Me on the Bridge, March 8th, Everywhere!
We’ve talked a lot about this series of events, but we just want to remind you again! To learn more about Women for Women International’s Join Me on the Bridge events, click here. We’re proud that Elizabeth Buckley, a Prosperity Candle volunteer, will be representing us at the Boston Join Me on the Bridge event!
Women in the World Summit, March 8-10th, New York City
This week inspiring women from around the globe will convene in New York City for Newsweek & The Daily Beast’s third annual Women in the World Summit. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is the newest leader to announce her participation—she will join recently-minted Oscar-winner Meryl Streep for a special on-stage finale to the three-day event. Also in the lineup: Nobel winner Leymah Gbowee, Angelina Jolie, Madeleine K. Albright, IMF chief Christine Lagarde, and many more. Learn more here.
