Who We Are
Flourish Planet is a new, innovative, e-commerce model that aims to revolutionize the way minority and indigenous artisans are supported as makers, entrepreneurs, and brands. As a maker-first, social benefit business, Flourish Planet funnels profits back to artisan makers through a model that promotes radical transparency, sustainability, inclusivity, and integrity.
And as a direct-to-consumer marketplace, Flourish Planet connects conscious consumers with global artisans directly, prioritizing transparency and authentic storytelling about makers’ products, cultural heritage, and traditional craftsmanship. This indigenous and minority, maker-first marketplace, curates for design and uniqueness, but also for sustainable materials, ethical sourcing, and fair trade. Ultimately, consumers will be rewarded with an inspiring, transparent, and seventh generation e-commerce experience.
Our Roots
Flourish Planet evolved from the work of Industree Foundation, founded in the year 2000 in India, to holistically tackle the root causes of poverty. It does this by cultivating an ownership-based, organized, creative manufacturing ecosystem for women micro-entrepreneurs. The nonprofit organization Creative Million was formed in 2019 in the US in order to widen the scope of artisan supporting initiatives by making them more global and inclusive. Flourish Planet was created as a subsidiary of Creative Million, whose mission is to empower communities around the world to build sustainable lives of dignity and self-reliance. They do this by assisting projects that provide artisanal employment and livelihoods, particularly for women.
Flourish.shop, our sister site in India, was initially launched in 2020 to create global market access for the makers Industree trained, and for artisan groups that align with their values globally.
Flourish Planet, the US-based site, launched in 2022, with a focus on featuring some of their current Indian makers, but building a community of minority and indigenous makers from North America, and Mexico. Over time, we plan to grow our network of marketplaces to bring customers a truly global experience.
The Impact
Flourish Planet offers thousands, (and potentially millions) of artisans the opportunity to be a part of a community of makers. Through us, they share a maker-forward, not-for-profit, transparent, sustainable, and inclusive marketplace that emphasizes the cultural heritage of minority and indigenous makers.
Flourish Planet will provide on-going visibility for makers and ensure a more dependable pipeline of revenue to the artisans over time. And in prioritizing fair and equitable wages, these artisans can improve so many other aspects of their lives including access to health care, education for their families, better nutrition, higher status in their families and communities. Their ownership of net positive, creative production value chains give these women added confidence as societal agents of change. Simply put, they will all flourish.
When you purchase from Flourish you are supporting creative livelihoods that lead to:
Increased Income– 73% of our makers have earned more income from learning how to make and sell artisanal products.
Equitable Working Conditions – 76% of our makers report earning more respect as a more equal wage earner in the family and community.
Resilience To Life Crisis – 100% of our makers now have bank accounts.
Women’s empowerment – 70% of our makers are working for the 1st time.
Improved standard of living – 55% of our makers are investing in the education and nutrition of their children.
Our Values
Flourish was started with a simple purpose: to be a driving force of conscious consumption, making socially and environmentally sustainable products from around the world available to everyone.
Our values are at the center of everything that we do, to ensure that everyone in the supply chain from creator to consumer is celebrated and informed. By bringing together craft stories, honest value and positive impact, everything here comes with a mark of goodness, and the hope that we can create a world where we can all flourish.
Our values include:
- Inclusivity: Flourish Planet focuses on minority and indigenous brands, bringing to life the stories of African American, Latin-American or Native American makers and artisans. Few sustainable marketplaces work to aggregate these makers as minorities or with a regional focus, as Flourish Planet is doing for North America and Mexico.
- Sustainability: We ensure that our makers engage in manufacturing practices such as recycling, upcycling, reuse, and reduction of resources used to ensure minimal amount of waste. All products on Flourish Planet are made, sourced, and packaged with renewable, biodegradable, recyclable, or reclaimed materials.
- Integrity: In prioritizing fair and equitable wages, artisans can improve so many aspects of their lives including access to health care, education for their families, better nutrition, higher status in their families and communities.
- Transparency: Transparency is essential to foster sustainable livelihoods for makers, and impactful, conscious consumption. Consumers become changemakers when they decide to make purchases that deliver real impact on global communities by supporting their livelihoods, and we want to ensure everyone in the value chain is informed about what makes up the final cost of a product. Each product on our platform has a cost breakdown that looks like this:
| Raw Material Cost | Expenses associated with sourcing natural raw materials locally |
| Artisan Wages | Amount of the total cost that the artisans retain as payment |
| Producer Group Margin | Amount of the total cost that the brand retains both as profit and to cover operating costs |
| Flourish Planet Mission Margin | As a registered public benefit corporation, all payment retained by Flourish Planet is used to cover operating costs and initiatives to benefit artisans |
At Flourish Planet, we invite you to explore handcrafted delights made by our talented artisans as we collectively embark on this journey where we all flourish together.
Leave a comment