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Thoughtfully Fashionable Gifts That Transform Lives at Home and Abroad in One Click!

Thoughtfully Fashionable Gifts That Transform Lives at Home and Abroad in One Click: ‘Tis the Season of Shopping for a Change!

San Mateo, California (PRWEB) October 31, 2012

This time of year, discriminating shoppers oftentimes find their search for personal gifts to be daunting and overwhelming. Gift givers spend hours on end looking for items that have personal meaning for their loved ones, friends, business associates and the like. To help shoppers’ ease their gift decision angst, an upstart web-based shopping site offers an ideal solution for thoughtful and fashionable gifts that simultaneously transform lives abroad and at home in the United States. At Shopping for a Change® (SFAC), consumers can find beautiful fair trade jewelry, accessories and home décor handmade by artisans in impoverished countries that look good, feel good and do good all in one click of the mouse. Impacting change around the world, the 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization serves as a portal for artisans in impoverished countries to sell their fair trade handmade products, while helping their communities, their families and U.S. nonprofit organizations. Net proceeds are split equally between funding an annual community improvement project abroad in the areas of education, health and clean water and aiding a U.S.-based nonprofit organization of the web shopper’s choosing from SFAC’s partner list.

Trending with Celebrities and Bloggers

Trendhunter Magazine featured Shopping for a Change in its August 15, 2012 blog “Ethical Artisan-Empowering Organizations” and, the organization, which qualified to be on the Great Nonprofits 2012 list for Social Justice is expected to make that list on November 15th.

The handmade products showcased on the internet shopping site are in hot demand, too, and are on the radar of many celebrities and bloggers: Gayle King, Deidre Hall, Brook Shields and Maya Rudolph are all sporting jewelry from the Andean Collection. Actresses Goldie Hawn and Meryl Streep are two of many celebs sporting bracelets from Same Sky, another featured collection on SFAC. And, SFAC’s artisan groups’ crafts have been featured in popular magazines including: People and O Magazine.

“Seeing all the beauty of that country coupled with the despair and hardship made me realize how, if it wasn’t for an accident of birth” it could have been me,” – Stacey Horowitz, Founder of Shopping For a Change

The Woman Behind The Change

The unique upstart digital business platform/model is the brainchild of San Mateo’s Stacey Horowitz, who developed Shopping for a Change after having an epiphany while anticipating her upcoming 50th birthday. Contemplating how she was going to leave this world a better place than when she arrived, three key events during her 50th year were instrumental game changers in her life that would turn her contemplation into action, benefiting the life of others around the globe. A middle school philanthropic project, a trip to Galapagos Islands and Peru, and the realization of “seeing all the beauty of that country coupled with the despair and hardship made me realize how, if it wasn’t for an accident of birth” it could have been me,” says Horowitz.

A year and a half later, Shopping for a Change was born with the motto: empowering others, transforming lives®. Launching its website in September 2010, SFAC serves as a digital community where artisans, consumers and charitable organizations have a symbiotic relationship following fair trade principles. Doing good, feeling good and looking good in one fell swoop, this web-based site should be on everyone’s shopping list!

Shopping for a Change® (SFAC) empowering others, transforming lives® is a web-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization where artisans (predominantly women) from developing countries, sell their handmade creations enabling them to earn a sustainable income and lift themselves from poverty. The net proceeds subsidize community improvement projects abroad as well as help fund select U.S.-based non-profit organizations of the web shopper’s choosing from SFAC’s partner list.

Ethical Fashion for Today’s Consumer

By Abbe Sparks

Abbe Sparks is the Founder of Abbe Sparks Media Group & Socially Sparked News. A social entrepreneur, she is a social media and content influencer who has been covering the entertainment, music, tech and advocacy sectors for over 25 years. A member of US Press Association, she has written for many online and print publications including the UK's Blues Matters Magazine, Big City Rythm & Blues & her former column 'Abbe's Sparks' for RFPalooza. You can also find her stories on Medium & Tumbler. Twitter: @asparks01

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