Fundraiser

The producer groups on FairTradeDirect.com are very happy to be selling directly to buyers like you and thereby receiving much more than the usual 12 to 15% of the retail price you pay for their creations. But being so far away, they still need help building their visibility and credibility. Therefore, they are willing to pay a 10% commission to any friend promoting their beautiful items.

The way it works is amazingly simple. OpenEntry.com has a built-in referral system that tracks the origin of visits to FairTradeDirect.com and to its members' catalogs as well as the actual purchases generated. The referring link just has to be structured like www.FairTradeDirect.com/?refid=XYZ where "XYZ" is the ID of the designated charity. PEOPLink.org then tallies all the sales generated and mails a quarterly check for 10% of the total value (not including shipping) to XYZ charity.

As an illustration, a church could direct their members to post a short message on their Facebook/Twitter accounts, blogs, or email footers encouraging their loved ones to buy from a network of fair traders while generating income for Oxfam. The message could be something like "I found this wonderful site with fantastic fair trade crafts from producers all over the world. Your purchases generate a 10% commission for Oxfam America ending world hunger. Just have a look at www.FairTradeDirect.com/?refid=OxfamA. And please pass this on through your social networks."

We've selected a few charities (below) to start but are open to more suggestions, especially if you're interested in launching an aggressive fundraising campaign: