How We Use Donations
How Are Donations Used?
100% of donations goes back to helping the women and children in Honduras. If you make a donation that money then goes to supporting our makers and helps to keep them working. We are excited that 82% of your money spent on items the Makers have made goes back to them to help them provide a dignified way for them to feed their families, keep their children in school and improve their standard of living. We are a working foundation intent on teaching our women Makers how to provide for themselves.
How We Determine the Cost of the Items that We Produce:
Item Size or Time Spent to Produce: Each item takes different lengths of time to make. This is usually determined by how many hexagons are used and/or the difficulty of the design. Therefore, our Makers are paid different amounts for different projects. When a Maker chooses a project she knows up front how much she will make. We even purchase all of the extra hexagons she produces when she is making a product.
Materials: Many of the materials the women use are donated, but sometimes we need to purchase items like paper, hexagon cutters, needles, thread, scissors, and sometimes fabric. *Though most fabric is donated. These costs and shipping are examples of what is included in the sales price of an item.
Quilt Finish: We use a local Honduran woman to machine quilt all of our quilts. She also makes any of our other finished projects like table runners, jackets, pillow covers, aprons, or bags. This pricing is very low because it is done "in country". By sourcing a quilter in San Pedro Sula, this also helps support our quilter and her staff of Makers. Bonus!
Shipping: The total cost of shipping donated material to Honduras and finished items back to the states, is divided up by the weight of each item. Some people ask if it is cheaper to just buy the material in Honduras rather than having it donated and then shipping it down. Simply put, no it isn't. Shipping free fabric is more cost-efficient and gives us much more variety and quality.
Packaging: Each item is individually packaged when it arrives to the states. We buy our bags and boxes in bulk to save on costs.
All Overhead Fees: This includes listing the items, keeping our web design updated and fresh, quilt design, kit packaging, shipping and anything else needed is provided 100% by donated service hours.
When You Just Make a Cash Donation: It is important to us that you know that 100% of that money goes back to improving the lives of our women and their families. This money is not "earned" by the women and is 100% tax deductible if you donate.
We use these donations to help build homes, supplement the diets of our women and children with fruits, vegetables, formula and meat, as well as provide the tuition for their children to attend school.
We also use these funds to help with unexpected costs such as the medical needs of our Makers and their children. We have also used the donations to help with repairs or replacing items if there is a natural disaster—which is unfortunately quite common in Honduras.
It is important for us to be as transparent as possible. So please understand that not all of these funds from purchased products go back to our Makers. However, ALL of the donations do!