Give Back with Crescent Maille

These Mobius Flower earrings have been in the Etsy shop from the beginning. For several months now, I have offered them as a way to work with Kiva.org. Out of the $33 price, Crescent Maille loans $25 to a fund-raising entrepreneur at Kiva.org. (The remaining $8 goes towards fees, shipping & handling, and materials.) Kiva.org is a non-profit micro-financing organization that helps entrepreneurs from impoverished areas worldwide start and grow their own businesses, to improve their lives, and their families’ lives. The buyer receives printed confirmation of the donation, as well as information about the person or persons the money has been lent to, with the earrings. Crescent Maille reloans the funds to new entrepreneurs as they are paid back, creating a “perpetual” loan cycle.

As of this month, I’m adding new charities that one can help support with the purchase of these earrings.

Currently, one pair donates $20 to First Book. First Book is a nonprofit organization that focuses on increasing child literacy by providing children from low-income families with their own brand-new books — their first books. One of the studies cited by First Book states that in middle-income neighborhoods there is an average of 13 books for every child, while in low-income neighborhoods there is an average of one book for every 300 children. $20 will provide ten new books to these children. The buyer receives printed confirmation of the donation with the earrings. First Book has the highest rating of 4 stars from Charity Navigator.

Or, for animal lovers, consider a pair that donates to The Elephant Sanctuary. Crescent Maille will donate $25 of the sale to The Elephant Sanctuary. This sanctuary, founded in 1995, is the nation’s largest natural habitat refuge developed specifically for endangered African and Asian elephants. It operates on 2,700 acres in Hohenwald, Tennessee. The Elephant Sanctuary exists for two reasons: to provide a haven for old, sick or needy elephants in a setting of green pastures, dense forests, spring-fed ponds and heated barns for cold winter nights; and to provide education about the crisis facing these social, sensitive, passionately intense, playful, complex, exceedingly intelligent and endangered creatures. The Elephant Sanctuary has the highest rating of 4 stars from Charity Navigator. The buyer receives printed confirmation of the donation with the earrings.

To view the “giving back” earrings currently available, visit the “for charity” section of the Etsy Shop.