New products, priced at $25 - $35, include candles by West Hollywood designer Timothy Jay (http://www.timothyjaycandles.com) as well as stationery and holiday greeting cards that feature artwork by children at the school and photos by award-winning photographer Tim Llewellyn (http://www.fourl.com). Each sale enables Shepherds Junior to purchase one or more bricks for a new classroom at the school. Epic Change hopes to sell enough products during the holiday season to build at least one additional classroom at the school, which requires approximately 1,000 bricks.
Epic Change founder Stacey Monk views their inaugural product line as "a collaboration between business partners who have a shared interest in making the world a better place. Our partners create change and hopeful stories worth sharing; we collaboratively develop those stories into the income necessary to fund their efforts." She hopes consumers will be inspired to purchase Epic Change gifts because of their direct positive impact. "When you see Pius, a five-year-old boy who's at the top of his kindergarten class while at home his mother struggles with HIV, on one of our products, you know that the purchase benefits him directly by improving educational facilities at the school he attends," Monk said.
That school, Shepherds Junior, was founded by a Tanzanian woman named "Mama Lucy" Kamptoni. She saved her income from selling chickens and in 2003 used her earnings to establish a primary school that now serves over 200 children from villages near her home. Her story, and her name, which means to "shine," was the inspiration for one of the candles in the new Epic Change collection.
It was her entrepreneurial spirit that led Monk to design Epic Change's unique model for social change. "When I met Mama Lucy, I thought her compelling, hopeful story might be an asset she could use to raise funds for her efforts," Monk said. The startup nonprofit uses donations to provide interest-free loans to changemakers like Kamptoni, then helps borrowers share their stories in ways that raise funds to repay loans and sustain their long-term efforts. Repaid loans are recycled to provide future ones.
So far, Epic Change has loaned $35,000 to help the school purchase land and construct four new classrooms that were built and opened in less than 100 days under Kamptoni's leadership. Already, just nine months later, performances, auctions and local sales of postcards designed by the children have enabled Kamptoni to pay back nearly 10% of that loan. Epic Change is anticipating that sales of products launched today will accelerate her already rapid rate of repayment.
In addition to being socially conscious, Epic Change greeting cards and stationery products are environmentally friendly, and will be printed on 100% recycled stock using soy and vegetable based inks by GreenerPrinter (http://www.greenerprinter.com).
Epic Change products may be purchased online at http://shop.epicchange.org.
ABOUT EPIC CHANGE
Epic Change is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that helps hopeful people in need share their stories to acquire resources that will improve their lives. The organization makes interest-free loans to finance community improvement projects. To facilitate loan repayment and establish sustainable income sources, Epic Change then partners with borrowers to share their stories in ways that raise funds.
Epic Change was founded in 2007 by Stacey Monk, a social entrepreneur, management consultant and graduate of the Heinz School of Public Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon University and Sanjay Patel, a UCLA grad with nearly 10 years experience in change leadership and project management in the public and private sectors.
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If you'd like more information, or to schedule an interview with Stacey Monk, please call 415.630.0631 or e-mail stacey@epicchange.org.