Ibulliance: Moving Along

Though I love to look back and feel the breadth of our accomplishments together, (thanks for all the joy you showered on us yesterday!), I find it even more exciting to look ahead and imagine the yet-possible. We've belong to such an alive movement. What else can we do together???

This threshold year provides us just the moment to let dreams rise up, expand. At a team retreat recently, our Ibu Directors tore the lid off small thinking, knowing the possible is just within reach. Here's some of what we envisioned in hope and confidence:

~ moving to a ground floor gallery Marketplace showcasing women's artisanal treasures with vivid, tech-savvy story-telling

~ quarterly Fringe Road Adventures for allies interacting with our artisan partners and their culture
(Uzbekistan, Madagascar, Nigeria, Peru, India, Mongolia, Bolivia, Nepal…) 

~ Artisan-In-Residence program at an Ibu Center providing training, networking, and teaching opportunities for global women partners

~ A constellation of Ibu-associated Marketplaces around the world
(our first launching soon in Islamabad)

~ An international mentoring network to guide artisans in business, marketing, and leadership skills

~ Designers working in-situ with artisan cooperatives to innovate in
product design

~ A website hub for artisans to learn from videos/research/grant opportunities and allies to learn of projects 

~ 8 small collection drops a year targeting specific customers/styles/ages 

~ $10,000,000 budget in 5 years to accomplish these dreams (5 fold growth)

~ Double the number of women's groups represented by Ibu,
from 100 to 200 active global enterprises

~ A book published about Ibu work and women, a podcast series,
a dozen ways to tell the story

A movement moves. Advances. Acts. Impacts. Disturbs. Inspires. Rouses. Runs. Rallies. Climbs. Leaps. Dances. Shuffles. Sprints. Toggles. Turns. A movement doesn't stand still. 

We're here for the long run. We invite you to be too, whether you glide or shuffle or sprint. So much is possible when we move together.

As I look to this next ten years with you, I have a big ask. Will you join us in realizing The Power of Ten? Will you find your pace, your moves, your Impact. Below are three ways: Tell 10. Give 10. Shop 10.  

It's our gift to you, and your gift to the women of this broken, impossibly wounded world, who yet find hope in one another. Here's the baton, my friends.

The relay is in your hands!

All the Best,
SHW