Fundación Tzedaká

We are applying for The Elevate Prize because we believe that our ELECTROSOLIDARIO project is an innovative green economy model with enormous growth potential in Argentina, where it is the first of its kind. ELECTROSOLIDARIO is the social and inclusive business of Fundación Tzedaká, an ecommerce platform through which refurbished electrical appliances are sold, giving them a second useful life, and avoiding their disposal as electronic waste. The devices are refurbished by specially trained people from very vulnerable sectors. In addition, the proceeds are invested by Fundación Tzedaká on food, housing, health, education and job training programs for people living in poverty in Argentina.

If we are selected as winners, we will use the funds to improve logistical issues and develop a communication campaign aimed at attracting more customers and cultivating more conscious consumers, who question where their products come from, the value chains and who prioritize purchases with low environmental impact and high social impact. The growth of the project would result in a greater quantity of recovered electrical appliances and therefore less contamination; more people who can find a source of decent work through reparations, and more funds for the growth of the Foundation's social programs. 

We are an organization that has been working for 30 years in the fight against poverty in Argentina, a country where 42% of its population is poor: unemployed or precarious jobs, without social security contributions or health insurance. Fundación Tzedaká develops promotion programs with a comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach in the areas of Comprehensive Assistance (food and housing); Education (ensuring schooling at all educational levels); Labor Training (providing young people and adults with tools to promote their employability); develops the only program in Argentina to Help Survivors of the Holocaust. In the Health area, we develop the Community Medicines Bank, the largest non-state program in the country for the free provision of medicines to poor people.

The organization employs 90 professionals and 600 volunteers, led by a Board of Directors. In search of sustainability for the organization and with the support of the Newsan company, we created ELECTROSOLIDARIO: the first store in Argentina to sell reconditioned appliances, a concept that has not yet been developed in the country. ELECTROSOLIDARIO is a triple impact project: it reduces environmental pollution, generates employment, and allows thousands of people to receive food, housing, health and education through the Foundation's social programs. 

Electrosolidario is the first and only online sales platform for refurbished electrical appliances in Argentina. Our objective is to generate an inclusive business which allows us to sustain our social programs, provide opportunities to those who do not have access to a job and at the same time collaborate with our planet, avoiding more electronic waste. The project benefits 35,000 people living in vulnerable situations throughout the country. All the profits generated by Electrosolidario are converted into food support, educational scholarships, medicines, and job training through the social programs of Fundación Tzedaká. In addition, it generates employment for 55 people from the Buenos Aires suburbs who were previously excluded from the formal labor market, and who were trained to repair these electrical appliances. The repairmen come from highly vulnerable communities: people aged over 45, trans people, young people aged under 24 who have also suffered different problems associated with gender violence, difficulty in accessing employment and have criminal proceedings. Electrosolidario seeks to contribute and take an active commitment in the fight for the conservation of the environment in conjunction with the fight for formalization and job training in a context of strong labor and social exclusion. 

What makes Fundación Tzedaka´s project ELECTROSOLIDARIO so innovative is that it solves two fundamental problems that are present and critical throughout the world: protecting the environment and providing social support to vulnerable people. As a result, through an innovative and inclusive form of business, the project unites these two critical issues that are very present in the current public agenda. On one hand, caring for the environment by reducing the amount of electronic waste that is highly contaminating. And on the other hand, providing social and labor inclusion in a dignified and legitimate way to vulnerable populations by the means of education, training and work. It is the union of these two variables that allowed Electrosolidario to be launched as a way of social inclusion through an inclusive and eco-sustainable business. It is also ground-breaking that ELECTROSOLIDARIO arises from the alliance between a social organization (Fundación Tzedaká) and a private company (Newsan). The governance model includes all the stakeholders that are part of Electrosolidario. They meet periodically to make strategic decisions for the common good and the success of this initiative. 

Fundación Tzedaká seeks to carry out projects with an innovative stamp to achieve its objectives: inclusion and social aid. Electrosolidario strives to achieve those goals focusing on a crucial factor that’s present on the current public agenda: the environment. 

Electronic equipment contains polluting materials that are dangerous if they are disposed of incorrectly. Electrosolidario is an innovative form of recycling, that allows an inclusive and innovative business through job training, entrepreneurship and empowerment. 

Fundación Tzedaká impacts humanity in two ways: social and labor inclusion and a responsible way of recycling to help reduce the waste material.

Steps to achieve our plan: 

1. Ongoing review of the logistic and human resources processes 

2. Addition of auditors to perform quality control for the  repaired products 

3. Improvement of the stock and inventory systems 

4. Partnerships with NGOs who provide a sustainable destination for devices that can not be repaired.

Project’s effectiveness: 

- 35,000 beneficiaries received social aid

- 55 workers get decent jobs 

- +8000 customers accessed quality appliances. Their purchases helped society and the environment.

- 12,600 reconditioned appliances 

- 4000 appliances used for spare parts 

- 4000 scrap appliances had a sustainable destination