Nest Artisan Guild

For centuries, craftspeople and handworkers have played critical roles in sustaining local creative economies, working from informal settings like homes and small workshops. These predominantly women workers are larger than many realize—the ILO estimates 300 million people work from home, primarily in craft-based handwork. Handworkers contribute over $526 billion in value to our global GDP yet remain overlooked.

Nest's work focuses on the rapidly growing handicraft maker economy. As consumer demand for handmade goods rises, makers from under-resourced communities are left behind. Developing makers' needs requires broadening and supporting the availability of digital skills, training opportunities, and access to essential digital devices and functional internet to create an equitable response to this challenge. Nest is expanding digital resources by leveraging a digital learning platform specifically tailored to and dedicated for makers across Latin America. Addressing inequitable access to resources and e-commerce opportunities is critical to long-term sustainability for these communities. 

Worldwide, handcraft workers are often overlooked and underserved. As the global economy becomes increasingly data-driven, the handcraft sector (valued at $526B in 2017 and estimated worth $984B by 2023) is left behind, impacting this predominantly female workforce. 

The Aspen Institute reports artisanal craft is the second-largest employment source in all Latin America. According to the CFDA, 1 in 25 people in the world is an artisan living in poverty, due to insufficient access to quality materials, visibility, expanded sales and distribution channels, which can be addressed by leveraging digital tools. 

Efforts to preserve public health safety in LAC, one of the hardest affected regions by the pandemic, heavily impacted the economy. As the pandemic continued, an absence of basic online presence (website, social media, and tools like an e-catalog) limited market opportunities in an increasingly digital and e-commerce world. The 2020 Latin America ECommerce Forecast showed 38M consumers were first-time digital buyers. 248.7M are forecasted for 2021. For artisan entrepreneurs, especially those in rural areas or with lesser resources, digital technologies broaden reach, increase visibility and market access, and enable online sales. Engaging artisan businesses in the digital economy is critical to connecting to a new and growing customer base. 

The artisan sector is one of the largest home-based industries globally. Estimates suggest that up to 60% of production--including sewing soles on shoes, adding pom-poms to hats, or sorting plastic waste--is subcontracted to home-based workers.

Much of this informal economy is cash-based and lacks regulation and fair labor policies. Without systems for implementing payments and safe working conditions, home-based workers are at risk of labor exploitation. The lowest-paid members of the world’s workforce earn, on average, $1.80/day.

As global demand for handicrafts grows, we are supporting an artisan economy that works almost entirely from home and has the transparency to make sure this work is safe. This means facilitating programs focused on SME capacity building while shifting corporate policies and setting new global standards for sourcing practices. Nest provides comprehensive programming to ensure the interests of artisan homeworkers and makers worldwide are being represented and protected.

Nest’s solution focuses on three critical needs areas aimed at ensuring long-term sustainability:

1. Assisting more makers looking to launch independent eCommerce shops 

2. Conducting training to independently maintain and grow digital literacy and online presence without reliance on external organizations 

3. Establishing systems/structures for community access to free, low-cost, and reliable digital tools

Nest’s Artisan Guild comprises 1506 artisan businesses across 119 countries. 76% are female-founded, employing 279,024 artisans, 88% of which are female. Of those, we work with 123 artisan businesses, 23,361 workers across 16 Latin American countries, indirectly impacting 97,404 individuals. In Guatemala, for example, Nest works with 44 artisan businesses, the highest number of businesses within the Latin American cohort. According to reporting from USAID, statistically, only 37% of women in Guatemala participate in the formal labor market (as opposed to 85% of men), 27% own their own business, and 28% have access to financial markets (as opposed to 66% of men). In 2018, the economy created only one new job for every 15 people entering the job market. Approximately 70 percent of Guatemala’s economy is informal, characterized by low productivity, wages, and competitiveness. Without access to local economic opportunities, Guatemalans are migrating to other countries. 

Over 1 million artisans in Guatemala produce handmade fashion and textiles and preserve unique Mayan traditions rooted in thousands of years of history. Craft-based work is an enormous driver of women’s employment, serving as the second largest employer in developing economics, after agriculture. With climate change studies in Latin America indicating extreme weather, including drought, adversely affecting small-scale farming, artisan businesses must gain broader market access. In addition, the preservation of craft heritage in their country leads to sustainable economic development. Supporting informal work creates jobs and boosts incomes, improving Guatemalans' living conditions and reducing the need to migrate.

Nest creates opportunities for long-term economic growth and financial inclusion in this primarily informal homeworker economy—often providing a significant income stream for women and mothers who need the flexibility to care for children and other dependents. The impact of supporting and building up these female entrepreneurs can have a major impact.  McKinsey Global Institute estimates that if as many women as men took part in the formal economy, $28 trillion would be added to the global GDP. 

Digital connection is essential for hidden makers to access market opportunities. This is a remarkable chance to integrate an untouched and ignored global workforce into the digital economy and provide access to e-commerce platforms, blockchain technology, and mobile phone innovations for collecting and aggregating data in a data-poor environment.

Nest is sensitive to the unique challenges hidden makers face, including limited access to technology and digital know-how. Working alongside makers within Latin American countries, we aim to provide the tools and resources needed to be successful. We are committed to ensuring that the workshops and digital skills trainings meet participants where they are and provide them with actionable plans to maintain their e-commerce operations long-term.

Nest formerly launched the Artisan Guild Network in 2015 and has significantly grown our programming and reach since that time. We have an established digital content and curriculum development model and successfully facilitated peer-to-peer digital networking using everyday tools like WhatsApp and Facebook. Nest has launched 57 expert-led live webinars for Guild members (led by industry presenters and artisan business leaders) on topics like Merchandising and Marketing, Communications and Public Relations, and Product Development, and Design. Engagement results showed an increase in attendance for webinars by 194.7% since 2019 and a registration increase by 294.8%. Nest’s intentional efforts to engage members on the private Guild Facebook page have noted increased engagement +38% since last year based on the number of average monthly active users. We have conducted deliberate geographic integration of the model in the US and are eager to further expand that growth with attention to Latin America.

Nest utilizes a sustainable business model that stimulates both supply and demand for responsibly-sourced handcrafted products. Nest’s approach to working directly with artisan and maker small businesses and brands ensures localized impacts and systems-change solutions. Our grassroots programs empower local leadership in Latin America and worldwide and arm artisan SMEs with resources to grow and prioritize the wellbeing of a predominantly female workforce. In addition, Nest works with brands concurrently to provide the market connections to ensure these SME partners can grow sustainably and ensure that the sector as a whole develops broadly reaching solutions for an equitable scale.

For example, Nest works with an artisan business in Peru. Since their participation in 2018 programming, they report that after earning the Nest Seal of Ethical Handcraft, their Seal-eligible supply chains earn as much +80% more than supply chains that have not engaged in Nest programming. These economic wins have a tremendous social impact on the artisans’ communities in countries.

In addition to resources produced by and direct access to industry experts, Guild members benefit from peer support. Members can join a private Facebook group to pose questions and provide insights to their peers based on their own experiences. Nest aims to build trust between members and encourages neighboring members to consider cost-effective collaborations and resource sharing. Social entrepreneurs often face similar challenges and can lean on one another for support while providing guidance from hands-on experiences with things like management, exporting, and business growth.

Nest includes technology in multiple ways. We provide participating artisan SMEs (650+ Artisan Guild members) with a suite of online learning tools, including expert-led industry webinars, phone consultations, downloadable resource guides, and mentorships with pro bono professionals through a proprietary platform called Nest Connect. SME partners further engage through customized business development projects that range from website design to e-commerce and digital marketing strategy development. Often Nest leverages well-established technologies that have pre-existing adoption to push out resources. This includes apps and platforms available on mobile phones such as Whatsapp, Facebook, Google Meets, and Instagram. 

Nest has also developed a tech platform to streamline production monitoring and oversight and increases our ability to drive worker engagement through digital content such as surveys, non-verbal videos, and push messaging that communicates critical information on business growth and worker rights. 

Additionally, when providing training and how-to programs for technology and e-commerce apps such as Etsy or Elo7, often called “the Etsy of Brazil”, Nest works to bridge the digital divide experienced by handworkers, with the tools and resources needed to establish appropriate e-commerce channels for selling their products direct-to-consumer throughout the year and around the world. 

Along with the e-commerce platforms and online learning tools, Nest supports the beautiful combination of ancestral traditional technologies such as backstrap weaving blended with today’s modern technologies like social media in leveraging those methods for storytelling, income generations, and cultural craft preservation. 

Evidence that the technology we aim to implement works lies with the Quilters of Gee's Bend in the United States. Nest’s partnership began in 2020 to incentivize the continuation of heritage quilting tradition by making it a viable economic option. Many residents in Gee's Bend, Alabama, trace their lineage back to slaves and shareholders of the Pettway Plantation. In The Bend, a unique craft tradition of quilting emerged from this history. What began with a practical purpose became a medium to showcase the community's shared values and pay homage to their cultural identity. The quilts have been shown in national museums and celebrated as one of few examples of American minimalism; however, the fame of this heritage craft has not translated into economic advancement for the community, which has an average annual income of $12,000. Some residents live without electricity, plumbing, or internet access leading many to abandon the tradition. Nest supported the quilters to preserve their skills by leveraging new digital market opportunities and collaborations with partners like Etsy and American Giant. Preparation to sell quilts online involved:

• Collecting oral histories

• Documenting inventory and pricing

• Taking product photos

• Creating a shipping and logistics process

• Setting up bank accounts

• Navigating other Etsy seller requirements

Establishing a presence in digital commerce is crucial to the long-term economic success of quilters, their families, and the community. Moreover, the ability to promote and market their crafts to an audience that appreciates their beauty, craftsmanship, and heritage is critical to protecting the cultural value of these goods. In the first 48 hours, nearly half of the shops sold out, and over $72,000 was generated as indirect income for the quilters. Nest has worked with 36 quilters, bringing over $399,000 in direct income to the community.

Gee's Bend Quilters on GMA

Some risks and concerns cited by makers include digital integrations requiring handholding to understand and best leverage. Implementing digital capacity-building clinics, mentorship, and how-to guides for handworkers are critical in order for makers to re-envision their sales and communication strategies. 

For these artisan handworkers, the risks to gaining and improving upon digital literacy skills and acquiring easier access to online platforms for their businesses are far outweighed by the rewards. Investing in and equipping maker entrepreneurs with a clear understanding of the content and steps needed to elevate their work will help their businesses achieve long-term socio-economic stability and continued cultural preservation of craft heritage in each region. 

Other risks include a lack of access to stable, functional internet and smart devices that enable the use of mobile POS. A mitigation would be a partnership with a local/regional technology company to provide the needed access to the areas mapped out by Nest’s data collection.

Currently directly impacting 23,361 Latin American maker entrepreneurs  

1 year: 25,000 Latin American maker entrepreneurs  

5 years: 40,000 Latin American maker entrepreneurs  

By addressing both supply and demand for ethical handcraft, Nest can improve wages, and worker wellbeing, develop the viability of artisanal SMEs and bring value back to traditional craft techniques. Nest’s ultimate goal is to create system-wide change by facilitating a gender-balanced opportunity for millions of women to fully participate in the global economy. 

To respond to current economic hardships for small businesses, Nest is meeting the unprecedented need for targeted capacity building through rapid expansion of two of our core programs: the Artisan Guild Network and the Artisan Accelerator program. 

We recognize that as many worldwide became home-based workers for the first time, there is a unique opportunity to build positive momentum -- a message of resilience and power -- toward cottage industry production models with consumers and the industry at large. To do this, Nest will create a cross-sector coalition and public campaign to promote, protect, and advance hand and homeworkers: We believe that for systems change to occur, a vibrant movement built and led by women will build collective movement and power towards sustainable investment and change. 

An example is a partnership between artisan business Pixan of Guatemala and Qurate Retail Group. In 2020, Nest fellows supported Pixan through the challenges of Covid-19 assisting with website changes to drive SEO and traffic, optimized brand story, pricing structure for wholesale/retail, and a project timeline to mitigate the upcoming six months. This partnership impacted 38 employees from 15 Guild businesses and 4,535 artisans, with an indirect impact of 21,296.

Nest measures program impact through qualitative and quantitative metrics using diverse tools to capture, aggregate, and analyze data from key stakeholders, including compliance evaluation, needs assessments, baseline, and post-program surveys, worker surveys, on-site visits, and interviews.

As a result of this programming, Nest expects to see Artisan Guild businesses leaders in Latin American countries increase engagement with the Nest Connect platform and consequently their knowledge around key business concepts related to the handcraft export market. Nest’s monitoring  and evaluation plan includes the following outputs, outcomes, and indicators of program success:

Outputs

-Number of Artisan Guild members

-Number of SMEs on Nest Connect Facebook

-Number of direct beneficiaries for Artisan Guild members

-Number of indirect beneficiaries for Artisan Guild members

-Number of organized industry events to facilitate peer-to-peer interaction

-Number of annual sourcing guides, by-monthly Artisan Advancement newsletters, and custom sourcing reports, and other resources

-Number of countries represented

Outcomes

-Increase in a subsection of the Artisan Guild that has access to and utilizes support services

-Increase in number of artisan leaders who gain new knowledge and skills related to business growth and sustainability

-Increase in number of US-based artisan businesses serving marginalized communities

Indicators 

-Change in cumulative number of Guild members

-Change in cumulative number of unique visitors (by region, country, and resource type)

-Change in cumulative number of Guild SMEs accessing Nest Connect resources

-Change in cumulative number of Guild SMEs engaging on Nest Connect Facebook

 21 FTE/ 1 PTE / 7 Contractors

Nest has been a leader in the handworker space for 15 years by engaging stakeholders at every level, impacting makers and artisans on the ground in over 119 counties to influencing corporate policy shifts, and uncovering unprecedented data on the sector. 

In 2017 at the United Nations, Nest launched the first of its program to bring transparency and training to artisans and makers. Nest’s program and approach have been endorsed and adopted by prominent industry leaders including Bloomberg Philanthropies, Patagonia, Target, West Elm, PVH, and Amazon. Nest’s network includes 1500+ small and micro-businesses participating in our work, leading to beneficiary informed and data-backed programming approaches. 

Rebecca van Bergen founded Nest in 2006, as an effort to build a new handworker economy that enhances global workforce inclusivity and women’s wellbeing. Rebecca is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, Ashoka Fellow, and  GLG Social Impact Fellow. Nest’s team of experts, many having their careers dedicated to gender equity and advancement, work alongside homeworkers and handwork businesses to design impactful programming. The team has experience working virtually and on the ground to capture data and information from relevant stakeholders and populations, and understands cultural nuances critical to working successfully with the informal sector and subcontractors within various supply chains. The Nest team is 91% women, with 83% female-led departments. Nest staff members, 47% of which self-identify as non-white or multi/bi-racial. Nest’s network of businesses across 119 countries are 76% female-founded, employing 279,001 artisans, 88% of which are female.

At the heart of Nest’s mission, values and program design is the belief that diversity, equity, and inclusion are fundamental building blocks to be stronger, smarter, and more impactful.

Diversity takes into account identified and lived religion/worship practices, military service, able-bodiedness, language, educational pathways, and interdisciplinary expertise. To us, equity exists when individuals have equal opportunity to achieve success with support or services to overcome structural barriers impacting the individual. Inclusion ensures that all programs, organizational design, and leadership allow participants to equally voice their perspectives and experiences, giving all points of view equal consideration for problem-solving, implementing solutions, creating programs, or advancing Nest’s work and impact.

We have put these beliefs into action to ensure a more inclusive leadership team and overall organizational design, including: 

• Created a new hiring process: rather than relying on interviews that can inequitably favor individuals with access to certain educational and professional backgrounds, we have embraced models that showcase work style, process, and creative thinking. 

• Nest is invested in DEI training for our leadership team and our full staff 

• Nest has maintained and continues to develop a lateral leadership model that leans into expertise rather than hierarchy

Additionally, we see our stakeholders as leaders themselves and hire locally (nationally and internationally) to the extent possible, ideally hiring maker entrepreneurs themselves interested in diversifying their career opportunities. 

Compounding global crises have exposed deep health, racial, and gender inequalities, and a widening economic gap. As Covid-19 spread in 2020, businesses closed their offices and workers became familiar with working from home: something the global craft sector has been familiar with for generations. 

This new reality revealed that cottage industry models are a productive and resilient approach that should inform international development, as well as community revitalization here at home.  And, at a time when there is an urgent call to listen to BIPOC voices, these models may suggest a “new” way of work -- already perfected by Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities for centuries. The pandemic illuminated the need to address the digital skills shortages within the artisan sector and improve access to digital opportunities in metropolitan and rural areas. Providing support and training in emerging technologies for handworkers can create new lucrative and sustainable business models with market potential. 

Nest is excited to apply for the 2021 TPrize Challenge because at this moment, we have a unique opportunity to understand the overlooked informal creative economy that is fueled by women’s labor and create a more equitable digital inclusion in the artisan marketplace. We will use this opportunity to bring digital access and opportunity to overlooked makers by building a movement for gender equity and racial justice within the handcraft sector. This under-recognized sector has limited visibility and voice, yet tremendous potential for sustainable long-term change.

While we have impact, data collection, and analysis expertise on our team, the populations that Nest serves as quite diverse so finding universally applicable impact metrics, beyond more basic metrics such as reach, can sometimes be difficult. Depending on the community, digital literacy, exposure, and access can vary. Nest has instead looked at the output of the interventions they have taken and the integration of technology, knowing that those inputs can vary depending on community need and desire. Outputs that have traditionally been looked at include an increase in product sales and overall business growth such as staffing changes. However, in light of covid, 2020 will continue to be an outlier in annual metrics and impact review. Nest is currently in need of a thought partner to assess the best way to look at resilience and impact in spite of covid. For example, looking at things like business survival and continuation versus growth.

To advance the handcraft sector and economy requires collaboration with various players within the artisan ecosystem. To this end, Nest takes a multistakeholder approach to a partnership to ensure holistic and sustainable impact. Nest works with funders invested in small business and entrepreneurship development (such as Bloomberg Philanthropies and Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth), with major brands and retailers providing critical market access from handworkers (including Target, West Elm, Patagonia) corporate partners who provide critical industry insights and expertise to both Nest and our artisan network (including Amazon, Etsy, and Square), fellow NGO’s who leverage Nest’s unprecedented data or collaborate on programming interventions (such as the Centre for Child’s Rights and Business, the Urban Manufacturing Alliance and Ripple Effect) as well as global bodies including UNESCO and UN Global Partnerships committed to furthering the maker economy. Specifically, we would welcome the chance to connect with phone and internet providers who can support the infrastructure and hardware systems artisans need to access digital resources and be a part of the digital economy.