As a California Social Purpose Corporation, we publish this annual statement outlining some of the steps we took in the previous year to meet our stated social purposes.
Our Social Purpose is to promote the positive effects and minimize adverse effects of our business activities upon: (1) our employees, suppliers, customers and creditors, (2) the community and society and (3) the environment.
IdealThread incorporated in April of 2023 and began to seek connections with artists. The below describes how we chose to work with two of our artist partners, both of which highlight our commitment to supporting our supplier artists, their communities and society as a whole. More details about our artists can be found in the Partners section of our website.
We initially investigated US based organizations that were importing traditional woven products from Guatemala. We discovered a significant issue with US based companies and individuals buying handwoven Guatemalan textiles at exploitive prices and reselling them without respect for their cultural significance. After further investigation and communication with US based fair trade organizations, we determined to work through a organized weaving collective.
In Guatemala, following the devastation of the civil war, many indigenous Maya weavers united in collectives or cooperatives for increased economic support and to protect the cultural significance of their textile art. Asociación de Tejedoras Mayas "Cojolya" "was founded in 1996 to empower indigenous artisans to improve their quality of life and the preservation of the art of the woven on a backstrap loom, facilitating access to fair jobs and fair global markets." https://online-shop.cojolya.org.gt/pages/about-us-1. We immediately connected with Cojolya's mission and fair trade business practices and, upon reaching out, with Carina Vasquez, Cojolya's business manager. We significantly advanced our social purpose through our relationship with Cojolya and development of our first joint product.
In November 2023, we made our first purchasing trip to Guadalajara, Mexico. In keeping with our social purposes, we made contact with Casa de Salud Huichol a non-profit organization whose mission is to "develop, promote and support research, training and social assistance actions to preserve the life, identity and culture of the Wixárika people, in alliance with their traditional authorities." https://casadesaludhuichol.org/ We significantly advanced our social purpose through our relationship with Casa de Salud.
We spent the remainder of the 2023 year developing our relationship with our artist partners and investigating sustainable packaging alternatives. Information on our commitment to the environment can be found on the sustainability section of our website. We were not open for sales in 2023 and, therefore, saw no income. Our expenses included legal costs for incorporation, payments to our contractors for developing our brand, payments to our artists for product and samples and travel costs. We paid fair wages to our contractors in the US and in Guatemala and Mexico. We paid the full retail price for all samples and products. We look forward to providing our next annual report in April 2025 and describing how our first full year in business met our social purpose objectives.