About us
Make it Matter provides artisans from across Tanzania with a premium market place that they would not normally have access to. We empower artisans living in remote, rural areas or with challenging circumstances by providing them with our platform to reach customers beyond their local communities.
We measure our business success on the positive social impact and transformative change we create for the artisans. More than a retail store, our team works with the makers to build their brands, provide business insight, co-design products and connect them to technology, markets and business networks.
Fair Trade, dignity in the workplace and equal opportunities are equally as important as the products we curate which is why we have a compliance framework and assess each independent artisan, group or small business.
We see it as our duty to encourage conscious shopping by thinking thoughtfully about each product and how it is made, who it is made by and what it is made of. Our retail store has a zero single-use plastic policy and we do all that we can to encourage artisans to think about circular economy and environmentally friendly packaging
Gifts that Give Back
Make it Matter invests in artisan groups and uses a revolving fund mechanism to help them have a more secure income every month. This is one way for us to measure our success as Make it Matter’s point of departure was to find a solution that provided artisans with a regular income so that they can plan a future that is safe, secure and free from poverty.
Artisans
To date, Make it Matter works with more than 62 different artisan groups in Tanzania alone, comprising of 1,500 makers who are predominantly women. Products are sourced country wide, from the sloping hills of Moshi to the shores of Lake Manyara. Whether the artisans are located in Zanzibar, Bagamoyo, Iringa, Mbeya, Arusha, Dodoma or Tanga we find ways of connecting them to our flagship store and bringing their product to market.
We are proud to have extended our hands to artisan groups in Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Kenya and Rwanda where cultural exchanges of crafts benefit and broaden the artisan’s market place.
Our Business Success
At Make it Matter we measure our business success on the social impact that we make. We monitor how our artisan’s lives and the lives of their children have improved from the partnership. We believe that a hand up is a far greater gift than a hand out, which is why our business model provides advice, guidance, kick starter funds and tailor made trainings to alleviate them out of poverty – for good.
