Social Impact

Social Impact- Partners

Turquoise Mountain In 2006 Turquoise Mountain was founded in Afghanistan at the behest of HRH the Prince of Wales. Turquoise Mountain's aim is to preserve and regenerate historic areas and communities with a rich cultural heritage and to revive traditional crafts, to create jobs, skills and a renewed sense of pride. Since 2006, Turquoise Mountain has restored 150 historic buildings, trained over 6,000 artisans, treated more than 100,000 patients, graduated hundreds of talented artisans, and generated over $6m in international sales from customers like Kate Spade 5th Avenue to London's 5 star Connaught Hotel. Turquoise Mountain has also curated major international exhibitions around the world, from the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., to the Buckingham Palace Summer Opening.

Label Step Label STEP was established in 1995, Label STEP philosophy is based on the principles of Corporate Social Responsibility. It follows a company label rather than a product certification approach. Label STEP's mission is to:

Improve working and living conditions of weavers and workers in the handmade carpet industry
Empower weavers and workers
Foster environmentally sound carpet production
Support sustainable development of the handmade carpet industry and enhance the market prospects of this product
Prohibition of child labor

Craftsmanship

Did you know? The craft of rug weaving dates back thousands of years and has its roots in the Silk Road trade route. Rugs were considered a prized possession often carpeting royal palaces and at one point even a form of currency. While advancement in modern technology has made machine carpet production more common, the craftsmanship of handmade rug weaving continues to produce rugs of superior quality and longevity that hold their value over time. Check out this incredible video created with our partner, Turquoise Mountain, about the tradition and art of rug weaving in Afghanistan. We will also have articles and videos about the craftsmanship so our collectors can understand the beauty and intricacy of this ancient craft on our blog

Social Impact & Craftsmanship

DANDELION is a collective coalescing fine art with ancient artisan craftsmanship to create one-of-a-kind limited edition rug pieces. These pieces are handmade in Afghanistan and India by our weavers, who are often disenfranchised due to conflict, lack of education or geographical lack of employment. As a social impact business our mission is to empower these artisans with employment opportunities that can improve their lives. We cannot do this alone, so we are working closely with our partners Turquoise Mountain and Label Step to help implement our social impact program on the ground in Afghanistan and India. These NGO partners are doing incredible work in this space to help.

Our model for social impact is simple: we have set up a social impact fund for our artisans similar to the way an employee in the United States can be enrolled in a stock option with their company to earn an additional income as the company grows and sells. Each rug sold will have a contribution to the social impact fund. With this fund our artisans will be empowered to use this additional income as they wish by claiming dividends or suggesting improvements within their community or work environment. DANDELION's goal is to double yearly earnings for each artisan we work with and continue to provide more opportunity for economic advancement.

We believe by providing more economic opportunities at significantly higher wages, we can have a massive impact on these communities that have historically struggled to prosper. Artisans in less developed countries are often a part of the bottom billion, a term that categories the most impoverished people in the world. Despite these economic hardships the artisans that we work with are incredibly talented and serve as inspirations. So please join us in this mission to help our incredible artisans by supporting DANDELION.