Walmart Empowering Women Together Initiative Unites Small Businesses, Social Good

Editor’s note:  This article, written by Lana Flowers, first appeared in the latest magazine edition of Talk Business Arkansas.

Heaven’s parents were drug dealers who thought nothing of awakening her at midnight for backyard barbecues. The 8-year-old Heaven was tired and could not concentrate in school.

She started abusing drugs herself at 13 years old, wound up in prison, then in a halfway house.

Heaven, now 24, has a high school GED, has no children and is participating in the Women’s Bean Project, a Denver, Colo.-based nonprofit organization.

Heaven works 40 hours per week, learning conflict resolution skills, making products such as necklaces and gluten-free cornbread mix, and working in the shipping department of the bean project. The organization operates from a 1920s era fire station in a historical section of Denver, Colo.

The bean project is one of the women’s businesses chosen to be part of Bentonville-based Walmart Stores Inc.’s Empowering Women Together initiative.
Empowering Women Together combines more than 200 products made by women in 19 countries. The products are for sale at walmart.com.

“Empowering Women Together is a simple concept; it connects shoppers in the United States with quality products made by women-owned businesses around the world,” said Andrea Thomas, Walmart senior vice president, at the launch of the new initiative.

“And in doing that, it helps achieve so much more. Through Walmart’s Empowering Women Together, customers can help these suppliers increase their incomes, better their lives and create new jobs for others, and Walmart can help these suppliers gain experience with buying trends, scaling, product development and acumen they need to build their businesses,” Thomas said.

Empowering Women Together will be part of Store for Good, a developing Walmart.com program connecting consumers to products that are good for people and for the environment.

“As merchants, we’re always looking for new products to share with our customers that are quality, on-trend and priced right,” said Kelly Thompson, senior vice president of merchandising, Walmart.com.  “The products from the Empowering Women Together collection deliver all of that while also giving our customers the chance to do good with their dollars – it’s a positive and powerful proposition for everyone.”

It’s been about two months since the March 7 announcement that the Women’s Bean Project would be part of the Empowering Women’s Initiative, with products on the walmart.com website.

“The traffic is converting very well,” said Tamra Ryan, CEO of the nonprofit bean project. She noted that customer traffic on walmart.com leads shoppers to www.womensbeanproject.com to make more purchases and get additional information.

“For us, exposure to the millions of Walmart customers is great for our organization, both in terms of helping us with our mission and leading to sales. All other things being equal, if you are going to make a purchase, making a purchase that makes a difference is preferable,” said Ryan.

The Women’s Bean Project began in 1989 after its founder volunteered at a local women’s shelter.

“The women she met wanted to work their own way up and out of poverty, but didn’t have the skills to find or keep work,” Ryan said. “So, she decided to start a business to teach them how.”

Ryan said many of the bean project employees are convicted felons, making it difficult for them to find traditional full-time employment.

“We are the place where women come when they are ready to make a change. We have created a safe and accepting work environment to help women move to the skills they need to find steady employment,” Ryan said.

The bean project’s inception was a $500 initial investment and two employees. Now, the bean project has hundreds of employees each year. The “employees” are women who participate in the program for nine months, gaining skills such as arriving for work on time, polishing how to dress and speak in the workplace, and keeping schedules.

They also make jewelry, salsa mixes, spice rubs, coffee beans, soups, chili, and gift baskets.

“That satisfaction and pride that women feel when they finish a product is just such a nice thing,” Ryan said.

Women put their first names on the products, including on jewelry tags and on stickers that seal the $4.95 packages of gluten-free cornbread. People who buy the products often email or write letters to the bean project, thanking the women for their handiwork, Ryan said.

“It’s never been about the soup or the cornbread or the jewelry. It’s always been about the women,” she said.

Approximately 75 percent of the bean project’s annual operating budget, now more than $2 million, comes from product sales, Ryan said.

Women transition from the bean project into their communities after about nine months, at which point the women get full-time jobs at other employers, live on their own rather than in halfway houses or temporary shelters, and contribute to their local economies.

“Someone who can work becomes a taxpayer. That reduces crime recidivism, so they are less likely to commit another crime or go back to prison. It’s an opportunity finally to break the cycle,” Ryan said.

Consumers place a premium on products with ethical sourcing, fair wages and positive impacts on the planet, according to the 2011 Nielsen Global Survey of Corporate Citizenship. It included more than 28,000 people from 56 countries and was conducted in the third quarter of 2011.

About 66 percent of consumers said they preferred to purchase products and services from companies who implemented programs to give back to society. About 46 percent of those consumers will put their cash where their causes are, and pay extra for products and services with a positive difference, according to Nielsen.

Those trends translate to women, as 45 percent of the Nielsen survey respondents support companies that promote gender equality and empowering women.

Walmart is making progress in supporting women, from having Rosalind Brewer as CEO of its Sam’s Club division to having M. Susan Chambers as its executive vice president of global people to initiatives like Empowering Women Together.

It has made strides since a 2001 federal lawsuit – Dukes v. Walmart – gave the company a black eye on the equality front. Dukes v. Walmart is a class action lawsuit in which women across the U.S. sued for discrimination in wages and promotions.

The U.S. Supreme Court in June 2011 ruled that the women’s claims of the 1.5-million person class were too diverse and could not proceed as a class action. Women would have to pursue their claims separately.

Still, the retailer’s latest effort of Empowering Women Together is making a difference in the United States and other countries. It gives Joy Ndungutse, an entrepreneur in Rwanda, access to shoppers in America.

Ndungutse and her sister founded Gahaya Links after the 1994 Rwandan genocide that killed more than 1 million people.

“We organized about 20 women with a vision of empowering them to enhance their weaving skills, to be able to earn an income, and live adequately by community standards,” Ndunguntse said.

“Today, we are a growing network of over 4,000 women, the majority of whom are genocide survivors and are organized in cooperatives throughout Rwanda.  Through our partnership with Full Circle Exchange and opportunities such as Empowering Women Together, this platform gives hope to many families in Rwanda and we are so grateful,” Ndungutse said.

The inaugural Empowering Women Together collection also includes jewelry from Peru, Rwanda and Kenya; home accessories from Rwanda and Haiti; paper mache from Haiti; apparel and accessories from Rwanda; iPad and laptop cases from Cambodia and Nepal; coffee and tea sets sourced globally and made in America; and specialty foods made in America and Canada.

The full collection can be viewed online at this link.