Our story
4509 Leaders Trained
537 Small Businesses Started
15 Countries Impacted
Our Story:
Jessica and Brandon's journey began with a life-changing trip to India during college, where they witnessed firsthand the hardships of families in extreme poverty. Two years later, inspired by a local family's dream to start a leather business for community upliftment, they founded Elevate.
founder story
2012
In the summer of 2012, my feet landed on an enormous garbage mountain in India. I was led by a few children through their “home.” They began showing me their job: collecting and sorting rubbish items for next to no pay, little food, and no access to education. We ventured down the road, through the smells and the smiles, and I felt somehow like I was in heaven. God loved these people, and so did I.
2012 (cont.)
As the weeks went on, we sat in homes, laughed, danced, and learned from local friends about the beauty and challenges of life in India.Â
A friend and mentor once told me there are two most important days of your life. One, the day you were born, and two, the day you find out why. And as Brandon and I stood on a rooftop that summer, we found our why. Our plans for our life were out the window, and our future would now be about something beyond ourselves - serving the world and choosing to look complex, devastating problems in the eye and engage them with love, relationships, and localized solutions.
2014
Two years later, Brandon and I moved back to South Asia, seeking to learn and discover. We felt like we needed to avoid coming in with solutions. But instead, to ask better questions and discover a pathway for long-term, localized impact.
2015
We were totally inspired, and with that, Elevate was founded—a non-profit social enterprise committed to providing ethically made, high-quality products for everyday life while perpetuating social change through small business initiatives from within the communities most affected by extreme poverty.Â
We believe that the people most affected by the world's injustices are the best people to take action long-term!
2018
A few months in, we met a local family tackling poverty, persecution, and exploitation head-on. Their solution wasn't massively formal; it was relational, beautiful, and had incredible capacity for long-term transformation! Inspired by their lives, we asked how we could be involved. To our surprise, they said, “Our dream is to start a leather workshop! We are leather artisans by trade and we want to work with our own hands, provide safe working conditions, and earn resources to continue being a blessing to our community.”
2024
And right now, we’re on a mission to continue bringing transformation to vulnerable families like those on the trash mountain through locally led, empowerment-based solutions and are on track to reach our goal of helping kick-start 1,000 small businesses by 2026.
We have big dreams for Elevate's global impact and invite you to join in on the journey. You are more than a customer to us, you are a partner and an agent of change.
Elevate wasn’t our idea; it was theirs - and their dream gave us ours.
Your Leather Makers
Meet the Samuel Family—our true heroes bravely confronting poverty, persecution, and exploitation. Despite the challenges, they remain deeply motivated to bring positive change to their community and beyond. Their dedication to creating a better future fuels our passion and drives us forward. They are exceptionally talented artisans, always eager to bring our design ideas to life. Each bag is handcrafted with you in mind! We are grateful to be an extension of their small family business.
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Ethically handcrafted to change lives
"I'm able to make a higher wage than I was at the factory, because our prices are now set by us."
- Workshop Manager, Laxman
"I've always enjoyed working with leather. It's what we know. It's what we're good at."
- Workshop Manager, Faruk
"I've been able to pay for all my families bills. I feel a greater sense of self-worth than I've felt before."
- Small Business Owner, Joyce
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