Impact Funding Card - Training in Traditional Indigo Dying for One Woman // Sugu Sugu Launch Fund

Available online and in store, Sugu Sugu Impact Funding Cards are beautiful cards representing a tangible investment your gift recipient empowered. 

This is perfect for the loved one who “has everything.”  Give the gift of impact. 

$250 provides Training in Traditional Indigo Dying for One Woman on behalf of your gift recipient.

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More info from our Founder Emily's email is below:

For more than a decade, women across peri-urban communities in Mali who are part of the “Mali Health” initiative have been doing something extraordinary:

They gather monthly in small groups - often sitting outside under a community tree - and contribute the equivalent of 25 cents each month into a shared fund.

Twenty-five cents.

This may not sound like much, but this is a significant portion of their personal funds each month.

They’ve formed 288 groups over the years, each with about 16-20 women.  

And this year, they passed the $80,000 mark in what they’ve saved collectively.

AMAZING.  This isn’t charity.  These women loan the money back to one another - for healthcare, for school fees, or to start tiny businesses that grow into family-sustaining income.

They elect their own leaders.  They write their own rules.  They are directing the story.

Agency is powerful.  The world changes when money is held in the hands of women who have the agency to steward it well.

As these incredible women crossed the $80,000 savings mark, the US Aid pullout happened - quite literally - overnight.  

US Aid represented 80% of Mali Health’s funding.  Overnight, these communities lost their entire health infrastructure.  Their healthcare workers, the staffing and electricity for their maternal health centers, the people who delivered their babies.  Everything.

But here’s where these incredible women come in.

When funding disappeared for healthcare, their hope didn’t.  They asked a bolder question:

“What if we could fund our own healthcare system through taking our tiny businesses and making them bigger?”

So they did.

They created Sugu Sugu: a women-led cooperative launching handmade, natural products rooted in Malian tradition - with profits designed to sustain healthcare access for mothers and children.  They’re starting with shea butter soaps and gorgeous indigo pillowcases with the dream of being picked up by stores across the globe.  The Flourish Market is excited to be their first wholesale partner!

They created this tagline for their product tags: 

Ne yɛrɛ ka fɛn – a fɔ kɛnɛya.

"What I make brings health."

Sugu Sugu is women leading, partnering, deciding, shaping, and building this dream together across Mali.

Mali Health - the organization we’ve partnered with - is providing scaffolding and capital so these ambitious women can execute the vision that they designed.

Flourishing is never charity.  It is agency multiplied.

While the women are generating income inside their existing businesses (like peanut butter production and agricultural goods), they need start-up capital for this new venture for things like sewing machines, mills, raw materials, and business training.

(I absolutely needed access to capital as we made the big move to Raleigh Iron Works and I am dripping in privilege to have had access, connections, and mentorship in getting an SBA loan.)

These women need $25,000 to launch Sugu Sugu fully.

We’ve been funding this effort quietly for 14 months since we moved into our permanent home at Raleigh Iron Works and have provided:

✔️ 2 serger machines for sewing
✔️ business planning sessions led by local leaders
✔️ training for 3 women in traditional indigo dyeing

All paid for through your purchases.

Now?  It’s time to lean in further.

Our December goal is to fund in one month what we’ve funded in the last 14 months.

Let’s expand this giving circle…

…from Mali
…to Raleigh.  <3

Here’s how you can join this very special Giving Circle this holiday season:

#1 Shop Your Values
This December, at minimum, 5% of every purchase goes to the Sugu Sugu launch fund.  Your shopping is resourcing women’s dreams - not just a transaction.

#2 Gift an Impact Funding Card
You can purchase Sugu Sugu Impact Funding Cards - beautiful cards representing a tangible investment your gift recipient empowered.  We’ll have $40 - $500 levels funding: 

• Sewing machines
• Shea butter materials
• Indigo dying materials
• Indigo training
• Sewing training
• Business coaching sessions

This is perfect for the loved one who “has everything.”  Give the gift of impact.  They’ll love it.

#3 Business Owner? Attend an Intensive.
I’m hosting Intimate Strategic Intensives for Women Business Owners in December + January.  I am *very* excited to offer four different dates for this special virtual intensive focusing on expanding your capacity + leadership. This will be a spacious time together where you’ll walk away with decisions made, strategy simplified, and next steps that feel doable - not draining.

If you would like to raise your hand for selection for this opportunity, please fill in your interest form here.  I’ll be hosting different small groups for $200k - $500k in revenue, $500k - $1 million, and $1 million - $4 million in revenue.  Tickets will be $197 (a legit steal of a deal for the value you’ll experience in real time) and all sales will go to the Sugu Sugu fund.

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Every time you shop at The Flourish Market, every time you bring someone new in, every time you check out with a gift for someone you love -

you show up as a member of the giving circle.

Because your purchases don’t just make holiday mornings brighter here - they directly resource another woman’s agency, dignity, and possibility across the world.

That is the type of holiday magic I believe we are all hungry for after this hell-ova-year:

A season where celebration and justice sit at the same table.