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clothing

$65M USD in
clothing and
monetary
contributions
donated

community-icon

315 Stylist
communities
served through
local giving events

money

18,945 small
business loans
funded for women
in developing
countries

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21,125 students in
Rwanda provided with hope and
opportunity through
education

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62 countries
impacted

The Heart of cabi Foundation works to empower women through
Restoration, Vocation, and Education.

Dignity is restored through the gift of beautiful new clothes amidst challenging times.

Small business loans to women entrepreneurs in the developing world fling vocational doors wide open.

Education loans for children in Rwanda put them and their families on new trajectories.

Join us in the efforts to eradicate poverty, woman by woman.

3 ways you can make a difference now:

1

Restoration

HEART OF cabi ITEM

Serenity Tee

You can impact the lives of women in need, and look great while doing it, when you purchase the Serenity Tee. A portion of the net proceeds from the sale of the Serenity Tee will help fund The Heart of cabi Foundation’s efforts in our local communities.

LEARN MORE ABOUT
THE SERENITY TEE
Love you tee
2

Vocation

we-are-cabi

For every new cabi Stylist, cabi will fund a small business loan in her name for a woman entrepreneur in a developing country. This is the first-ever, one-for-one small business loan and mentorship program in partnership with Opportunity International.

Build your business and empower
another woman to build hers.

A cabi Stylist begins her business.
Cabi will fund a small business loan for a Sister Entrepreneur in a developing country.
The Sister Entrepreneur is able to build her business.
A cabi Stylist begins her business
Cabi will fund a small business loan for a Sister Entrepreneur in a developing country
The Sister Entrepreneur is able to build her business
CHANGING LIVES
around the globe

EMPOWER WOMEN, EMPOWER THE WORLD

The Key to Extinguishing Extreme Poverty

Under the pitch-black cover of night, Luz was still digging through mounds of garbage. She’d been at it for five hours. Her determination wasn’t because she was looking for a precious treasure that had been accidentally thrown out; she was instead searching for anything she could salvage and turn into pesos through a recycling exchange. This nightly routine could yield about $1.00 USD, or $1.50 if she was lucky, to feed her children the next day.

Luz had always been poor. This was far from the life she’d dreamed of, but it was the life the hardened hillsides of Colombia had told her to expect. While she spent her days caring for her six kids, her husband was assassinated by guerillas. With only a few sparse stints of traditional schooling in childhood and no official work experience, Luz felt her world caving in.

She trekked her children to Bogotá, where she hoped for opportunity. Illiterate and without a husband who could secure a home or a loan on her behalf, the only way she could see to stay afloat was to rummage through piles of what others deemed worthless while a friend watched over her kids at night. She was stuck in the endless cycle of trying to turn trash into a future.

Luz’s story is not a poverty trope, but the living, breathing reality of a real woman in today’s world fighting for survival. And it’s the story of far too many women across the globe.

A portrait of Luz, Colombia

The Heart of cabi Foundation has partnered with Opportunity International in their quest to end extreme poverty, empowering women like Luz through an open door to a better future for her and her family.

Several years ago, we could see a steady path toward achieving that audacious goal within our lifetimes. And yet, “Progress in reducing extreme poverty has essentially halted in tandem with subdued global economic growth,” according to World Bank Group President David Malpass. Since 2020, an additional 75 to 95 million people have been pulled into extreme poverty. There are now 657 million double the U.S. population—living under $2.15 USD a day (the most recent extreme poverty marker). After decades of massive progress, eradication appears much more ladder—the treasured dedicated groups of people, like our cabi community, increase our commitment to those on the bottom rung of the economic ladder, the treasured lives we won’t allow to be accidentally thrown out.

The key to ending extreme poverty is empowering women. It begins by recognizing their worth.

The Global Poverty Project states, “Women make up half the world’s population and yet represent a staggering 70% of the world’s poor.” There’s a compounding effect, which UNICEF calls “multidimensional poverty,” indicating a web of reasons women are uniquely kept down:

  • Women and girls are less likely to have access to education and be literate (two-thirds of the world’s illiterate adults are women).
  • Women are much more likely to do unpaid work and less likely to have their own income; women do two to 10 times the amount of unpaid care work as men.
  • Working women receive lower wages than men doing the same work.
  • Women between 20 and 34 are much more likely to be poor than men, coinciding with reproductive ages and care work.
  • Women make up only 10 to 20% of landholders.
  • Women face more difficulties than men in securing business loans or investors.
  • Women are more likely to be malnourished and have less access to adequate healthcare (60% of chronically hungry people are women and girls).
  • Women and girls are far more likely to be the victims of sexual violence.
  • All these factors have severe consequences on well-being, mental health, and hope.

The World Bank believes, “Putting resources into poor women’s hands while promoting gender equality in the household and in society results in large development payoffs.” Just in the world of farming, they project that giving women equal access to financial and agricultural resources could decrease the number of hungry people across the globe by 150 million.

Lifting women has an exponential impact, because as women rise, they lift up those around them, too.

“Female income-earners are more likely to allocate significantly more resources to food, health, education, and children’s well-being, ending the generational cycle of poverty for millions.” (The World Bank)

Linda from Accra, Ghana proves the wide lift women bring. Struggling to provide for her family, Linda would bake loaves of bread, put them in a basket on top of her head, and go sell a few a day, working hard but not managing to grow her income. She learned about Opportunity International and through a small business loan, she invested in a bakery, employing women throughout the community. Within a few short years, she flipped her bakery for a big factory. She and her large team bake thousands of loaves a day that they take out back to the long line of local mothers. They’re not customers, but rather small business owners who sell Linda’s bread throughout their communities, feeding thousands every day. She has even bigger dreams for the future of how she can pay forward opportunities to more women.

Linda in her bakery, Ghana

EMPOWER WOMEN, EMPOWER THE WORLD

The road to doing so feels steep, but at cabi, we’re more committed than ever to finding those who might feel like they’re among a heap of statistics few see as valuable; we’re eager to find and behold them as uniquely valuable, with something all their own to bring the world.

Through our one-for-one program, for every cabi Stylist who begins her business, cabi provides a small business loan for a woman in the developing world to build her business, too. Just like at cabi, Sister Entrepreneurs are brought into a circle of community to support them, called Trust Groups, where they meet regularly to share ideas, benefit from accountability, and learn skills to help their businesses grow.

Opportunity International got connected to Luz, who’s now engaged in a Savings Group, the equipping step to then receive a small business loan. She’s now studying at a local center to complete her elementary and high school education, feeling a deep weight of pride for how these actions will inspire and guide her children to do the same.

Let’s be inspired by Luz, Linda, and so many other women around the world to dream big dreams to do the seemingly impossible. Together, all of us in the cabi community can empower women through Restoration, Vocation, and Education.

THE MULTIDIMENSIONAL WORK OF THE HEART OF cabi FOUNDATION

While there’s no silver bullet to end extreme poverty, we endeavor to use our resources to impact as many spaces and places as we can, helping as many women as we can. Here’s what we’re up to and how you can help:

RESTORATION

We donate new clothing in a myriad of ways. Each May, we have Love Local Events, where Stylists throughout the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. partner with local organizations to serve women in their areas. Many of the women served are teetering along the poverty line, needing support to move from surviving to thriving—some have fled domestic abuse without a single belonging, others are transitioning out of homelessness and seeking jobs, and some women have lost everything and are rebuilding a life after drug addiction.

VOCATION

Through our W.E. are cabi Program (“Women Entrepreneurs are cabi”), for every cabi Stylist who begins her business, we provide a small business loan to a woman in the developing world to begin hers, launching both women simultaneously into an economic opportunity that can change the course of their lives.

ACTION Launch your cabi business.

When you begin your cabi business, cabi will fund a small business loan in your name for a woman (your Sister Entrepreneur) in a developing country to build her own business.

EDUCATION

Our Make a Change Program turns rounded-up change into open doors for Rwandan mothers and their children—school fee loans and school improvement loans mean women can give their children a great education while they build their own businesses, making new opportunities available to all of them simultaneously.

ACTION Give through our Make A Change Program.

Round your cabi order total up to the nearest dollar or pound to contribute to the education of Rwandan children and help give them brighter futures, breaking the cycle of poverty.

LEARN MORECLOSE
3

Education

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When placing a cabi order, you can opt to round your order total up to the nearest dollar or pound.

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The change you give provides hope and opportunity to children in Rwanda through Opportunity International by contributing to their education and futures.

Together, we are affecting lives around the world.

As a company, we endeavor to do well in order to do good, sending a ripple of generosity out into the world that reaches around the globe. Donations to The Heart of cabi Foundation help restore dignity and hope to women seeking a way out of the cycle of poverty through Restoration, Vocation, and Education.

GIVE NOW
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Heart of cabi Foundation Week event in Bristol, England

Heart of cabi Foundation Week event in Franklin, Tennessee

Heart of cabi Foundation fire relief event in Boulder, Colorado

Heart of cabi Foundation fire relief event in Boulder, Colorado

Heart of cabi Foundation Week event in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Heart of cabi Foundation Week event in Wilmington, Delaware

Heart of cabi Foundation Week event in Houston, Texas

Heart of cabi Foundation Week event in Sandy Springs, Georgia

Heart of cabi Foundation Week event in Charlotte, North Carolina

Our Partners

Our efforts are multiplied because we partner with exceptional nonprofit organizations who share our mission of impacting the lives of women. Through them, we can do more!