As I was preparing for the board meeting this week, I was looking over inventory reports, sales reports, financials, etc and I realized that it was one year ago this week that we made our first really uncomfortable investment–our first shirts. An investment that set us on course to be unique among charitable organizations in one important way: self-sustaining.

People have asked on occasion, “what’s with the t-shirts” to which I answer, everything! You see the shirts are the fuel of our engine. As you buy shirts, we give microloans. It’s that simple.

Of course, when you get down to the detail level there is always more complexity, but the beauty is in the simplicity. If you buy shirts we have revenue with which we can give loans, if you don’t buy shirts, we don’t have the revenue.

After returning from Ethiopia, I was so moved by the story of the street children and young adults that I really wanted to design a shirt around that, here it is.

So click on the picture and buy your shirt today.  You’re not just getting a sick design, your investing in this new way of delivering change in poor areas.