Stacey Boyd is a social entrepreneur who founded Olivela, a business model which has made a way for philanthropic retail destination. On her Linkedin profile, she has listed herself as the parent of two, former teacher and principal in her job titles.
Unlike many well-intentioned fashion and accessory firms that make significant contributions, Olivela was built to prioritise impact, which has expedited its growth.
Stacey Boyd became a social entrepreneur after getting her MBA and master's in public policy from Harvard University in 1997. She founded a number of enterprises that merged her commercial abilities with social good.
Boyd's work has been on CNN, PBS, and the Today Show, as well as in the Wall Street Journal, Wired, New Yorker, USA Today, Washington Post, and other publications. She was also designated as one of the 100 Global Leaders for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum.
The former teacher and school principal initially concentrated on education. She founded The Academy of the Pacific Rim, a public charter school in Hyde Park, Massachusetts; Project Achieve, a company that manages educational data; and Savvy Source for Parents, a website that gives information about preschools and camps.
In 2012, Boyd shifted her focus to retail enterprises with an educational component. That same year, she launched Schoola, an online company that offers gently used items to benefit underserved schools. Olivela, a luxury fashion and cosmetics portal that distributes 20% of its sales to girls' education charities, was founded by her in 2017.
The idea of Olivela came to her while she travelled with Malala Yousafzai to Kenya and Rwanda to celebrate the Malala day. She travelled to makeshift primary schools in Dadaab, the world’s largest refugee camp and another camp in Mahama and realised the freedom and happiness of taking birth in a country where a person is capable of having everything, moreover, a place where a person could find equity.
The idea of this venture came to her when she started clicking pictures of the girls and realised that a fraction of her handbags could provide education to a girl. As she was a strong believer of empowering women, she started a retail business which aimed at sourcing funds for many such young girls to pursue their education.
As soon as she was back in town, she contacted various popular brands such as Jimmy Choo, Valentino and surprisingly all such incredible brands came together and joined hands for the noble cause of ''You shop, we donate'', which later became the slogan of Olivela.
Olivela collaborates with a variety of groups that support girls' education, ranging from Too Young To Wed to CARE, which does wonderful work all over the world, to Malala Fund, all of which must work toward girls' education.
Every transaction generates a 20% donation to certain organisations. When a purchase is made, the buyer is aware of exactly what it entails. The buyer can see the actual number of school days that a brand or a specific item can supply. That is why it is so effective.
Since its inception, it has sent approximately 41,000 females to school who would not otherwise have had the opportunity. The Creating Choices programme, which was developed in collaboration with CARE to provide education for young women in Jordan, particularly Syrian refugees, is the major benefit. Olivela and its customers have already paid for more than 9,500 days of school for these children, who are at high risk of child marriage. That's the equivalent of 31 females going to school for a year.
