Purpose Before Profit: Stacey Edgar Of International Folk Art Market On The Benefits Of Running A Purpose-Driven Business
An Interview With Chad Silverstein
Be Resilient Nothing ever goes perfectly, and that’s okay. I am a bit of a perfectionist so sometimes I dwell too much on what is going wrong, but resilience is about figuring out how to keep going when things get hard. Be persistent and you will learn from the challenges, adapt, and get stronger. You need resilience to grow, as an organization and as a person.
In today’s competitive business landscape, the race for profits often takes center stage. However, there are some leaders who also prioritize a mission-driven purpose. They use their business to make a positive social impact and recognize that success isn’t only about making money. In this interview series, we are talking with some of these distinct leaders and I had the pleasure of interviewing Stacey Edgar.
Stacey Edgar, PhD, is the Executive Director of the International Folk Art Market (IFAM) in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she leads efforts to create economic opportunities for folk artists worldwide. An award-winning social entrepreneur, educator, and author, Stacey founded and led Global Girlfriend for 17 years, building a multi-million-dollar market for handcrafted goods through partnerships with Whole Foods, Target, and 1,500 boutiques, and went on to teach sustainability and social responsibility at the University of Colorado Boulder Leeds School of Business. She is the author of Global Girlfriends: How One Mom Made it Her Mission to Help Women in Poverty Worldwide and continues to champion handmade crafts as a force for economic empowerment, cultural preservation, and social change at IFAM.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us your “Origin Story”? Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?
I grew up in the small town of Hinckley, Illinois, where my family owned and operated a concrete business for over a century. Summers were spent working at our family’s factory, which not only taught me the value of hard work but also instilled a deep appreciation for building community. However, I would never have imagined that one day I’d be running the world’s largest folk art market in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
The International Folk Art Market (IFAM) brings together artists from across the globe for a week of cultural exchange, art, and significant economic impact. Since its inception in 2004, IFAM has welcomed over 1,600 artists from 103 countries, helping preserve folk art traditions and generating over $37 million in artist earnings. What’s just as incredible to me is that for over 20 years close to 1,400 volunteers from Santa Fe and beyond have turned out to make this Market possible. My role as Executive Director feels like the perfect fit in a career path that, much like Santa Fe’s nickname “The City Different,” has been anything but conventional.
In addition to working at the concrete factory, I spent two college summers in weaver’s cabin at Blackberry Historical Farm, a living history museum in Aurora, Illinois. I portrayed an 1800’s pioneer homesteader and demonstrated spinning wool in to yarn, natural dying, and weaving for park guests. Little did I know that years later, playing the part of an artisan would lead me to a lifetime of advocating for artisans in the global economy.
In college I studied social work and spent ten years working in schools and child welfare agencies in Illinois and Colorado. But after my mother-in-law Brenda Edgar traveled to Ethiopia as an advisor for the U.N. World Food Program, I had a new idea for making a difference in women’s lives.
For 17 years, I was the founder and CEO of Global Girlfriend, a social enterprise I launched in 2003 to connect women artisans from around the world with U.S. retail markets. What started as a $2,000 personal investment from a tax refund grew into a multimillion-dollar brand partnering with more than 250 artisan cooperatives in 40 countries. We sold their handmade products to premier retailers like Whole Foods, Target, and West Elm, as well as independent stores nationwide. These partnerships weren’t just about products — they were about creating economic independence for women and driving lasting change in their communities. I had the privilege of seeing firsthand how women invested their earnings to send their children to school, improve their families’ health, and grow their businesses. I also wrote about this journey in my book, Global Girlfriends: How One Mom Made it Her Business to Help Women in Poverty Worldwide, sharing the impact of this work and the stories of the incredible women we worked with.
Over the years, my work took me across the globe, from farms in rural Guatemala to red-light districts in India, and led me to co-found Trade+Impact, a nonprofit trade association focused on supporting women-led social enterprises in Africa and the Middle East. Along the way, I also taught economics and ethics as a business professor at the University of Colorado and pursued a PhD, researching how artisan enterprises empower women and build community resilience. These experiences deepened my belief in the power of economic opportunity to transform lives.
IFAM had a parallel journey, starting just a year after Global Girlfriend. I first attended IFAM in 2008, when one of the women’s cooperatives I worked with in Eswatini was a participating artist group. Over the years, I returned often as a shopper, a volunteer, and helping train artists to prepare for the event. When the Executive Director role opened my friend Tom Aageson, one of IFAM’s founders, encouraged me to apply. Despite living in Colorado and the job being in Santa Fe, I took the leap. That’s how much I believe in IFAM’s ability to create meaningful opportunities for artists and their communities.
Today, I feel honored to work alongside an extraordinary team, board, 1,400 dedicated volunteers, and the talented artists who make IFAM what it is — a place where culture, creativity, and opportunity intersect in impactful ways.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company or organization?
One of the most unforgettable moments since I started at IFAM was the day Kathy Kain walked into my office unexpectedly. We had never met and she was apologetic about taking my time without an appointment. She explained that her aunt, Jimmie Spulecki, had left her entire estate to Kathy with no instructions. Jimmie had been a longtime IFAM volunteer, someone who truly believed in our mission and had become close friends with the artists over the years. Kathy told me she wanted to honor her aunt by giving $100,000 to IFAM because she knew how much it had meant to Jimmie.
With Kathy’s gift, we created Jimmie’s Place, a hospitality space at the Market where our 1,400 volunteers and nearly 500 artists and their delegations can take a break, enjoy some snacks, and recharge during the event. It was incredible.
What struck me most about this moment wasn’t just Kathy’s incredible generosity — it was the ripple effect of Jimmie’s love for this Market. Her passion for our global artists inspired Kathy to make this gift, which in turn has supported thousands of people who make the Market what it is. It reminded me just how deeply IFAM touches people’s lives, and it’s a story that continues to inspire me about just how much each of us can make a difference.
We often learn the most from our mistakes. Can you share one that you made that turned out to be one of the most valuable lessons you’ve learned?
One of the biggest mistakes I’ve made in advocating for the artists in the global economy was being too quick to partner with others whose values didn’t fully align with mine. While it’s tempting to seize opportunities that promise growth, I’ve learned that not every opportunity is worth pursuing if it compromises your mission in the long run.
At Global Girlfriend, I merged with a larger company to gain access to more capital and operational capacity. On paper, it seemed like the perfect way to scale and support more women artisans by connecting them to larger markets. And for a time, it worked. But the larger company had different priorities, and over time, sometimes the mission of empowering women artisans was in competition with bottom-line decisions.
One example of these challenges is the time our best-selling scarves, made by a group of women near Agra, India, were delayed one rainy season because the humidity made it difficult to dry the fabric after the scarves were dyed. While my team understood and supported the artisans through this challenge, an executive at our parent company suggested, “If they can’t get them here on time, we’ll just knock them off in China.” I was devastated by this comment. To him, the scarves were just products. To me, my team, and our customers, they represented the livelihoods of the women who made them. We refused to compromise, standing by the artisans, and customers waited for the authentic scarves.
At IFAM things are different.
I’ve had my share of lessons during my first year leading a 20-year-old organization, but one thing is clear — our commitment to artists is unwavering. At IFAM, the connection between artists and consumers is at the heart of everything we do. Instead of asking artists to fit into a mass market by making things smaller or cheaper, we encourage them to bring their best work, set their own prices, and tell their own stories directly.
This is why people from all over the country travel to Santa Fe each July for the Market. It’s not just about buying products — it’s about cultural exchange, community connection, and person-to-person diplomacy. Shoppers get to meet the artists, learn about their work and traditions, and understand the tangible impact of their purchase. That authenticity and mutual respect make IFAM truly special.
As a successful leader, it’s clear that you uphold strong core values. I’m curious what are the most important principles you firmly stand by and refuse to compromise on. Can you share a few of them and explain why they hold such significance for you in your work and life?
The first principle I try hard to live by is dignity. Whether it’s an artisan navigating visa challenges to get to our Market, a volunteer dedicating their time, or a teammate tackling a problem, every person deserves to feel valued and respected. Treating people with dignity builds trust and opens the door for deeper connections and stronger results. As a human I’m not always successful, but I try my best to make this principal foundational in how I treat others.
Another value I won’t compromise on is real value — beyond just monetary worth. Everything we touch has value that goes far deeper than its price tag. Behind every product, service, or effort, there’s a person with a story, a skill, and a purpose. When we recognize that value, we make more thoughtful decisions and create opportunities that ripple outward to positively impact people and communities.
Finally, I value resilience. Building anything meaningful — think a 20-year organization like IFAM — requires collective resilience. I’ve seen it in artisans who persevere through tough times, using their creativity and determination to build brighter futures for their communities. That same resilience inspires me to keep pushing forward in advocating for artists in the global economy, knowing that the effort is worth it when the impact is real.
What inspired you to start a purpose-driven business rather than a traditional for-profit enterprise? Can you share a personal story or experience that led you to prioritize social impact in your business?
Traditional and Indigenous lifestyles are increasingly threatened by economic forces that split communities, devalue hand-crafted traditions, and disrupt knowledge passed down through generations. Yet, artisan craft remains the second-largest industry in developing countries, offering immense potential for social and economic progress. That potential is what inspired me to start my first social enterprise and continues to drive my work today.
I’ve been fortunate to work with incredible women like Josephine in Kenya, who started an artisan business with two friends to pay for her children’s school fees: Mina in India, who used her craft to rescue hundreds of women from human trafficking; and Marta in Guatemala, who, with just a third-grade education, sent her daughters to college and led other women to use artisan craft as a way to achieve their own dreams. These women, and others like them, are why I do this work.
At IFAM, I see this same impact in the stories of artists like Karma Choden from Bhutan. Growing up in Thimphu, Karma learned natural dyeing and weaving from her mother and gained expertise in dye plants like walnut and turmeric from her botanist father. She turned these skills into Green Craft, a cooperative that provides livelihoods for 36 women weavers.
After attending IFAM as a fully sponsored artist, Karma returned home with the resources to expand her work. She has since trained over 2,000 women weavers in natural dyeing, preserving Bhutan’s cultural traditions while creating economic opportunities for others.
This ripple effect is what inspires me most. I’ve seen so many artisans use their craft to create positive change — not just for themselves but for their entire communities. Art becomes a way to sustain tradition, foster connection, and open doors to new opportunities.
Twenty years after its founding, IFAM continues to advance this vision, supporting global folk artists while creating space for cultural exchange that connects people and drives meaningful impact.
Can you help articulate a few of the benefits of leading a purpose-driven business rather than a standard “plain vanilla” business?
The greatest benefit of leading a purpose-driven business is that you’re offering more than just a product, service, or experience — you’re inviting customers to make a positive difference. Purpose-driven businesses give people a simple yet meaningful way to align their values with their actions. In a world where many are searching for ways to create impact, businesses like these make it easy for customers to become collaborators in driving positive change.
At the International Folk Art Market (IFAM), this philosophy is at the heart of everything we do. Each year, we bring the world together in Santa Fe for one transformative weekend. Leading up to the Market, we assist 150 artists from over 50 countries by arranging their visas, travel, and lodging. We provide training on how to succeed at the Market and in their year-round businesses, and we front the costs of travel and imports to ensure artists from even the most marginalized communities can participate.
On the ground, IFAM is a logistical puzzle I’m really amazed by. We transform Santa Fe’s Railyard Park into a tent city, host close to 20,000 visitors, and ensure that just three days later, the park is left spotless. Our small staff of 11 swells to the size of a small corporation of 1,400 with the help of an incredible corps of volunteers. Together, we create a space where artists and visitors connect deeply. A place where customers meet the creators behind the work, hear their stories, and experience the impact of their purchases firsthand.
The magic of a purpose-driven business like IFAM lies in its ability to offer something intangible. Beyond the art, it fosters cultural exchange, person-to-person diplomacy, and a sense of shared humanity.
How has your company’s mission or purpose affected its overall success? Can you explain the methods or metrics you use to evaluate the impact of this purpose-driven strategy on your organization?
The success of the International Folk Art Market (IFAM) is all about staying true to our mission: creating economic opportunities for folk artists while preserving cultural traditions. This mission, set by our founders Judy Espinar, Charlene Cerny, Tom Aageson, and Charmay Allred, has guided us for 20 years and continues to shape everything we do.
We measure our impact in several ways. The most important is artist earnings. In 2024, 167 artists from 51 countries sold over $3.6 million in folk art, with 80–90% of those proceeds going directly to them and their communities. Artist satisfaction is also a key metric and we work hard to ensure their experience at IFAM not only boosts their livelihoods but also supports their long-term success.
Our impact extends far beyond the Market itself. In 2024, we welcomed over 18,500 attendees and generated more than $14 million in economic impact for Santa Fe and New Mexico. Visitors spent $7 million on commercial lodging alone. These numbers show how much a purpose-driven enterprise can ripple outward, in IFAM’s case benefiting artists and the local economy alike.
What advice would you give to budding entrepreneurs who wish to start a purpose-driven business?
First, I would say be more curious than fearful. Curiosity opens doors, leads to unexpected opportunities, and helps you navigate the inevitable challenges of starting a purpose-driven business. I’ve spoken to aspiring entrepreneurs in my teaching at University of Colorado and at events like the Bhutan Echoes Festival, and one thing I always emphasize is that the best ideas often come from asking questions — questions about the problems you care about solving and the people you aim to serve.
Second, build your business in community. No one succeeds alone, and the more you collaborate and draw on the strengths of others, the greater your impact will be. When I started my first social enterprise, I leaned on friends, neighbors, and mentors — my “bus stop brain trust” — who helped me navigate everything from registering a business to building a website. At IFAM we couldn’t produce our market without the help of our amazing volunteers. Purpose-driven work is meant to be shared.
Finally, remember that success takes time. Purpose-driven businesses often require reinvestment and persistence before they take off. Don’t let setbacks discourage you; instead, treat them as opportunities to learn and adapt. Your work isn’t just about the product or service — it’s about the ripple effect you create for others.
What are your “5 Things You Need To Create A Highly Successful Purpose-Driven Business.”
1 . Know Your Why Purpose-driven businesses all start with mission or a reason for being. So ask yourself — what problem are you solving, and why does it matter? Knowing your “why” and making sure everyone who works with you knows it will keep you focused, help you make hard decisions, and inspire others to join your cause.
2 . Build in Community Like I said earlier, no one can do this alone. Surround yourself with people who believe in what you’re trying to do. Your best advisors are those people you set out to help, so for me my artisan partners over the years, but lean on your team, your customers, your mentors, and your community. At IFAM we lean hard on our volunteers and they have really built this Market. The more you collaborate, the bigger your impact will be.
3 . Value the Process Behind every product or service or event like IFAM is a story and a whole lot of effort. Taking time to appreciate how things are made or done builds stronger connections with the people you work with and the people you serve.
4 . Be Resilient Nothing ever goes perfectly, and that’s okay. I am a bit of a perfectionist so sometimes I dwell too much on what is going wrong, but resilience is about figuring out how to keep going when things get hard. Be persistent and you will learn from the challenges, adapt, and get stronger. You need resilience to grow, as an organization and as a person.
5 . Stealing from Nike, the last one I would say is Just Do It! I always say, you have to put the “ing” in the thing. Having a bike isn’t the same as biking — it only works when you get on and start pedaling. The same goes for social entrepreneurship. You can read every business book or take every class, but nothing happens until you take action. Even after over 20 years in the artisan sector, when I started at IFAM,the scale of the event intimidated me, but I jumped in, learned as I went, and alongside an incredible team, we pulled off a record-breaking Market. The only way to figure out what works is to start doing something — keep experimenting and stick with it.
I’m interested in how you instill a strong sense of connection with your team. How do you nurture a culture where everyone feels connected to your mission? Could you share an example or story that showcases how your purpose has positively influenced or motivated people on your team to contribute?
While I often talk about the importance of collaboration, like many entrepreneurs, I’ve had to learn not to charge ahead thinking I can do everything on my own. At IFAM, I’m fortunate to work with a talented team who brings our mission to life. From Artist Development to Marketing, Volunteer Management, Market Operations, Finance, Donor Advancement, and more, every department works in tandem to make an impact far greater than what any one of us could achieve alone.
One thing that keeps us all connected is knowing the result of our work — the opportunities we create for artists worldwide. Seeing the joy on an artist’s face after a successful Market reminds all of us why we’re here. And it’s not just our staff — our board, volunteers, donors, shoppers, and partners all play critical roles, showing how collective effort can truly change lives. Purpose keeps us motivated and connected to our mission.
Imagine we’re sitting down together two years from now, looking back at your company’s last 24 months. What specific accomplishments would have to happen for you to be happy with your progress?
Two years from now, I’d be thrilled to look back and see that IFAM has grown stronger in three key areas — impact, sustainability, and storytelling. I want us to have created even more opportunities for artists, not just during Market week but year-round through expanded programs and partnerships that help them connect with buyers and grow their businesses.
I’d love to see us secure sustainable funding that makes IFAM less reliant on a few sources so we can continue supporting artists and their communities for decades to come. And finally, I want us to tell our story better, sharing the incredible work of the artists we serve and showing the world why folk art matters. If we’ve made progress on these three things, I’ll know we’ve honored our founder’s original mission and strengthened our future.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I’d inspire a movement to help people recognize the human stories behind everything in their lives. Whether it’s a handmade basket, a mass-produced factory product, or even the latest tech or AI tool (did you know data workers all over the world actually help create AI by mapping data), there are people behind everything. Someone dreamed it up, designed it, made it, or brought it to market. When we value those people and the work they do, we create a more connected and compassionate world. When we care about who made our products, we care about how they are treated and paid.
This shift in thinking can be transformative. In the handmade sector, I’ve seen how supporting artisans sustains livelihoods and preserves cultural traditions. But even in everyday goods or tech innovations, the same principle applies. Recognizing the human effort behind what we use can inspire us to consume more thoughtfully, support fair practices, and ultimately build a kinder, more equitable global community.
How can our readers further follow your work or your company online?
The best way to connect with us is by visiting folkartmarket.org. You can explore artist stories, learn more about the incredible folk art traditions we support, and sign up for our weekly newsletter, The Weekender, to stay updated on all things IFAM.
And of course, we’d love to welcome you to the International Folk Art Market in Santa Fe! Our Market happens every year during the second weekend of July and is an unforgettable experience. It’s a chance to meet artists from around the world, hear their stories, and bring home beautiful, meaningful pieces of folk art that create real impact for global communities. Mark your calendars, and we hope to see you there!
This was great. Thanks for taking time for us to learn more about you and your business. We wish you continued success!
About the Interviewer: Chad Silverstein is a seasoned entrepreneur and Thought Leader with over 25 years of business experience. He has founded, operated, and exited multiple companies and now builds into a handful of high impact CEOs. Chad has launched multiple online communities, including a recent leadership development platform, and also serves as a strategic advisor for Authority Magazine’s thought-leader incubator program.
To learn more and connect with Chad visit: chadsilverstein.io
Purpose Before Profit: Stacey Edgar Of International Folk Art Market On The Benefits Of Running A… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.