We were happily surprised upon hearing that FairMail was nominated for “Transparency Prize” organized by Price Waterhouse & Coopers.

After selecting 57 social enterprises, PwC researched which website had the most transparent communication about the social impact of the company. This way narrowing it down to 3 finalists. Besides FairMail the other two finalist are Dopper and Taxi Electric. You can read more about the prize here.

Transparency according to FairMail

Transparency has always been at the core of FairMail, both internally and externally. But what does that mean in practice?

Pro-active communication about the money

We are thankful for the trust our customers have that FairMail “walks its talk” and actually delivers what we promise. That starts with communicating clearly to the outside world about the money that the FairMail teenagers earn from the sale of their cards. This is stated per teenager on their personal profile page. Not only can you see how much each teenager earned but also the impact this money has had on their lives through the teenager’s personal stories and blogposts. To make sure this information is correct our customers can easily connect with the teenagers via email and Facebook on the profile pages and via the email address stated on each card.

FairMail Fair Trade guaranteed by the WFTO

External audits

Visitors to the FairMail website can also download our general year report giving an insight into the most important developments and numbers of the company and its social impact. FairMail’s social impact is also communicated every year in our blog and news letters. To be sure that all this information is correct, FairMail is externally audited by the auditors appointed by the World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO) both in the Netherlands and in our production countries. You can read more about the last audits here.

Checking yourself as customer

Thirdly we offer people the opportunity to experience FairMail at first hand. Either by working as volunteer or by travelling with the FairMail teenagers during our photography trips. This way experiencing exactly how FairMail works with all the ins and outs.

For those who don’t have the possibility to go to Peru or India we have made a very extensive list of “Frequently Asked Questions”. This FAQ gives the answer to just about every aspect of FairMail, the way things work, the teenagers, its environmental policy etc.

Internal Transparency

Transparency the FairMail way is not only about being transparent to the outside world. Equally important is being very transparent internally, assuring the teenage photographers that they are receiving their fair share of the profit from the sale of their cards. Therefore every three months we share the quarterly profit-loss statement with them. You can download an example here.

To facilitate internal transparency, the teenager’s personal earnings in their FairMail education-, housing-, clothing- and medical funds are always accessible in the teenagers’ personal folders we have in the office. This way the teenagers can always see how much money they have left in their funds and when they made withdrawals.

Apart from that we regularly invite teenagers to visit Europe to see first-hand how their greeting card market works, meet FairMail’s customers and understand the value chain.

Thanks to:

We are very happy with this result. We couldn’t have made it so far without people helping us: we want to give a big THANK YOU to UNITid for making the interaction design of the FairMail website, TOOK Webdevelopment for actually programming the site and the Social Capital Foundation for providing the loan to invest in our new, and transparent, website.