Untold dollars are spent every year on gifts like water bottles or phone chargers stamped with a company’s logo. Lauri Pastrone founded Peace by Piece International in 2017 to provide an alternative to this model—gifts that are memorable for the recipient, show social responsibility on the part of the giver, and are life-changing for their creators.
Pastrone was working in market research for the tech industry and volunteering for the nonprofit organization Women for Women International when she visited war-ravaged communities in Rwanda, Kosovo, and Bosnia. It was here that she met women who were selling their handmade goods to support their struggling families. “I landed back home in Silicon Valley and saw all this wealth, opulence, and success. I thought, ‘How do I build some kind of bridge between these talented women who just need a second chance and these Silicon Valley companies that gift like crazy.’ That’s where the journey began,” she says.
Today, Peace by Piece has partnerships with 40 artisan communities around the world. “We work with existing nonprofit organizations and social enterprises that are on the ground, helping women and men get on their feet again,” she says. Peace by Piece supports these underserved communities by purchasing their products, many of which are handmade by women and men who were incarcerated, trafficked, homeless, or gang members, as well as survivors of other violent conflicts.
“These communities represent hundreds if not thousands of individuals,” Pastrone says. “Our mission goes beyond giving back, say 1% of profits. Instead, we directly provide dignified labor and training in a safe place so people can leave the programs equipped with the life and job skills to find well-paying jobs.”
Whether a gift is the Not Your Mother’s PB&J gourmet basket, which benefits the LA-based Homeboy Industries gang rehabilitation program, or the leather laptop bag crafted by artisans in Rwanda, each comes with a story card about the person who made it. “The gift may not last forever, but people hold on to those cards,” Pastrone says. “What we hear a lot is that the most meaningful part of the gift was reading the story behind it.”
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