T
hrough combining her back-
grounds of advocating for
women, working in the non-
profit sector, and as an art direc-
tor in the entertainment industry,
Raven + Lily Founder and CEO,
Kirsten Dickerson, has forged a
ring of circular empowerment
for women on a global scale.
Kirsten has been an advocate
for women since 1993 working
with homeless and HIV-posi-
tive women, as well as volun-
teering with Mother Theresa.
She’s always had a passion to
inspire and empower woman.
Moving to Los Angeles introduced
her to the entertainment industry
where she discovered her passion
for design and talent for art direc-
tion and wardrobe styling work-
ing on films and music videos.
Fueled by both of her pas-
sions, Kirsten would often
find herself dressing a musi-
cian for a shoot during the day
and rushing off to volunteer at
the local shelter that evening.
Kirsten soon began building friend-
ships with designers and taking
them to visit some of the nonprof-
its she’d supported. One of the or-
ganizations was a group offering
micro-loans and micro-enterprise
training to women artisans so they
could start their own businesses.
But as she became more familiar
with the industry, she realized the
artisans were missing two crit-
ical areas of support: design in-
put and a marketplace. This was
when the idea for Raven + Lily
was born. She could offer de-
sign input to the artisans help-
ing them make products people
wanted to purchase and also sell
the goods on behalf of artisans.
Raven + Lily started as a non-prof-
it by selling scarves and other
small goods in markets in LA. By
starting small, Kirsten could ex-
periment to learn what worked
and didn’t work and build re-
lationships with core groups.
Once she established which
groups would be ready for part-
nership, Kirsten turned Raven +
Lily into a for profit corporation,
which started with two artisan
partnerships. They’ve now grown
to maintain 19 artisan partner-
ships in ten countries, including
the US, representing over 1500
women. Her mission was to build
a brand that could grow and scale
by bringing additional women
into the fold both through existing
partners and new partnerships.
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