Empact Showcase List

Two weeks after graduating with her master’s degree from the Washington University School of Social Work, Rebecca Kousky founded Nest (www.buildanest.org)—a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of women in developing countries. Nest is nonprofit dedicated to identifying and collaborating with responsible artisan businesses through the provision of customized capacity building programs to enable each enterprise to become profitable and have a significant positive social impact. The organization has searched globally to identify a network of existing artisanal workshops that have strong leadership, are scalable, and can transform their communities in one of three ways: alleviate poverty, empower women, and promote peace. Through a participatory model, Nest works with the artisans to provide the services they need to both preserve and enhance artistic traditions and increase their ability to meet the capacity and quality demands of the exporting marketplace. Nest is an innovative nonprofit because it seeks to partner with retailers to bring market access to the artisan partners, believing that the biggest barrier to artisan success is the lack of significant and consistent access to a permanent marketplace. Many entrepreneurs who receive microcredit loans and training in design and business live in rural areas that are disconnected from trade hubs, lacking the knowledge and expertise to successfully market their products globally. Nest’s partnerships seeks to change this. The relationships Nest forms with for-profit companies guarantee that the services Nest provides are not the end, but merely a means to an end. Nest has worked with retailers as varied as REEF, FEED Projects, Timberland and, most notably, the new luxury fashion line, Maiyet (maiyet.com) co-founded by former human rights lawyer Paul van Zyl and fashion veteran, Kristy Caylor. Rebecca has spoken all over the country, including the Center for Global Development in Washington, D.C., Northern Illinois University, NYU Stern Women in Business Conference, and Washington University. Nest and Rebecca have received global attention, in publications as varied as the Turkish Daily News, Cosmopolitan, Country Living, and Martha Stewart’s Body & Soul. Rebecca herself has received numerous awards. In 2007, she won the Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation Competition of the Skandalarias Center of Entrepreneurial Studies at Washington University. She was named one of the St. Louis Business Journal’s “30 under 30,” which recognizes the achievements of young entrepreneurs and executives, she was recognized as a “Young Person Who Rocks” in a CNN feature. Rebecca recently received White House Recognition as a top 100 Young Entrepreneur by Empact100 in January 2012 Raised in St. Louis, Rebecca received her bachelor’s degree from Wake Forest. She currently resides in Brooklyn, New York.

• Age: 42
• Ethnicity: Caucasian