Northeastern alumnus Abhi Nangia and second-year international affairs major Daniel Garafulic have co-founded reweave, a nonprofit social impact network that connects passionate people with social enterprises.
The nonprofit’s lowercase name underscores its commitment to small businesses and social enterprises, according to Nangia, and its network enables humanitarians to get involved in three different ways: by giving better, doing better, or buying better. This means that you can invest in startups and social enterprises; participate in projects through internships; or support unique products made by reweave projects, all of which, the co-founders say, can improve community life for everyone.
The ultimate goal is to assist under-funded and under-resourced enterprises.
“We wanted to create a platform that provides a holistic approach to creating social change,” said Nangia, who graduated this spring with a bachelor’s degree in international affairs and anthropology and a minor in global social entrepreneurship. “We’re pushing people to do everything in their lives better by showing them how they can support social enterprises through simple lifestyle changes.”
Nangia’s participation in the Social Enterprise Institute’s Dialogue of Civilizations program to Cape Town, South Africa inspired him to create reweave, and Garafulic supported the idea from the get-go.
Today the reweave team comprises more than 20 current Northeastern students and alumni, all of whom share the organization’s vision. And their numbers are steadily increasing. “We’re starting to build an ‘army of do-gooders’ who will be ready to help however they can,” said Nangia.
Earlier this month, reweave launched an IndieGogo campaign with a goal of raising $20,000 in seed capital. Three-quarters of the fund will be used directly for project investments and project coordination. The rest will be go toward web design and creating the platform that will enable the projects to successfully interact and sell their goods. The campaign runs through Friday, Aug. 16, with perks for contributors including a reweave sticker, Red Sox tickets, and an international trip with the team.
“Social enterprises need a network that can help them do what they do, just better,” Nangia said, summing up reweave’s mission. “Our movement is focused on making a push to reweave community.”
— By Jordana Torres