Shoes can change
the story of poverty.
We believe people deserve
more than “making do.”
Our micro-enterprise program helps people step out of poverty and reach their true potential.
“Give a person a fish, they eat for a day;
teach a person to fish and they eat for a lifetime.”
“Micro-enterprise”
means small business.
And it’s a powerful model for empowering people.
Opportunity
Shoes are a resource that individuals who live in extremely poor countries can use to start a small business.
Constant supply
Your shoe donations mean a constant supply of quality product. This ensures these fledgling businesses can be sustained long-term.
Real economic change
Small business owners earn sufficient income to purchase necessities like food, shelter and education for their families.
Environmental impact
By collecting discarded shoes and clothing for our micro-enterprise program, we’ve kept 63 million pounds of textiles out of U.S. landfills, helping to preserve our planet for future generations.
Here’s how you can help
Give shoes
We'll repurpose your gently loved shoes by keeping them out of landfills and getting them to entrepreneurs in developing countries.
Start a shoe drive
A simple and effective way to restore hope for impoverished people and to safeguard the environment.
It’s surprisingly easy to help
someone step out of poverty.
When people’s basic needs are met,
their world begins to change.
their world begins to change.
You donate shoes.
Repurposed shoes are donated to Soles4Souls by individuals, shoe drives and footwear companies.
We sort and distribute.
Once sorted, we transport the shoes to vetted nonprofit organizations on the ground in developing nations, who purchase them for an average of $1 per pair.
People start businesses.
Our nonprofit partners provide training and support where job opportunities don’t currently exist. People start small businesses selling shoes within their local communities.
Lives change.
Selling shoes generates the income business owners need to lift themselves and their families out of poverty, and an entire community has access to affordable shoes.
