By: Sydnee C. Winston, Project Coordinator
There are two things that have always been near and dear to Julie Schlosser’s heart—charities and charms. Her mom had a special charm bracelet that Julie admired throughout her childhood. And Julie was always inspired by her mom’s work helping others and wanted to do more herself. That’s why she and her colleague Lee Clifford founded Altruette Charm Bracelets, a company that champions philanthropy by designing beautiful jewelry to raise money for causes that they believe in.
Since 2009, the company has been using its jewelry (charms, bracelets and necklaces) to tell stories about the important work that people are doing to improve our world and make positive changes in people’s lives. There’s a Christmas tree charm for Toys For Tots, a baby buggy charm for Embrace, a house charm for Architecture for Humanity, and many more. When someone makes a purchase, 50% of the net profit from the sale of Altruette’s charms goes to its cause partners. For sales on its website, they donate $15 per charm for women’s gold and silver charms, and $1 per charm for girls charms to the causes they represent.
When Altruette approached us to be one of the many causes that it supports, we were both excited and humbled. The company has created a special charm for the Museum, a key, which symbolizes our ongoing work to build a permanent home for women’s history on the national mall and the key to opening the physical building.
I had an interview with Julie last month to talk about her work with the company and why they chose to support the Museum.
“It’s important to help causes of different sizes and get in front of people who you’ve not heard of them,” she said. “A friend of mine called to tell me about the Museum and the importance of building it. I didn’t need much convincing when I learned about the NWHM’s mission and goals. I identified with the role of women especially having covering women in business for many years. It just made sense.”
Before founding Altruette, both Julie and Lee worked as journalists at Fortune Magazine in New York City. As they explain on their website, “the best part about our jobs was tapping into the energy and optimism of the people we covered: entrepreneurs, philanthropists and radical thinkers who were trying to change the world for the better. We couldn’t help but be inspired.”
As a special Mother’s Day give away, the ladies at Altruette are donating one of their silver Key Charms that honors the Museum on an Altruette “Ellie” bracelet. (The “Ellie” bracelet is named to honor Julie’s mom.) We will be posting a short mother’s day quiz on our Facebook page at 11am (EST). Make sure to tune in on Sunday, May 12th to play. The prize is one of these wonderful bracelets!
NWHM is both inspired and grateful to Altruette for its support of our work. We thank them for their helping to spread the word about the need for a permanent home for women’s history.
