Rebecca van Bergen: Lessons I Learned From Last Year To Take Our Organization to the Next Level in 2024
An Interview With Chad Silverstein
Remote work affords us personal flexibility, but works best when combined with regular, in-person gatherings.
This series aims to discuss the experiences and lessons learned by top executives over the past year, and how these insights are shaping the landscape for change and innovation in 2024. The past year has been a time of unprecedented challenges and opportunities, requiring adaptive leadership and innovative strategies. We believe that sharing these experiences can inspire and guide others in their endeavors to drive positive change in their organizations and industries. I had the pleasure of interviewing Rebecca van Bergen.
Rebecca van Bergen is the Founder and Executive Director of Nest, a nonprofit bringing transparency, business development, and advocacy to the global artisan to improve the lives of more than 300,000 artisans and over 1 million indirect beneficiaries. In partnership with renowned philanthropic partners, such as Bloomberg Philanthropies, and national retailers like Target, Patagonia and Etsy, Nest’s capacity building, market access, and Ethical Handcraft programs are supporting makers and artisans in the US and worldwide. Rebecca is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader; has been spotlighted by the New York mayor’s office as an NYC Catalyst, has been honored as a PBS Changemaker, a CNN Young Person Who Rocks, and was on InStyle’s list of most badass women who are showing up, speaking up, and making change.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you share a little about your background and what pivotal moments led you to your current position as an executive?
My grandmother was my best friend when I was young (and still is today!). From a young age, I possessed a fiery independence, and as a child still learning how to harness it, I discovered my grandmother to be my safe haven. She is a talented quilter, and running my fingers along fabric as my machine ticked away or watching my knitted stitches unfold into a scarf under her watchful eye became a wonderful outlet for some of my unchanneled energy.
What was equally as profound to me as the making itself was its role as an underlying force of female empowerment and creative expression. When Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize, enthusiasm for and attention to, the concepts of microfinance exploded. New organizations and corporations emerged to put Yunus’ principles into practice, scaling applications of microfinance and not necessarily with a strong foundation of research guiding their actions. Keep in mind that these were the early days of “not-only-for profit” business and many of the firms emerging, while driven by a social mission, were also focused on protecting their bottom lines first and foremost. As a young student, just graduating with my Master’s Degree in Social Work, I understood effective social programs as being less about public policy and more about direct practice with people — so this rapid scaling of lending took me aback. In our country, loans make debt, not a business in and of themselves, and so the conflation of these two concepts was worrying to me. I became interested in generating economic opportunities in developing economies without the burden of debt and this drove me to found Nest. My vision was for a sustainable model — one not just about lending, but more holistic business development. Instead of giving a man to fish as the old adage goes, I wanted not just to finance a woman’s purchase of sewing machine, but to give her the skills needed to improve her sewing and grow a business.
What were the early challenges you faced in your career, and how did they shape your approach to leadership?
Etsy was founded in 2005 — just one year before the founding of Nest. Prior to this new consumer demand in handmade or locally-made goods, artisan work was often seen as kitschy and not a place for investment by brands or philanthropists. While this has been changing steadily and “artisan-made” is now firmly rooted as a desirable product category, elements of this misconception remain, particularly within philanthropy. In 2016, we downloaded the 990s from the top 50 institutional funders in the United States and went through them cataloging where they made their investments. A shocking .02% of them invested in the craft sector! This was true in spite of research suggesting that there are 300M homeworkers globally, most of whom are women, and many of whom are believed to be employed in craft production. Too frequently pegged as “niche” and “non-scalable,” artisan communities have been left out of philanthropic investment for far too long.
This reality profoundly shaped my career — I learned quickly that the artisan sector needed data to convert skeptics and drive informed investments. I also learned that advocacy was essential — without a narrative heralding handcraft’s untapped power, the sector would not realize its potential. To this end, Nest established two teams focused explicitly on research and advocacy working to champion investments in a systems change approach.
We often learn the most from our mistakes. Can you share one that you made that turned out to be one of the most valuable lessons you’ve learned?
There have been many mistakes made and lessons learned since founding Nest! Starting an organization at 24, I often found myself building the plane while flying it. While this helped me develop my creative thinking and an entrepreneurial mindset, it also meant fumbling a bit as well. One of the most significant lessons I have learned over the last 18 years is the importance of remaining nimble.
I encourage the Nest team to never think of any of our programs as “final” in their design. Nonprofit or development work should always be led by constituent voice and the needs of the beneficiaries must come first. We need to co-create solutions in partnership with our artisans and makers which means our programs evolve as their needs change.
Being nimble also allows us to respond quickly to the changing world around us. At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic we made a decision to pause our standard programs to ensure we were meeting the most-pressing needs of our artisan partners. We pivoted to small grant making and other supportive services. Another example of this is our decision to focus on developing resources for our maker and artisan partners as they increasingly face the consequences of climate change and severe weather. Many artisan communities are located in areas prone to climate disasters. If they are facing major challenges to sustaining their livelihoods because of these issues, we need to provide them with the information, resources, and other tools they need to improve their resilience. To this end, we spend a lot of time listening to and building solutions with our partners.
As an executive, how do you define success, both personally and for your organization?
Many people think of social entrepreneurs as visionaries and, while I believe that is true, I think the difference between a visionary and a true social entrepreneur is that entrepreneurs can transition their gaze from the distant mountains of the world that we want to create down to our feet to begin walking in their direction. I believe women are uniquely suited to do this — we are born to multitask, to be organized and juggle many responsibilities, and to care not just about ourselves but about our families, communities, the world around us.
For me, success is defined through action, impact, and, most importantly, inspiring others to multiply that impact. The big picture can often be overwhelming but if I am able to communicate my vision and create a roadmap to get there then my team can join me in the journey. I think this fixation on doing is evident at Nest–people always marvel at how quickly we can mobilize, shift gears, respond. We are often told that we punch above our weight — that our small team is having a grassroots impact globally and enacting systemic change across an industry. I believe the focus on taking the small steps towards lofty goals is how we do it.
Reflecting on 2023, what was the most unexpected challenge you faced, and how did you navigate it?
The world around seems to be changing everyday–socially, politically, economically–and it’s often hard to navigate what this means for our staff and our work. We sit at our computers while the environment is changing with increasingly catastrophic climate events, and ongoing wars and weather creating a global refugee crisis. With our national and global economies in a constant state of flux, many do not feel stable or secure. It has been an unexpected challenge lead effectively — and inspire — during a time of such chaos and uncertainty. How can I ensure our team feels connected to our mission and motivated each morning to perform their work when the world around us often feels heavy and dark? Additionally, Nest is a fully remote organization which means our connections are often virtual versus “in real life.”
Over the last year, I realized that we needed to be incredibly intentional about our organizational culture and how I was interacting with the staff and they with each other. We prioritized opportunities where the staff could come together — bringing more employees to a conference than we might have in previous years, sending new staff to shadow and travel alongside more senior or seasoned members of the team to build inspiration and connection. We also prioritize an annual corporate retreat, which is a time for our full team to gather in person to connect as people and colleagues.
Additionally, I made the decision to focus our organizational professional development on human resources development in 2024. This is to ensure all of our systems are transparent and that employees feel valued and supported.
What was a significant risk you took this year, and how did it turn out?
Investing in growth always feels like a bit of a gamble, especially for small organizations. It almost always requires stepping out in faith–strategically, of course–before the dollars or talent needed to complete a project are fully secured. Today, this is compounded by a global climate that is constantly evolving because of factors like climate change, growing economic disparity, political unrest, and social upheaval. Recently, we posted a couple of open roles and were blown away by the caliber of candidates who expressed genuine interest and personal alignment with our mission. This spurred us to prioritize hiring several additional positions which were on our business development roadmap for later this year knowing these candidates could be crucial to our success in realizing that development. While we are still seeing the results of this investment, we are optimistic that the vision, creativity, and new energy of these individuals will help build more impactful programs and build a pipeline for new revenue streams.
How has your company’s mission or purpose affected its overall success? Can you explain the methods or metrics you use to evaluate the impact of this purpose-driven strategy on your organization?
Handcraft is the second-largest employer of women in developing economies. Estimates suggest than more than 300M people worldwide earn an income through handcraft or artisan work. Notably, women in rural, low-income, and historically marginalized communities heavily rely on craft for employment. Despite the artisan sector contributing $718B+ to global GDP and the fact that women invest more than 90% of their earnings back into their families, many handworkers remain unrecognized and lack adequate social protections.
Nest exists to support the responsible growth and creative engagement with the global artisan sector. In layman’s terms this means we sit at the intersection of handcraft production and product sourcing to prepare artisan enterprises for retail purchase orders. With our extensive knowledge, connections, and credibility, global brands have rely on us for to make meaningful sourcing connections. We support artisan communities by providing them with free business development resources to prepare them for these market access opportunities.
Today, our programming reaches artisan and maker partners worldwide and directly impacts 2,502 handcraft business leaders in 123 countries, supporting 377,477 artisans and indirectly benefiting 1.6M individuals. This empowerment drives lasting change, economic growth, and sustainable livelihoods for individuals and families.
Nest measures programmatic success and overall impact across a matrix of qualitative and quantitative metrics that consider worker well-being, artisan business capacity and sustainability, supply chain visibility, and corresponding corporate reform. As a complement to our own data capture, we consider industry standards, peer research, and partners’ data sets to add depth and context to our findings. As we look forward, Nest is prioritizing technology investments to streamline our data collection process, which will increase reach and program transparency, and standardize our monitoring and evaluation efforts across all programs.
Have you ever faced a situation where your commitment to your purpose and creating a positive social impact clashed with the profitability in your business? Have you ever been challenged by anyone on your team or have to make a tough decision that had a significant impact on finances? If so, how did you address and reconcile this conflict?
As a nonprofit, our mission and proven impact are paramount to our success. That said, we are unique in that we raise our budget through traditional philanthropy, as well as contract work with brands and retailers interested in integrating more artisan and maker products into their assortments. These services have become increasingly important as the consumer demand for handcraft has skyrocketed over the last decade.
Many companies believe artisan and maker sourcing is enough. While this is and important step forward, it does not do enough to move the needle for workers in the informal handcraft economy on its own. Nest’s Ethical Handcraft program provides a way for brands and retailers to understand transparency gaps in their supply chains and supports policy reform and other solutions to help correct them.
Since launching this program, Nest has seen a slow but steady increase in brand participation. When we began, 79% of participating supply chains were not able to demonstrate that they met the minimum wage requirements in their country. As a result of participation in the Ethical Handcraft program, 40% of these supply chains closed the wage gap within a year of beginning and 65% have implemented additional measures to continue improving.
The continuation of this important program relies on more brands and retailers coming forward to acknowledge its necessity. Consumers are speaking with their dollars and showing that they value products with proven certifications. As this trend continues we are hopeful more brands will begin to listen and join us in this movement. As a nonprofit, we drive impact over profit and encourage our partners to ensure that even when they are a profit-driven retailer, doing so with integrity and transparency drives a triple bottom line outcome.
Could you list the top five things you’ve learned in 2023, with specific examples of how these lessons impacted your decisions or strategies?
1 . The resilience we learned during Covid is setting us up to navigate an ever-evolving future.
The onset of Covid-19 prompted billions of workers worldwide to begin working from home, many for the first time. While a large part of society faces this radical shift in how we live and work, home-based work has existed in emerging economies, and right here in the United States, for centuries. Handwork is one of the largest, home-based forms of employment worldwide.
An example of this is Jaipur Living, a company that produces rugs for contemporary brands here in the US. They work with rug weavers all over India where home-based work is the norm. Husbands and wives sit alongside each other working. Babies are cradled in the mother’s lap as she takes on the rhythmic movements of the loom. These are small, simple adjustments to life, but they have a profound impact on the workforce. They’re able to manufacture at scale without the heavy, expensive infrastructure of factories. And, their team does not have to endure exhausting commutes which results in a minimal carbon footprint for the artisans and the company.
For women, the benefits extend beyond family life. Working in countries where women can face harassment, abuse, or violence on their way to and from work, this option of remote work allows them to be more comfortable and in control of their safety and well-being. Making a rug is a lengthy task, close to 100 steps from spinning of wool to final tassels. If Jaipur Living can do it almost entirely with a rural workforce, can other companies not build a similar grassroots system?
2 . Remote work affords us personal flexibility, but works best when combined with regular, in-person gatherings.
Like most companies, Nest went remote at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and most of our team returned to their hometowns to be closer to family, friends, and loved ones. It quickly became clear that our productivity was not affected by this change and we ultimately decided to remain a remote organization, rather than recalling our team to New York City where we had been outgrowing our expensive office space.
While our productivity was not affected, we realized a need to connect in person to maintain our sense of community and camaraderie. In 2022, we hosted our first team retreat at a ranch outside of Austin, Texas. The time together proved to be invaluable for our team and culture. Coworkers who had only ever met on Zoom were enjoying meals, horseback rides, and hiking together, which forged important bonds. Given the success of this first retreat we decided to make the event an annual tradition and prioritize a whole team gathering in a new location once a year.
3 . As we become more divided across social and political lines, the unique beauty of craft is something we can all agree on.
As our world becomes more and more divided, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the unique skill and beauty of handcraft is one of the few things that remains to unify us. It supersedes politics and religion and the multitude of other things that work to separate us. Craft plays a role in many families’ identities and in every culture and is something we can all appreciate and celebrate.
Today, Nest supports makers, artisans, and handcraft communities, in every US state and more than 120 countries.
4 . Nest’s work with refugees and immigrants, in the US and around the world, has never been more important.
In 2022, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, announced that for the first time on record, the number of people forced to flee conflict, violence, human rights violations, and persecution has passed the staggering milestone of 100 million. As forced displacement causes people to leave their homes behind, sometimes all refugees can take with them are their skills, traditions, and cultural heritage.
Craft is a way for refugees, and other people fleeing conflict, to remain connected to their culture. It can also be a marketable skill allowing them to earn an income as they resettle into their new homes. Nest seeks to support and empower displaced people globally so that they may continue to develop their craft traditions and rebuild their families’ livelihoods.
5 . As the influence of AI grows and touches more of our lives, the counterbalance provided by craft and handmade goods has never been more important.
At a time when AI and automation is touching every part of our lives, we are witnessing a genuine desire for connection between consumers and producers. Proof of this desire for connection to genuine crafted goods can be seen in increased consumer demand for ethically produced products and the growing Makers Movement in the US. Craft provides us with a connection to our family, community, and culture, and slows us down. Practicing these skills is a way to slow down when the world around feels increasingly hurried.
How have these top five lessons from 2023 changed your outlook or approach for 2024?
Evolution is the key to success. The last year — really the last several years — affirm these core values. The NGO/nonprofit sector is often risk-adverse and slow to adapt. This can feel confusing (and a little frustrating) among those whose primary goal is to realize social change and to tackle the world’s most pressing and complex challenges. That goal, in and of itself, seems to suggest the need for continual reflection and adaptation, however, the reality is that both the regulatory and fundraising landscapes make quick changes which can be challenging for nonprofits to navigate. It’s easy to get tied to a mission or programming that is no longer needed and/or in the best interest of you beneficiaries, and can be time-consuming and expensive to alter. We have focused on how to scale and grow while not losing the nimbleness that allows us to be responsive to our diverse stakeholders.
In terms of innovation and adaptation, what’s one change you implemented in 2023 or plan to do in 2024 that you believe will be crucial for the future of your business?
As a fully remote organization, we have been continually investing in technology to keep our global team connected and productive. One tool we’re using for this is Asana, which we love! Over the last few months, we have been investing in customization and cross-team training to make the system work better for us. As we really settle into our identity as a remote organization, we are seeking additional solutions to make our work and connection points feel more “human.” While computers and phones are critical to how we work together and with our partners, they can make us feel isolated from seeing our colleagues as people. We are very interested in finding tools, platforms, and processes that allow us to maintain our personal connections despite being many miles apart.
As a leader, how do you foster a culture of continuous learning and improvement within your team or organization?
As an organization, we emphasize continuous learning in an effort to better serve our artisan and maker partners, as well as our brand and retail network. To this end, iteration and human-centered design are two of our organization values that we think are critical to our success. We believe deeply in building, testing, learning and improving.
As a listening-first organization, our programs and partnerships are always evolving. We implement using information collected before, during and after the program by all of the stakeholders involved. As we hear what is working and where things can be improved, we iterate and adapt the program design. This ensures that our programs, and our organization as whole, are human-centered: that everything we do is designed with our artisans and makers, industry partners, other nonprofits and service providers, and our core team in mind. We embed these values into our program design and execution processes but also the ways in which we internally run — our own systems and policies as well. These values, we hope, also drive a model of equity and inclusion where we can deliberately and continuously bring lived experience and voice to our work.
Looking at the broader industry landscape, what emerging trends do you think will be most influential in the coming year?
To consider the word “artisan” is to come face-to-face with a complicated term lacking a universal definition that anyone, from the fields of art history to contemporary retail, have been able to agree upon. Throw in the new “Makers’ Movement” gaining momentum and the term loses even more meaning. UNESCO offers a lengthy, two-paragraph explanation including some rather general and vague terminology that allows ample window of interpretation including the phrase: made by hand or “with the help of hand tools or even mechanical means.” How much technology or mechanization is allowed? As a handweaver, can punch card patterns be rendered by machine so long as the looming is done by hand? Or, what about mechanical looms? Where do 3D printing and CAD fit in? I believe that the intersection between technology and handcraft is going to become ever more important as automation and robotics become more present. That craft can be an antidote to an over-industrialized society and can foster a growing counter movement that demands a knowledge of, and craves a connection to, the producer. A movement that realizes that slowing down (at least for some things) makes us all happier and we are excited to help companies and consumers realize that our future will fundamentally need the authenticity of craft.
If you and I were having a conversation one year from now, and we were looking back at the past 12 months, what specifically has to happen for you to be happy with your progress?
Speaking at UN Headquarters, the Secretary-General warned that “the era of global warming has ended” and “the era of global boiling has arrived.” While speaking specifically about climate change and its impacts, I believe this is a deeper and perhaps more pervasive metaphor. Within our organization and amongst our different stakeholders — most, importantly our artisan and maker partners — this feeling of “boiling” is quite real.As we have discussed throughout this interview, we are in an era not just of change, but of chaos: there is political upheaval with extremism in nearly every country, global economic turmoil where even small gains feel fragile and, climate change where many feel unprepared for the realities that are arriving at frightening pace.
As Founder and Executive Director of a nonprofit organization focused on supporting artisans and makers, we have been thinking about the role that the creative economy, specifically, will play in our future. Through our work supporting artisans, makers, and creative entrepreneurs we see firsthand how artists view the world differently — that is the nature of their creativity. This artistic spirit allows for chaos to be reordered and often made beautiful — they take disparate materials and transform them into craft, into art.
In a recent article in the Guardian, Rebecca Solnit wrote: “For too long, the climate fight has been limited to scientists and policy experts. While we need their skills, we also need so much more. When I survey the field, it’s clear that what we desperately need is more artists.” When we look back in 12 months, I hope we have all realized the potential of the creative economy and that we have leaned into bringing the vision and hope of our artisans and makers to a larger audience letting it be their voice drive change.
How can our readers further follow your work or your company online?
Readers can follow along with Nest on Instagram at @buildanest, and learn more about our work at buildanest.org.
This was great. Thanks for taking time for us to learn more about you and your business. We wish you continued success!
About the Interviewer: Chad Silverstein, a seasoned entrepreneur with over two decades of experience as the Founder and CEO of multiple companies. He launched Choice Recovery, Inc., a healthcare collection agency, while going to The Ohio State University, His team earned national recognition, twice being ranked as the #1 business to work for in Central Ohio. In 2018, Chad launched [re]start, a career development platform connecting thousands of individuals in collections with meaningful employment opportunities, He sold Choice Recovery on his 25th anniversary and in 2023, sold the majority interest in [re]start so he can focus his transition to Built to Lead as an Executive Leadership Coach. Learn more at www.chadsilverstein.com
Rebecca van Bergen: Lessons I Learned From Last Year To Take Our Organization to the Next Level in… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.