Chicago Fair Trade

Since its founding in 2006, Chicago Fair Trade has educated the wider Chicagoland community about fair trade. Fair trade, an alternative way of doing business, directs profits toward a good purpose by paying fair wages to historically disadvantaged farmers and maker communities and utilizing environmentally friendly production methods. For twenty years, Chicago Fair Trade’s work has inspired Chicagoland-based communities to take action to build a more ethical economy, both locally and globally.

As the largest and most active grassroots fair trade organization in the U.S. and the primary fair trade convenor in the Midwest and beyond, Chicago Fair Trade’s reach spans far and wide. We work with schools and universities across the Chicagoland region to educate students about fair trade’s important role in combating climate change, child slavery, and poverty. Because no comparable organization exists in our neighboring states, our business member community spans from Madison, Wisconsin, to northwest Indiana.

In addition to traditional fair trade businesses working with farmer and maker communities in the Global South, Chicago Fair Trade also offers business membership to local social enterprises. These businesses serve communities experiencing barriers to employment here in Chicagoland by providing employment opportunities to diverse groups of makers, including people with disabilities, formerly incarcerated people, and young mothers without prior professional experience.

Further highlights of Chicago Fair Trade’s work include: 

• Hosting the largest World Fair Trade Day Celebration in the US for 19 years in a row;
• Fostering and organizing the largest network of fair trade businesses in the US (55); 
• Achieving Fair Trade City designation (2011). To achieve this designation, Chicago Fair Trade led efforts to ensure that there was fair trade education, fair trade products being served in 300 institutions, and fair trade products being sold in over 300 stores throughout Chicago;
• Leading successful campaigns to pass anti-sweatshop legislation in Chicago (2014) and Cook County (2015). This legislation means that our tax dollars are not spent on apparel made in sweatshops;
• Running a highly successful Fair Trade Holiday Pop-Up Shop for twelve years running in the city of Chicago (2014-present), including one on Michigan Avenue (2024);
• Opening the world’s first Fair Trade Museum in the city of Chicago (2023 as a pop-up venture; 2024 in its new, permanent location).
• Partnering with the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, the Chicago Public Library, Chicago Fashion Week, and the  Chicago Architectural Center.