Our Story
It started on a dusty airstrip in Kenya in 2016. Malala Yousafzai had invited our founder, educator and entrepreneur Stacey Boyd, to visit a refugee camp there.
Every year on July 12, her birthday, Malala travels to a place where girls are being denied their right to an education, which is why the UN has designated that day Malala Day. In 2016, the trip was to Dadaab, the world’s largest refugee camp.
It was on that airstrip that Stacey met Rahma, a 15-year-old Somali girl who shared her remarkable story.
She and her family fled to the refugee camp in 2009. At the time, she couldn’t read or write, but she got the chance to attend school in the camp, and quickly worked her way up to secondary level material. When the family was finally able to return home, they found it still wasn’t safe enough to send her to school nor could they afford the fees, so Rahma was promised in marriage to a man 35 years her senior.
Rahma, however, had a much different plan for herself. Defying her family, her community and the odds, she returned to Dadaab—traveling for eight days on foot and by bus—because she knew her future depended on getting back into school there.
Inspired by Rahma’s grit and moved by the fact that she had risked her life for something we take for granted, Stacey felt compelled to find a way to support Rahma’s dreams—and the dreams of the other girls like her.
As Stacey reached into her designer bag to grab her phone to take this photo of Malala, Rahma, and the other girls in this distance learning program, she realized that for a fraction of the cost of her bag, she could send Rahma to school for a year.
This wasn’t just a simple moment of connection, it was an idea based on experience.
Stacey is also the founder of Schoola, which sells gently used clothing and gives 40 percent of the proceeds to schools in need.
Four years ago, Schoola started supporting five schools in the Bay Area. Today, Schoola supports 35,000 schools all over the United States.
Schoola has moved warehouses five times in four years, and sells up to 10,000 items a day for between $5 and $15 each.
As Stacey stood in Dadaab, she wondered if there might be a way to do the same, but with luxury items costing between $100 to $5,000.
If so, she realized with just one day's worth of sales of luxury items at 10,000 units she could send the entire children's population of Dadaab to school for one year.
When she returned home, she immediately got to work calling on luxury brands. She met with a dozen—Valentino, Stella McCartney, Givenchy, Dolce & Gabbana, among them. They all said yes.
And in June 2017, Olivela was born.
“Olive,” for the olive tree, a symbol of growth and wisdom. “Vela,” Latin for the sails of a ship.
Olivela helps set girls forward on the right path in life.
How It Works
The customer shops for what she loves. Olivela carries all her favorite designer fashion and luxury beauty brands. Every purchase supports girls’ education.
Twenty percent of the proceeds of every purchase sends girls to school. At no extra cost to the brands or the customers.
Customers and brands see their impact immediately. The number of days of school each item provides is clearly marked on every piece we sell.
Our Founder
Stacey Boyd is a parent, former teacher and school principal. In addition to founding Olivela and Schoola, her other successful ventures include The Academy of the Pacific Rim and Project Achieve.
Boyd earned her MBA and Masters in Public Policy from Harvard. She serves on the National Council for Teacher Quality, advises PBS on educational programming and was named one of the World Economic Forum's 100 Global Leaders of Tomorrow.
Boyd's work has been featured on CNN, PBS, the TODAY Show, The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, Wired, USA Today, The Washington Post and numerous other publications. She has spoken at the World Economic Forum, Fortune's Most Powerful Women Summit and Milken's Global Conference among others.
Our Brands
Olivela launched in June of 2017 with just twelve brands. Today we have more than 200 highly curated luxury and emerging brands.
It is our community of brands that powers Olivela. As cutting-edge luminaries and artists, these designers appreciate being able to work with a brand that embraces a progressive vision for humanity and challenges the status quo in important ways.
What Designers Are Saying About Olivela
“Giving back is a very natural thing, it helps others, but it also helps the ones who give.” — Christian Louboutin
“We need to be advocates of the change we want to see in the world.” — Carolina Herrera
“My dream for kids is that they feel empowered to spark change and growth.” – Prabal Gurung
“Stop and think of the responsibility we have today towards the next generations.”— Roberto Coin
“I truly believe that it is a duty for someone in my position to participate in raising social awareness and to support charitable foundations.” — Terry de Gunzburg, By Terry
“I wish we can move past all forms of racism. Don't we all know by now: we are all the same on the inside, even if we are unique on the outside.” — Derek Lam
“What weighs heaviest on my mind is the extraordinary inequality that exists within our culture and across cultures.” — Adam Lippes
Our Customers
Our customers consider themselves citizens of the world. They very much want to see the brands they cherish having a positive influence on the world in which they live.
Can you guess what millenials cite as their top priority right after being a good parent and having a successful marriage?
Helping others.
According to a PEW Research study, helping others is more important to them than owning their own home, having a high paying job or becoming famous.
Through Olivela we connect our globally-minded customers with the brands they love and their passion to nudge the world a little with every purchase.
Our Mission
To send girls to school who otherwise would not have the opportunity.
Why Girls?
One in five girls worldwide is married off before the age of 18.
Absorb that statistic, and you can begin to understand that once a girl in a developing country hits puberty—and in some cases even earlier than that—she is at tremendous risk.
Why Education?
It is the key. If a girl is in school during those years, she avoids early marriage and motherhood, and she gets a chance at economic independence.
Her increased earning power improves not only her own life, but the lives of her family and her community. And, when she does become a mother, she is likely to have fewer, healthier, better educated children.
Educating girls breaks the cycle of poverty.
Olivela has a bold vision for our community of brands and customers: we intend to send 100 million girls to school in the next 20 years through our platform and partnerships.
Please join us.