Mission

BrandHaiti is a global student led non-profit business marketing organization that re-brands Haiti’s negative image through highlighting the country’s strengths and comparative advantages to foster pro-Haitian business investment and revitalize a non-exploitative economy. By partnering with multinational enterprises, BrandHaiti advertizes for local Haitian companies to increase consumer demand for “made in Haiti” products and facilitate long-term investment. BrandHaiti remains successful through its commitment to develop a sustainable market for Haitian products, which currently is weakened due to limited lobbying for these products and negative images of Haiti. With our network of entrepreneurs promoting commerce in Haiti, students ambassadors on campus mobilize their respective universities to promote, educate, and lobby on behalf of Haiti and its people.
We achieve this mission by taking the following concrete actions:

• Actively countering the negative stigma and imaging of Haiti in the foreign press and investment community by promoting success stories of Haitian business owners and investors, in addition to writing counter narratives to “a country of disaster.” Currently, BrandHaiti is producing a documentary detailing the challenges, opportunities, successes, and best practices already being implemented in Haitian businesses in order to re-brand the negative perceptions of a “stagnant and risky economy” in the country.
• Creating exchange programs and internships with our Haitian partners such that the needs of the Haitian business community are matched with the skills and passions of entrepreneurial students.
• Along with the Institute for Global Leadership, hosting annual business symposia on Haiti at the Tufts Fletcher School of Diplomacy in Medford, MA in order to challenge students to critically think about solutions for economic development by confronting them with actual business persons, investors, and Haitians.The next symposium will be held Saturday, February 11, 2012 at the Fletcher School. Register Now!
  
• Facilitating partnerships of young students in France, Canada, the US and Haiti with foreign investors, the current Haitian government, and local businesses to create a skilled, young, and dignified Haitian workforce.
• Implementing a BrandHaiti product line, which will directly empower small Haitian producers by connecting them with socially-conscious consumers.
• Offering  Spring Break and Summer holiday Programs on Haiti’s magnificent beach resorts to foreign students in order to stimulate the local economy while simultaneously allowing them to re-brand Haiti for themselves.
• Empowering the Haitian Government by working with the Haitian Ministry of Tourism to align our organizations’ missions to rebrand Haiti.

Philosophy

BrandHaiti believes Foreign Direct Investment in Haitian businesses, job creation, and branding are essential elements of long-term economic growth in a newer and better Haiti. By re-branding Haiti’s image and facilitating relationships between Haitian and foreign businesses, we can generate a better business climate for competition in the global economy. BrandHaiti knows the entrepreneurial spirit of Haitians and the potential of this great country. Our students strongly desire to change the perception of Haiti, which will inevitably change the lives of ordinary Haitians. We hope you and/or your organization can join forces with us as we go about making our mission into a reality.

History

BrandHaiti was created in April 2010 thanks to the passion and generosity of the Institute of Global Leadership (IGL) at Tufts University (please note: BrandHaiti is distinct from the Soul of Haiti Foundation’s “BrandHaiti” initiative. We work together through the Ministry of Tourism, but remain independent organizations). Marie-Gabrielle conceptualized the organization with Chad Gordon during an internship with their past mentor Philipp Tsipman. Both Philipp and Corinne Low supported the original endeavor, which expanded into the independent organization it remains today. In February of 2011, BrandHaiti hosted the first U.S. university summit on investing in Haiti, which brought Haitian entrepreneurs and activists together with NGOs and investors, all of whom were engaged in thinking beyond rebuilding, and imagining a prosperous and thriving Haiti.