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Corporate Partners
 “More Than Tile”: Building a better world...tile by tile
What do ceramic and stone tile have to do with ending global poverty? For Phil Stalcup, Owner and Founder of Tile For Less, the connection is clear. On his first trip to El Salvador in 2003, he was deeply moved by the poverty he saw there, but more importantly, he was impressed with the entrepreneurial spirit of the people. Able to link the idea of microcredit to his entrepreneurial nature, Stalcup decided to engage his employees with a program to benefit microcredit borrowers.
How the “More Than Tile” program works
For every square foot of tile purchased, Tile For Less donates 1.5 – 2.5 cents to Global Partnerships. “Our goal is to create and effect 1,500 loans by the year 2010,” says Phil Stalcup. In its first year alone, the More Than Tile program gave 200 loans, and this translates not only to the borrowers, but also to their families and communities – the impact is far reaching.
"There is no reason corporate philanthropy has to be only a big-company activity." Phil Stalcup maintains that all levels of business can benefit from cause-related marketing, while positively impacting the lives of others. "We are all affected by the fortunes of the world's poor, and smaller businesses like ours can and must do their parts to spread opportunity to those who most need it."
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“What I’ve found is that it makes good business sense for Tile For Less. Often we will have clients that are motivated to buy our tiles over a competitor’s tiles because they know a percentage of the sales goes to alleviate poverty and to making the lives of a few people in Latin America better. Our business runs on a word-of-mouth system, so our marketing budget is small. The More Than Tile program with Global Partnerships really helps us stand out from the crowd.” |
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~ Phil Stalcup, Owner and Founder, Tile for Less |
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