Nearly 30 years ago, Atlanta captured the world’s attention as the city played host to the 1996 Summer Olympics. Last week Mission Investors Exchange (MIE) – one of the country’s leading impact investing networks – announced that Atlanta will host its 2026 biennial conference…
Greetings – I’m thrilled to be writing this as Georgia Social Impact Collaborative’s new Executive Director! It’s been an exciting and busy first few months. For many of you, I’m a new name and face in your impact investing ecosystem. Now is as good a time as any to introduce myself and share my perspective on the work that GSIC has ahead of us. I hope that this will give you a sense of how I intend to operate as GSIC’s Executive Director and that some of what I share excites you or sparks ideas of how your work will intersect with GSIC’s in 2025 and beyond.
My first few weeks on the job were spent immersing myself in GSIC’s documents, records, data, and conversations with board members. This proved to be time well spent because it impressed upon me one important takeaway. GSIC is important to so many people across Georgia.
What leads me to believe that?
- Since 2016, GSIC has mounted an impressive thought leadership and programming agenda that has engaged hundreds of unique stakeholders across the state. Mind you, there was a 2-3 year period where in-person convenings were stymied by COVID. While I believe there is an opportunity for GSIC to curate a more deliberate learning and convening agenda in the future, when GSIC hosts an event or tees up a conversation, people show up, and that should be celebrated.
- Beyond people’s investment of time, GSIC has also benefited from considerable grant support. Dozens of foundations, individuals, corporations, financial institutions, and leaders gifted operating funds that paved an operating runway that has allowed GSIC to undertake its work adaptively over the years. When there was an idea floated in the ecosystem, like “We should put on Georgia’s first statewide CDFI conference!” There was a resource base to take this from idea to execution. When these seed funders reflect on what their dollars have helped GSIC create, I hope they see what I do. Is GSIC a finished product – a fully-built piece of impact investing infrastructure with an airtight approach to doing its work? Of course not. However, these early dollars afforded GSIC a period of time during which it could take a trial and error approach to honing its value proposition. One of my central goals for GSIC in 2025 is to redefine our organization strategy – to translate its broad mission and vision into something that is more actionable for the organization and ecosystem partners. Quite frankly, we would not be in a position to do so had GSIC not had the ability to do the work and learn by doing.
There is considerable work ahead of GSIC in the coming months and years. However, I am reassured that GSIC is a necessary and important piece of Georgia’s impact investing ecosystem. This doesn’t feel like an unfounded claim. I believe your actions and investments in GSIC over the preceding years make the case for me.
Given all this, it should come as no surprise that my top priority during my onboarding phase has been engaging with GSIC’s amazing network of stakeholders and key partners. Here are two reasons why.
- Impact investing, especially when tackled at an ecosystem level, requires trust. During my time in the field, I have been fortunate enough to see several collaborative impact investing efforts – like Invest Appalachia and the Partners for Rural Transformation – grow from idea to functioning model. I’ve had the opportunity to ask leaders involved in these efforts “what enabled your efforts to succeed?” Their answers started with trust. Impact investing – especially when undertaken with a place-based or equity lens – challenges and often disrupts investment norms. At its best, impact investing calls us to examine the “why” behind so much of what we take for granted as common practice. Why do foundations place all of their mission-fulfillment expectations on only 5% of their assets? Why must collateral be required to make traditional debt investors feel secure? Why do we value the impact an investment creates less than the financial return it generates? For some, calling these questions can be uncomfortable. I want GSIC to be a place where new ideas and possibilities can be considered in spite of discomfort. Before we can get there, you all need to know and trust me. (Please note: This trust and your patience may be tested during football season when UGA faces off with my beloved Tennessee Volunteers 🙂).
- GSIC’s impact can only occur when others successfully take steps towards impact investing. In August 2020, GSIC’s board planted a flag for the organization. GSIC works to mobilize $250MM in impact capital for Georgia. While this seems like a straightforward enough goal, in the impact investing landscape, GSIC is what you might consider an enabler. We do not directly control any assets or dollars ourselves. We operate to facilitate others’ investment. In other words, for GSIC to reach our goal, other individuals, organizations, and leaders have to opt-in to our vision, and they must see themselves as working towards a set of collective impact goals. For this to be true, GSIC must be relevant to partners working across the state.There is no shortage of impact investing resources, practitioner groups, and learning forums across the field. Outlets exist where you could turn to learn about impact investing, community development finance, socially-responsible investing, etc. So, why look to GSIC? Should GSIC even exist? I would respond to these questions with an emphatic “yes!” I believe folks should look to GSIC and engage with our network because we have a unique value proposition to offer. If you fall somewhere in Georgia’s impact investing landscape – whether you have capital to invest, or you need impact capital – your interests align with GSIC’s. GSIC has an opportunity to shape the impact investing discourse and practice here in Georgia. I recognize that delivering on GSIC’s promise is both my responsibility and your opportunity.
I share all this because I want each of you to believe me when I say “I want to hear from you!” Following the announcement about my new role, I’ve been busy scheduling dozens of one-on-one meetings with key partners across the state. I’m incredibly grateful for those of you who’ve already carved out time to speak with me and for the warm welcome I’ve received from the broader GSIC community. These conversations have been incredibly valuable in understanding the current landscape and identifying opportunities for collaboration.
I’m energized by the passion and dedication I see all around me, and I’m confident that together, we can build an impact investing ecosystem that grows a more equitable, prosperous Georgia. Stay tuned for more updates from me, and please don’t hesitate to reach out if you’d like to connect! Hopefully by now I’ve convinced you I mean it 🙂
Sydney England
Executive Director, GSIC
The Georgia Shared Ownership Convening, co-hosted by the Rutgers Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing, Atlanta Wealth Building Initiative, Goizueta’s Business & Society Institute, and Georgia Social Innovation Collaborative, brought together 50+ stakeholders to discuss the future of shared ownership models in our state.
From ESOPs to cooperatives, these models are vital tools for promoting economic resilience and racial equity. Impact investors – from CDFIs to foundations to private investment funds – can and should play a role in supporting these businesses.
Check out our convening report-out (link below) to see how stakeholders are collaborating to build a sustainable ecosystem for shared ownership in Georgia. From policy roundtables to expanding technical assistance, look for more to come from Georgia in 2025!
Click HERE to read the
2024 Georgia Shared Ownership Convening Report 
The Georgia Social Impact Collaborative (GSIC) is pleased to announce that Sydney England will serve as the new Executive Director. Sydney joins GSIC having spent the past decade working in various capacities in the field of impact investing.
Impact investing is often perceived as more burdensome than traditional investing due to the added complexity of addressing social and environmental issues alongside financial returns. This perception is supported by a 2009 Monitor Institute white paper and recent observations by London School of Economics academics, who highlight the challenges and perceived risks associated with impact investing. However, a survey conducted by Katherine Klein and the Impact Finance Research Consortium, involving over 200 impact fund managers, reveals that market-rate-seeking impact investors generally do not find their work more difficult than traditional investing, contrary to those targeting below-market returns who report higher levels of difficulty.
The survey’s counterintuitive results suggest that market-rate-seeking impact investors might simplify their work by integrating impact with financial performance, viewing them as intertwined. This belief allows them to gauge impact through financial metrics, reducing the perceived difficulty. In contrast, below-market-rate impact investors often emphasize rigorous impact assessment due to their mission-driven focus. The findings raise questions about whether impact investing is living up to its promise of additionality and distinctiveness compared to traditional investing, especially in addressing neglected social and environmental challenges.
For the full article, click here.
The Latin American Association (LAA) and the Community Foundation for Northeast Georgia have partnered to support Latina entrepreneurs through a $100,000 investment from the Foundation’s Impact Investment Fund. This funding will enhance LAA’s Avanzando Juntas initiative, providing loans of up to $10,000 to help Latinas establish women-owned businesses. DePriest Waddy, CEO of the Community Foundation, stated that the goal is to empower Latina entrepreneurs and drive meaningful community change.
For over a decade, LAA has supported small business owners with micro loans, and this new funding aims to further economic development in underserved areas. Santiago Marquez, CEO of LAA, emphasized the partnership’s commitment to fostering economic growth and supporting aspiring entrepreneurs. This collaboration moves LAA closer to becoming a certified Community Development Financial Institution, reinforcing its role in economic development for underserved communities.
To read the full article, click here.
The Georgia Social Impact Collaborative (GSIC) partnered with the GoATL Fund to host a Catalytic Capital Wine Night sponsored by BNY Mellon at El Vinedo Local, a minority-owned restaurant in Atlanta, Georgia. The event brought together impact investors, philanthropic foundations, and family offices to celebrate the growth of the social impact investing ecosystem in Georgia and explore new opportunities for collaboration.
By: Lavonya Jones, Director
The Catalytic Capital Wine Night showcased the power of partnership and collaboration in driving social change. The event offered attendees an opportunity to learn more about the work being done by GSIC, GoATL Fund, and BNY Mellon, and to explore ways to get involved. From impact investing discussions to sharing best practices, the night was filled with purposeful networking and idea exchange.
El Vinedo Local, renowned for its South American food and wine, provided the perfect setting for this networking event. The restaurant’s inviting atmosphere and flavorful cuisine served as a backdrop for meaningful conversations and connections among attendees. Attendees included Invest Atlanta, B Local Georgia, Village Micro Fund, Valor Ventures, Accion Opportunity Fund, Center for Civic Innovation, Habitat for Humanity, Mission Hope, Bank of America, Low Income Investment Fund, the Georgia Power Foundation, Yack Shack, and Helping Empower Youth, among others.
GSIC, formed by a group of community leaders, is dedicated to fostering a diverse, connected statewide ecosystem of stakeholders engaged in aligning capital with social outcomes. By bringing together leaders from various sectors, GSIC envisions an energetic and dynamic network of resources that uplifts Georgia’s social impact ecosystem.
The GoATL Fund, Georgia’s first diversified impact debt fund, aims to achieve both social and financial returns. GoATL Evolution, expanded in 2022, now comprises three funds focused on specific needs within metro Atlanta: affordable housing, economic inclusion, and community capacity. Through cost-effective loan capital, the fund addresses the region’s most pressing needs, such as safe housing, new schools, and equitable access to living-wage careers.
BNY Mellon, the event sponsor, has long demonstrated a strong commitment to community impact. As a leading global bank, BNY Mellon is dedicated to improving the quality of life in the communities it serves through philanthropy, employee volunteerism, and innovative financing solutions. Their sponsorship of the Catalytic Capital Wine Night is yet another example of their dedication to supporting initiatives that drive positive change and create lasting impact.
As the evening concluded, it was clear that the connections formed at the Catalytic Capital Wine Night would serve as a catalyst for future collaborations and growth within Georgia’s impact investing ecosystem. The event not only strengthened existing relationships but also forged new ones, paving the way for increased social impact across the state.
We extend our gratitude to BNY Mellon for sponsoring the event and to El Vinedo Local for providing a beautiful venue and exceptional South American food and wine. We look forward to hosting more events like this in the future, as we continue to build a robust network of impact investors and stakeholders committed to creating positive change in Georgia.
YoNasDa Lonewolf is a living example of the saying, “No Nation Can Rise Higher Than Its Women.” Being self-driven, she is living her divine calling as an activist and a voice against any injustice that affects people worldwide. GSIC Director Lavonya Jones moderated a conversation with Georgia Tech’s Institute for Leadership and Social Impact about her journey and work collaborating across communities as an Afro-Indigenous woman.
By: Lavonya Jones, Director
In collaboration with Georgia Tech’s Institute for Leadership and Social Impact and the Center for Serve-Learn-Sustain, the Georgia Social Impact Collaborative hosted Lunchtime Impact Talk featuring YoNasDa (Yo-Naja-Ha) LoneWolf, a beloved community organizer, entrepreneur, and writer whom the City of South Fulton named a day after (November 21 is “Queen YoNasDa Appreciation Day.” ).
YoNasDa was born during the American Indian Movement & 1978’s The Longest Walk in Washington, DC. She is Oglala Lakota and African American. Her late mother, an Oglala Lakota (Sioux), Wauneta Lonewolf, was a renowned motivational speaker, substance abuse, gang prevention counselor, and healer. Her father, who is African American, is a fine artist.
Queen YoNasDa is a living example of the saying, “No Nation Can Rise Higher Than Its Women.” Being self-driven, she is living her divine calling from her early beginnings in the entertainment industry as a rap artist and choreographer for BET’S own Teen Summit to her most recent work as an activist and a voice against any injustice that affects people worldwide. She has used entertainment to bring awareness to the condition of oppressed people whether it’s releasing two albums and touring with Wutang Clan or performing at the Annual Gathering of Nations Pow Wow and Festival, she walks in many cultural paths. She has also used this influence to organize many events uniting all people together. She has coined “edu-tainement” in all of her organizing efforts.
She is the host and creator of the “Walk In My Mocassins” podcast, and she wrote and published a children’s book called “The Adventures of Star Song.”
YoNasDa has used her influence and business expertise to collaborate with Black and Native American-owned businesses with various products, from clothing to body care. Read more of her bio here. Listen to the full interview here.
Impact is a monthly series of meaningful, free, and open conversations. The main goal of the series is to engage students, faculty, staff, and the broader community on topics that matter through discussions and presentations by leaders and entrepreneurs from all sectors. Past talks are accessible on the Institute for Leadership and Social Impact’s YouTube page.
my Panda helps people get trusted, reliable help from right in their own neighborhood. my Panda has a culture of women helping women. 95% of the Pandas are women, they understand the struggles our members face, and they hire those who are passionate about helping. GSIC caught up with founder Tamara Lucas to learn more about her journey and my Panda’s success with connecting neighbors and local communities.
By: Kayla Jones, Social Impact Fellow
GSIC: Tell us about my Panda, and why you felt it was necessary to start this business.
Tamara: So, it was a problem that I have, right? I am a single mom of two kids. My career before this was working in sales and marketing management in the fine wine field – working as a distributor. I was representing different wineries, and as a single mom with two kids, I was super overwhelmed. It was too much on my plate, as many of us can relate. The idea was born actually when one day, I was talking to a friend of mine who worked as a dog walker. She was like, “Oh, my God, I go into people’s houses, and they need much more than just a dog walker! I go in there and take their dog out, but then their kitchen is a disaster. If they would like throw me $20 bucks, I’d empty the dishwasher and wipe down the kitchen, too!” And I thought to myself, “Holy cow, that’s what I need!”
Founder, Tamara Lucas
So, at that point, I was like, “You know, if someone was driving by my house anyway, they could just stop and spend 30 minutes in my kitchen, and I paid $20? Oh, absolutely!” And then I thought about how many other people there are all around us – primarily working women. We’re the ones that have the brunt of everything put on us. And how many other people are all around us, in our community, have little bits of time, little pockets of time, and would want to help?
That’s where the whole idea came from. I thought, “Hey, if we can just connect these people, that would be great.” So I asked myself, “Well, why don’t we try to build an app?” And I’m non-technical. So I had no idea what was involved in that. Then I began to realize, as I talked about this idea with more and more people, how many people needed it. Basically, everybody I talked to was like, “Oh, my God, I need that! I need someone to help me just get to these everyday things that are just too much.” So then I was like, this is something that can really be a business, and we can grow it. And that was the birth of it. We went ahead and built the app and it has kept growing from there.
GSIC: That’s great. Can you speak more about the decision to make it an app? Or the other possible ways my Panda could’ve come about?
Tamara: Yeah, sure. So we actually launched with a browser-based system because it was really simple to build. People would just log into the website, put in the request, and then the request would be there for us to view. We developed the app because we envisioned people being out and about and realizing, “Oh, my God, I left the laundry in the washing machine, I need someone to go by! And maybe, I’ll just have them take care of the dog, too.”
We wanted people to just go to their phones and put the request in. We saw it as a very simple way to use this tool. Most people carry their phones around them all the time. We wanted it easy for people to hire our Pandas, and Panda stands for “Personal Assistants Next Door App.” We envisioned people thinking, “Oh, I can go get a Panda” and getting one flowed seamlessly into the person’s life. That being said, right now, we are reworking our website. We’re rebranding and everything, and going to have a browser-based capability of putting in requests. We’re building that back in because there are people that might not want to download an app or sometimes getting the app is a barrier for them. We think it can help our marketing because if people can use our services just from the browser instead of downloading the app too, we think that will make a difference.
GSIC: That’s great. Can you speak about some of the favorite moments about doing this work?
Tamara: I’m passionate about helping people. I have a Master’s in social work, which I got from UGA back in the mid-90s. Helping the community and helping people drive me, and that’s what I see my Panda as. It’s helping the people that need help, and it’s also helping Pandas who want to have a flexible job. It’s rewarding work because they get to step in and help people. It isn’t just a gig, you know? I can’t think of an exact moment per se, but when I get emails or text messages from our users, like, “Oh my God, my PANDA just left, and my life has completely changed!” I love that feeling of completely changing someone’s day and, by doing that, changing their life.
Also, many women left the workplace during the pandemic, and it’s been a big issue. So many of our PANDAs are women. And having the job flexibility of making $20 an hour and the opportunity to work within the local community is pretty special. That’s the other unique thing about us – we’re hyperlocal. Our PANDAs only work a few miles from their homes and serve the same people within the local community. They get to support local independent businesses. We have many people who submit shopping requests for the DeKalb Farmers’ Market. So Instacart, for example, doesn’t go there. Some of our PANDAs are skilled and know their way around the market. They can go when the market isn’t too busy, which helps our users that work during the day and can only go during peak hours. It makes my day when I get those stories about how we completely affected somebody’s life.
GSIC: That’s really cool. It’s neighbors helping neighbors, and also helping the small businesses that may not show up on other food delivery apps.
Tamara: Exactly. And it’s also keeping the money in the local economy. It’s really important for us to support our local businesses and keep that money locally. When we do that, that money gets amplified so much more. It helps communities instead of going into huge corporations and helping the shareholders.
GSIC: That’s great. So then, on the other hand, what has been some of the more challenging experiences of running it?
Tamara: With running a startup, you’re building the plane while you’re flying it. I don’t have a business background – I have a social work and psychology background and experience in wine sales. So the learning curve was really steep, and then having the resources that you need. Being a first time founder and a female founder, getting access to funding is tough. It’s changing now, for underrepresented founders, though. There’s a lot more funds out there that are specifically targeting us and helping us but, bootstrapping is hard. And accessing cash has been very, very hard. It’s hard when this is your full-time job, and you’re not paying yourself, and you’ve got two kids to raise. So that has been really difficult – accessing resources.
We’re essentially a marketplace business. We’ve got a supply side and a demand side. Making sure that that’s balanced is tough, too. Making sure we have enough Pandas hired so that when requests come in, they’re getting picked up time on time. But then also, we get Pandas hired and don’t have enough jobs coming in, and they quickly lose interest, and they fall off. So as far as the style of business that we are, that is the biggest challenge we have with running the business.
GSIC: That makes a lot of sense because the PANDAS provide on-demand services, right?
Tamara: Yeah, they do. So a person can put in “on-off” requests, and they can be completed within an hour or two. But generally, we don’t get to them that quickly. So you can do same-day services, but we also have subscription services where a person gets partnered with Pandas, our Panda Partner program. So depending on the needs, we find the Panda whose schedule works with the client’s. Then that Panda becomes the “go-to.” Those people schedule the Pandas more regularly, which helps the Pandas have more consistent work. We’re hoping to move to a membership-based model soon to help with some of our scheduling challenges.
GSIC: Thank you for your transparency in talking about the challenges as you operate. So how did you build those connections in the first place and get customers using the platform?
Tamara: The startup and technology ecosystem here in Atlanta is robust. I’ve tapped into that ecosystem to help give me support. As a first-time founder, I really needed help building a strong foundation for the business. I also tapped into ATDC and Emory’s Goizueta Business School, which has the Start:Me program. I went through the City of Atlanta Women’s Entrepreneurship Initiative program, LaunchPad 2X, and right now I’m in TechStars Atlanta. Getting into all these programs helped my network to expand.
That was all hard because our app launched in September 2019, right before the pandemic. So, as I was building the business, everything was virtual, and getting to know people was difficult. But a lot of the foundation was laid during that time period, and now that people are getting back out and about, it’s been great to access that network again.
Pretty much all of our growth has been because of word of mouth, we’ve had very little marketing. That’s been great because my Panda is a very personalized, trust-based business. So if you hear about it from your friends, you’re much more likely to use it. Much of our growth has also been from Facebook groups, especially Mom and Neighborhood-based groups. I started it in my neighborhood and then moved to the neighborhoods around us. Facebook has been a huge way that our business has grown.
GSIC: Wow, that’s pretty cool. Using Facebook groups is really really smart. So what do you believe is my Panda’s superpower?
Tamara: Connecting with people and connecting people. My undergraduate degree was in psychology. And when I was going to college, I thought, “What am I gonna do? I thought I might as well get a degree in psychology because all I ever did was help people with their problems.” I might as well get paid for it, you know? (laughs) So, I definitely connect with people and establish relationships with people really well. my Panda is a connector for sure!
GSIC: That’s great. Well, thank you so much for your time! We wish my Panda all the best.
Tamara: Thanks for having me!
Find more information about my Panda here:
Donate Panda hours to New American Pathways to help with Afghan refugee resettlement: https://www.mypandaapp.com/napw
Download the myPanda app”
Royal Thanaka is a unique line of skin care products that features Thanaka, an ancient ingredient from the central forest in Myanmar. For over 2,000 years, it has been used by local people for skin protection and nourishment. GSIC caught up with co-founders Htwe Htwe and Mary Ellen Sheehan to learn more about their journey and how Royal Thanaka brings this treasure of nature to the world. Their products use sustainably sourced, high-quality ingredients and are carefully made in the U.S.
Royal Thanaka Founders, Mary Ellen Sheehan and Htwe Htwe
By: Kayla Jones, Social Impact Fellow
GSIC: How did you all meet each other? And how did the idea for starting Royal Thanaka come about?
Htwe: We worked at the International Community School together maybe more than 10 years ago.
Mary Ellen: Oh, yeah! You came in 2003 when Hain, her son, was six years old. That’s when I met both of you. If Htwe started working there in 2004, and I was working there at that time, then it’s about 18 years since we’ve known each other.
Htwe: So we’re like a family now.
Mary Ellen: So we met, and we were just friends at work. But there’s something about the International Community School (ICS) – all of us bonded. It was a true community. We first started a different business together, and I found the business plan for it recently. Our families bought an urban farm together. But it was hard. We were all working full time but still growing seeds and planting them on different plots to sell in the veggie market on market weekends. We just couldn’t keep doing it -it was too hard, so we stopped.
And after that, we stayed friends. I went to a farm-to-table cooking school in Ireland, and one day we were out on a boat, fishing for dinner. One of my classmates had been in the cosmetic industry in Hong Kong for 30 years. She was originally from Australia but met an Irish guy and lived in Ireland. She told me she was starting this line of skin care products based on Irish seaweed and planned to launch it in Ireland in May 2022. And I was like, “Wow, I didn’t know that regular person could do that,” because we’re teachers, and we’re not in that kind of industry. So I came back, and we were having dinner one night. I told Htwe and her husband, Mu about the woman. They said that in Burma, they had Thanaka, and it’s already used for skin care. I thought, “Why don’t we make a line of skincare products?”
We wanted quality control from the beginning. So Mu went to Burma, and he sourced tree farms. He got an expert to help, and they found the best Thanaka tree farm out there. They hand selected the trees, and they don’t cut the trees down, just the branches. He set up a system of harvesting the tree – you have to rinse off the wood, dry it, and grind it. Then we had to get permission from the USDA to import the ground wood. We had to get customs brokers, find a lab, find jars, get packaging, artists, a website, and social media.
Our first lab dragged their feet for a year and a half! We brought in some wood and asked, “Can you turn this into a product?” And they’re like, “Sure!” But we didn’t know what we were doing. They were a contract manufacturer and told us they would own the formula – not us. But we thought, “It’s our product!” And so they told us that if we paid them $50,000, they might let us have the formula. So we decided to find another lab, and our current lab is in North Carolina.
Htwe: Yes, our first year, we just wasted alot of money and time.
Mary Ellen: Yep, because we didn’t know what we didn’t know. So the new lab is the U.S. Botanical Safety Lab, which is really nice. It’s owned by the University and the arboretum, and they’re not for profit. It took us a year, though, to get a meeting with them, but now we’re in. And it’s a much, much, much better thing! They make the formula for us, and we pay them, but it’s nothing compared to the other lab. One of the chemists there did a job for us where he made the cream and manufactured it. The downstairs of the lab has a manufacturing facility called Blue Ridge Food Ventures. Besides food manufacturing, they also do cosmetics. That’s where he mixed all of the formulae and put the cream in jars that we got from Italy. And that’s how we got started. Step, by step, by step.
Htwe: We started in 2016. And our products came out on September 21, 2021, during the Covid pandemic.
Mary Ellen: Yep, it took us that long to launch! SharkTank heard about us, and they approached us before we launched and then again after we launched. So that was really affirming. They told us we virtually had a new ingredient. I mean, it’s 2000 years old in Southeast Asia, but in the United States, we’re the only ones besides Manda, a sunscreen company for surfers, that uses Thanaka in their products. SharkTank also said we have an amazing story. But we didn’t fit in with their theme this year, so that fell through. Anyway, Htwe do you want to share about how your mom used Thanaka when you were a kid?
Htwe: Yes, so when we were young, my mom held us on her lap. She would get a small piece of the Thanaka bark and grind it with a small amount of water on a stone slab. If you have a piece, then you could grind it and put it anywhere on your skin. You can put it on your face or hands – anywhere here, even use it like sunscreen. So my mom used to hold us and put the Thanaka on our faces, our bodies, and the last piece, she would put in our mouths. She said it was medicine (laughs).
One of the Thanaka trees can also be used for medicine. Some use it for body aches and even to help women heal after they have a baby. The one for your skin helps to make the skin feel smooth and cool. Thanaka has lots of vitamins, especially Vitamin E. There’s alot of natural benefits to it.
Mary Ellen: Yep! There are four kinds of Thanaka trees. So there’s this one for the skin and another medicinal one. Thanaka is related to sandalwood, so we can even make a fragrance.
Htwe: We haven’t done the fragrance because it is expensive to make, but Thanaka is really, really good to use.
GSIC: How interesting! So in the story on your website, it mentioned said that some of the Thanaka trees are in danger. Has that made doing business more difficult?
Htwe: We have enough for our products right now.
Mary Ellen: Oh yes, we do. We have about 400 pounds in our basement, which is enough to make 150,000 jars. The extra Thanaka goes a long way. What the story is describing, though, is what was happening before the war. There’s a war in Burma right now, and it started a year ago, in February 2021.
Before the war broke out, the Thanaka tree farmers started to cut down all the trees because other countries wanted them to grow other products that could be used as food emulsifiers. So, they were clear-cutting the Thanaka tree forest, the Ancient Ones, because they said, “This is old-fashioned people don’t use it anymore.” At the time, Revlon and other Western companies were moving into Burma. But then the war broke out in February 2021, and a military coup took out Aung San Suu Kyi and took over the country.
Then the people started painting their faces with Thanaka as a form of protest, and it became a symbol of freedom. The tree farmers stopped cutting it down because it became a symbol of pride in the culture. So anyway, if Burma shuts down and we can’t get any more trees, the trees also grow in Southern India and in Sri Lanka. We could get them from there as far as the supply, but we prefer these ones that are grown in Burma.
We’ve been giving some donations to help people during the war. Htwe, do you want to talk about some of the protests you’ve organized over the last few months?
Htwe: Yes, in 2021, the military took over in Burma. I still have my family and many relatives that live there, including my father, who has been sick for over a year. And I haven’t been able to see him. The government cut off electricity and water. So there are many people who are still struggling. And even if we send them money, they do not always receive the full amount because the post office there would take a cut.
Mary Ellen: Yeah, we were going to send an oxygen machine to her father. But people said it would get confiscated.
Htwe: So that’s why here in Atlanta, we’ve done some community organizing. We went to the other states, too, like New York, Washington D.C., and North Carolina. We tried to support to my country by community organizing and fundraising. People would donate money, and we’ll send it to Thailand and Burma and to other people who needed help.
GSIC: Well, thank you so much for sharing that. That’s admirable work. Can you speak about your products and what Royal Thanaka offers?
Mary Ellen: Yes, we have one product, our Ultra Rich Moisturizing Cream, in two sizes right now. It’s a face cream, but you could use it on your hair and hands as well. Our new packaging for the cream was designed by an artist who teaches graphic design at Eastern Connecticut State University. She is extremely talented. We didn’t know what we were doing (laughs). But we wanted the box to accentuate the word “Royal” because there are some ancient stories about Thanaka that goes back to Burmese kings and queens.
Our logo was designed by another artist from China at Eastern Connecticut State University also. It is the hintha bird, which is an ancient Burmese mythical bird. The bird is surrounded by a garland of Thanaka leaves.
We only have one product now, but our chemist recently made a facial bar soap cleanser. A facial cleanser has to have a different pH than a regular body bar of soap. So she made one with a certain pH. We’re still finetuning it because it is exfoliating, but the feedback we’ve gotten from our customers is that they’d like a bit more ‘sudsing’ action. And the bar of soap looks pretty plain. They mentioned that if people aren’t used to what Thanaka does, and they see the plain bar of soap for the first time, it may not be that exciting to them. So we’re still working on that. But once people use our things, they just love them.
The next thing our customers want is an eye cream. We have two chemists that both said an eye cream is not hard to make at this point. But the challenge now is finding the right containers. We don’t want to put any more plastic into the world because there’s more plastic in the ocean by weight than fish. So our current containers are recycled glass with a recycled plastic lid. We got these in Italy. We had to go there because in the U.S., if you do find glass, you have to order 20,000 at a time. We couldn’t do that financially, but in Italy, they don’t care how many you order. So for our large containers, we ordered 1000 from Italy. Then for the small ones, we have a frosted glass that we ordered from Italy as well.
GSIC: That’s great. What are you most proud of about your company so far?
Mary Ellen: Well, what comes to mind for me is I’m just really proud of the fact that we both came here from other places. So Mu and Htwe came to this country from Burma with hopes and dreams. And their children have done, really, really well. And my parents came from Ireland. They left the poverty of Ireland with the hopes and dreams of having a decent life in this country. So, I’m proud of a couple of things. We’re honoring our ancestors in continuing the hope and moving forward. I’m proud of the fact that we did this together from scratch. We’re still here, and people love our product.
We’d like to take it to the next level because my dream is to have a foundation where we can support people to live out their dreams. This year we’re giving a portion of each sale to the International Community School. We decided before we launched that we want to do something like that every year for a different organization. So next year, we want to create a scholarship fund for Burmese children to attend college. We’d like to give scholarships and open them up to the Asian community, especially women. We’re a women-owned business, and even though our husbands are involved, we have primary ownership. So as women, we want to support the efforts of other women. 80% of people working at the International Community School were Asian women. 80% of refugee families are women and children, and women are already 51% of the world population. We want to help – immigrants, women, young people with hopes and dreams, and older people with hopes and dreams. So that’s what I’m proud of. We’re still on that path. I can’t say we have a long way to go because you never know what will happen. But it’s been nice, with really nice surprises along the way.
Htwe: For me, I’m proud of who I am now, being here. Even though this is so hard for me, the language, you know, it’s not my language. I’m also proud to be bringing the Thanaka from my country here and spreading it throughout the world. It’s like being a bridge, and it’s our dream come true. That’s what we prayed for.
GSIC: That’s beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing, ladies. It was fantastic talking to you all!
Royal Thanaka products are available for purchase at www.royalthanaka.com.
