Our story

Like many other stories, our story started once upon a time. From his childhood, our founder, Ralph Schwaninger, cared about the less fortunate and poor. Years later, as an adult, he found himself in a small south London church, which engaged in fund-raising and bringing awareness to the issues surrounding human trafficking. The grim and sad reality of modern day slavery, that people are being exploited still today, left an indelible mark on him.

Coincidentally, or perhaps more providentially, Ralph found his career tracking toward becoming a software engineer. This led him to various software engineering jobs with start-up companies in London and Zurich. After losing his job in 2021, Ralph began to think more seriously about creating a fair trade, online marketplace.

Essentially, faircollective is the coming together of heart and mind to address issues of exploitation of human labor by making fair.shopping.simple.

In 2022, the name and initial brand of faircollective was born. A special acknowledgment and thank you to Julia Albers who was a vital part in the creation and choosing of our name and brand. Thank you for your contribution to faircollective as an acting co-founder in the first 6 months of our formation.

In 2023, Sarah Link joined faircollective as co-founder. Her background in business and marketing compliments Ralph’s technical skills.

2023 is the year that faircollective is no longer a concept and we are launching our online, fair trade marketplace!

Join us in making the world of consumerism a more fair and sustainable place for everyone!