About Us

The Hope Collection by INTO is a fair trade, non-profit store offering beautifully handcrafted global goods from 18 countries and counting! The Hope Collection is sponsored by INTO, a fair-trade organization that directly partners with eight family workshops throughout Ecuador.  INTO was co- founded by Francesca Barbee and Malisha Richardson in 2003 when both women were graduating from Oberlin College.  Since 2008, Francesca has directed the organization with the support and wisdom of her husband, Marco Barbee (OC ’04).  The Barbees moved to Ecuador in 2017 with their children to build deeper relationships with INTO’s partner artisans.  During this time, they were able to expand from two family workshops to eight, with locations throughout the country.  The Hope Collection offers the products of these artisans as well as products from colleagues who work around the work, partnering with master crafts people through fairly trading their goods.