Imagine a place where Consumers design, Artisans thrive, Not-For-Profits benefit and World Class Gifts result. This is such a place. Americraft is a novel fund raising approach based on member driven purchases of custom crafted gifts. At our core we are about empowering intrapersonal communication through deliberate, thoughtful gifting.

I’m Bob Cabral and this site is the realization of a life’s dream. I’ve been a free lance product developer and sourcing agent for the mail order catalog industry since 1978. Several years ago I envisioned the Americrafter and the “virtual gift shop” model and set out to make it happen. I developed products, designed layouts, sourced merchandise, did photography, wrote copy, did graphics, did endless data entry and generally worried this site into existence. I would like to thank Gary Devore for his brilliant web design work and other worldly patience and also my wife Deirdre who valiantly endured these 2 ½ years of effort.

This BETA Site is helping us tweak and improve the concept and various applications. The front door to this grand endeavor lives behind “Visit our Gift Shop” invitations on the homepages of select Not-For-Profit-Organizations. Clicking these button brings up what I believe to be the most sophisticated giftware product developer in the world. We call it the “Americrafter”. It bears the logo of the sponsoring organization and provides a platform allowing members to commission very specific works from a wide range of American Artisans. It also acts as a link to this site www.americraft.us completing the “Virtual Gift Shop” experience.

All sales result in 20% of retail going directly to the sponsoring organizations. There are no fees to the organization, just monthly income. Not-For-Profits who lack the resources to create a gift shop or catalog now may have a turn-key “Museum Quality Gift Shop” of their very own.

Hopefully the instructional video on the Americrafter and the flash header on this website will bring new visitors up to speed on our mission and methods. We want Americraft to be available to a wide audience and have tried our best to keep it as simple and engaging as possible.

I look forward to your feedback. This is a grand experiment and I’m sure will look very different in years to come. I apologize in advance for anything that is less than perfect at this stage. But know that I am committed to making your experience “Americrafting” gifts fun, rewarding and most of all addictive!

Sincerely,

Bob Cabral, Jr. President, The Gift Brokers, Inc.