Following our certification as a B Corp in 2019, we committed to publishing an Artfinder annual impact report. Its purpose is to not only highlight the great work we do, but to hold us accountable in the years to come.
In 2021, amongst many other achievements, we:
Saw more artists than ever selling. Artfinder helped more artists than ever make a living in 2021, with 3,506 artists selling at least one artwork through the platform. 77% of artists saying Artfinder contributed to an increase in their income.
Have really happy customers. We increased our Trustpilot score to a best-in-market 4.9, while also improving our average customer response time by 26% year-on-year, to just under nine hours.
Planted over 150,000 trees. We planted at least one tree for every artwork sold in 2021 through our partner, Ecologi, hitting our in year target of 100,000.
Impressed? Read all about it here.
To celebrate the publishing of our third impact report, here's a word from our CEO, Michal:
Dear all,
Since our last impact report, unprecedented global events have continued to affect us all, on both a personal and business level. Who could have thought back in 2019 that we’d be living through a global pandemic and then to be faced with a heartbreaking war in Ukraine? It is unbelievable times.
The war in Ukraine has affected our community greatly, comprising of hundreds of artists in Ukraine and Russia. We took the difficult decision to pause our operations in Russia back in March and we continue to support Ukrainian artists by waiving subscription fees. We have also donated close to £6,000 to Sunflower of Peace, a small charity extending humanitarian aid on the ground in Ukraine, through our ‘Art for Peace’ collection. This was created in partnership with our artists, whose overwhelming desire to help humbled us as always.
This year has also seen us undertake a second crowdfunding round, increasing our community ownership to ~10% and allowing us to continue to expand our team to be able to do more for our community. We have planted a total of over 150,000 trees through Ecologi and became signatories of the Better Business Act coalition in the UK.
We also helped more artists than ever before to sell their art in 2021 and continued our work empowering female artists, who are still woefully underrepresented in the art world at large. We hit a milestone of 60% of all art on Artfinder being sold by women in 2021 (up from 58% in 2020).
We have much to do this year, including recertifying as a B Corp, hopefully greatly improving our score, really getting our teeth stuck into the huge project of measuring our emissions and continuing to navigate the choppy seas of difficult global conditions for everyone.
As I sit here, the CEO of a fully distributed B Corp, I know one thing for sure. And that’s the strength and love of our team shines on, despite our geographical distance and the challenges of the past years. I am truly blessed to work for team Artfinder and together we are achieving incredible things.
All the best,
Michal CEO of Artfinder
