Stylish social activists ranging from former U.S. first ladies Michelle Obama and Laura Bush to Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, along with musicians Lady Gaga and Rihanna, have all purchased, worn or gifted New York designer Joan Hornig’s philanthropic jewels, which empower purchasers to customize their charitable giving. Hornig's philanthropic jewelry project works like this: First, you purchase a piece from her Pavé the Way ® collection, or one of her other ranges. Then, Hornig deducts material and labor costs from the piece’s purchase price. Third, you choose your favorite charity, to which Hornig then directs all profits from the piece you just bought. Fourth: Congratulations, you have just made the world a better place-- and your new adornment makes you look fabulous, all while supporting a worthy cause.
Along with enduring beauty and fine artisanship, Hornig’s jewelry offers multi-faceted opportunities for those who wear, give or admire it to spread the word about how they, too, can support non-profit organizations in their communities or abroad. Since 2003, Hornig has directed more than US$1,000,000 of profits from jewelry sales to over 900 different registered 501c3 organizations. What’s more, Hornig has volunteered her time and talents to design limited edition pieces for many organizations, including the American Heart Association, UNICEF, HELP USA, the ASPCA and The Girl Scouts of America.
While Hornig designs every single piece she makes, (with assistance from artisans who use computer programs), she maintains quality control by visiting her artisans in New York’s jewelry district on a regular basis. Committed to making philanthropic giving widely accessible, easy and pleasurable, Hornig’s prices range from a $95.00 sterling silver and black diamond lock and key charm bracelet all the way up to elaborate 18-karat gold and gemstone designs in the five figures. As a proponent of sustainably sourced materials and ethical manufacturing, Hornig contracts skilled artisans to fabricate her ranges, and requests documentation certifying gemstone origins before purchasing. “The diamonds in the Pavé the Way ® collection are all ethically sourced,” she notes.
The original concept for her philanthropic model, Hornig explains, "was to give people who purchase the jewelry the opportunity to showcase their personal style while generating financial support for the causes they care about most. I want people of all ages and income levels to get in the habit of charitable giving,” she continues, “so I create jewels over a wide range of price points. I want more people to understand that philanthropic donations can be made with a jewelry purchase under one hundred dollars. With my jewelry,” she maintains, “You can do good, help others and adorn yourself in style, without being a millionaire!”
Hornig’s pavé diamond-embellished sterling silver and 23-karat gold Pavé the Way ® range is designed and priced under $400.00. Intent on raising awareness of urgent environmental issues among those aged 18 to 80, Hornig also creates elegant, topical non-diamond designs like the “Plastic Straws Suck” necklace. This miniature sterling silver drinking straw set on a sterling chain embodies an eco-warrior, post-punk vibe that inspires purchasers to donate their purchases to environmental non-profits.
According to Dr. Joyce F. Brown, president, Fashion Institute of Technology , a college of the State University of New York, “Joan's jewelry is without question both creative and beautiful--- work that any woman or man would appreciate. But what is special about it, and about Joan, is that she uses it as a vehicle for social change, as an instrument to help others. In my view, this places her at the center of those artisans and others whose philanthropy has a direct and immediate societal benefit.”
While Hornig, a self-professed “lifelong jewelry lover,” earned a magna cum laude degree in Fine Arts from Harvard University, she began her career as a professional fundraiser for Harvard and later received an M.B.A. degree from Columbia Business School. She then worked on Wall Street for 19 years in various executive banking positions, including a stint as chief administrative officer of Mitchell Hutchins, the asset management division of Paine Webber, which is now known as UBS Hornig also worked as a private equity and hedge fund consultant. Throughout her finance career, Hornig bought gemstones, with which she designed and made her own jewelry.
In the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Hornig experienced an artisanal-entrepreneurial epiphany. “I decided to form a jewelry company and a mission that together, could turn my jewelry designs into vehicles for charitable donations,” she recalls. Soon she began designing her first jewelry collection. “Our bedroom floor served as my studio, which drove my husband crazy because for months, he had to avoid stepping on all the colored stone, lapis lazuli, diamond and other designs I was working on,” she says with a laugh.
In 2003, Hornig launched Joan Hornig Jewelry / Philanthropy is Beautiful ®. After the posh New York retailer Bergdorf Goodman gave her creations prime real estate in its first floor jewelry salon, Hornig’s pieces started selling steadily. Today, Hornig regularly presents trunk shows and pop-up shopping events in the New York metropolitan area. In April, 2019, Hornig starts a nationwide trunk show tour. “I’ll be going to cities in the Midwest and Southwest, as well as to Los Angeles and cities in Orange County, California,” she reports. (For trunk show dates and locations, go to the website Pavé the Way and follow the brand on Instagram @pavethewayjewelry.com )
Michele Cohen, Chair of the Board of Trustees at New York’s Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) has this to say about Hornig's contributions to jewelry history. “No jewelry designer has ever created luxurious collections that generate philanthropic giving on the scale that Joan Hornig has. While Hornig’s jewels are elegant designs,” Cohen asserts, “they are also precedent-setting in the narratives of applied arts in general, and jewelry history in particular." Hornig’s jewels have been exhibited in New York and Paris by The National Jewelry Institute which preserves, researches, and exhibits fine jewelry from all over the world. In 2016, Hornig received the Women's Entrepreneurship Day Pioneer Award at the United Nations in recognition of her pioneering social enterprise model that unites ethical jewelry with customized charitable giving.
In Cohen's view, "Hornig's Philanthropy is Beautiful® , Pavé the Way®, Tools for Giving® and Food for Thought® collections redefine the cultural concept of adornment, as well as the purpose behind wearing luxury jewelry,” Cohen says. “By empowering people to become philanthropists every time they buy, wear or give one of her creations as a gift, Joan Hornig expands and enriches the cultural value of jewelry.” As it happens, “Philanthropy is Beautiful® is the best-selling line in the MAD museum store,” Cohen reports. “Because many people shop there without exploring all the collections upstairs, some customers may not realize that the Museum is in fact a non-profit. Sales of Joan Hornig’s jewelry are a welcome addition to our bottom line.”
While Philanthropy is Beautiful® is Hornig’s most luxuriously styled and upmarket line, she also produces lower-priced, equally stylish ranges like Tools for Giving ®. This gender-fluid collection includes pendants and necklaces featuring miniature sterling silver, vermeil or brass tools, suspended from sterling ball chains or waxed cotton cords. In 2018, Hornig designed ‘Talkin’ Tools’, a nine-piece collection of 23-karat gold vermeil and ethically sourced diamond necklaces inspired by her Pavé the Way ® range, for the female-owned, gender equality consultancy The Female Quotient Founded by marketing executive, gender equality expert and Forbes contributor Shelley Zalis ,"The Female Quotient advances equality in the workplace by promoting collaboration, creating solutions for change that can help women rise to leadership roles, and by creating measurements for accountability,” Hornig explains.
Zalis, the CEO of The Female Quotient, says, “We help businesses achieve return-on-equality through bespoke boot camps, machine learning and data analytics, and we also do tailored research.” Priced at $295.00 each, ‘talkin’ tools’ jewels are part of the “Confidence Collection,” which is available on The Female Quotient website. According to Zalis, the jewels are also purchased “by women in entry level positions all the way up to corporate board member level at The Female Quotient’s FQ Lounge events.” (After FQ Lounge attendees download an App on their smart phones, photographing the nine ‘talkin tools’ unlocks The Female Quotient’s evidence-based insights and professional advice.) The interactive pop-up events bring women together at business conferences, corporations and college campuses to learn how to support one another as they advance in their careers and strive to obtain leadership positions. True to its mission, The Female Quotient donates ‘talkin tools’ profits to organizations that help women and girls cultivate leadership and economic independence, such as Dress for Success and the Girl Scouts of America
According to Hornig, “Along with trunk shows and collaborations such as the one we are doing with The Female Quotient, we are also building our following via online engagement. We want to know what people care about so that we can respond to pressing issues that are identified by our customers. While we are grateful for Instagram influencers who can keep the giving going, we are always looking to widen our network of philanthropic jewelry lovers.” Toward that end, people can sign up for Jewelry Ambassadorship by completing and submitting the form online at Pavé the Way ® Upon approval, a representative contacts the Ambassador via email with their personalized code, which their friends can use to receive a 10% discount on purchases though the Pavé the Way ® website. “Ambassadors also receive 10% of the purchase price from us in the form of a check, or as a donation to the charity of their choice in their honor, whichever they prefer.” Hornig emphasizes, “We ask that when you post, please let us know by tagging / mentioning @PaveTheWayJewelry and @JoanHornig so that we can repost, retweet and share the mission of giving back.”
“My dream,” Hornig says, “is for my jewels to inspire all kinds of people, but especially young ones, to start giving at their level on a regular basis so that they continually make a positive difference in the world.” ABC network news correspondent Deborah Roberts, who has purchased several pairs of earrings from Hornig over the years, believes the designer has made that dream a reality. “The fact that Joan Hornig directs all profits from her jewelry to the charity of the purchaser’s choice is remarkable," Roberts says. "She’s fulfilling her creative spirit while doing good, and helping inspire others to do good, as well.”
