Summer 2018
Products with Purpose By Sam Ujvary

Love Your Melon
Zachary Quinn, President
www.loveyourmelon.com

Company mission: Love Your Melon is an apparel brand dedicated to giving a hat to every child battling cancer as well as supporting nonprofit organizations who lead the fight against pediatric cancer.  

How do your products serve the mission? Fifty percent of profit from the sale of all Love Your Melon products is given to Love Your Melon’s nonprofit partners in the fight against pediatric cancer. To date, Love Your Melon has given more than 145,000 beanies to children battling cancer and contributed over $4.6 million to fund cancer research initiatives.
Plans for the future: Love Your Melon’s top three goals for the coming years are to grow internationally, expand our wholesale and custom programs and sustain growth in ecommerce. We will execute these goals through creative social media advertising and expanding our sales team.
How can retailers get involved? Our Wholesale Program allows retailers to order Love Your Melon products and offer them in-store. Many retailers have found that Love Your Melon products are extremely popular in their stores and their customers love purchasing products that give back.

Now Designs

Gillian McCullough, Marketing Supervisor

www.nowdesigns.net

Company mission: At Now Designs, we strive to provide products that give back to communities and employ environmentally conscious manufacturing processes and materials.

How do your products serve the mission? A percentage of our profits goes to Education Without Borders (EWB), a nonprofit foundation that provides educational opportunities for children in disadvantaged regions in the world, particularly South Africa. Our donations help in building physical facilities, like classrooms, as well as providing math and English after-school programs.

Our crochet and knit products are handmade by groups of women in and around Narsapur, a small town on the east coast of India in the state of Andhra Pradesh. This craftwork provides women with an opportunity to earn an income in a safe environment in an industry that employs more than 100,000 women in the Narsapur region.

Plans for the future: We continue to explore new sustainable materials and processes to offer our customers. We’re expanding our knit and crochet product lines, which will provide work for more women in Narsapur. Education Without Borders will continue to be a very important foundation to us, as we find new ways to share this story further. One of our board of directors visits the Fezeka School in South Africa on a regular basis to see the progress made by EWB.

How can retailers get involved? Retailers play an important role in that every purchase they make, a percentage of that is donated to Education Without Borders. By purchasing more handmade products, retailers are supporting women in India to earn their own income. We also have “shelf talkers” that our retailers can print for their stores, which tell the story of EWB, our handmade products and other sustainable-minded products. This helps consumers make mindful and informed decisions about the products they are purchasing.

Mud Pie

Ellen Fruchtman, Director Public Relations

www.mudpie.com

Company mission: Mud Pie is a lifestyle brand that creates delightful gifts to inspire life’s sparkling moments. Our aim is to add laughter, inspiration and joy to every day celebrations.

How our products serve the mission: Mud Pie believes every day is a gift and our partnership with both the March of Dimes and the American Cancer Society aims to make every day a celebration. When a retailer purchases Mud Pie socks and kids’ headbands, Mud Pie donates 10 cents to the March of Dimes. Pazitive Thoughts is a collection of encouraging, inspiration and motivational gifts for those going through hard times. Proceeds from Mud Pie’s Pazitive Thoughts collection will help to increase awareness of the American Cancer Society’s Tender Loving Care (TLC) program and fund coupons to help underserved cancer patients purchase wigs.

Plants for the future: By the end of 2018, Mud Pie will have donated $800,000 to the March of Dimes and through the American Cancer Society wig program we have provided more than 1,600 wigs for cancer patients.

Retailers get involved: Retailers can purchase kids socks and headbands that benefit the March of Dimes as well as purchase our Pazitive Thoughts collection that benefits the American Cancer Society.

Mangiacotti

Michele Mangiacotti, President/Creative Director

www.mangiacotti.com

Company mission: I am so proud to tell you that our products are made in America and finished by citizens with disabilities.

My company is very aware the products we make today will affect our planet and future generations. Because of this awareness, we’ve focused our energy and resources on “greening” the Mangiacotti Collection. It is of the utmost importance for us to meet the growing demand of products that use recyclable materials, vegetable-based inks and formulas that are kind to Mother Earth. They are made with essential oils and plant-derived ingredients and never tested on animals.

How do your products serve the mission? Every purchase of Mangiacotti gives jobs and life-skills training to people with special needs. We work with an organization named PRIDE, which helps people with disabilities gain confidence and the skills they need for a path towards independence.

Plans for the future: Good is contagious. I believe that people, communities and companies can be the agents of change. The little things we do can collectively start a movement to resist negativity and say yes to good.

Clementine Travel hand-lip by Mangiacotti.

The See the Good project is about recognizing the good in people in hopes their acts of kindness will inspire others to do the same. We are creating a community of likeminded organizations and people who can help spread the news of each other’s projects through social conversations.

How can retailers get involved? We support our retailers’ charitable efforts and events by supplying free t-shirts, pins and signage to encourage more and more people to begin to See the Good and share the good on social media (#seethegoodproject).

Alora Boutique

Jameela Ghann, Co-Founder and Designer

www.alora.ca

Alora Boutique

Company mission: Alora will add beauty and meaning to the lives of women by offering handmade jewelry that reminds them of their values while empowering them to contribute to their communities.

How do your products serve the mission? Every piece of jewelry we create has a meaning. We share that meaning with our customers so that they may live with intention while wearing our jewelry. Not only that, but we strive to use recycled materials where we can and we donate a percentage of profits to women-focused charities.

Alora Boutique

We donate a percentage of profits to charity for our core collection. Four times a year we come out with a collection that represents the charity we are working with that quarter and $10 from the sale of each piece is donated to the charity.

We run free jewelry-making workshops for women who use charities like the YWCA and the Mustard Seed. They do excellent work in poverty reduction in Calgary and help people gain the skills they need to be self-sufficient.

Finally, we support Women in Need Society during International Women’s Day. They also do good work with helping women get back on their feet in Calgary.

Plans for the future: Our plans for the future are to build a tribe of women who live with intention and are inspired to give back whenever they can. Our future plans include tracking our community impact by sharing our customer’s good deeds in the community on our revamped website and Instagram page.

How can retailers get involved? Retailers can purchase Alora jewelry for their stores by contacting us through our website. Any retailer looking to have excellent margins and a positive impact through their purchase is a perfect for Alora Jewelry.

Sam Ujvary

Sam is the managing editor of Gift Shop Pets, Museums & More and Party & Halloween Retailer, and is a contributing editor for Gift Shop Magazine. She has a copywriting background and has been in publishing for six years.




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