Fall 2020

Simply Southern By Debbie Eisele

Simply Southern is a maker with a mission to give-back to a variety of causes. In a recent interview with Jourdain Foster, sales manager for Simply Southern, this is what Gift Shop discovered.

What is your mission?

To create quality, affordable products that make people smile and to always help those in need.

How do your products serve the mission?

We could all use a little more joy in our lives and our bright, colorful, and whimsical designs with motivational and inspiring messages that uplift the spirit helps to serve our mission.

Simply Southern is a proud sponsor of ChildFund International, Turtle Conservation Foundations and the American Red Cross. With our dedicated and loyal customers, we have donated over $2.5 million in cash and merchandise to these various organizations. Most recently, Simply Southern has donated 10,000 KN-95 masks to local hospitals in support of COVID-19 relief efforts.

We also have products that are designed and sold with the sole purpose of giving back. We recently designed a Love One Another t-shirt where all the profits were donated to My Brother’s Keeper and other organizations in the fight for racial equality. In addition, our Save The Turtle line of t-shirts are centered around preppy turtle designs. 10% of those profits are given to various turtle foundations that help protect and nurture sea turtles.

What are the plans for the future?

As Simply Southern continues to grow, we want to also grow our charitable work. Each year we have been able to expand our support for various causes and as our customers and our community are impacted by current events we intend to stay involved and do our part to make a difference through various initiatives that will benefit our customers and the wider community.

How can retailers get involved?

We have been blessed to have the support of so many great retail partners. In many of our initiatives we have had retailers who have stepped up and matched our contributions to various causes. We have also partnered with retailers through corporate events in support of Turtle Conservation, like the Bald Head Island Conservancy.

For more information, visit www.simplysouthern.com.

Debbie Eisele

Debbie Eisele is the former managing editor for Gift Shop Plus, Stationery Trends and a variety of special issue publications, including: The Guide, Holiday Shop, Celebrations & Occasions and Waterfront Living.