51 www. ReadMPM. com | www.MountPl easantMagaz i ne. com | www. ShemCreekRes taurant s . com When Inc.com named Mount Pleasant-based Print Your Cause as the fastest-growing business in South Carolina in 2023, co-founder Jayson Tompkins was honored, but he wasn’t surprised. After all, a business that’s grown 1,583% over the last two years alone is sure to attract some attention, both local and national. And when you add in a mission to serve schools and nonprofits across the country, you have a winning formula for stunning growth and success, especially when you consider Print Your Cause’s humble beginnings. “If I had a superpower, it would be the ability to create great teams,” Tompkins said. It’s a skill Tompkins has honed since his days leading group projects in Clemson’s Computer Science program. Tompkins began his career working for Blackbaud, maker of the gold-standard in software created for nonprofits and knew from day one he was surrounded by brilliant software engineers. “I’m an okay engineer,” he added. “But I knew who was really, really good.” When Tompkins had an idea for a small business that would fill a large gap in the nonprofit industry, he set to work on making his vision a reality. Tompkins recruited colleagues Jon Bell and Adam Hickey to his team and explained his idea: nonprofits wanted to sell custom-printed merchandise but couldn’t afford a big up-front investment and lacked space to store inventory. He knew there was a better way and together they could build it. Tompkins and his team began writing a brand-new platform for an e-commerce and order management system, tying it in with Tompkins’ wife’s screen-printing home business. In 2018, their first year of business, they managed $30,000 in revenues from the Tompkins’ dining room, while Tompkins and his 3-year-old daughter delivered orders to local clients to save on shipping costs. By 2022, the organization reported over $6 million in revenue. How did they achieve such tremendous success so quickly? Tompkins is quick to credit his team, as well as early support from the founders’ former employer. Print Whose Cause? Your Cause! Thriving print company fills gap in nonprofit industry BY LEAH RHYNE our town Jayson Tompkins, co-founder of Print Your Cause.
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