Simply the Basics · Reverence Fund Partner, November 2026
The Reverence Fund · November 2026
Every person deserves their most basic needs met, with dignity.
Simply the Basics is a nationwide nonprofit working to make hygiene more equitable, accessible, and dignified for people in need. Hygiene and public health are intimately interwoven, and poor hygiene is an inevitable result of homelessness and poverty. When people don't have access to necessary and quality hygiene products, the consequences range from reduced self-esteem to serious disease. We help people feel healthier, and able to focus on their larger goals.
Simply the Basics puts hygiene kits directly into the hands of the people who need them.
What your gift does
100% of these gifts go toward program expenses.
Who they are
Hygiene insecurity affects physical health and mental health, and the capacity for millions of people to succeed at school, work, or within their relationships. Two in five people have struggled to purchase something as simple and necessary as menstrual care at some point in their life. This is a public health crisis, and Simply the Basics is working to meet it.
Simply the Basics is inspired by Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs: the idea that people are unable to focus on anything higher until their basic needs are met. If a person cannot meet their needs at the most basic level — food, shelter, clothing, and hygiene — they cannot move up toward greater goals. The most basic human needs are to feel safe and healthy.
Many people suffer from preventable health conditions that regular access to hygiene would avoid. This isn't confined to the streets. People experiencing poverty often forgo basic needs to make ends meet. One in five children experience bullying and miss school because they lack hygiene care, and thousands of people are displaced from their homes by natural disaster every year with nothing but the clothing they're wearing. Simply the Basics provides hygiene to those who would otherwise struggle to access it, through a growing network of receiving sites, schools, and disaster response partners. They believe hygiene should be accessible and equitable, full stop.
Meghan Freebeck founded Simply the Basics while working at a suicide prevention center, recognizing that many people in crisis also lacked access to basic human needs.
Scale, when it's needed: 100,000 face masks delivered to communities during the pandemic.
What they're building this year
Closing the waiting list of schools
A growing list of low-income schools is waiting to become receiving sites. The only barrier is funding — when funds are available, Simply the Basics adds a new school.
$1,000 per school · Not yet funded
A larger storage space
Moving into a bigger facility would let volunteer groups pack and sort kits on site, increasing how quickly donated supplies reach people who need them.
Target: $24,000 · Not yet funded
A Community Coordinator
Hiring dedicated staff to manage the growing network of receiving sites, schools, and disaster response partners as the organization scales.
Target: $65,000 · Not yet funded
In-house branded products
Developing their own hygiene product line would lower per-kit costs and let Simply the Basics stretch every donated dollar further.
Not yet funded
Community donation drives like this one keep hygiene products moving toward the people who need them.
Give this month
Through November, a portion of every Rosebud Woman purchase goes to Simply the Basics, and contributions added at checkout pass through in full. You can also give to them directly — that link goes straight to Simply the Basics, not to us.
Follow their work · @simplythebasics Facebook LinkedIn
Simply the Basics is a 501(c)(3) organization (EIN 81-1369151), founded in 2016 and based in San Francisco, operating nationally through its receiving-site network. Simply the Basics does not endorse Rosebud Woman products or formulations, and nothing here should be read as a product, medical, or clinical claim. Information on this page is educational and is not individualized medical advice. Questions about the Reverence Fund: geneva@rosewoman.com. More about the fund and its partners at the Reverence Fund.