The Charleston Marketing Podcast
Welcome to The Charleston Marketing Podcast, the podcast that dives deep into the world of marketing, with a specific focus on the vibrant city of Charleston. Join us as we explore the strategies, trends, and success stories that shape the marketing landscape in this historic and captivating coastal city.
Each episode of The Charleston Marketing Podcast brings you exclusive interviews with local marketing experts, industry thought leaders and Charleston entrepreneurs who have harnessed the power of effective marketing in the Lowcountry and beyond. From strategic communication, social media, PR, digital strategy and everything in between, we uncover valuable insights and actionable tips for our listeners.
The Charleston Marketing Podcast
DJ Hampton: Transforming Community Through United Way
What happens when a lifelong passion for philanthropy meets a serendipitous career path? Join us on the Charleston Marketing Podcast as we welcome DJ Hampton, who takes us on his remarkable journey from upstate New York to the heart of Charleston. DJ, the President and CEO of Trident United Way shares how his hard-working upbringing and family values shaped his commitment to nonprofit leadership. Through engaging personal stories, including meeting his wife at United Way and their uniquely themed wedding, DJ offers an inspiring glimpse into his life and the unwavering dedication that drives his impactful work.
Listen as DJ recounts his transformative roles at renowned organizations like the ALS Association and March of Dimes, detailing the evolution of these nonprofits from their initial missions to tackling contemporary societal issues. Discover the power of authentic engagement and volunteer mobilization that DJ has harnessed throughout his career. We'll explore DJ’s transition to Charleston, a city that resonates with his values and supports his vision for community-driven change. Learn about Charleston's vibrant ecosystem of change-makers and how DJ's unexpected career path led him to this dynamic role.
United Way has been a beacon of support for struggling families for over 80 years, and in this episode, DJ dives into its evolving impact. From targeted investments like Changemaker Grants addressing the housing crisis to collaborative initiatives aimed at stabilizing families, DJ sheds light on the organization's adaptive strategies. We'll discuss the critical role of partnerships among nonprofits, businesses, and government in tackling pressing issues like high eviction rates and rising living costs. With an optimistic outlook on community collaboration, this episode is a celebration of the potential for meaningful change through united efforts.
Presenting Sponsor: Charleston Radio Group
Title Sponsor: Charleston American Marketing Association
Cohosts: Stephanie Barrow, Mike Compton, Darius Kelly, Kim Russo
Produced and edited: rūmbo Advertising
Photographer: Kelli Morse
Art Director: Taylor Ion
Outreach: Lauren Ellis
CAMA President: Margaret Stypa
Score by: The Strawberry Entrée; Jerry Feels Good, CURRYSAUCE, DBLCRWN, DJ DollaMenu
Voiceover by: Ellison Karesh
Studio Engineer: Brian Cleary
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Welcome to the Charleston Marketing Podcast, powered by the Charleston American Marketing Association and broadcasting from our home base at Charleston Radio Group. Thanks to CRG, we're able to talk to the movers and shakers of Charleston, from economy to art, from hospitality to tech and everything in between. These leaders have made a home here in the Lowcountry. They live here, they work here, they make change here. Why? Let's talk about it?
Speaker 2:Hello and welcome to the Charleston Marketing Podcast powered by the Charleston American Marketing Association. We're recording here at the Charleston Radio Group Studios. Big supporters of Kama Got to give a shout out to Charleston's favorite DJ. Dj Jerry feels good with the beats at the beginning. Thanks to all of our supporters. Mike Compton here, president of Roombow Advertising GoRoombowcom, and your director of membership experience oh wait, I am now incoming president at this time. This is season two.
Speaker 2:Yeah, super geeked about season two. Didn't think we'd be here so quickly. It's been such a fun year.
Speaker 3:Time flies when you're having fun.
Speaker 2:And this is a new voice. You hear Kelly Morse Kelly, introduce yourself, will you?
Speaker 3:Hello, I'm Kelly Morse. You usually see me behind the camera, but today I get to be in front of the camera and I'm the Director of Digital Communications at Trident United Way and a part of the Charleston American Marketing Association. So we have with us here today David DJ Hampton. He is the president and CEO of Trident United Way. Dj joined Trident United Way in April of 2023. We'll share a little bit of his bio here. Dj, I hope you don't mind me talking about you Just going to make me blush.
Speaker 3:DJ has held critical leadership roles at some of the largest nonprofits in the US, including over two decades with the United Way Network, having personally developed over $50 million in planned gifts, led teams supporting over $1.2 billion in annual individual giving and helped launch over $1 billion in initiatives and endowment campaigns. After United Way, dj led development for the ALS Association and worked to increase system-wide revenue 40% over three years. Following the Ice Bucket Challenge we all heard about that.
Speaker 3:He also served as the Senior Vice President of Market Leadership and Chief Development Officer for March of Dimes, where he drove transformation through $130 million in annual revenue and led over 300 staff. Most recently, dj founded and led Allo Day Consulting, where he advised and supported a variety of nonprofits globally. Dj earned a master's in nonprofit management from Alfred University, a JD from the David A Clark School of Law, and is a member of the DC Bar. Gonna keep going here. Dj met his wife, allison while both were working at a United Way in Birmingham, alabama.
Speaker 2:Beautiful city.
Speaker 3:They share passion for philanthropy and extensive United Way experience. In fact, they consider themselves a United Way family and often say that the United Way tagline, Live United, was the unofficial theme at their wedding. As their nuptials made the slogan a reality, DJ, his wife and their two so fun and so cute daughters relocated to the Tri-County area from Virginia. Look for him around town riding his Vespa or hosting movie night with his kids.
Speaker 2:Nice, thank you.
Speaker 3:Did we cover it all?
Speaker 1:DJ Welcome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, welcome to the conversation.
Speaker 4:Pleasure to be here.
Speaker 2:Thank you for having us, mike. Um, oh my gosh, so talk about the wedding now. Wait a second. What did you guys live? You unite like what live united was a part of your wedding theme. We met I read, yeah, we met at united way in central alabama.
Speaker 4:She was working in the non-profit community, I was too. We worked at same United Way. It's one of those classic you have similar interests and passions and there's a spark and, next thing you know, we were engaged in making that a reality. And by the time I moved up to United Way worldwide, she moved up with me and we got married in New Orleans and almost the entire wedding was made up of people who had a United Way connection, and so it was a lot of fun.
Speaker 2:It sounds like you just got a family of heroes that you're just generating over there, like people that just want to help the community, like that's just going to be your kids.
Speaker 4:Don't have a choice, I hope so we're trying to just do what everyone does raise them so that they care about their neighbors and that they're going to be there and be kind to all and be treated as they need to, and so, if that's what it ends up being, we'll be very proud, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 2:Talk about where you're from. Real quick, dj. How did you become such a great person? So far? We just met, but I want to hang out more.
Speaker 4:Originally from upstate New York, about two hours north of Syracuse, new York Heard of where, like St Lawrence, university, is right in that area. The town I was in was created in the late 1800s by a guy named Governor Morris who signed the Declaration of Independence as a industry town, and so I grew up there, graduated with around 100 people in my class very small school and was one of the first in my family to go to college, and it was really important to my family that we had opportunities that they just did not. What?
Speaker 2:did your parents do.
Speaker 4:My dad owned a car dealership and my mom really worked to raise us most of the time, but also worked in the car dealership I'm sure Hustlers it was my dad dropped out of his first year of community college and was just one of the hardest workers, one of the most intelligent, just caring people I'd ever met, and so it was really, really blessed to have such incredible parents. That's amazing.
Speaker 2:Thank you. That's amazing. So where did all this come from? From your end, Like? You became this big person here in Charleston with the United Way and you've been doing it for years. Do you think they had a part of that? Did you have friends? Did you go to church? What sparked this interest to want to throw? Yourself into the community, no matter where you are.
Speaker 4:Honestly, it was my parents. They wanted us to have opportunities. They didn't, and we were lucky enough to. Most of our trips were get in a car and drive to Myrtle Beach or something and enjoy the time. But my dad wanted to do one last hurrah before we graduated high school and went off to college and we went on a cruise around the Caribbean, which was the first time we'd ever done really anything international, and one of the stops on the cruise was Caracas, Venezuela, and we got off the cruise ship.
Speaker 4:And I don't know if you've ever been to Caracas, but you get off on this cruise ship and there's this tunnel that goes right through the mountain and on this side of the mountain they dump the trash from the city and human beings are actually living in the trash and building their homes and you see this abject poverty when you get off the ship and then you drive through this tunnel into these gated communities where everyone's driving Mercedes and there's McDonald's, and it really forced me to understand that how privileged our life was but, more important, how incredible it is that there are human beings that live such different lives within that close proximity. And originally the idea was well, shoot, I saw that I wanted to go work internationally but then realized we have incredible wealth inequities here.
Speaker 4:That just people aren't able to solve Bingo. How old were you then? I was senior year of high school, so 16.
Speaker 2:So trying to figure out the path and still lots of time to change that path.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and always dreamed of going to med school and being first in my family. That was really important to my parents. But after that decided a career in nonprofit can make a much bigger difference. So that led me to the world of nonprofits.
Speaker 2:What was your first job in the nonprofit sector?
Speaker 4:I actually went and worked for my fraternity that I was a part of. They gave me incredible learnings that I wouldn't have had otherwise, and so I went and was a field representative with them For Sigma Alpha Mu.
Speaker 2:Okay, I almost had goosebumps there. I was in a house too.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we worked for the Sigma guys all the time, but I got to travel across the country, see states I never would have and just open my eyes to that, and it was kind of fun living on couches for three or four weeks and then having a week off somewhere where I could go and explore. Wouldn't trade it for anything, but it was probably an incredibly lonely job. Was ready to end that.
Speaker 2:I've met that person. Yeah, I could imagine.
Speaker 4:Hopefully you like them.
Speaker 3:No, not at all I'm just kidding, I'm only joking, I'm you know, depending on who they were, not at all, I'm just kidding I'm only joking.
Speaker 2:I'm only joking um so how? Long did you do that for two years? Kelly jump in anytime too, please after two years ended up at united way.
Speaker 4:There was a management development program from united way worldwide and I was sent to birmingham, alabama, to learn what they were doing there as one of 10 fellows from across the country and just was really lucky. I went to a community that I got to see what happens when people actually care about each other and what that looks like. I had a boss who gave us opportunities we didn't deserve simply because they believed in me and the opportunity there, opportunity there and I think that actually changed my life because I saw what United Way was but, more importantly, what the difference human beings coming together can make in a collective way and you were 20?
Speaker 2:I would have been 24 or 23.
Speaker 4:Good Lord, so after grad school it would have been 23. Yes 23.
Speaker 2:And it's been United Way ever since Mostly United Way.
Speaker 4:I did do a couple stints outside of the United Way network. I went over to the ALS Association.
Speaker 2:That's right, ice Bucket Challenge. So you created the Ice Bucket Challenge? Oh, no, no one created that.
Speaker 4:What was interesting about that is the head of communication for Red Cross was working at ALS at that point. It was her next job and she was smart enough to say let this just go and get the hell out of the way and let human beings shape it with their passions, with each other. And that's really how it took off. It was an organization, was just smart enough not to try to put a stamp on it and just let it be organic awesome and you couldn't create that if you tried so.
Speaker 2:But somebody in a room, somewhere that you knew, said we're gonna pour ice over our heads, buy it with a bucket. Yes, and we're for ALS.
Speaker 4:It actually started with a hockey player and it was this informal thing where people were just joking around. But then two individuals in Boston who had recently been diagnosed with ALS viewed that as an opportunity to raise awareness for their new condition and they added the fundraising component into it by challenging friends to do it, and it just took off from there. A professional hockey player picked it up.
Speaker 2:Do you remember who Like what hockey player?
Speaker 4:I can't remember the hockey player.
Speaker 2:No, that's fine.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, yeah, but that's how it all happened.
Speaker 2:And it was one of those just completely organic things.
Speaker 4:I love hockey too.
Speaker 2:Hockey is so cool and the people who play hockey are so passionate too. My best friend plays or played. Now he's a scout for the Islanders. But there's just a passion. Behind hockey players there's a whole other animal, I feel like. Anyways, what a fun little story that is. I didn't know that. Hockey players where were?
Speaker 3:they Boston In Boston, shout out to Boston. Sorry, I got to give a shout out to the place I used to live.
Speaker 4:Uh-oh yeah, she's wearing the green too All in Boston, and then the baseball team got involved because one of the two individuals was a former baseball player, and so it just went from there.
Speaker 3:We're going to pour a bucket of ice all over us and it went around the country.
Speaker 2:It did Internationally. Probably it really did. I think I did it. Did you do it, Kelly?
Speaker 3:I don't know if I did it, I did get challenged several times, so I think I might have been the one making the donations for that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I came on at the tail end and it was just fun to see that much energy around a disease that you know affects 30,000 people a year and unless you're personally affected, you really don't understand it. And I lost a grandmother to the disease, as well as a person you consider a godfather, and so when they called it was one of those good Lord. How could you turn that opportunity away to impact something that was that personal good Lord? How could you turn that opportunity away to impact something?
Speaker 2:that was that personal, and so it was a lot of fun over the next what?
Speaker 4:position did you have at that point? Oh boy, the official title was Director of Resource Development, in other words, over the fundraising apparatus for support. And so there was 39 markets across the country and we were providing support to them on how you raise funds, and so it was a lot of fun. We capitalized on the new awareness to really drive additional investments. And what's most gratifying and I got to say it's exciting is $130 million mostly invested in research the largest infusion of money into a disease that would never be profitable for a medication on its own. And now there are three interventions that are either in phase three clinical trials are now on the market that came out of human beings pooling their funds together to create these investments, and now you've got hope for families that they could get an extra six months or a year or three years with a loved one, when the timeline of prognosis on that's a couple of years. It's really fundamentally changed it, and it was all done by human beings saying I'll support this and support this nonprofit to make this happen.
Speaker 2:And it was pretty amazing. You were part of that. You saw that happen around you. I'm sorry, Kelly.
Speaker 3:Oh, it's incredible to have that impact and it just really shows, when a group of people come together, that you really can create change.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, like what we're trying to do here with AMA. Okay yeah.
Speaker 4:Okay, yeah, exactly United. So so you went from ALS back to United. I did a couple stints elsewhere. I went to March of Dimes and worked there March of Dimes.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, so.
Speaker 4:March of Dimes was amazing. You know it's one of the few organizations that actually set out to solve a problem and did it back with polio. They were set up by the Roosevelt family to combat polio and developed the vaccine and then turned it to birth defects and then solved that by and large Didn't eliminate it completely, but was responsible for everything from flour being fortified to a lot of the medical interventions we have today and drove it from a high percentage to an incredibly low single-digit percentage and then had to reinvent itself and focused on the maternal mortality that's facing African-American and women of color and childbirth, and so it was fun to be a part of that transformation and pivoting to a new mission. When was that? Again, that would have been 2006 to 2000,. 2016 to 2019.
Speaker 2:I don't know. Maybe I'm just not listening. I used to hear March of Dimes a lot. It used to be advertised a lot. I don't hear it. I don't see it as much as I used to. Is that real? Am I making?
Speaker 4:that up right now, 70s, to mobilize people around a cause, and the world's just kind of shifted and adapted then, and so if that's your primary engagement with folks, it takes time to drive other engagements, and so I feel they've done a really good job engaging the community and there's a very thriving March of Dimes here in Charleston that does a great job and has an incredibly passionate volunteer base.
Speaker 2:Well cool, shout out to March of Dimes here in Charleston. They're great, support them. Well cool, shout out to March of Dimes here in Charleston they're great. Support them Well we're just going to support all these nonprofits.
Speaker 3:Who else? What else do you want from March of Dimes?
Speaker 4:Let's bring them all on. After that I worked in consulting for a couple years, had a firm myself and then was a partner at another firm and just really really loved that.
Speaker 3:Learned a lot no-transcript.
Speaker 4:Thoughtful people about how do you tackle those problems today, and it isn't one solution, it's usually a combination of things, and so being able to work on a morning with a group that's focused on a cancer-based disease and in the afternoon focused on a global nonprofit affecting the environment was a chance to just learn an incredible amount about how do you engage people authentically, how do you drive partnerships and collaborations, and then how do you mobilize volunteers to do things bigger than themselves, and so I'm so glad I spent those three years consulting, because now, in a role like this, you can pick and choose those things that work and bring them to bear, and so I wouldn't trade it for anything, even though at the time I was just doing it because it was fun to do, and now I'm really glad I had that opportunity.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's awesome and kind of bringing it back a little bit. Now you're in Charleston, you were up in the Virginia area down in Alabama. You started off in New York.
Speaker 4:What brought you to Charleston, charleston itself. My wife and I had sat down a while back. We thought we'd be in DC for three years because who wants to live in DC forever? And three years turned into 13,. And then we were just itching at the end of the pandemic to get out of there. Turned into 13, and then we were just itching at the end of the pandemic to get out of there. And we'd identified Charleston as a city. Not only that is in line with our values, but as a place where we wanted to move to and potentially retire in. And so when the call came that they were looking for a CEO here no-transcript opportunities, but, believe it, the word charleston is what draws through us here yes, that's exactly what we're talking about here at the charleston marketing podcast, because we chose charleston right I mean people are living here in charleston.
Speaker 2:Change makers like dj is choosing charleston live here. He had a couple of, I'm sure, a few different other options, but you chose to do and make change here at the Charleston community level, which is amazing. Talk about you just moved into this neighborhood too, didn't you?
Speaker 4:Yeah, a year and change ago, so you're kind of new in it, brand new here, yeah, loving it.
Speaker 2:Are you still in the mode of like this is where I live. I can't believe how beautiful this is, Like that type of thing.
Speaker 4:Honeymoon right type of Still doing the pinching ourselves that we get to be blessed to be in a community like this all the time.
Speaker 2:And it almost sounds like your career path has brought you to this point, I think so I would like to say it was all intelligently designed. It wasn't I was going to say it probably was, it was not.
Speaker 4:A lot of times it was hey, that looks interesting and let's go do it. And I think that's really half of life is just being open to, when those opportunities pop up, being like, hey, why not? Why can't we do that? Let's try that instead of trying to be so regimented and planned, because I never would have done a few of those side pieces if it hadn't either been a personal experience or someone calling and saying, hey, you might be perfect this, have you thought of that? And just happened to have a commonality that was in line. So I think that's half of it. And again, charleston is another one of those places that we knew we wanted to be at, but the opportunity wasn't there until it was.
Speaker 4:And we were ready to move on it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, love it.
Speaker 3:And you kind of made that transition from the National United Way to the Local United Way. What was that like?
Speaker 4:Right Incredibly how do I say this? A lot of satisfaction. You know the nice part about a network like United Way. You know we're in 34 countries, 1,000 United Ways in the US alone. Every one of them is a separate 501c3, and there's a lot of power in that you can be responsive at your local level.
Speaker 4:The challenge is that there's no central control and you put these programs together at the national level. That would augment it, but if it wasn't done from collaboration and how you add value to the local work that's being done in a way that could be adapted, it wasn't successful. And so being able to see how you do that there and then coming back to a local United Way has been nice, because I know where we can call other United Ways and be like hey, I heard you're doing this really well, can we steal that? And when you don't get that in a group that is top down, you'll only get that with a bottom up nonprofit. There's very few like that left that are federated and are really there to support that, and the coolest part is that each one of them is solving the problems in their community locally. Therefore, there's an incredible amount of innovation and experimentation going on and we're just really blessed to be part of a network like that. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:I'm sure you do also get to see the actual end product a little bit more here on the local side than on the national side where you're kind of overseeing a lot.
Speaker 4:Yeah, there's a lot of fun working with different volunteers from each community. It is way more fun, though, to be in the arm-in-arm with volunteers and staff every day, working towards a common goal but developing a vision of what needs to happen, and then looking at your history and saying we've been here in the Tri-County for 80 years Crazy, and people have made decisions all along the way of what is the greatest need then, and now it is our turn with that responsibility. It only weighs on me, but it's a lot of fun to think. What are people going to do 80 years from now? That's building on the decisions we're making today.
Speaker 2:It is a it's fun, it's really exciting. Well, you're smiling when you say that. It's true, so that's a good thing. He's smiling when he says it, so he loves what he does. You can tell that, but it's got to be really cool in the local to see the impact. Like being in and being in, you know doing the community work.
Speaker 3:And you talked about how you moved to Charleston. How did you get to know the Charleston community?
Speaker 4:You've been here for a year. What was that?
Speaker 3:whole process like.
Speaker 4:Yeah, my family didn't get down here for about three to four months until I moved down here and so got to throw myself into the job. But what was really interesting is we really made it a point in the first three months to do a listening tour, essentially to sit down with several hundred nonprofit leaders, business people, community citizens, folks who are using services, but also just people who care and ask similar questions and listen.
Speaker 4:And getting a chance to do that just opened my eyes to where there's possibility but, more importantly, the importance of relationships here and I would say, had we not done that, we probably wouldn't be able to kind of meet with folks and be like how do we work together Without egos? Let's take that out. How do we partner and do this? Because, at the end of the day, there are families who need help and how do we all work together to make that happen?
Speaker 2:What did you find out in your listening sessions?
Speaker 4:What I heard was that this community has had blessings in many, many, many ways for individuals over a very long period of time, but there are some who the blessings have not been as forthcoming for. Some of it's systemic, some of it is due to the way Charleston's evolved, but you have incredible wealth and incredible opportunity for many, as well as pockets where individuals are struggling and needing assistance. And that's really what I heard loud and clear. People were aware of it, but there wasn't any one set of numbers or metrics. It was just a feeling of we have thrived and have been moving forward, but it hasn't been for everybody, and I just heard that loud and clear.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm a firm believer of. You're as strong as your weakest link, so how can we make that weak link stronger? And so what did you see done before you for this community, and what are you doing now and in the?
Speaker 4:future? That's a great question. When we were founded 80 years ago, it was the community and war chest. If you ever played Monopoly the little community chest.
Speaker 4:That was United Ways and it was the largest nonprofit in the world, founded 1887, and was the first nonprofit in the US, and the real purpose of it was to come together to support families that were struggling. We were founded 80 years ago around the war effort. Here we have, over time, adapted, but what has always come back to is that, through line of families whether it was in 1887 in Denver or here, starting 80 years ago this year we've always been there for families, and that looks different over time. In the 70s it was all about supporting a basket of nonprofits who were uplifting families. In the 80s it was about targeted investments.
Speaker 4:Now, today, with the acceleration that's happened in the last 30 years and change, we're really stepping back and saying where is our greatest role? What I can tell you is our greatest role is working with hundreds of other nonprofits, business leaders, government to make big things happen for families. And how we're going to do that is part of what we're looking at right now, just like we did in 91. And when we were founded. We're stepping back and saying how do we become incredibly relevant but more important, how do we help families where they are today? And to me, that is probably the most exciting thing that we're up to right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is. So what do you think? What are you going to do? I heard something called Game Changers.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so those are the changemaker grants, changemakers.
Speaker 2:Changemaker grants.
Speaker 4:Yeah, historically, since the 90s, united Way has given out gifts to grants to nonprofits to do their work. Well, we took that muscle and we said how do we make those even more targeted, knowing the challenges today are different than 10 years ago and 20 years ago? And so we identified four issues in the community and we, each quarter, rolled out a new grant that targeted that specific issue in any nonprofit that was working on it to uplift their work and make it even more relevant. And it ranged from capacity building where tell us what's in the way of your mission. Yeah, okay, and here's a grant without a whole lot of strings attached. Go make it happen. And those grants just don't exist right now.
Speaker 2:No, yeah, especially with those strings. Yeah, all the way to. What would a string look like? What would it be?
Speaker 4:A string would be. You know you are giving these grants out to families and here's 12 requirements for when they can receive the grant and therefore you can't use any of it towards overhead Sure. And so having a no-strings-attached grant where just tell us what you're doing and six months later tell us that you did what you said you were going to do with it. Okay, and that is really it.
Speaker 2:We'll follow up, yeah.
Speaker 4:And they have to meet basic criteria 501c3, and file their tax documents. But beyond that, it's really who's doing the best and most innovative work out there, and that's a shift for us. The most recent one was around the housing crisis. Right now, we have the highest eviction rates in the country.
Speaker 1:I'll say that again.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I was reading that the highest eviction rates in the country is the 29405, 29406 zip codes, and so we did targeted grants. And we have two incredible community partners who are working to help families stay in their homes so their kids can stay stable and learn and that they can continue to build wealth. And they're doing great work, and so we're just giving them money to fuel that and do even more of it.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, eventually the money runs out. It does, and people still get evicted. What are we doing about that?
Speaker 4:So the other thing that United Way does is we really work with a basket of nonprofits a couple dozen nonprofits who are all saying if a family is in crisis, how do we come together and provide them the supports they need so that they can remain in their home? And there's really two levers increasing household income or decreasing household costs. And so we partner with groups to do things like free tax. Prep for anyone who makes less than $80,000 a year I'll talk why that $80,000 number is important. Prep for anyone who makes less than $80,000 a year. I'll talk why that 80,000 number is important so that you can maximize your returns but also not get predatory lending that takes effect.
Speaker 4:We'll provide partnerships with everyone, from Low Country Food to our food box program to be able to get people food. So, again, fresh food means they can decrease their household costs. We'll get people help with their utilities, but then we'll get them qualified for the benefits they need so that they can continue to move forward in a much more stable way. Yes, and but again, we're not doing all that work. We're partnering with dozens of nonprofits who are doing that work Like Echo.
Speaker 3:Great organization Love Echo.
Speaker 4:All of those are at our table with us, and we're just blessed to have so many great partners in this area who want to work together.
Speaker 2:It would be tough to be at that board meeting with all those nonprofits. You know what I mean. I know it's not a visual specific board meeting, but in my head it's like what nonprofit do we give the money to?
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh everybody needs something.
Speaker 2:Everybody's raising their hand. Yes, what's the most impact that we can make in the shortest amount of time, and then sustain that and that is the $5 million to $25 million point you're making.
Speaker 4:The needs here are just so great when you look at it. I mean, the simple reality is we released the ALICE report last November, which is Asset Limited, income Constrained Employed. I talked earlier about how everyone was talking about affordability, but no one had any numbers and what we saw in the data is, if you look back 15 years, it costs about double what it did 15 years ago to live here in the Tri-County. Yet most of our experiences are from an earlier time, so it blows your mind that it might cost more than $40,000 for a single human being just to live here and afford the basics. Family of four, you're talking closer to $90,000, so high 80s.
Speaker 4:That is hard for a community to understand when compounding inflation but also costs have gone up over a period of time. That isn't in line with your experience. And so we released the report, using data to tell the story, and that has been game changing for us to help say, okay, where can we make a bigger difference using data that's publicly available without bias? And then how do we partner with others to really lift this work up. And that's been the most exciting work I think we've been doing over the last year.
Speaker 2:Yeah. No, that's game-changing work there. I know it's changemakers, but it's still game-changing. I'm a bit dyslexic myself too.
Speaker 3:That's okay. We're changing the game.
Speaker 4:That's exactly right, but you can't get over the number of nonprofits who are now leveraging that data, either changing their criteria for how they award to families it's more in line that than the federal poverty line, which is not really relevant or they are helping us even think through where we can do better and where there's gaps. And so it's a really exciting time to be here, and any community I've been in, this is probably the one that is the most collaborative and inviting to people to work together towards a bigger issue. Really, of all the places you've been, to, all the places I've been and name the cities real quick oh, birmingham, better than Birmingham. Dc, new York, indianapolis yes, all of them, out of all of them here is probably the most collaborative, and that gives the nonprofit sector some real strength because you're not competing for the same resources. You're actually saying you can do this better than anyone else. Go forth and do it and we'll do this over here, and it allows us to be much more responsive as a community. What did you call it? Collabitation?
Speaker 2:Collabitation yes.
Speaker 4:In a lot of communities, the nonprofits will say, yeah, we're going to work together, but at the end of the day, there's a constant behind-the-scenes fight over who gets credit, who gets the dollars, who gets to recognize it. And by and large, there are some nonprofits who still have that collaboration attitude, but most don't. And so here, instead of that scarcity view, there's really a view of how do we make this happen together.
Speaker 2:How can we come together? Yes, we've got a lot of great things happening, but we can do more together. Yes, charles, american Marketing Association. Yes exactly Another plug there. I'm sorry, but we're a nonprofit, so I'm asking you questions on the nonprofit side of things too. So how do we get involved?
Speaker 4:I think the biggest is to show up With so many nonprofits here all doing amazing work. We need community citizens to step in and say I will help. I will help provide my time for oversight or for helping to grow the pie or providing services. I think also, if you look at this, there is a real need in this country to continue to tell the story of what's happening in an honest, authentic way. Well, media is the best way to do that. Protecting the media infrastructure is critical. So anyone who says I'm just volunteering with a group that supports media, I would push back and say that is one of the biggest challenges we have today, and so I encourage everyone to get involved with whatever nonprofit group aligns with there and spend your time doing that, and that will help lift up a lot.
Speaker 2:Perfect Done. We're doing it right now.
Speaker 4:Yes.
Speaker 2:Look at that yeah.
Speaker 3:What about, like companies? Or if our listeners, what would you suggest to them? Besides getting together, what else can be done?
Speaker 4:I think it's stepping back and saying what do you want to do with the time that's given to you? Do you want to watch TV at home or do you want to spend your evenings showing up and helping a family out? Do you want to spend your afternoons when you're surfing at work instead of doing your job on Amazon, to say, could you be instead spending that time volunteering or lending your knowledge and your expertise to a group so they can do more, whether that's with fur babies and pets, that's the environment, that's veteran groups, that's nonprofits helping families, that is nonprofits who are focusing on a civic issue like media. Get involved, don't be on the sidelines, because that's really how we will move things forward in this country.
Speaker 3:I'm going to get off my soapbox now.
Speaker 4:Sorry, I'm very excited about that. That's why we're here.
Speaker 2:We're here for you. We're your soapbox. Please preach on. Preach on DJ. What does DJ stand for? David John DJ. What does DJ stand for?
Speaker 4:David John, david John. I'm named after my dad, and so if I got in trouble it was David, if I wasn't in trouble it was DJ. Yeah, so that was good.
Speaker 2:I have a Roman numeral two. I'm the second as well. Yeah, so I saw that, stephen Michael, you have a real name, stephen. Okay, that's weird. Right, did learn something. Learn another thing, that's right. That's right. Um, you don't have to be doing this. This isn't. You didn't have to be helping all these people, you don't. You could have taken a different path. So, first of all, thank you for the path you're taking because we're all better for it.
Speaker 2:I feel more comfortable seeing you at the head of this organization of a ton of non-profit like thank you leading and with with empathy and passion as well, just from the 30 minutes I've met you, and it's contagious, if you will. Good Right, kelly is doing a great job isn't she?
Speaker 4:She's amazing. I can't believe how good you're doing right now.
Speaker 2:All of a sudden, this announcer voice turned on.
Speaker 3:I'm like put a microphone in people's faces.
Speaker 2:This is amazing. She did a great job.
Speaker 3:And DJ will tell you, I don't normally like to be in front of the camera or anything at all. I forgot about that. We take pictures with groups and stuff?
Speaker 4:Do we have any photos of you at the office that actually include you?
Speaker 3:Maybe one or two floating around.
Speaker 2:I got to fix that. So eva, eva's taking care of us. Thank you, eva. Um, exactly, she's behind the camera normally. Exactly that's what I forgot to open that up in the beginning. Like kelly is usually taking pictures and making sure the video is good and make sure all that's on point, uh. But now you're you push yourself out here to and you're just crushing it, thank you thank you, good work of course, um dj talk about al Sure.
Speaker 2:How does somebody get involved with Alice if a listener knows somebody or the listener needs help? A lot of people, some of our peers, need help. You don't know it. You can't just look at somebody and say, oh, that person needs help.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and what you're bringing up is one of the biggest challenges we have. This traditional notion of what struggling people look like financially is just very outdated. What we see here is because costs have gone up faster than wages. Wages are up, don't get me wrong, but costs, especially in the last five years, have gone up faster. You have many families who are working single, multiple jobs, doing all of the things, paying a high level of taxes, showing up every day, working hard, yet can't make ends meet because of just the way the costs are. And so you've got nonprofits who are really saying how do we fix that?
Speaker 4:They're also partnering with chambers, city government and other elected officials to say this can't be the way we are moving forward if we want a thriving Charleston 15 years from now. And so we are looking at a number of things that would go into a household budget. We're looking at things like daycare. We're looking at household pay, but, again, wages alone won't solve it. We're looking at how we partner with businesses around their benefits. We are launching funds that would help remove barriers to employment so people can get that job, even though they might not have and I'm making a point that they might not have the steel-toed boots today and they don't have the $500 to afford the steel-toed boots. They need those steel-toed boots to get to the next job that will pay them a lot more, and so we have a fund that will help with that.
Speaker 4:We also do food share, healthy tri-county community gardens. These things decrease a household's costs or increase wages, and so I would encourage anyone who wants to be a part of that is to look for the nonprofits that are helping with those, and there's a whole list of our partners on our website. All of those are amazing. Get involved with one of them, and if you're interested in volunteering, we're happy to connect you, or if you're interested in being part of their boards. We're more than happy to make that introductions also.
Speaker 4:Oh, really, yes, oh, that's cool, I didn't realize that, yeah, we do trainings for community leaders who want to be on a board. The biggest challenge is you join a board and what the hell do you do? Like? How do you look at a budget sheet? How do you know what a mission is? What are your with? The chamber where we train civic leaders on how to be a member of a board and make a big difference? Which chamber?
Speaker 2:uh, the charleston, charleston metro, yes, great partners well, ama and the mount pleasant chamber would probably want to be a part of that training, I know I love that more into that.
Speaker 3:That's a fantastic uh yes, our lead united program. We do it twice a year currently. Um, it's like six weeks, I believe they they meet for two hours every six, or once a week for six weeks, and you get to just hear from community members too, which I think is really cool. So it's not just Chiant United Way leading it, but you get to hear from other local nonprofits, other current board members with other nonprofits, and really just learn more about the community with that too, and you can just be anybody and sign up for that right.
Speaker 3:I mean especially the leadership that we have here, as our listeners are all community leaders yeah, come on board with it.
Speaker 2:That's cool.
Speaker 4:So that's, I didn't know that and that is one area most non-profits need is how do you tell the story effectively? How do you leverage reach there? Many of them are so focused on mission. This idea of how do you tell your story and get it out in an effective way is not a skill that they've developed, and so, particularly for those with a media background, it is one of the biggest needs right now in non-profits, because how you cut through the chatter out there is to tell a compelling story and show the results you're doing you hear that?
Speaker 2:listeners, we're getting called out here.
Speaker 4:Dj's calling us out not calling out inviting to the table to participate and really make a difference.
Speaker 2:So You're so good, you are good. Speaking of. You mentioned the government. Is there a lot of red tape? How is the government? Are you getting the funding you need? What's happening there?
Speaker 4:You know, when you look across the tri-county, you have different governments. You've got North Charleston downtown, you've got Somerville and then you have all of the smaller community mayors. What I've seen, especially with this new round of mayoral elections, is that you've had the first time where turnover happened at the three major population centers here, as well as a number of the smaller communities, and what I've seen come out of that is a real attitude about partnership. I was very interested to see how this played out. They're talking about how do you tackle housing across the three regions, because you can't just solve it in Charleston without thinking about how it works in North Charleston and Somerville. There's groups working on those components in many different ways, and so I am incredibly optimistic, based on what we're seeing, that they're going to continue to work together and that there's a real role for businesses, nonprofits and government to come together to tackle some of these bigger issues.
Speaker 2:Tri-county. The tri-counties are Berkeley, dorchester and Charleston. I knew that that's just for the listeners there, yep, but that's huge to know and what a huge property that you like. That's a big footprint that you have to cover right there.
Speaker 4:But you can't tackle these issues unless you're looking at the big footprint. What's happened is, as costs have gone up, people have moved further out of the area. I mean, you've got people commuting in from Orangeburg and from outside of Somerville and going great distances so they can chase affordability, and if you aren't thinking about it regionally, you're leaving groups behind, and so we've just viewed that as a requirement. It also means, though, we have to be very thoughtful what is the difference between an urban need and a rural need and get really honest about the needs that are done by population, and that's why our ALICE data gets all the way down to the city level, and you can go on our website, play with it in Tableau and see what it is because that helps us inform what we do in each area and where we would target our resources, but also target where the gaps are.
Speaker 2:My mind's blown. Dj, dj for president, how about?
Speaker 4:that I am happy in my job. But thank you, we wouldn't want that job on anybody.
Speaker 2:Look to the future man, we need you, we need you.
Speaker 3:We need leaders like yourself and more of you. And kind of talking about the future, what do you see for the future of our Tri-County and Trident?
Speaker 4:United Way. Yeah, I think this affordability piece is really going to drive not only employers to start thinking differently about the work, but it's also forcing us to think through how we as a community come together around it. And we are exploring Trident United Way, like I talked to other CEOs of nonprofits, we're all in the same boat. We're exploring how we become the most meaningful today based on the challenges. And you have things like the Lowcountry Food Bank. They're geo-mapping down to the street level where pockets of needs are so they can figure out where does their next rounds of investment happen.
Speaker 4:You see the community foundation putting resources in collaborations that only happen but for funders coming to the table and forcing that work. You just see a really vibrant and excited community where people want to make it work together, and I think it's going to take us having honest conversations today about what does the community look like 15, 20 years from now, so that we can all think through what are the things we need to be doing so that we don't get in a place where Austin or other really exciting places to live are today. Where had they thought about this 15 years ago? They would be in a much different place. Instead, the higher costs have prevented the community that built the community from fully participating, and we have an opportunity to do that. It's just going to take some tough decisions and leadership and I feel, with between the elected officials, the chambers and other groups, that we're really in a spot where those dialogues can happen Awesome.
Speaker 2:That's great to hear, dj, especially on the again on the government side, that everybody's at the table and they're, they're listening, they're hearing, and and everybody wants to collaborate. Oh, and everybody wants to collaborate, oh, it makes my heart feel good.
Speaker 3:All warm and fuzzy, I know.
Speaker 2:This entire interview. Thanks again, dj for everything. Is there anything else?
Speaker 4:that's on your heart, that you can just let our listeners know how they can get in touch, what they can do. Yeah, I would say. Usually the number one thing I get is okay, we all know Alice. Some of us are Alice or have been Alice. What do I do to support my neighbors or my colleagues or others who I know are working hard yet are now, right now, struggling to make ends meet in this high cost environment and others that are on top of that budget? That makes it really difficult to live here, and so if you or anyone you know are Alice, call 211.
Speaker 4:We manage that call line statewide as a United Way network. It allows us to connect people directly with the services that they need in order to make ends meet so that they can thrive. We also have resource connection centers people can visit in Berkeley and Dorchester County, and if you are looking to support your neighbors as an employer, we are more than happy to help you. Think through the benefits and HR policies that can really help. So, for example, volvo, they realized that child care stipends were needed for their workers and so they actually provide child care stipends so that those families candidates but can keep the employees you have that don't require an increase in wages.
Speaker 4:That, I think, is where we can also have a lot of dialogue, and so if you're a nonprofit, reach out to us. If you're interested in getting plugged into a nonprofit, reach out to us. If you want to learn more about Alice, or advocate for change, reach out. We'd be happy to do that. We're just really grateful for the role that the listeners here have in our community. Storytelling means something these days, and what better group to tell the stories than this who are listening? And so thank you for what you're doing, mike, thank you, kelly, for your role here, and thank you to this entire association for that.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, thanks, DJ. I want to givea shout out to your marketing team. They're wonderful.
Speaker 3:Thank you. We try very hard. It's really, you know, being able to work alongside DJ and just really supporting the mission of helping our community. It's just everyone's coming together I think that was the theme of this whole entire discussion is just coming together to help those who really need it. And I think that's you know, being able to share the story of Alice, of our community and the stories of how you can help. I think that's you know, being able to share the story of Alice, of our community and the stories of how you can help. I think it's just really you know we're making change every day.
Speaker 4:Yeah, Mike and Kelly, thank you for doing this podcast. I've had a chance to bookmark it and listen. It's really interesting.
Speaker 2:Topics you all cover I have and I just really want to say thank you. Thank you. I kid, I kid, but no, thank you, dj.
Speaker 1:Thank you DJ, You're a very important man right now, man you need to get back to work soon there's a lot of things going on in your world.
Speaker 4:Sir, just a few things, don't let me take up more of your time, please Well. Thank you again for this opportunity.
Speaker 2:Of course, Kelly. Do you have anything you want?
Speaker 3:to Thank you for the opportunity to be in front of the camera today. This is a very different experience.
Speaker 4:I'm really enjoying it. You, crushed it.
Speaker 2:Are you kidding me?
Speaker 3:If Stephanie or Darius or anyone needs to take another break, I'm happy to fill in again.
Speaker 2:You are officially a co-host of the Charleston Marketing Podcast. Congratulations, awesome.
Speaker 3:Thank you, yeah, there's your handshake, there's your handshake Before we leave.
Speaker 2:We need to thank our sponsors Charleston Radio Group Studios, cherry Feels Good with the Beats and, of course, the American Marketing Association. If you want to be a sponsor or a guest on our show, please reach out to podcastcharlestonamaorg and we'll get right back to you, dj thank you, sir no, this has been great. Kelly crushed it thank you till next time, charleston, bye peace.
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