David "DJ" Hampton, President & CEO, Trident United Way

David "DJ" Hampton, President & CEO, Trident United Way

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
iHeartMedia presents CEOs You should Know. CEOs you should Know
Charleston is brought to you by SC two fifty Charleston
Www dot SC two fifty Charleston dot Org. Welcome to
CEOs you should Know. Joining me today David Djhampton, the
second President and CEO of Trient United Way. Welcome David.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
It's such a pleasure to be here. Thank you so
much for having me.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
Absolutely so, should I call you David or DJ?

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Please call me DJ.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
I absolutely will DJ. So, why don't you start by
explaining to our listeners the mission of the Trent United Way.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yeah, Trident United Way is very much an organization that
is focused on hardworking families. Our mission's pretty straightforward. We
unite the Tri County to uplift families out of poverty.
And we define poverty as anyone who's struggling to make
ends meet. Doesn't matter your household income. If you're working hard,
multiple jobs, often just can't make ends meet. That's what

(00:52):
usually when we step in.

Speaker 3 (00:54):
Now, you have multiple programs available in order to do
the things that you just mentioned. Why don't you explain
some of your programs.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Yeah, you might know, try it in United Way as
the organization that raises money from companies and gives it
to a group of nonprofits to do their work, and
that's been a function of ours since the seventies. What
we're really focused on today is not only supporting our partners,
but really engaging families where they live, where they work,
and where they worship to try to figure out how

(01:20):
we can remove any barriers to increasing household income or
decreasing household costs. Because the simple reality is about thirty
eight percent of the households here in the Tri County,
so you know, almost four out of ten struggle to
make ends meet just because costs have gone up far
faster than wages. And tried it United Ways working hard
to address that.

Speaker 3 (01:39):
Now, have you seen a big change in the amount
of help that families need in the Low Country in
the last few years.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
Oh, it has been a massive increase in need. And
when you step back and you think about it, a
lot of this was happening before the pandemic, but the
pandemic just accelerated everything. People want to live here. Twenty
years ago, families could afford to live on the federal
poverty line here, which is around thirty six thousand dollars
for a family of four. I don't know about you,

(02:08):
but good luck living on thirty six thousand dollars for
a family of four here today. And that number is
the same whether you're here in South Dakota or New
York City. Our data, which we call the ALICE Index
Asset Limited Income Constrained Employed, tells the story and we
know that it cakes approximately eighty seven thousand dollars a
year for a family of four if you have a
child in childcare to live here, high seventies if you don't.

(02:31):
Wages are up the most they've been in decades. However,
they're just not up to meet the rising costs, and
that's really where we step in. Three years ago, our
Centers for Strong Families, where we bring nonprofits together to
help remove barriers to accessing services that people need, saw
about twenty three hundred people. Last year, we saw sixty
two hundred households in triple and so we're expanding those

(02:54):
number of centers so people have a location to go to,
but we're also bringing those services to where families are
I mentioned earlier, where they're employed, where they worship, where
they live, so that taking time off of work isn't
a barrier to be able to go to one of
our centers.

Speaker 3 (03:08):
Now, those numbers are incredible, the amount of increase, the
increase in numbers of people seeking help, and they're seeking
help from multiple different things, right, everything from food to housing,
I'm sure, transportation, even childcare and education.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
You've hit all of the big buckets. And our budget
doesn't account for the cost of actually buying a car,
or paying your student loans, or going out to a
birthday meal, or buying Christmas gifts or after school activities.
It is pure survival. And when we step back and
look at it, you hit the big ones. For a
family of four. Food actually costs more in many cases
than housing, but housing is usually the second or the

(03:46):
first highest cost. Then utilities. We also look at transportation,
healthcare costs, miscellaneous so things. Think about things like feminine
hygiene products and other things that you might need. And
when you add all this up, that's about eighty seven
thousand dollars a year, and the average Alice household has
less than five hundred dollars in savings. And so what

(04:06):
happens is an unexpected financial crisis will happen a bill
they don't expect they'll pay it, they'll weather that storm,
but then the second or third or fourth one is
what usually knocks them out. And as we all know,
life happens. We have those unexpected costs, but when you
can't afford an eighty nine dollars tire at Gerald's to
be able to get to work, that suddenly becomes a
barrier to your financial security. And so our goal is

(04:27):
to hit help those individuals before they can spiral.

Speaker 3 (04:31):
Now I know that you have some partnerships with the
local government, also with houses of worship. Do you have
partnerships with things like corporations or utilities. We do.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
I will say this is an incredibly philanthropic focused community.
Not only when you look at all of the utility
company's water electricity, they've got incredible programs to help families
because again they see it every day. But what we
also see is that almost all of the businesses that
are based here are trying to figure out how they
support their workers because you'll see people can't show up

(05:04):
at work because of an unexpected cost, well, they've lost
an incredible valued employee and those add up, and so
we're seeing a real movement among employers here. A partner
with us and others to figure that out. It's one
of the reason we launched a recent program we're calling
Thrive at Work where we actually embed one of our
family coaches, and these are case managers who come alongside
a family, They set their goals financially what they want

(05:25):
to accomplish, and then we align all of the nonprofit resources,
our resources, and other services to remove those barriers and
help people stay employed. We recently finished a pilot of
that program after a twelve month pilot process, and we
were able to help ninety four percent of the families
that we worked with stay employed. So we helped eighty families,
ninety four of them state, ninety four percent stay employed.

(05:47):
We are now no longer seeing them two months three
months later where they can't have it paid their electric bill,
their utility costs, they haven't paid their mortgage or their rent.
Those type of programs is what we need to do,
and we're just ramping that program up massively right now.

Speaker 1 (06:04):
Now.

Speaker 3 (06:04):
Can you share it with any story that really stood
out with you? And I'm sure they all pull out
your heartstrings, but is there any one in particular that
really stands down as being a special team.

Speaker 2 (06:14):
Yeah, there was one. I mean I could name hundreds
of them that there was one that was just a
week ago. We were downstairs at our center for Strong
Families on Rivers Avenue, which just launched last month, and
we were giving a quick tour and we looked down
and there was a small piece of yellow paper that
was folded up and had been scooted under the door,
and didn't think much about it and picked it up,

(06:35):
and my colleague was reading it, and it turns out
it was a gentleman who had lost their job just
through some downsizing that the company had, but was in
the process of trying to figure out a path forward
for bankruptcy and heard about our center and came in
and the note was from him, and it simply said, Hey,
wanted to let you all know I passed my driving

(06:55):
exam and because of you, I have this new job.
Call me I want to sell lebrate and wrote his
name and his cell phone, And when I asked the
staff about it, the gentleman had a job lined up
but couldn't afford the steel toed boots that were needed
to drive, but also couldn't afford the CDL license, and
so our barriers to employment funds, stepped in was able
to remove those two barriers and now he's making more

(07:16):
money than he was before and a job that is
solid with benefits and isn't a much donner, different financial situation.
And so it's us being able to deploy our funds
but also bringing along dozens of nonprofits along the way
to also provide their services that can really give people
a fighting chance in this hard times.

Speaker 3 (07:32):
Well, I think it goes to show that you know,
a little bit of charity goes a long way. It does.
And you know, and take that gentleman for example, it
wasn't anything earth shattering that he needed. He just needed help,
you know, essentially getting a pair of work boots and
money to apply for a CDL exactly.

Speaker 2 (07:51):
And you know, we've got great friends at Bootjack who
really help us out day in and day out. I
mean in those services that we can remove barriers to
those employees range from fireproof underwear to a month of
childcare for a mom. You know, you can't pay for
your childcare if you don't have your job. You can't
get your job without childcare. Sometimes it's one month of
a cell phone plans that they could be able to
call into work and be able to figure out their schedule.

(08:13):
Sometimes it's little things. Again, I mentioned a tire at Gerald's,
and those barriers add up quickly. But if you're able
to remove them, we find people can stay employed. And
we followed up two years ago. We helped about just
under one hundred families in that Barriers to Employment program
I mentioned with removing those simple barriers. We followed up
a year later and all of them had remained employed

(08:34):
and about ten percent had gone on to hire paying jobs.
So we know programs like that work. It's just how
do you get that in front of folks when they
need it, And that's usually the hardest part of the
nonprofit framework here.

Speaker 3 (08:44):
Yeah, absolutely no. If you had anybody that's come back
after you know, getting themselves further away from that critical
line of being able to make it or not and
finally making it and coming back and saying thanks for
the help. Now I want to help some else.

Speaker 2 (09:00):
We see that all the time. Some of our best
family coaches actually came through that way. One of our
family coaches was helped by one of our programs over
several months and then when a position opened up, she
applied and she is now working with you know, seventy
five to one hundred families doing the exact same work
that she benefited from. I can't tell you how much

(09:21):
of an impact it has on a family and then
being able to work with them over time to you know,
improve debt to income ratios, improve credit scores, remove any
barrier they have to being able to become financially thriving
is a pretty I'll be honest, it's pretty cool to
be able to see in action as a nonprofit because
we're always looking for solutions that have a high ROI.

(09:42):
You don't get much higher of an ROI than that.

Speaker 3 (09:44):
Yeah, DJ, If there's anybody that's listening that wants to help,
you know, either through you know, offering goods or services
or even jobs or just a plane donation, where should
they go? What should they do?

Speaker 2 (09:57):
Well? If anyone listening is Alice, first of all, struggling
can't make ends meet despite working hard, we'd recommend you
call two one one or visit us at one of
our centers. We're here for you. We're there to support you.
But if it's someone who wants to support this work,
there's three ways that we usually recommend. One is folks
can volunteer. Days of Caring is coming up where we'll
have over two thousand volunteers at a couple hundred sites

(10:19):
at couple hundred different nonprofits giving their time and at
an average of forty dollars per hour of saved staff time.
It adds up very, very very quickly, and so we
encourage anyone who wants to volunteer, plug into Days of
Caring or reach out to us and sign up to
volunteer and get on our newsletter. The second is we're
always looking for advocates, anyone who wants to reach out
to elected officials and help move this. We are a

(10:41):
nonpartisan group, but it doesn't mean we don't look what
the data tells us and try to influence policies that
can help uplift hard working families. And so we're always
looking for advocates, business owners or others who want to
engage elected officials. And then the last is, of course,
a monetary donation. Anyone can go to TUW dot org,
make a donation, sign up for monthly gifts, or even

(11:01):
out make outright gifts, and we're happy to help connect
them to us or another nonprofit that they might want
to support.

Speaker 3 (11:06):
And DJ we call the CEOs you should know. So
we also try to dig in a little bit into
your personal life just to see what drives you and
you know, what got you into the position that you're
in now. The United Ways slugline, there's slogan is Live United,
and that has a special meaning for you and your family,
doesn't it. It does.

Speaker 2 (11:26):
My wife and I actually met at United Away. I
was working at United Way of Central Alabama and she
was this networking and looking for a job and met
her and over time we became really good friends and
hung out with each other a lot, and then she
ultimately ended up working at the United Way of Central
Alabama and Birmingham and we started dating and you know,
it's one of those classic workplace romance situations. And then

(11:46):
when I moved up to United Way Worldwide and Alexandria
had to put a ring on her and she went
up there with me, and so we've been together ever since,
and over twenty years we've been together. But we joke
that that tagline is something that unites us. And last
year we updated our tagline from Live United to United
is the Way. Just make it a little more active,
because we know, right now united is the only way

(12:09):
a community can move forward and addressing these big challenges.
You need to bring businesses along, community champions and passionate
people as well as elected officials and others to be
able to affect these change. And so we joke all
the time that the tagline is something we internalized pretty hard.

Speaker 3 (12:27):
Yeah, well, that's fantastic and congratulations. By the way, where
are you originally from.

Speaker 2 (12:32):
I'm originally from two hours north of Syracuse, New York,
on the Canadian border of New York State, one of
the poorest counties in New York State. It's a fascinating town.
It was created by Governor Morris, who was one of
the signers of the Declaration of Independence, as an industrial town,
and so it was one of the places that had,
you know, incredible lumber mills and multiple mines, and most

(12:53):
of the marble in New York City for the skyscrapers
came out of Governor. There was great industry there and
what we saw it was in the eighties. A lot
of those businesses went away as globalization happened, and so
we went from one of the most prosperous towns to
one of the hardest and most impoverished and watched a
lot of my friends whose parents, you know, had great jobs,

(13:15):
solidly middle class, slip into hunger and have a lot
of challenges. And so I've seen firsthand what it's like
when families aren't able to make ends meet, yet are
still trying to work hard and make it work every day.

Speaker 3 (13:26):
So I'm guessing that's what motivated you to get in
a nonprofit of work. Have you always been and involved
in nonprofits?

Speaker 2 (13:32):
I have. I was first for my family to go
to college, which was really important for me to get
an education, and my dad and I dreamed of, you know,
med school, and then applied, got in and decided not
to go seeing the writing on the wall around the
year two thousand of what was happening in the medical industry,
and stayed at my university and got a master's degree
in nonprofit management and went on my way from there

(13:54):
and have since gone back to school and gotten a
law degree just to be able to help continue that
nights and weekends. And so, you know, maybe I had
a little bit of a chip on my shoulder by
trying to get more education, but at the same time
it has been incredibly helpful on packaging problems and thinking
through how do you lead an organization forward through times
of heavy change?

Speaker 3 (14:12):
And where did you go to school?

Speaker 2 (14:14):
I did grad, grad and undergrad at Alfred University and
then I went to an HBCU Law school university a
district of Columbia's David A. Clark School of Law.

Speaker 3 (14:25):
Oh nice.

Speaker 2 (14:26):
Yeah, I went nights and weekends while working full time,
which I could do that in my thirties. I don't
think I could do it in my forties now.

Speaker 3 (14:31):
But yeah, I mean that is, you know, And that's
so many stories that you hear out there of people
that and like you said, I mean, it takes a
lot of extra work, especially if you have a family,
but you know the main thing is to get it done. Yes,
And you know, and I always tell people, you know,
sooner or later, that amount of time is going to
pass and you could have spent it, I jokingly say,

(14:55):
suffering through it. But you know, either way, time's going
to pass. And once that time's passed, you're going to
look back on it and just say I'm so glad
I took the time to do that and I made
the sacrifice.

Speaker 2 (15:09):
Thank you. I agree, and anyone who's on the fence
about going back do it. It is worth the sacrifice.
Although you don't realize it when you're in it, it's
definitely something you appreciate on the back end absolutely.

Speaker 3 (15:21):
So what's the philosophy that drives you each day?

Speaker 2 (15:24):
I think it's just we have such limited time as
human beings, and what are we doing with this time
that's given to us that actually can make a meaningful difference.
You know, some people they get a lot of excitement
out of, you know, driving dollars or a bottom line
or hitting a challenge. What really just drives me at
the end of the day is how do you mobilize staff, members, volunteers,
communities to accomplish big things so that challenges can ultimately

(15:47):
be addressed in an area. And it's one of the
reasons why I've been so drawn toy and had a
way over the years. Is you know, you're talking about
an organization founded in eighteen eighty seven is the Community Chest.
It's been reinvented a dozen times at one hundred and
fifty years in the low Country. We've been here eighty years,
and we've constantly every twenty to thirty years step back
and said, are we making the biggest difference here, and
so I love what drives me is kind of putting

(16:09):
those puzzles together of how do you thoughtfully drive change
while at the same time bringing people along and doing
so in a way that ultimate at the end of
the day, leaves a community in a better place than
you found it. And that was really hard. It was
really hard for me to step away from, you know,
the pressure of a family, to go be a doctor
or do something else, and to step into nonprofit and

(16:30):
it is I wouldn't have trained it for anything.

Speaker 3 (16:33):
Now. Did you have a mentor who was the biggest
influence in your leadership? Was there somebody that said, hey,
come here, kid, you know, let me let me show
you what you're doing wrong. Let me help you out here?

Speaker 2 (16:42):
Oh hundreds along the years. I mean, the simple reality
is I've been blessed to have opportunities I didn't deserve
or earn simply because people believed in either the attitude
I brought to the table or thought, hmm, there's an
opportunity here to invest in them. One was a c
and Birmingham named Dan Dunn, who was a former priest.

(17:03):
Always saw the best in people, but really believed in
investing in young people. And so in my twenties, I
was put in a position where I didn't have the
the on paper credentials, but had a hunger and a
drive and would just sit with me multiple times in
a week and just mentor me. And I've been blessed
every position I've ever had, I've always had a mentor
like that who's been willing to invest. And you know,

(17:24):
if I was telling anyone who's looking to start a
career today, is invest in those mentors. That's really where
you could accelerate your learning. But more importantly, they will
share with you where they've fallen. And that is usually
eighty percent of getting ahead in a goal or a
mission or a strategy strategic plan is figuring out why
theres have fallen and not falling for the same reasons.

Speaker 3 (17:46):
Oh absolutely, But I know there's also some people out
there probably listening that don't have the opportunity to have
a mentor for one reason or another. And I think,
and I speak from experience. You know, I grew up
in a very competitive business and I really didn't have
that anybody that did that for me. But I think

(18:07):
just having a competitive nature in saying well, I'm good
enough to I'm not going to let myself be embarrassed,
you know, to use a colloquialism, play in the same
playpen as you. And so it becomes a personal challenge
that you have to challenge yourself and motivate yourself. It
almost take on the role of your own being, your

(18:28):
own mentor amen.

Speaker 2 (18:30):
I think I urge everyone to sit down at the
start of every year and write down two or three
big goals that you have and if one of those
isn't investing in mentorship and either providing it to someone
else or asking people. What I've found over the years
is reaching out to people that you admire and respect
and you really would like that mentorship, just ask them.
I've yet to have anyone who said no along the way,

(18:54):
but you got to be respectful their time. Obviously, it's
not about what they do for you. It's about how
can they help you accelerate your learnings. And as long
as you approach it from that angle, I just find
people are more than willing to help because everyone's had
someone's invested in them in the past, and most people
are willing to pay it forward if they're just asked.
The number one reason people don't do things is they're
not asked. So without asking, you're probably not going to

(19:15):
get it. But if you prioritize yourself, you should be
out there asking and advocating for yourself.

Speaker 3 (19:20):
And that's an excellent point. What do you do when
you're not working? What do you do to have fun? Oh?

Speaker 2 (19:24):
Man, I've got two delightful kids, a six year old
and a nine year old, Madeline and Gracie. They're just wonderful.
They take a lot of time up ride a vespa
around town a lot. It's been something that just you
can ride a motorcycle or get on a bicycle and
just ride and Vespa does that for me without any
intrusions and just be able to think. And then I'll
be honest. Love playing video games, love doing legos, and

(19:46):
I love reading. So that's usually what you'll find me
doing is some variation of those things. But almost these
days it's almost evolve revolves around kids.

Speaker 3 (19:53):
They tend to do that, don't they.

Speaker 2 (19:54):
Yes, they do for a great reason too.

Speaker 3 (19:57):
Oh absolutely. I mean I relish every minute, and you know,
and my kids are older now, youngest one's twenty five.
But I just think back, you have to relish those
moments that you have with them when they're young, because
they're fleeting.

Speaker 2 (20:09):
Amen.

Speaker 3 (20:10):
And you know, and it might sound, you know, passe
to say that, but time time flies, and especially with
your kids, and they'll be grown before you know it.

Speaker 2 (20:22):
Yes, I agree completely.

Speaker 3 (20:23):
Speaking of which we're out of time. Believe it or not.
Time flies when you're having a good conversation. And I
appreciate the time that you took to be here with
us today. David DJ Hampton, the second President and CEO
of Tried It United Way, Thank you, sir for your
service and for your time today.

Speaker 2 (20:38):
Well, thank you for giving us a chance not only
to share a bit before creating this series, it has
been fascinating listening to the other podcast and just so
thank you for a little time here and sharing a
bit about TUW here in the Low Country and anyone's
interested in supporting us, you can reach us at TUW
dot org.

Speaker 3 (20:54):
Thank you, sir, Thank you.

Speaker 1 (20:55):
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