Trio Solutions has partnered with Dr. Bernard Maria and the staff at MCGHealth Children’s Medical Center to produce an online monthly newsletter called Georgia Kids First. The first edition launched on January 14 and has already received very positive feedback. This e-newsletter is geared toward keeping the patients, families, employees and health care professionals at MCGHealth Children’s Medical Center informed and connected.

Each month, Georgia Kids First will highlight inspirational patient and family stories and will give updates from the hospital’s leadership staff and medical teams. This month, we’re profiling C.J. Dube, a former cancer patient who has found ways to give back to other children battling the disease.

I speak for everyone at Trio when I say that we are thrilled to be a part of this project and that we look forward to working with everyone at MCGHealth. To learn more or to sign up for the newsletter, visit www.mcghealth.org/kids.

In 2010, Disney is offering a free admission to one of their theme parks if you give a day of volunteering to a nonprofit organization. This past year they gave the general public an opportunity to celebrate their birthday at one of the parks for free through their What Are You Celebrating marketing campaign. They continue to raise the bar in the marketing industry. The Give A Day. Get A Disney Day. program is a unique opportunity to engage more volunteers in service through your organization and celebrate their good deeds. Any organization that is meeting a community need can collaborate with HandsOn Network in the Give A Day. Get A Disney Day. program.

Getting about that time…presentations to the amazing organizations we are helping. Seriously, if you take a minute and reflect on what these groups are doing for our community and the world, it is so impressive. These are people that spend they lives focusing on the goodwill of others. Godspeed to all of you! You are a true blessing to the world and remember on those days when things seem tough that your efforts don’t go unnoticed and WE APPRECIATE EVERYTHING YOU DO!

Everyone at Trio Solutions Inc. is looking forward to helping out our 2009 Createathon Winners: Charleston Area Children’s Garden Project, Good Neighbor Center, Charleston Community Sailing, Palmetto Medical Initiative and Liza’s Lifeline! It was very difficult to narrow our selection to these five. Every organization that applied should be commended for the work they are doing in our community. We would love to be able to help them all. Createathon will begin on Thursday, Sept. 18. Be sure to follow our progress on Twitter.

Do you feel your blood pressure rise just before you hit send on your e-mail campaign? Relax. The kind folks over at Vertical Response just provided a handy, dandy checklist for those of you utilizing e-marketing campaign tools. This should help keep your health in check and your e-mails too.

A good friend just shared this with me. I think it’s worth posting to share with others.

McGraw-Hill Research: Research shows that maintaining, and even increasing, your marketing investment during an economic downturn is one of the best investments you can make. McGraw-Hill Research analyzed 600 companies from 1980-1985. The results showed that business-to-business firms that maintained or increased their marketing expenditures during the 1981-1982 recession realized significantly higher sales growth, both during the recession and for the following three years, than those that eliminated or decreased marketing. By 1985, sales for companies that were aggressively marketing during the recession years had risen 275%. Those companies that didn’t keep up their marketing grew just 19% in this same period. This fact has held true for all post-World War II recessions, starting in 1949, as studied by The American Business Press.

Finally, someone agrees with what I have been thinking for years. Stop with the acronyms! Bill Sweetland with Ragan.com outlined it perfectly. Read this article and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

October has arrived. Do you know what that means? Yes, crisp fall weather is on its way and it’s time to start thinking about how you’ll top last year’s Halloween costume. But more importantly, The Nonprofit Nook’s October workshop is just around the corner!

Join us on October 15 from 5:30 until 7 p.m. for our workshop on the benefits of setting up an annual marketing budget and how to measure your results. Great economy or horrible economy - these benefits are important to realize and put into action. Jessica Munday, president of Trio Solutions Inc., will be hosting the workshop and will discuss not only the benefits of a budget, but will also show how to measure your return on investment dollars, as well as how to monitor your budget. Visit The Nonprofit Nook to register or call us at (843) 216-0442 for more information.

Trio Solutions is proud to be kicking off our annual CreateAthon project to benefit some of the Lowcountry’s most important nonprofits. We will be offering free marketing services to five local organizations who have little or no marketing budgets during a 24-hour, work around-the-clock creative blitz. This year’s projects include two Web sites, one logo, one communications plan and the design of a fundraising coupon book. All hands are on deck and we’re ready roll!

Check us out on ABC News 4!

Congratulations to the 2008 CreateAthon beneficiaries:

Camp Good Times
Coastal Crisis Chaplaincy
Family Resource Center for Disabilities and Special Needs
Fields to Families
Lowcountry Environmental Education Programs (LEEP)

And many thanks to the 2008 CreateAthon team:

Brad Caricofe
Jennifer Cherock
Brian Dadin
Jordan Freeman
Roxanne Hicks
Nancy Lyons
Jessica Munday
The Cultigraphic Girls!

The Trio team is thrilled be supporting such worthwhile causes and we can’t wait to see what we come up with throughout the day and night!

Everyone at Trio is very excited to announce that this week we are gearing up for CreateAthon. In anticipation of the event we wanted to make everyone aware that Trio Solutions Inc. will be closed on Thursday and Friday, September 18 & 19 for CreateAthon 2008. During this time we will be providing free marketing services to five area nonprofits as part of our annual CreateAthon, 24-hour, work-around-the-clock creative blitz. This year’s recipients include Camp Good Times, Coastal Crisis Chaplaincy, Family Resource Center for Disabilities and Special Needs, Fields to Families and Lowcountry Environmental Education Programs (LEEP). If you have an urgent need during this time, please feel free to let us know, however if you have a non-urgent matter we will be available on Monday, September 22. Be sure to follow our creative blitz progress on our blog. We would also like to give special thanks to our creative partners, who have graciously agreed to donate their services to our CreateAthon recipients - Kristen and Catherine at Cultigraphics, Brian Dadin and Brad Caricofe.