No one can avoid the subject with all the media attention. However, most of us live in a dream world and think things like foreclosure will never affect us. Well, it’s time to wake up. The national housing crisis is real and very close to home.

Sunday the Charleston Post and Courier reported on foreclosure statistics in the Tri-County area. They were staggering! Charleston County had 451 foreclosure filings for the 2nd quarter of the year and Berkeley County had 225 for the same period. That’s a 59 percent increase from the same quarter last year. Dorchester County experienced a 73 percent increase from last year and even areas like Mount Pleasant doubled with around 200 filings. No one is exempt from this crisis, Kiawah and Seabook islands had a dozen foreclosures. Up until this point I knew there was an issue, but didn’t realize my local community had been affected in such larger numbers.

Trio has been working with a nonprofit organization over the last few months to address the foreclosure issue.

Family Services Inc., based in Charleston, received a grant from the federal government at the end of 2007 to assist South Carolina residents with mortgage default counseling. By working with a homeowner and his or her lender to develop a reasonable action plan that offer relief to the borrower and help save these folks’ home.

Last year Family Services’ staff assisted more than 500 S.C. residents in foreclosure and was able to save more than 350 homes from foreclosure. Already this year, they have assisted more than 800 homeowners facing foreclosure throughout South Carolina.

The more people they can reach the more homes they can save. All of their services are free to anyone having financial difficulties.

On August 9 they will hold a statewide mortgage default clinic in Columbia at the Radisson Hotel on Bush River Road from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. It’s a one-day event where homeowners can meet with a HUD-approved counselor one-on-one to discuss their options.

I would urge South Carolina homeowners having trouble paying their mortgage, to attend this clinic or call 1-888-320-0350 to receive free foreclosure counseling. To learn more visit www.ForeclosureHelpforSC.org. The sooner a homeowner’s issues can be addressed the more likely they will have a positive outcome.

After coming across some interesting statistics about newspaper audiences from Journalism.org. I thought I would share one in particular that really stood out to me. Take a look at this graph of “Daily Newspaper Readership by Age Group.” This graph represents the percentage of individuals reading newspapers in an average week from 1999-2005 (editor’s note: in walks the Internet and Web 2.0).

The great staff at CoolPeopleCare have done it again…giving back to nonprofits. Their new initiative allows virtually anyone to raise money and awareness for their favorite cause by donating a percentage of any merchandise purchased through their online store. And the best thing is…it’s easy.

Basically, CoolPeopleCare will issue unique coupon codes to individuals who seek to raise money for schools or nonprofits than can be used on their online store. Here is how it works…

- Send an email to sam@coolpeoplecare.org stating that you’d like a coupon code.
- They’ll email you your code that you can share with anyone you want – Facebook friends, blog readers, coworkers…anyone.
- When someone uses that code in their store, they’ll get 5% off their order AND 5% will be donated to your favorite cause.
- It’s that easy.

So, think about it. If there’s something out there you want to support (your church, your school, a local nonprofit), send an email to the address above and get a code to share with the world that never expires.

Check out my recent profile on Palmetto PR Divas, a fun and informative public relations blog created by Kim Banks of Simko Communications and Liza Jones of Payne Jones Public Relations. These girls really know the meaning of paying it forward. Once you are profiled you get to nominate a fellow PR professional to be the next profile. Keep up the great work, ladies!

Yes, it’s that time again. Trio Solutions will join the ranks of the sleep deprived as we host CreateAthon 2008. During this 24-hour, work-around the clock creative blitz, Trio will provide free marketing and creative services to nonprofits. CreateAthon will be held from at 8 a.m. on Thursday, September 18 to 8 a.m. on Friday, September 19 and five lucky applicants will get to assist in turning the staff at Trio into caffeine-addicted zombies for a 24-hour period. Although this is the second year Trio will participate, CreateAthon is in its 11th year and has benefited 1,008 nonprofit organizations nationally with 2,143 projects valued at $8.5 million. So help us keep the energy alive and fill out the application on Trio’s site. The deadline to apply is July 28, 2008. Who knows…you could be on of the lucky five!

Friday evening as I was running around the kitchen preparing for our company, I turned on the television and saw Tim Russert’s face. The NBC station is typically on in our house, so this wasn’t an uncommon occurrence. However as I continued listening to the story I realized what had happened and that I would never really see Tim’s face on television again. Tim had died of a heart attack doing what he loved so much, preparing for Meet the Press. This weekend I learned more about Tim Russert than I ever would had this horrible event not occurred. And learning about the kind of man Tim was just makes this all the more bittersweet. I almost felt as if I was mourning a close friend or family member. All of the sudden you see him as a husband, a father, a devoutly religious Catholic, a loving son and a wonderful co-worker. We talk about our philosophy at Trio often and this weekend I learned what it means to live it day in and day out. Got get em’ Tim. You are probably in heaven right now explaining to God about the crazy politics of our time. Hopefully you have the biggest whiteboard you could ever ask for!

The care package and request to Michael Franti went out yesterday so let’s all keep our fingers, toes, and whatever else we can manage to cross, crossed! We’re asking Franti to headline our latest effort to support Project OKURASE. The event, United Artists for Hope - A Music Festival to Benefit Project OKURASE, will raise funds to help build a clean, safe water system for the Nkabom Center that will house, educate and support orphaned and vulnerable children in Ghana.

The children of Djole Dance Company created a book called “What We Be” for Franti that was based on his book “What I Be”. They put a lot of time, energy, and love into the project…hopefully he’ll be as moved as we were!

Having Franti involved is key to this project - we simply cannot imagine doing it without him. He is more than just a musician - he is a liberator, a healer, an advocate and so much more. Combining his musical talent and powerful messages with Project OKURASE’s mission will move this effort by leaps and bounds.

Looking forward to hearing back from Franti and his camp. Please say lots of prayers everyone, that we may be fortunate enough to bring Michael Franti to the Lowcountry to enjoy his music and gain his support for this worthwhile cause.

Peace!

I am happy to say that with a little over a month since the Nonprofit Nook Web site launched, we have over 80 members! Jessica M. and I have been promoting the Web site like crazy. She is the social marketing guru who has taken the Nook into the world of facebook. I have been concentrating on finding partners and posting new content daily on the site. We even got a shout out in the Post and Courier! It is really coming together! I just wish that I could get members to start talking to one another, but I know that will come with time. It just seems like the biggest member benefit would be sharing information with each other. In the next phase we will be adding a feature that allows you to receive notification when someone has posted in the community or a new event has been added to the site. Hopefully this will result in an increase in traffic on the site on a regular basis. I just keep reminding myself that Rome wasn’t built in a day. So, are you in the Nook? If not and you are a nonprofit making the most of marketing, events and Web, join today!

Getting business owners to understand the true value of marketing is tough much less during economic hard times. The ironic thing about having weak sales or dealing with a not-so-wonderful economy is it’s really your opportunity to make the most of your marketing dollars. When the going gets tough, don’t cut your marketing budget! This is your chance to increase market share, shine above the rest (because you’re competition has probably cut their budget) and have a great market presence.

A fellow, local marketeer, David Rawle did a great job of comparing his experience with a bike race and marketing in a weak economy in his column in the Charleston Regional Business Journal - Marketing Matters: Ten marketing tips in a weak economy.

As marketing professionals, we know business owners have to think about the bottom line - but here’s the bottom line: Don’t cut your marketing budget. Get smarter about your marketing dollars. View them as an investment not an expense. If you cut your marketing efforts then you cut your lifeline to your target market and future growth.

Researchers at Penn State University said it best in 2005 after surveying more than 150 senior marketing executives from a variety of industries. “For well-positioned companies, an economic recession should not prompt marketing cutbacks, but rather an aggressive increase in marketing spending to achieve superior business performance.” Read journal excerpt.

My mom used to tell me that all the time when things seemed to go awry. Well it’s been almost two months since we lost all our server files during a storm and I have to say that I actually believe this saying to be true. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that it’s been an easy transition but what I can say is there have actually been some benefits to starting over.

1. It’s been a great way to purge our files.
2. We are so much more organized now with our filing system.
3. We’re on our way to having a back-up system that should never fail.
4. It’s been a true test to see which team members can truly laugh in the face of danger.

Now, if Companion, our insurance company can come through to offset the business income loss then I will truly feel like Trio survived and triumphed. And, honestly even if they don’t - we’ll still come out on top because we’re all stronger and wiser.