Loving United Way Like A Loved One

Without a pause, DJ Hampton answered, “Oh, yes, not only do I remember the first time I ever donated to a nonprofit, I remember the first three times.”

David “DJ” Hampton II is President & CEO of Trident United Way, serving the Charleston, S.C. community in that role since April 2023. While he has more than 20 years of professional experience in the United Way network, his personal affiliation began much earlier. “When I was in elementary school, I needed speech therapy,” he shared, “I didn’t know it at the time, but the speech therapy program was actually provided by United Way.”

Hampton went on to become the first person in his family to graduate from college, and then to earn a master’s and law degree. “The first gift I ever made was to my alma mater,” he remembered. “I gave it as a ‘thank you’ while I was a grad student because I saw the effect that education had on my life.” His second donation, soon after, was to his fraternity, and his third was to United Way.

“I was finishing up one job and searching for another when I discovered the United Way of America Community Fellows program and sent to United Way of Central Alabama,” Hampton recalled. During the program, Hampton, guided by longtime United Way leader Dan Dunne, attended strategic planning sessions, board meetings, and rotated through every project area in the organization. “I saw people coming together to solve problems for their neighbors in innovative ways,” said Hampton. “I saw what an incredible gift to the community United Way was, and I realized that I didn’t want to live in any community that didn’t have a strong United Way.”

I saw what an incredible gift to the community United Way was, and I realized that I didn’t want to live in any community that didn’t have a strong United Way.

In his first campaign year, Hampton made a leadership gift. He has been doing the same ever since, though he jokes, “I wish someone had told me back then that I really shouldn’t have been giving such a big part of such a small paycheck.”

Hampton was also quick to recall the first time he considered a planned gift to a nonprofit. It was during those early years at United Way in Birmingham, when he was struggling to pull together enough money for Friday night out or to take a woman on a proper date. “Dan [Dunne] came to me and said, ‘Your energy is contagious. People are excited when you ask them for a gift to United Way, but sooner or later one of them is going to ask if you’ve made this kind of gift,’” Hampton remembered. “He told me to look over my options and figure out how to make it work.”  

Today, Hampton and his wife, Allison, support United Way through two planned gifts and are in the process of updating their estate plans to include a third.

Allison Grayson, a United Way of America Community Fellow sent to Seattle, also worked at United Way of Central Alabama, where she focused on community impact. Today she is Visiting Assistant Professor at Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. As a researcher, she admires United Ways that are innovating and adapting. “In many communities,” Grayson observes, “United Way is one of the few places that promotes unity over division and sets the table for the entire community.” As an alum and supporter, she knows “to maintain that, United Ways need to be focused on sustainability, and our planned gifts help make that happen.”

United Way is one of the few places that promotes unity over division and sets the table for the entire community.

When asked what he hoped more individuals knew about planned gifts, Hampton noted their accessibility, “Most people don’t know how easy it is to create a will or to add a codicil or amendment if you already have a will.”

Gifts through wills or estates make up over 90% of planned gifts.*  During National Estate Planning Awareness Week (October 20-26, 2025, and annually in late October), nonprofits like United Way promote awareness and understanding of these and other long-term gift options.

For Hampton, both a planned gift donor himself and a nonprofit fundraising leader, gifts through wills carry a special meaning. “At the end of the day,” he said, “the people in your will are the people you love. And so, any organization that you leave in your will, you are saying that you love that organization like you do a loved one.”

At the end of the day,” he said, “the people in your will are the people you love. And so, any organization that you leave in your will, you are saying that you love that organization like you do a loved one.

That warmth and spirit of togetherness keep Hampton motivated on tough days. Growing up in a small town with too few economic opportunities and too much snow, Hampton remembers the entire neighborhood pitching in to shovel someone out or help a family make ends meet.

“What’s that old Bon Jovi lyric and John Donne quote? No man is an island?” he asked. “No one can get ahead without help. One person helps move something out of the way so that another person can succeed. United Way does that at the community level. We work with partners, community foundations, and local governments. We are not an island.”

“I am proud to be a co-investor in that work.”

*Source: PlannedGiving.com