Lessons from a Young Rich Man

We’ve all heard the biblical story about the about the rich young man who approached Jesus to ask how to gain eternal life. Jesus’s first reply was “obey my commandments.” The man then assured Jesus that he does obey all the Lord’s commandments! So Jesus looked this young wealthy man straight in the eye and said, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell all that you have and give the money you make to the poor, then you will have treasure in heaven.” 

The rich young man now had a dilemma. If he sold all he had how would he be able to live out his life until his time of death when he would enjoy the treasures of heaven? It didn’t make sense to him. He became, as the Bible says, “very sad.” 

Jesus looked at him standing there, so sad, and he said, “Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.”

How do we, as good generous Christians reconcile this in today’s world? We know that everything that God does is good and He wouldn’t give us anything that will purposely hurt us. The scripture makes it obvious that wealth can be a blessing from God and that when God gives wealth, there is joy and happiness along with it.

The young rich man to chose to keep his wealth? He was probably in his 20s. About 40 years later, the Roman armies destroyed Jerusalem and the lands around it. Homes of wealthy Jews were plundered, and all their riches and possessions taken from them.

The story gives us pause as we consider the attachment we have to the things of this world. But this is a human perspective! From God’s perspective, possessions (wealth) can be considered a blessing if that wealth does NOT separate us from God and is used to spread His mission on Earth.

How can we help you spread His Word?

Kickoff Time for Investors

Football season: the time of year when we invest over 2 hours watching men in one color of uniform repeatedly try to hold on to an odd-shaped ball while running toward a big “H” with the intent to get past that big “H” before someone in another color uniform trips him up or somehow manages to steal that ball and run with it in the other direction.

American football field and ball on green grass.

When one guy gets the ball over a white chalk line half of the crowd stands up and roars while the guy that took the ball over that line is mobbed by a bunch of men all dressed in the same color uniform.

Getting that odd-shaped ball over the white line is very important. Much like getting prepared for end of year giving.

Football fans love a good football game, and we love watching all those last-second decisions made by the players. They remind our customers that it’s time to make investment decisions that are both “transformational” and that will make an “impact.”

Transformational giving is what the nonprofit and the donor experience when the gift “transforms” or changes either or both parties. Think of transformational giving as the football player that assumes his role in order to win for his team. In transformational giving the financial returns do not come back to the investor, rather it generates revenue so that the organization doesn’t need additional grants to run its programs.

An impact investment is a socially responsible form of investing that creates measurable social or environmental impact alongside a financial return for the investor.

This model will not work for all charities (eg: disaster relief), but for most it enables a gift to keep on giving and attracts high net worth charitable investors. If this type of long term thinking fascinates you, inspires you, challenges you… or if you are a major gift or development officer, or you know someone who is, we’d like to lead the conversation.

Investing for Social Behavior

Remember the days when “investing” meant putting money into well-known assets like stocks, bonds, cash, real estate or equity shares and expecting a reasonable appreciation of capital, dividends, or interest earnings? At the Stewardship Foundation, it still is — with the additional peace of mind that your money or assets are working for the common good.

If you keep up with financial news, you may have noticed a bothersome trend…the investment world is becoming woke.

Net Zero and Carbon Neutral Concepts Net Zero Emissions Goals Weather neutral long-term strategy.

There are a growing number of investment firms encouraging their clients to “act responsibly” and this commission has even taken on its own acronym: ESG. 

E refers to environmental, S is for social, and Gstands for governance. ESG then refers to the criteria for evaluating corporate behavior when screening potential investments. What they must have in common is that they offer investments that support social, political or environmental issues.

ESG looks at the company’s environmental impact on the world, the social impact it has on populations and politics, and then the governance required to produce a social benefit. 

We can recall that after God created the world—the sky, day and night, living creatures on the land and in the sea and in the air—He said “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:26-27) “Not so fast” says the woke crowd, “who says God is a man, or that a man-God created another man first? What about the women? Maybe God is a she not a he, or maybe there’s no such thing as gender … just “parts” we are born with because God chose variety. That is, if there really is a God at all!

The Stewardship Foundation firmly believes that God exists, that he created man and woman for the purpose of procreation, that in the biblical story of the Parable of Talents (Matthew 25:14-30) we are taught that to those who are entrusted much, much is expected, and if you are a steward of man (we are) we must be good stewards with our donor’s money and increase our donor’s wealth for the good of all. If we create a better world at the same time, we give all the glory to God.

In short, ESG investing is aligning your investments with a set of world values. Morally responsible investing aligns your investments on biblical principles, which The Stewardship Foundation always has and continues to do.