Category Archives: stewardship

Leaving a Legacy When Morality and Coolness Collide

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millennialsWe often hear from parents and grandparents about a disconnect between their values and those of their children and grandchildren. For example, many grandparents do not share their grandchildren’s views on life issues, same sex marriage, and morality in general.  Another area of disagreement between the generations revolves around the church. Brett McCracken, author of Hipster Christianity: When Church & Cool Collide, addresses the issue in a recent article published in The Washington Post, How to keep Millennials in the church? Let’s keep the church un-cool.

McCracken, a Millennial himself, sides with the older generation and takes his own generation to task for wanting the church to adapt to their whims. Near the end of his article he surmises…

But at the end of the day, the Christian gospel is defined outside of and with little regard to whatever itch people think Christianity should scratch. Consumerism asserts that people want what they want and get what they want, for a price. It’s all about me. But to position the gospel within this consumerist, give-them-what-they-want framework is to open the door to all sorts of distortions, mutations, and “to each his own” cockamamy variations. If Christianity aims to sell a message that scratches a pluralism of itches, how in the world will a cohesive, orthodox, unified gospel survive?

Brett McCracken understands how importance it is for the Church to remain steadfast in its values and principles. Do your grandchildren and children “get it” too? If you do not believe your children or grandchildren hold McCracken’s point of view regarding the church, or they do not share your values and morality, then you must decide how to protect your legacy.

The Stewardship Foundation can help you protect your family legacy and ensure that your values are honored in your estate planning and the administration of your family or private foundation. We are here to assist you through the various financial options we provide. Our core principles will not change. The Stewardship Foundation does not seek to “scratch a pluralism of itches.” Rather, we support a “cohesive, orthodox, unified gospel” and we work with those individuals, families, organizations, and professionals who support them as well.

Proverbs 22:6: “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”

The Great Gatsby

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green lightRecently I saw the new release of the movie The Great Gatsby, which is based on the novel written by my favorite literary author, F. Scott Fitzgerald. Many literary critics believe that Fitzgerald best captured the spirit of the roaring twenties and defining the hopes associated with the American Dream.

In the last line of the book, narrator Nick says: “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter— tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther… and one fine morning… so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

Did you notice how Fitzgerald leaves Nick’s thoughts unfinished? Perhaps because his narrator knew that Gatsby would have remained ceaselessly engaged in being carried back to the past – so what was the use of looking forward and planning for the future?

The non-profits and charities that we support can’t survive in a world of Gatsbys – they need supporters who believe wholeheartedly in their cause to “run faster” and “stretch their arms farther” with volunteerism and charitable donations. These supporters live the true American Dream, they make America a better place. Knowing that it’s not beyond their reach to make a difference, they give of themselves and their money and are happy to do it.

Gatsby had a romantic idea of happiness that ceaselessly brought him back to the past. Research in psychology has examined how giving affects people’s emotional well-being and determined that helping others leads to positive emotions such as warmth and happiness. If only Gatsby had known that the elusive Daisy (represented by the green light) would never have brought him the happiness that helping others could have. If only Gatsby had spent less time with a room full of interesting people, and more time with the Stewardship Foundation.

Admittedly, we too at the Stewardship Foundation have romantic ideas. We want to help make the world a better place by supporting transformational giving based on a set of moral values set out in the Manhattan Declaration. But unlike Gatsby, we stretch out our arms everyday and run harder to help our clients discover true happiness that comes from helping causes that are aligned with a moral compass.

If you have non-cash assets like property or valuables and would like to learn how you can use those assets to do good in your lifetime, please contact us. No beating against the current here – just moving forward to what defines us as Americans. Call us at (614) 800-7985.

The Iceberg Theory – What Donors Can’t See Can’t Help Charities

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During college I took a literature course from a professor who greatly respected Nobel Prize winning author, Ernest Hemingway.  One characteristic of this great American’s writing style is the Iceberg Theory, also known as the “theory of omission.”  

If a writer stops observing he is finished. But he does not have to observe consciously nor think how it will be useful. Perhaps that would be true at the beginning. But later everything he sees goes into the great reserve of things he knows or has seen. If it is any use to know it, I always try to write on the principle of the iceberg. There is seven-eighths of it underwater for every part that shows. Anything you know you can eliminate and it only strengthens your iceberg. It is the part that doesn’t show. If a writer omits something because he does not know it then there is a hole in the story.
— Ernest Hemingway

What if non-profit organizations kept this iceberg principle in mind when talking to major donors? What if their executive directors and development officers started “observing” their donors—consciously listening for the “part that doesn’t show” – the 7/8 they can’t see or perceive because donors typically reveal only the tips of their icebergs? icebergDonors do not consciously omit information, but they only reveal what is necessary to answer your questions. And isn’t the typical question, “Are you willing to increase your donation amount this year?”

The question is interesting because it ignores the 80% of donor wealth tied to non-cash assets like land and buildings, a business, or holiday home. A typical family earning $100,000 a year gives a little over $2,500 to charity. What wonderful things could happen if donors only knew how to leave a legacy by leveraging their wealth tied up in vacation homes or vacant land!

At the Stewardship Foundation we provide tools and support that advisors and non-profits can use to help their donors realize the charitable intent potential hidden “below the iceberg.”  For example, on our website we post Questions for Donors to help development offices and other financial professionals listen for certain donor concerns that may indicate a willingness to move from “donation” to “legacy.”

The tragic story of the Titanic illustrates the danger for those who ignore the Iceberg Theory’s suggestion that when a writer (think nonprofit or charity or donor) omits something then there is a “hole in the story.” By ignoring the wealth that lies beneath the iceberg, charities and nonprofits may lose the opportunity for sustainability, and donors lose the opportunity to accomplish great things during their lifetime.

If you are a nonprofit or charity and want to learn how you can apply Hemingway’s wisdom to your development efforts, then we’d love to share our knowledge about transformational giving. If you are a donor who has never considered using your “hidden wealth” to make a difference in your community during your lifetime, then we’d love to share our knowledge about planned giving. As a huge Hemingway fan, it would be my pleasure to honor this great American author by helping in some way to plug a few holes and leave our community and causes in a better place because we did.