Don’t Give to Charity, Grant to Charity

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thank-you basketMost Americans are generous. We support our churches and step up to the plate during times of natural disasters. We give to United Way at work, donate goods and cash to the Salvation Army, and many respond to televised pleas for support especially when it involved children or pets. Americans have big hearts, and giving makes us feel good. It also allows for a break on our tax return!

But do you give strategically? Have you taken the time to think through how you can best help the causes you care most about? Giving strategically means “giving with goals in mind”—a way to support a charity, or several charities, that you love.

A Donor-Advised Fund (DAF) is a charitable account that acts as a charitable savings account. You make an initial deposit that is immediately tax-deductible, then use it to make grants out to qualified 501(c)(3) charities when you wish. The magic of grants is that you can specify how you want your money to be used by the charity.

You may be able to give more than you think! You can fund your DAF account with cash; that’s better than having it taxed. Yet you can increase your giving by putting to work your non-cash assets like stocks, real estate, IRAs, whole life insurance policies, art collections, and other tangible personal property. You keep your assets in the family, and allow their value to help others during your lifetime!

There are legitimate reasons to keep your giving private. We find that some business owners with staunch moral convictions prefer to keep information about which charities they support private. Unlike giving from a private foundation, a DAF allows them to increase their giving capacity at a fraction of the cost, without all the legal, tax and regulatory burdens, and never having detailed tax records made public.

If a strategic giving plan sounds interesting and solves some organizational, administrative, or privacy issues for you, call me today at (614) 800-7985 or reply to this email. And please, share this blog from Stewardship Foundation with someone you know. Together, we can make the world a better place.

The Greatest Pro-Life Story Ever Told

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Bible stories, Tradition, and Christmas carols tell the story something like this:
Joseph leads a very pregnant Mary on a donkey into Bethlehem where he had trouble finding a room. An innkeeper suggests a vacant stable nearby, so they take up residence there. Jesus is born and Mary places Him in a hay-filled manger where he’s warmed by the breath of a cow and Mary’s donkey.

christmas crib figurinesLuke is the only evangelist that presents the story of Jesus’ birth. The Greek word he uses for the setting of Jesus’ birth is kataluma. In Luke 2:7 “kataluma” is translated as “inn” but the same word is used in Luke 22:11 for what seems to be a guest room. So it could have been that a hospitable innkeeper invited them to stay in his own house for several days or weeks and never mentioned his stable. I’d really like to believe it happened this way. But does “how” matter?

What does matter is that Christ was born as Isaiah 9:6 prophesied 700 years earlier when he proclaimed a “child is born to us, a son is given to us…and his name will be called Wonder Counsellor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.”

The birth of Christ is especially meaningful for the Stewardship Foundation. The birth of the Christ child is the greatest pro-life story ever told. Mary’s story is told each time the life of a young mother with an uncertain future is interrupted by an unexpected pregnancy. And whenever a hesitant young father, like Joseph, is unsure he really wants to get involved. They both said “yes” and changed the world for all mankind.

To all the pro-life supporters and pregnancy crises center volunteers and staff we have had the privilege to help train in 2016, and for all the donors whose generosity has helped fund these centers through the Stewardship Foundation, thank you. May everyone have a blessed Christmas.

Lives Matter Less in DC

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Euthanasia is the intentional killing of a human in order to relieve their suffering. When life-sustaining treatments are withheld from a patient with a terminal condition, it’s called “passive” or non-voluntary euthanasia. When a suffering patient asks for their life to be terminated, it’s voluntary. The moral, ethical, and legal issues surrounding the practice are divisive around the globe. On one side, those that uphold the sanctity of human life; on the other, those that argue for self-determination and personal choice.

On November 1, the District of Columbia City Council voted 11-2 to pass the “Death with Dignity Act” that allows a physician to legally prescribe drugs to mentally competent people who have a terminal diagnosis of 6 months or less. You can read the article here.

Ironically, shouldn’t this decision spark a whole new discussion from the Blacks Lives Matter groups? This is, after all, Washington D.C., our nation’s capital with a 50.7% black or African-American population! Why is legalizing murder/suicide not opening another can of worms—could the District also use a suicide option to remove the suffering of the most marginal citizens?

syringeFor example, take a hopelessly down-on-his-luck drug-dependent homeless man on the street who walks into a doctor’s office to demand assisted suicide. He has no future, no hope, and no means to overcome his dependence on a drug that will eventually kill him anyway. He complains that he is suffering, probably more so than anyone dying from cancer or another fatal disease. His lifestyle is his fatal disease. He demands to be put out of his misery and appears to be mentally competent in his demand.

The terms of the euthanasia law that just passed is fairly narrow now, but many social justice laws were narrow at their first passing (like abortion) and became more lenient over time as society grew used to new norms. By passing this law on assisted suicide, are they not emphatically declaring that some lives do not matter?