Who Doesn’t Love a DAF!

we love DAFsFor starters, what is a DAF? It’s an acronym for Donor Advised Fund, a charitable giving vehicle administered by a qualified public charity, like the Stewardship Foundation, for the purpose of managing charitable donations on behalf of an organization, family or individual.

Donors who contribute to the fund get an immediate tax benefit, yet they also retain control over how the money will be invested and how the fund distributes the money over time. It’s like a charitable savings account: a donor contributes to the fund whenever they like and then recommends grants to their favorite charities when they are ready.

If a charity is not talking to their donors about contributing to a DAF, they may be losing out on a huge revenue stream.

Do donors like DAFs?

They sure do! It’s easy for donors and better for the charity. No donor likes to keep a pile of receipts, or scramble to make donations at the end of year along with Christmas expenses. With a DAF, they make “deposits” to their charity fund monthly or so, very much like they make deposits to savings. Their generosity grows over time and allows a DAF-supported charity to look long-term and begin to plan for the future.

Most donors covet their privacy. For example, business owners who contribute to morally ethical causes like pro-life and organizations supportive of traditional marriage between one man and one woman prefer to avoid publicity. Contributing to a DAF does not require disclosure; it opens up new opportunities for donors and charities to come together more easily.

Donors can be sensitive. Many advisors are reluctant to initiate the charitable conversation with their clients out of fear that they may be perceived as imposing their own values on the client or trying to steer them to a specific charity. But discussions centered on a DAF can lead to gifts or bequests that are clearly donor choices.

We want our partner charities to realize that DAFs can accept gifts of privately held stock, real estate, collectibles, and other complex assets.

Not all donors are good candidates for DAFs. We assist our partners to identify those who are. And this time of year, we assist our partners to reach out to donors who are making their end of year charitable decisions.

Do you know someone who would like to make an end of year donation?

Are you a charity that needs our assistance? Our help is a phone call away. Call Jim at 614-800-7985.

College Kids Growing Up Catholic

Imagine this! Your college-age child or grandchild home for Thanksgiving break wants to talk about his faith – he speaks about the joy of worship, reading the Bible, and meeting regularly with friends for prayer and sharing. Sounds unbelievable? It’s not.

This student is involved in St. Paul’s Outreach (SPO), active on several college campuses throughout the country. Recently, the Columbus chapter serving the Ohio State and Ohio Dominican Universities celebrated its 10th anniversary. At the annual banquet attended by over 700 supporters and alumni, my nephew Andrew Kebe, SPO’s Ohio Senior Mission Director, recounted his past ten years of service to this organization that has empowered and inspired so many young people and made such a lasting impact on college campuses.

The Stewardship Foundation is honored to partner with this inspiring organization. As a leadership mentor, I’ve been personally blessed with my involvement and proud to be a father and uncle to several students impacted by SPO.

Watch the video God Has Given The Growth – Ohio 10 Year Anniversary from Saint Paul’s Outreach:

If you are moved by what you see, please consider supporting SPO with a tax-deductible donation to the Stewardship Foundation’s Donor Advised Fund where 100% of investment returns benefit the Columbus SPO Chapter.

In the donation form, Under Optional Information, enter “SPO” in the Comment box. If you’d like to learn more about this particular DAF, please call me directly at 614-800-7985.

If you have a child or grandchild who has strayed from the faith, you can make your donation to the Donor Advised Fund in their name and we will pray for them – because it’s never too late for the Holy Spirit to enflame a heart.

If you have a college-age child or grandchild who could benefit from this ministry, contact Andrew Kebe.

From the Ohio Mission Center

God has given the growth! As we look back at the 2013-2014 school year, we can truly see the effectiveness of God’s grace upon our work. Here is a glimpse of the impact from last year:

  • More than 225 students were involved in small groups on the Ohio State, Ohio Dominican, and West Virginia campuses.
  • 4 SPO Ohio alumni entered formation for priestly or religious life and 11 more agreed to serve as full-time missionaries with a Catholic ministry. In 10 years, 72 SPO Ohio alumni have served at least one year of full-time missionary work, 21 are currently in religious or priestly formation, and 73 are now married and starting families.
  • SPO Ohio continued to collaborate in close partnership with the St. Thomas More Newman Center at OSU, particularly on building a stronger Catholic Bible Study program and kicking off the school year with Catholic Rush Week.
  • We completed the renovations on our new home on 13th Avenue, bringing our evangelization efforts to a new frontier in the heart of OSU’s off-campus housing and Greek houses.

Read more on our website.

“Lobbying” for Morally Responsible Investing

It’s been an embarrassing time for Hobby Lobby, the retail store chain that had most of us cheering when they took their case against the Obamacare mandate all the way to the Supreme Court. Regardless if Hobby Lobby wins in court what promises to be a landmark case exempting it from abiding by the HHS mandate, the company has other issues to address internally.

Hobby LobbyAfter a little digging into Hobby Lobby’s 401(k) plan, Mother Jones, a nonprofit news organization that specializes in investigative, political, and social justice reporting uncovered that the closely-held company’s 401(k) employee retirement plan held more than $73 million in mutual funds with investments in companies that produce emergency contraceptive pills, intrauterine devices, and drugs commonly used in abortions. Hobby Lobby makes matching contributions to their company-sponsored 401(k).

Considering the investment the Green family has made fighting the mandate, the story is likely more unfortunate than hypocritical. It didn’t need to happen! And what’s worse, other pro-life companies and ordinary pro-life investors all have an easy choice – there are pro-life investment funds that screen out stocks of companies that may be engaged in Planned Parenthood, certain abortion drugs, or embryonic stem cell research. If this news about Hobby Lobby has made you uncomfortable about your retirement plan choices, you are not alone. Fortunately, we have a policy of preventing our investors from making morally objectionable investments.

The Stewardship Foundation is adamant about carefully selecting our investment portfolios. We guide our donors and partner nonprofit organizations to practice morally responsible investing that matches the foundation’s call to Christian conscience. And we do this with no sacrifice in investment returns. If you or your organization is unsure whether or not your portfolio matches your morals, we are happy to assist you make that determination.

The following is a summation of the companies behind the Hobby Lobby debacle:

“These companies include Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, which makes Plan B and ParaGard, a copper IUD, and Actavis, which makes a generic version of Plan B and distributes Ella. Other stock holdings in the mutual funds selected by Hobby Lobby include Pfizer, the maker of Cytotec and Prostin E2, which are used to induce abortions; Bayer, which manufactures the hormonal IUDs Skyla and Mirena; AstraZeneca, which has an Indian subsidiary that manufactures Prostodin, Cerviprime, and Partocin, three drugs commonly used in abortions; and Forest Laboratories, which makes Cervidil, a drug used to induce abortions. Several funds in the Hobby Lobby retirement plan also invested in Aetna and Humana, two health insurance companies that cover surgical abortions, abortion drugs, and emergency contraception in many of the health care policies they sell.”

— Mother Jones Article ‘Hobby Lobby’s Hypocrisy: The Company’s Retirement Plan Invests in Contraception Manufacturers’, April 1, 2014

— Patrick Finneran