Author Archives: Stewardship Foundation

Bethesda Healing

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Now there is in Jerusalem at the Sheep [Gate] a pool called in Hebrew Bethesda, with five porticoes. In these lay a large number of ill, blind, lame, and crippled. For [from time to time] an Angel of the Lord would come down into the pool; and the water was stirred up, so the first one to get in [after the stirring of the water] was healed of whatever disease afflicted him. (John 5:2-4)

healingBethesda Healing Ministry on Dover Road in Columbus is a Catholic Christian ministry that for 22 years has served men and women suffering the effects of abortion in the spirit of the biblical Bethesda. The Stewardship Foundation has supported the ministry financially for several years, and is blessed for having done so. In April, we attended their Annual Event Dinner where the ministry hoped to raise $150,000 to fund their vision to extend “the arms of outreach” in Ohio. Up to now, the ministry has been run strictly by volunteers at no pay but now foundress Judy Schlueter feels they need to fill new leadership and staffing positions and broaden their reach so that more suffering people can experience healing.

We encourage you to visit their new website. You will be moved and inspired with their work and the real life stories told by women who chose abortion and have now experienced the healing power of God’s love.

Forward this blog to anyone you know who may need God’s healing love from depression, self-hatred, or trauma due to a choice made in secret or at a time of great confusion.

Forward this blog as well to anyone you know who may may be seeking investment advice from professionals who are principled and committed to Christian stewardship.

Millennials: Hope for the Unborn?

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Every year since 1973, pro-life demonstrators have boarded buses and sung themselves silly on the road to the U.S. Capital to join the March for Life. And for the first time in decades, there are signs of hope that Roe v. Wade won’t survive the millennial generation.

The March grew from a couple dozen protestors to hundreds of thousands pouring in from all 50 states and even other countries. Yet it didn’t seem to make a difference with lawmakers. However, advances in medicine and emerging technologies, like the Internet, that help educate youth is having a positive impact on young people. According to a recent USA Today article, millennials themselves are deciding that abortion should not be legal and identify themselves as pro-life.

This year marked the 28th annual conference for Students For Life of America. Attendance was high and demand so huge that the the SFLA had to schedule an extra day of the conference. Speaker Robert P. George, a law professor at Princeton University, applauded the dedication of pro-life leaders and honored the youth that are now seeing “the reality of the beautiful human life of the child in the womb.”

This leads me to share a story we ran across on the SFLA website. Let me just say that Ben (fictitious name) wandered by a “When Do Human Rights Begin?” display at a university in Iowa and asked the question all pro-lifers dread. What happened next is amazing—read the amazing witness ».

New Partner Program Introduced

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We journeyed to St. Louis in early April to present our new Partner Program to attendees of the Heartbeat International annual conference. We were blessed to share our ideas with 53 souls eager to learn how to cultivate major donors willing to maximize their charitable gifts.

As our attendees learned, it’s non-cash gifts that sustain and transform the mission of a pregnancy help center. For donors, these gifts last well beyond the year they are gifted. Beneficial tax laws for major donors have been around for decades, but employees and volunteers in small centers lack the skills to cultivate large gifts.

Non-cash assets usually comprise 80-90% of a donor’s wealth. Letting this resource go untapped is common, considering that it takes advanced estate planning techniques. Rarely do non-profits have those capabilities in-house.

In our workshop, we explained that because we are a 501(c)(3) public foundation, we can meet with families who have private foundations to explain how they can quietly and anonymously give to a pregnancy help center. We demonstrated to those tasked with donor development to ask specific questions of their cash donors in order to generate an interest in using their assets today to avoid taxation later. We explained how certain charitable planning tools can provide residual income for donors during their life time, a more secure inheritance for their heirs, or form the basis of a family legacy.

An integral cog in our Partner Program wheelhouse is our financial investment partner. Our parter understands our vision and mission and adheres to our strict pro-life, pro-family, anti-pornography investment policy. They offer investment portfolios that are 95-100% supportive of pro-life causes and that avoid investments at odds with the fundamental Christian faith on which we built our Foundation.

Those who attended our workshop were pleased with our approach to partnering. For example, we don’t change current fundraising procedures; we add a bold new layer of morally responsible investing rarely seen in the philanthropic world. We work with donors’ existing financial professionals as long as our values are respected and implemented. Our modest fees respect the slim operating budgets of our partners.

Knowing that we work on behalf of the director, staff, and board members, and alongside current outside advisors and professionals provides an important level of comfort. Our program provides training workshops, donor motivation seminars, webinars, and other education and hands-on participation to make non-cash major gifts a reality. If you have questions about our Partner Program, contact Executive Director, Jim Kebe: 614-582-5056, jimkebe@stewardshipworks.org.