Before I Knew You

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With so much in the news about abortion rights, both pro and con, we look back at our blog of June 2016 when, coincidentally, we wrote about the mission of Columbus-based non-profits that promote a culture of protecting innocent human life from conception to natural death. Find our June 2016 blog here.

Fast forward six years to June 2022. There have been some changes —not in moral conscience; we remain faithful to the defense of life— but where the Columbus locations are actively saving lives and where you may want support your pro-life charitable giving. 

The Greater Columbus Right to Life Foundation operates today in eight counties and focuses on a full scope of life issues such as ending abortion, embryonic stem cell research, euthanasia, and physician-assisted suicide. There are ten Columbus-based pregnancy centers.

The Greater Columbus Right to Life community benefits from our support both materially and financially in many ways, but we suggest a legacy gift as part of any overall financial planning. We work with estate planners, financial advisors, accountants and attorneys to enable the “support of life” to be meaningful and sustaining. We are willing for share our vast knowledge of transformational giving with our nonprofit partners, foundations, and funders throughout the Columbus area. It is the large transformational gifts needed for long-term protection of the unborn that bring about the greatest results, but for both the giver and receiver can also be more complex.

Bequests can be as simple as placing a paragraph of instructions in a will, or adding a specific charity to an IRA or life insurance policy. Family foundations allow donors to keep their gifted capital intact while they make smaller annual charitable distributions.

Should you consider the Greater Columbus Right to Life, we hope that you will look to the Stewardship Foundation to lead the conversation.

What God Says About Having Money

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Supposedly, there are over 2,300 verses in the Bible about how to deal with money, possessions, greed, investing, and so on while only 500 verses address prayer and faith. Whether these numbers are fact or fiction is not the point…that all wealth given to us or earned by us is sourced from God IS the point.

And for this reason, it is wise to look at wealth from God’s point of view — that is, what he says about wealth in the Scriptures.

Nowhere in scripture is it said that wealth is a sign of God’s favor, even though in ancient biblical times it was thought that rich people were favored by God and the poor were poor simply because they were not in God’s favor. 

Jesus set them (and us) straight in the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus [Luke 16:19-31] In short, Lazarus was dirt poor, covered in sores, lying at the door of an unnamed rich man. Both the poor man and the rich man died at the same time. The poor man was carried by angels to heaven; the rich man was condemned to the netherworld for eternity. If you’ve never read the story, read it here. 

The biblical view of wealth and riches is quite spelled out in 1 Timothy 6:17-19.

Tell the rich in the present age not to be proud and not to rely on so uncertain a thing as wealth but rather on God, who richly provides us with all things for our enjoyment. Tell them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous, ready to share, thus accumulating as treasure a good foundation for the future, so as to win the life that is true life.

1 Timothy 6:17-19

Our job at the Stewardship Foundation is to be good stewards with our donors’ money, and our skills as charitable gift consultants in a public foundation is proven. Please pass this along to a friend that may be interested in our services.

Transactional vs Transformational Giving

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For transactional donors, recognition is often a driving factor. In return for their donation, the transactional donor may receive a plaque, their name engraved on a wall, or their gala attendance photo on the society page. Others are happy to simply receive a set of return address labels or notepads decorated with the nonprofit’s logo. A transactional gift rarely gives a donor the opportunity to understand and appreciate the non-profit’s vision and long-term impact. Without creating passion for the cause, the charity is left with no other resource that to keep the giver on their mailing list and ask over and over again.

collage of giving causes

Transformational donors are deeply concerned about the impact of their monetary gift. They are passionate about a cause and want to share their resources to support the nonprofit that shares that passion. Their gift is “transformational” — that is, the giving experience “transforms” or changes both the donor and the nonprofit. Donors have been described as “an actor in a story about how a group of people trying to build a better future were able to do it because there were so many heads, hands, and hearts playing the same role.

If you want to learn more about moving from transactional to transformational giving, or want to step up your game in a localized, personal way right here in Columbus (or anywhere in the world), the Stewardship Foundation can explain how you can develop a strategic approach for a lifetime of giving and engagement. Start now to make an impact in extraordinary ways. Contact Joe Finneran, (614) 800-7985