Modern generosity from business to the breakfast table
IN THIS EMAIL
How to increase your joy in giving
Selling the Seahawks—but also, a better way
Featured nonprofits: War relief in the Middle East
The math behind Christ’s care for our flourishing
How to Increase Your Joy in Giving
“Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”
2 Corinthians 9:7
If you’ve ever read this verse more as a challenge than an encouragement, you’re not alone. Sometimes “cheerful giving” is just an aspiration and “reluctant giving” is much closer to reality.
As with any part of the Christian life, it’s normal to experience a periodic lack of enthusiasm on your generosity journey. At the same time, there are ways you can take action to rediscover joy in your giving.
Our friend Heather Tuininga, a philanthropic advisor, recommends prayerfully combining two very different giving strategies:
Being intentional with your giving and working to understand the impact you’ve made; and
Being spontaneous with your giving and leaving the outcomes to God.
She suggests devoting 80-90% of your charitable dollars to intentional giving and reserving 10-20% for spontaneous, Spirit-led giving.
You probably already do a lot of thinking about intentional, impact-driven giving. You can read Heather’s advice for strategic givers in her blog post.
As for spontaneous giving, for some this can be an even greater exercise in faith, prayer, and (yes) joy. It usually happens when we’re face to face with another human or presented with an opportunity to give in the moment. It puts us in a place to pay attention to what Heather calls “the nudge” — that prompting from the Holy Spirit that urges you to do something.
“Spontaneously responding to the nudge is great fun,” she says.
Are you ready to try having some fun? Let the Holy Spirit direct your gaze this week. What do you see? Who do you see?
After a championship win last month, the pending sale of the Seattle Seahawks will probably fetch nearly $7 billion. The proceeds will likely go to the late Paul Allen’s private foundation to be granted out to charities.
Donating the value of an NFL team may be one of the less unconventional aspects of Paul Allen’s philanthropic legacy, according to the Seattle Times. It’s a complicated estate.
However, it is worth remembering that leveraging other assets for generosity doesn’t have to be quite so complicated.
In general, donating an asset directly means more of its value can go straight to charity (because less will get caught up in capital gains taxes). While an NFL team owned by Washington's largest estate might be difficult to donate in kind, most business or real estate assets don’t have to be.
If you have a C-corp, S-corp, partnership, or other business—and not, for example, a winning football team subject to NFL ownership regulations—you might be able to make a bigger impact by donating shares of the asset directly to a donor advised fund like The Signatry.
How big a difference can a nonliquid donation make? You can experiment with different scenarios using our Generosity Calculator.
Featured Nonprofits: War Relief in the Middle East
As conflict in the Middle East continues, more civilians are facing the threat of displacement, food scarcity, and violence. If you’ve been wondering how you can help the people affected by this latest round of bombings and violence, here are a few of the nonprofits working in the area that The Signatry’s community of donors has supported.
MEBO is working with organizations on the ground as they provide aid to the rapidly-growing number of displaced people in and near Lebanon. One of their partner organizations, Thimar-LSESD, provides regular updates on the ongoing crisis in Lebanon. They also partner with a handful of schools and seminaries in the area to communicate the good news of Jesus through outreach and love of neighbor.
Note: MEBO is the US fiscal sponsor for Thimar-LSESD, a faith-based organization in Lebanon.
Shining Hope International is also on the ground assisting Lebanese refugees. One recent email from the team relayed their need for food, fuel, blankets, medicine, and printed Gospel materials.
The Math Behind Christ’s Care for Our Flourishing
“What relative importance does [God] place on the different facets of our wellbeing?”
Economics professor Bruce Wydick did the math. He categorized all 171 of Jesus’s recorded interactions with others by which of five core needs Jesus was addressing: Spiritual, physical, social, mental, or economic.
This summary in Christianity Today walks through the various results under different methods of analysis. The topline result: “Want a one-dimensional religion? Well, it’s not Christianity.”
By one estimate, giving equal weight to Jesus’s miracles and his teachings, 40% of interactions engaged with the person’s spiritual needs, 25% engaged with social needs, 20% with physical needs, 9% with economic needs, and 7% with mental/psychological needs.
Wydick also takes the opportunity to compare these numbers with the results of an international clubfoot treatment project by Hope Walks. Untreated clubfoot is devastating on all of these margins, especially in developing economies. The comparison is worth a closer read—the pie charts look surprisingly similar.
This does not constitute nor does The Signatry provide legal, tax, financial or other professional advice. You should consult professional advisors concerning the legal, tax, or financial consequences of your charitable activities.
