How Motherhood Informed 25 Years of Grantmaking

I recently noticed something pretty intriguing about my grantmaking decisions. 

With 4 kids, I often expressed gratitude that God was working when I was sleeping. So many of the decisions I made were done on my phone, at red lights (sorry…) on the sidelines of soccer practice, during gymnastics meets, and in doctor’s waiting rooms. It was a lot of just “going with my gut”, as they say. But I realize now that God was steering those decisions in a beautiful, personal way.

My grantmaking history tracks completely with my journey as a mother.

As my eldest started preschool I started making grants to pregnancy care centers and early childhood education. When one of the kids needed surgery for a childhood condition,  I found organizations that provided health services to those in hard places (Cure International for instance). When our first kids started working as young teens and I saw how vulnerable they were, I found heroes who advocated for rights of children (International Justice Mission). This trend continued as they accessed great schools and we started offering scholarships not only for their particular school but for college degrees in developing countries (The Bridge Scholarship). Finally, when they graduated from those schools I realized that the majority of the world does not have the access to employment that our children did. Enter impact investing to grow companies with great owners in the same developing economies. Now there would be more job opportunities.

I am so grateful that the Lord used my own lived experience to inform my grantmaking. As our children grow, we parents become literal experts of the context of their development. “What should my child be doing at this age?” “What does he/she need to thrive?” In my grantmaking travels I had seen the glaring absence of these supports in millions of childrens’ lives and I thought they absolutely deserved the same essential support that my well resourced kids were receiving. Regular nutritious food, health care, access to learn about Jesus, stable homes, education, employment and, by God’s grace, all our grants pointed to the provision of those things. 

And then we adopted. For the first time I was the mother to children who had experienced the lack of those blessings. This deepened my commitment and led us to so many new partners. As I came to terms that children have to be abandoned to save their lives in China I found groups that were committed to keeping families together (Love without Boundaries). As we worked with traumatized youth I now had a new sense of patience and compassion for them. When we dealt with disabilities in any of our kids, God showed me services provided in the most unlikely places (Healing with Horses). There was a new passion for the value of human life and its fragility and vulnerability. 

These days, meetings with grant partners often lead to tears as I can relate more and more personally to the issues that they are working to solve. I guess age and experience do that to us.  The complexity of the services and care they are providing is now a first hand experience for me. It’s pushed me further and further away from measuring impact. I can look at my own thriving, educated, healthy kids living lives of faith and know that the struggle to meet the needs of vulnerable children is worth the battle and it does make an impact.

I think more than anything, noticing this experience has built my trust that the Lord will continue to lead me in the things He has for our foundation to do. He’s led me clearly this far! I’m certain the same opportunity exists for all of us who listen for His voice and are charged with this responsibility of stewarding foundation resources.

Welcome to the Table #4

Once you start exploring how to add “good stuff” to your portfolio (or investments that impact the world in a biblically positive way), at some point you will be forced to ask, “What are we already invested in and what business activities are we profiting from?” Getting an answer to this question was more difficult than I thought, and my suspicion is that this is where most non-professional investors get stuck.  I first posed the question to our trust company managers, who were eager to share their ESG and Catholic values screens as options. I quickly realized, however, that we were speaking two different languages.

“They were quick to offer screening tools and investment options that are largely secular, whereas I was looking for someone who truly understood my faith and desire to invest in accordance with Biblical values. We were missing each other.”
 

As I attended more events, FDI gatherings, Zoom calls, the Talanton conference, and countless others (this is becoming a hot topic at most conferences!), I started meeting my “river guides,” as I like to call them. These are people I could be honest with about how out of my league I felt (again, the jargon and absence of other women in the Zoom rooms), and each river guide pointed me to the next one. I boldly took every call and was eventually introduced to Endel Liias at Nexus Impact Advisors. Endel and I had a long get-to-know-you conversation during which I finally felt like I wasn't crazy and that it was possible to align our investments with our Christian values.

This began a year-long journey to screen OUT what we don't want and replace it with investments we feel really good about. And yes, it is expensive and time consuming to hire consultants with the specialized expertise we needed. It's important to be honest about that and realize that once the initial work is completed, costs and time will reduce. It's a lot of heavy lifting on the front end, but talented, experienced advisors are worth the investment. 

For brevity I’ll simply list our process over the last year:

  1. Contract with Endel after developing clear expectations of outcomes. Our goal was to align our entire portfolio with our values while targeting an 8-9% risk-adjusted rate of return needed to fund our grantmaking goals. We wanted to make sure our foundation would not diminish due to these investment choices but continue in perpetuity for future generations. Returns are important to us. 

  2. Connect Endel to our trust company and long-serving investment advisors, who shared all the necessary info with him (they have been terrific about collaborating with an outside advisor, which surprised us!).

  3. Clearly define our Christian values and codify them in a screening framework that can be applied to our investment portfolio. This includes both negative screens (to remove the “bad stuff”) and positive screens (to proactively invest in the “good stuff”).

  4. Craft a new Investment Policy Statement (IPS) for our foundation with Endel’s help and collaboration from our board. This would serve as a blueprint for our investment activity outlining financial goals, investment objectives, constraints, governance mechanisms, values frameworks, and more. 

  5. Endel, in collaboration with our trust company, screened our entire portfolio of listed securities (meaning publicly-traded investments like stocks and bonds). Certain holdings like hedge funds are not required to divulge their underlying holdings, making screening nearly impossible.

  6. And then…fall down in shock after realizing we are invested in:

    • 23 abortion providers

    • 3 abortifacient contraceptive manufacturers

    • 147 companies using embryonic and/or fetal stem cells

    • 2 adult entertainment/pornography producers

    • 50 gambling operators

    • 87 companies with severe or very severe human rights violations

    • 41 tobacco producers

    • 63 alcohol producers

    • 2 private prison operators

    • 12 predatory lenders

WHAT?! REALLY?

“After 25 years of seeking to combat the impact of these practices on human beings, I realized we were actually contributing to them. At this point I realized there was no turning back. I knew what we were invested in and I had to change it.”
 

We lamented and then…

  1. Endel and our Foundation treasurer started exploring model portfolios that remove these problematic holdings while still targeting market-rate returns. Turns out there are lots of competitive options out there, from values-aligned mutual funds and ETFs to more customized direct index solutions called Separately Managed Accounts (SMAs).

  2. Sought to understand more about the financial performance of a values-aligned portfolio by reviewing fact sheets from existing fund managers and running backtests on the models (again, thank you Trust company)!

  3. Completed my own task (as the above items were completed by Nexus and our trust company holding the foundation assets). I kept pitching very high risk, early stage, private investments in Africa and elsewhere to Endel, most likely driving him crazy, while I still kept the drumbeat up on “competitive returns”.


I’ll end this article by sharing what I’ve continued to do through it all: keep learning the jargon and studying portfolio diversification. Plus asking the big question, will this really work? Will our returns tank?

To be continued…

Why Won't We Give Up On Haiti?

The Pilgrim Foundation has been contributing to Haiti since about 2009. This year, the country is currently in the worst season of political unrest in decades - including a fuel shortage which is causing a humanitarian crisis. In our years supporting Haitians we have witnessed:

  • 2 earthquakes

  • Hurricane Matthew and many others

  • 2 presidential elections

  • 1 presidential assassination

  • A cholera epidemic and COVID-19

Currently about 20% of our annual giving goes to Haiti. People regularly ask me: Has all your work been undone? Why continue supporting Haiti? My answer is NO it has not been undone but our outcomes are different. God’s ways are not our ways.


For example, we set out with the scholarship program to graduate students from college and ensure employability. During seasons of calm, yes that definitely happens. We have a significant number of fully employed students from our program. But in this season of challenge we are getting different outcomes.


Since schools are closed and they are limited to student housing, they are becoming very proficient in English (more time to practice), learning how to prepare for disaster now that they have some financial resources from their student stipend, having book clubs to develop their faith, movie discussion nights, developing long term planning and critical thinking skills by building daily and weekly schedules, and managing stress in healthy ways. These are all skills that were not the focus when they were fully enrolled in classes, but are proving vitally important. School WILL reopen and we want them to be ready when that happens!

Another project is a company we support as they grow their business. Because of stable grant support they can move operations to the DR temporarily and keep their Haitian employees working. Without those business grants they would have had to close. We never dreamed they'd need to move operations, but they have built great relationships that are willing to share their working space with them. 

Through this season God has brought John 1:5 to mind daily and I shared it with our Haitian staff this week. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it”. We continue to see remarkable perseverance among non-profit leaders in Haiti and in the college students we support. How could we leave them now? They keep showing up for Zoom meetings, traversing flooded streets and fiery barricades to continue the work. They are serving their communities to the best of their ability and are NOT the youth you see on the news rioting in the streets. 

During this season we have realized that God has been using our support over many, many years not to create, for example, college graduates, but to create lights in these communities for His Spirit to go forward and the darkness has not, in fact, overcome it. 

Meet the Aruna Project

One of the things I enjoy the most about my work is that it’s so focused on relationships. Take my meeting with Ryan Berg, Co-founder of Aruna Project, for example. We spent the first minutes discussing our families and their successes and differing stages. Once we got down to the details of the work going on in the Maharashtra state of India Aruna works in, Ryan quickly showed he isn’t just a family man. 


Ryan Berg, Co-founder of Aruna

Aruna seamstresses hard at work.

“India is proving to be more difficult to work in as they make adjustments to their foreign funds regulations.” 

There are multiple policies and regulations in place that Aruna must follow, especially because they not only have a non-profit side, but also a successful enterprise employing women who have been rescued from sex trafficking. Recently, the policies have become more strict, and in one example, only 3 banks in the entire US could process the paperwork Ryan needed to file! 

They are also facing more persecution from local political swings. Luckily, he has a great contact at the International Justice Mission (IJM) who is able to support him and his team, but it just means that more of his local staff will be empowered during these trials and storms. But as I listened to Ryan and his organizations unwavering efforts to rescue women, I remembered a quote I’d heard the day before. 

“You don’t need light if the room is already bright.” 

I reminded Ryan of this and then we got to the amazing part: their increased success rates. Using their Assessment of Survivor Outcomes Tool, they’ve estimated that they now have an 80%+ success rate for keeping women out of trafficking once they have been rescued. They’re also showing new records of success with holistic care, transitional housing, and production of their bags. They’ve also recorded that 116 women have been freed and employed by Aruna, which has a miraculous multiplying effect in their families and communities. 

Aruna has many future goals and room for growth, and we are so excited to see them step more into trauma care and business success. We ended our call in prayer, and I left thinking what I always do, “I learn every single day from these amazing heroes.”

So My Family Wants To Go on a Missions Trip. What Should We Do?

It's a logical question. Good parents want to teach their children to be charitable, love their neighbors, become more grateful....but how? In the last few years the options available for international missions work has exploded. There are countless ways to travel the world while making an impact. How can my family take a trip together and also make a difference?

I am often asked this important question. Our family foundation has been at this philanthropy thing for 20 years. We have experienced all the work that we support personally. These nonprofits are run by heroes. Most of what I've learned about this giving stuff is from them. Local and international, our partners are the experts. So if someone was looking for an "experience" it would be easy to refer friends to these experts. For us to say, "hey would you please take the Smith family around Haiti and show them your work and how beautiful the country is?" Yes, for sure, our selfless partners would do that for us...but it would interfere with their work. A lot. So unless the Smiths are considering a very generous donation and long term support, I would never ask the nonprofit to do that. 

So what IS the best answer? Just to frustrate you, I'll tell you the wrong answer....going with the organizations that offer to take you on a trip. Of these, there are a minuscule number who may do a little bit of good. But, honestly, I disagree with their mission and approach entirely. Brief visits to "help" poor people bring out the momma bear in me. I am disgusted with using the poor to accomplish something in our own personal spiritual growth. (Read the books "When Helping Hurts" and "Toxic Charity...") 

 

But there IS a way to do it well. It's called relationships.

Try this....do you go to church? Yes? Well, do you have missionaries or partner organizations your church supports? You do? Great! What if you stopped there? Lifted up the hood a little on one of these organizations and considered, "Hey, how might we encourage a partner of our own church body in the work they're doing?" So maybe you want some adventure? What if you wrote to that missionary in Kenya and asked if your family could take them on a weekend getaway? Spend a couple days getting to know them, (they are the best tour guides ever!), giving them some pampering, (giving them some space!) and a chance to show off their work to create a long term friendship with your incredibly awesome family? What if your kids learned about caring for their neighbor by actually caring for people...long term?! There are people doing very, very hard things in very, very hard places…that you already know! And realistically, there are already plenty of local people and businesses in that missionary's life to build a school, a church, paint a building, build a latrine, etc. That's the job of the local individuals and businesses (not teams of semi-skilled folks from the US)....where the big issue is that there never seems to be enough funds.

What if you helped them fund a project they had lined up for the locals to complete and build and then built your own ministry of friendship with that person. It is incredibly lonely work out there! What about being one less tourist and instead, a valued friend and financial partner?

If you approach the question like this, I promise you, it will be a greater emotional expense but the returns will go farther and deeper than the memories of a week long trip. Something to think about....

Hoops and Hurdles

To be honest, being helpful to people was always a passion of mine but never a skill developed through study.

"Giving Money Away" or "Grant Making 101" was not covered in my science major in college. Left to my own devices, I had an unorganized approach to trying to help people that, undoubtedly, would have left a wake of destruction and broken relationships behind me. I credit my father and our long Wednesday conversations as the guiding force behind how I learned to do this thing called "Philanthropy". And somehow, miraculously, our guiding values and convictions end up indirectly being affirmed in the fancy Chronicle of Philanthropy. I chuckle and ask myself, "How did that happen? How did we stumble around being generous and then inadvertently do something that was encouraging and not terribly damaging to nonprofits here and abroad?" Honestly, I only have guesses. And it has a lot to do with listening and putting myself in someone else's shoes (and I'm incredibly grateful that other people in fancy, high profile magazines are writing about this!).

“My motivation in sharing our core values is to shine a light on the tremendous frustration among nonprofits having to make concessions, in so many ways, in their work because of pressures from donors.”

I'm watching countless great nonprofits attempt to clear enormous hurdles to appease donors with things like 80 page grant applications!! They are forced to jump through unreasonable hoops to acquire funds (looking at you US government grants!) Hoops and hurdles are NOT the things that should occupy large chunks of a nonprofit leader's time. They have bigger issues to conquer - they're trying to save the world, after all!

Below are the approaches that our grant recipients have told us "have been a blessing to them" and have made our relationships with these hard working folks so special.

 

1) Spend time with them.

Obviously something drew you to their work. Maybe volunteer in their organization (especially before they know you are a grant maker). Ask people in the community how the work of this organization is impacting them. THIS will tell you the most about the effectiveness of their work and can not be validated by more paperwork. 5 years of Profits and Loss Statements can be valuable (kind of...) but should not determine whether they are worthy of your support. 

2) Invest in leadership.

We all know great nonprofit leaders.  Find out what they need to keep doing what they've been doing. Here are some non-traditional ways we've invested in nonprofit leaders:

  • funds for an assistant for leader of non-profit

  • prayer 

  • board training

  • staff retreats

  • matching grants (and training on how to raise funds)

  • sharing a retreat home with leaders in order to refresh, equip and encourage them to keep doing what they are doing! It's usually the burnout of a leader that destroys a great nonprofit.

3) Give to General Operating Support (Unrestricted Grants)

"Project funding" is the easy way to give. We get a false sense of control and have results at the end of our grant period. BUT do we really know what that leader had to do to keep those funds for that project? Maybe an employee didn't get paid or bills are now a month behind just to make sure that project was completed how the donor wanted it to be. If you truly trust the leader, let them decide how to use their funds. He/she knows the field far better than we do. Unrestricted funding for operations gives the leader that valuable freedom.

 

4) Invest LONG term and tell them you’re doing so

This in no way gives them a "free pass" to accountability. But what a blessing when they consider us to be a reliable source of income they can rely on for 5-10 years. (Can you hear them exhaling?) Don't misunderstand, we still hold them to a renewal of their financial documents and a meeting once a year (and maybe even site visits) but we let them know we are there to work THROUGH their challenges with them, not cut them off as struggles arise. After all, we want their success because we are deeply concerned about their area of influence in our community and our world, so we pray for their success and work with them in honest dialogue.

 

5) Minimize the application process

We request about 10 items in our application process that should already exist in some form within their organization. We discuss, meet and ask questions. We visit, participate and volunteer. This is how we get to know them. The paperwork part is straightforward and uncomplicated. We also ask for a nonprofit's opinion of our grant making process. Was it too challenging? Why? What information do YOU think we should know about your organization? By all means, share it with us!

6) Don't unknowingly manipulate the funding relationship

Sometimes the fear is not created by a donor, but is a fear of the nonprofit: that they will lose the funding if they don't accommodate the needs of the donor. For instance, I heard a story of an inner city ministry supported by a large church. The large church organized a team of volunteers for a day to help with their mission. One volunteer commented to me, "It felt like they didn't even want us there. They clearly have a system and it seemed like we were making them nervous just being there." What that volunteer perceived was probably true! The organization was probably afraid to say "No, please don't come but we appreciate your financial donations". Create a relationship where the nonprofit leader is safe to honestly express the best interests of the organization without concern of displeasing and losing a large donor.

I hope that something above will be used to encourage relational, long term and collaborative giving along with real, authentic support to organizations that are choosing the hard road of forging social progress. Philanthropic allies are vital to their journey and we are dedicated to being just that with our nonprofit partners. We are so grateful for you!

Welcome to the Table #3

So you may have some investment ideas in mind but suddenly there’s so many questions and the temptation to say “but grant making is so much easier”. Yep. I felt the same way. But when I received a beautiful handbag from my investment in Deux Mains, it was worth the hassle. First, these entrepreneurs are the most inspiring people you’ll meet. Your faith will be influenced and inspired as you walk with them and you will get to see miracles. Deux Mains would not have had the financial runway to design new beautiful leather products without business investment (that is currently in the form of forgivable and convertible debt set up through Impact Foundation) to buy materials, hire designers and upgrade their marketing.

My handbag from Deux Mains!

This company now has a chance to keep their doors open and keep their 35 employees working and keep aiming towards their goal of 350 employees by 2025.

When I hold that bag I’m reminded that the artisan who made that bag is supporting an average of 10 people, keeping kids in school and providing a pathway to prosperity for his/her children. What could be better than that?

BUT, we won't see a return from this little company for a long while and I don't want to drain the resources of the foundation on lots of “charity” phase business investment. So I needed to diversify the foundation portfolio. I’m pursuing things like funds that invest in people and places I want to affect but are aiming for market rate returns (around 8%). These investments feel a lot less like charity, except that some of these mid size businesses need more training or time with an accelerator as they grow and expand. An example of this type of fund would be Talanton. They aim for a market return but are heavily involved in strengthening the companies they invest in. But there’s an even easier place to affect change and that’s investing in larger investments like Eventide (mutual fund), Creation Investments (private equity/private credit) or Sovereigns Capital (private equity). Most of these suggestions were from professionals I met at the Faith Driven Investor (FDI) movement. I guarantee taking suggestions like these to your investment professional will validate your voice about Faith Driven Impact Investing. Options like these make competitive returns and will not be responsible for dragging down your portfolio. Once you bring a few of these to the table, your manager will be far more convinced your suggestions won't ruin their performance. Once the door was open, I ran straight back to the FDI crowd and asked for more. There are many faith aligned money managers and funds to choose from. Additionally, we’re going to be working with an advisor to help design a truly FDII portfolio for a portion of our foundation assets and see how competitive the financial returns are against traditional investments. Hopefully in a few years we will have the whole endowment aligned like this, making about 10-12 % in income and still distributing 8-9% of the foundation in grants and some of those riskier early stage business investments.

 
 
 

Although it felt upside down at the time, I now realize that without the operating investment in that little company in Haiti, I would not have any real connection to the impact these investments make. Watching what a business investment in Deux Mains is doing for the 35 employees in Haiti, sending kids to school, families able to provide education and healthcare to their children, a safe place to work away from the trauma of exploitation and trafficking, I realize I want to scale this impact as much as possible and now I know that I can!

This is a growing field with a wonderful list of professionals ready to support your journey! Welcome to the Table!

Welcome to the Table # 2

So where does one start with this Faith Driven Impact Investing (FDII)? Well, just like when we sit down to a dinner table, we get oriented. 

First of all, business innovation is the key to creating jobs and ending poverty.  We know this (you can listen to more about this at the podcast featuring Efosa Ojomo linked here). That’s the truth we start from and also the goal we’re trying to reach. Once we’ve agreed to that truth, it’s a matter of  “What approach do I use?” Short answer, it depends on the industry opportunity.

Efosa Ojomo, author of The Prosperity Paradox.

And this was where I got stuck. I would hear of opportunities but then as soon as someone threw around “convertible debt” or “equity financing” jargon I wanted to run. I thought it would not be a good use of my time to try and thoroughly understand the nuances of all these financing pathways and I had a charitable foundation to run. 

What I did understand was this…small businesses need money to grow so that they can make more money and hire more people. So after accessing microenterprise loans, what’s next for entrepreneurs in tough places who can’t qualify for loans from banks? Who is offering the capital for the produce stand to become a store front or expand to 2-3 locations? Who will provide the investment dollars BEFORE the fancy investors feel comfortable and before the company is profitable? Well, if you’re in the charity business or have “philanthropy” anywhere on your profile, take a look at that person in the mirror. It’s you.


But again, if you feel discouraged or overwhelmed by this, you’re not alone. Pull up a chair, and know that what you’re doing matters. 

To be honest,  I came at the subject of finance and impact investing backwards, but it’s been a lot of fun this way and it helped me learn a lot. As grant makers, this may be true for you as well. First, I was familiar with a non profit in Haiti that was developing a business to create jobs and fund their non profit. They had no investors at this point but needed them (read the whole story here).

Once I found this opportunity for investment, I looked for the proper expert to help me. I quickly realized that these little companies are so early and since they may be birthed out of a non profit, often the entrepreneur doesn't know how to navigate these investment waters either. So just know, it could fall on YOU to find the right help. Because…well remember you had that “philanthropy” tag on your profile? You've got more resources and likely more connections. This is where the charity part of “impact investing” is an essential piece. Whatever method you use to infuse money into a fledgling business, you will be the one paying for legal advice or making grants to upgrade the wifi connection so these meetings can happen.

Suzanne and her daughter-in-law in Haiti.

That is why grant makers are perfect in this space. We’re used to thinking about how we can donate to improve the infrastructure of a charitable enterprise. Until these small companies in hard places can get some traction, they should be treated as charities. Oh, and I failed to mention that I’m entirely focused on Least Developed Countries (that means countries where poverty is high and opportunity is low) and Frontier Markets. Those things translate to it being REALLY hard to grow a business, and means more charity is needed and for a longer time. A lot of what we know about building business in the US doesn't apply in places like LDCs. Understanding the culture, the social issues and what industries will be successful is a more important body of knowledge and one we often gain through years of grant making - think back to the article I shared above. So, if you've been grantmaking in a particular region for some time and are familiar with the economic and social particulars of that region, it’s highly likely that there are some NGOs trying to start sustainable businesses for their beneficiaries and they need your investment. Look there first! 


In conclusion, investment in these fledgling businesses in hard places that have the potential to employ and raise the standard of living will feel like charity for quite a while. That’s why it’s such a good fit for seasoned grant makers. But to grow into profitable businesses that can scale, which is the ultimate goal, unless we have business acumen to share, we are going to need a deep bench of like minded professionals and entrepreneurs who will walk with us and advise us along the way. Those are the folks I’m excited for you to meet!

Welcome to the Table #1

I grew up with a father who was a successful mutual fund manager. I’m realizing now that many people don't even know what that means. To me, growing up, it meant my dad made “investments” that made other people money…end of knowledge. Throughout my life he included me in financial conversations and set up strategies to educate me on financial terms and investing habits. I resisted ALL of it. I was headed for the greener acres of science and I saw no urgency to endure this education. Plus, those suit-wearing men in those meetings made me uncomfortable. Especially when dad would say “Suzanne, do you have any questions?” Now as an adult married 25 years, I find I still struggle with feeling intimidated by financial conversations with professionals.

I’m going to say this for the ladies in the back…growing up with the jargon always around me, my own married experience with investments, running a charitable foundation for 20 years, I still feel that way. I bet you do too.

I say all this because there’s an important new movement in front of us as Christ-following philanthropists called the Faith Driven Impact Investing movement. I don't want you to miss this! As the Executive Director of our family foundation I spent 100% of my time focused on grant making…for about 20 years. For many of those years my father and the trust company holding the Foundation made all the investing decisions as the endowment grew. I would occasionally suggest investing in things that “made the world better” (at least my definition of better) and my dad would gently respond, “if we do that we won't get the returns we want so we can keep giving money away.” Oh. End of conversation. I just didn't have the know-how and jargony words to keep talking. But in my heart I felt like we could do better, especially in the investment of our charitable portfolio (portfolio: “a range of investments held by a person or organization”). 

Dad has now since retired from the foundation and I’m learning that this dreamscape DOES exist and is growing quickly. It’s full of teachers and folks like me who are NOT professional investment managers but foundation managers and family members running family offices. We all know charity is important and will always have a role in the world but business investment and growth is THE TICKET for people to escape poverty and our dollars can play a role, no matter our professional background. So I’m here to say…welcome to the table!

Yes, But How Do We Really Feel?

Funders who used to give out general operating funds are now becoming restrictive and prescriptive. Funders are forcing nonprofits to change their strategies, often with unsurprisingly terrible results. How can it be a good idea to let funders and donors drive strategies and priorities?

Read this article from Nonprofit AF to learn about how strategic philanthropy is not the way to go - and to check yourself on privilege, experience, and what grantees really want.

How Strategic Philanthropy Has Harmed Our Sector and Why it Refuses to Die

Ethical Holiday Shopping

In our experience making grants to charitable organizations, we have come upon some excellent retail opportunities for holiday gift buying! What makes these companies special?

1) Their location (a developing economy where jobs are scarce).

2) Their concern for the environment.

3) The way they care for employees.

Buying gifts can be a win/win when we are certain our friends and family will love the product AND the company is changing the world for the better! I hope this is helpful to you as you consider your shopping this year! Click the shop name to be taken to their website.

FASHION

 
 

FOOD/ENTERTAINMENT

Always Relish

Tahmina Tea

Kuju Coffee

Unbound

UNIQUE GIFTS

 

And check out this huge directory from Faith Drive Entrepreneur, organized into areas the companies are supporting: Freedom Business Alliance

Little Did I Know

I was in middle school when my parents committed to host a Vietnamese family that our church sponsored. My memories hold the perspective of a young girl who never quite understood. My family spent a lot of time turning our unfinished basement in New Jersey into a space suitable for a father with 2 young boys. Imagining what they would need, how big the kids would be, what size clothes their dad wore...In hindsight it was an incredible step of faith for my newly Christian parents to be taking - for anyone to take! 

Our church wanted to help support the transition for the family. The father of the family had worked with the US Army against North Vietnam in 1975, was imprisoned for doing so, and then was forced to flee Saigon with only 2 of his 5 children to a refugee camp in the Philippines. After a year of living in the refugee camp, he and his children were sponsored to come to America.

I had no idea the impact those two little boys would have on my life. Our new friends arrived with wide eyes and empty hands. To this day I can't imagine that year in the camp, or how it felt to constantly miss their mother, siblings, always wondering what might be happening in their old home. During their time with us, they learned a little English, but 99% of the time we communicated through drawings, charades, and guessing. Slowly we learned that the dad had been a mechanic. This meant he had an employable skill! We quickly set out to teach him the English words for all the parts of a car (not being mechanics ourselves, this was a stretch!). The boys were quickly registered in school where an ESL program was in place. One of them was almost completely deaf. Having lived by the ocean his whole life, but without access to medical care for ear infections, he became deaf. The father eventually communicated that was why he chose that particular son - to try and save his hearing. By the time he got the antibiotics he needed in the States, however, it was too late. I still feel grateful any time my kids receive medicine  for ear infections. 

From my perspective, I remember the dad continually looking for ways to give back around the house. I think he felt like a burden to our family. If a leaf even dared fall on the lawn, he was there with a rake. We cooked together often since it didn’t require much communication, and he cooked for us often. Imagine our faces as he wielded a knife like a machete and cut a whole chicken into bite size pieces! Bones and all! But besides the fun we shared, his constant request was for help for his wife and children he had been forced to leave behind. 

I don't think he had even settled into his new home in our basement before he asked if we could send help to his wife and children. He had been away from them for over a year. I remember the worry lines that he seemed too young to have. Whenever he made money, we would go to Kmart to buy as many pairs of bright blue Levis as we could find. He sent them to her to sell in her store, hopeful that they could provide income for her to feed their kids.

He went on to set up an apartment and supported himself on a mechanic’s salary. He had ongoing friendship and support from our church helping him furnish the apartment. But I know nothing could fill the void or calm the anxiety he carried daily for his family in Vietnam. For 7 years he and all the members of our family and church worked to get his wife and children reunited. Never will I forget that day of reunion at the airport. From this step of my parents' faith and the courage of this father, there are now generations of relatives who are Vietnamese business owners, grandchildren and new spouses filling out this remarkable family. They now vacation in Vietnam to visit friends and family who didn't leave and are fully contributing members of our American society with citizenship certificates hung proudly in their homes. One of those sons went on to serve in the US Air Force and their children hope to as well.

So with that story in my rearview, here we are again. 37 years later, I sit here in another American refugee crisis. I’m watching the same scenes from Saigon in 1975 play out in Kabul, Afghanistan in 2021. It feels like deja vu. I saw those pictures in high school and I’m trying to reconcile the fact that those two little boys and their father survived those events. But they did. How could that be happening again? Another US occupation, another horrible military departure, another collapse of a country and another incredible opportunity for new friends. These Afghani refugees will inevitably inspire me and my kids with their courage for the next generation. It’s my prayer that one of my children will be able to tell a story just like mine 37 years from now.

Funding the Care and Development of Nonprofits

Recently we shared about the need for Trust Based Philanthropy in our sector. In this spirit, the Pilgrim Foundation recently offered Care and Development grants to the smaller nonprofits we partner with. The result was so encouraging, we have written our findings up in this report on the effect of Care and Development grants. We hope others funders are inspired to consider the same!

Trust Based Philanthropy

We’ve recently come upon a philosophy that encouraged us to see in print. Trust Based Philanthropy! What a concept! It is our hope that this strategy can permeate the landscape of giving and encourage others to see nonprofit leaders as partners in solving the challenges of this life.

So often, donors lord power over the folks in the trenches and this perpetuates the inequity in the relationship. The nonprofit leader KNOWS they are dependent on the generosity of strangers and this can be crippling. What if I the budget we’re using isn’t clear? Will they ask questions about it? What if I use the wrong tone at the meeting? What are they thinking? What’s the magic word to get them to trust us? If we as funders would internalize the idea that this is a partnership and that they (the nonprofit) are doing something we can’t do and we have something they don’t have and normalize a healthy equitable relationship, imagine where we could go in tackling the problems of our day!

Recently our foundation started focusing on the health of non profit organizations. We were sensing exhaustion, burn out and lots of “I wish” conversations with our partners. So we asked this question, “If you had $5000-$10,000 designated for care and development of staff in your organization, what would you do?” The responses were beautiful. There is a deep desire to invest in staff and leader heath. We are currently in the process of organizing this experience into an article to share in hopes that other funders might consider this question and supporting non profits in this way.

BUT, I don’t believe we would have gotten the honest replies we did if we had not already been walking with these partners in a trust based relationship. They felt safe to share with us what they really needed and how much it would cost. There was no magic answer. Every single request was funded without any manipulation from us. It has been a joy to hear the impact this has had. I believe by listening to our partners we have further strengthened the relationship we have with them going forward.

Thank you to the Whitman Institute for this perfect graphic of Trust Based Philanthropy. Praying others will embark on the same journey.

https://thewhitmaninstitute.org/grantmaking/trust-based-philanthropy/

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Shopping that changes the world!

In our pursuit to find people on the margins of society, we find business people who are working in developing economies. These heroes are committed to creating thriving businesses in the most difficult environment SO THAT jobs can be created and people lift themselves out of poverty. This is the kind of work we want to get behind. Whenever we have the chance to invest in someone’s business versus give charity donations we always pick business investment! In that spirit, we thought you might want to know of some fantastic places to buy gifts any time of the year. We have personally seen how this model works and want to spread the word!

Specializing in fabric totes, headbands, backpacks, and custom orders, Aruna brings freedom through holistic employment to sexually exploited women in India.

Right in our backyard, Clean Slate’s shop in Kennett Square, PA sources from artisans around the world, each one being given fair wages and dignified employment. Products include handbags, jewelry, journals, pillows, blankets, baskets, candles, soaps, kitchen wares, children’s toys, and more.

Shop online or in store.

Meeting just about every on-the-go need, Unshattered stocks handcrafted bags, totes, purses, clutches, toiletry kits, and even diaper bags! It’s a shop carrying products made from repurposed materials by women winning the fight against addiction. Unshattered assists these women in holistic recovery all the way from residential programs to full-time employment.

Papillon specializes in jewelry (including aromatherapy jewelry!) but also carries a lively mug collection and other handmade home decor products. Believing that no child should be abandoned because of poverty, Papillon was founded to provide jobs for at-risk parents in Haiti who couldn’t provide for their children.

Made to Love primarily sells fair-trade coffee, jewelry, and leather products from local Haitian artisans. In so doing, they create funding for schools in Haiti while also creating long-term opportunity and employment, helping to end generational poverty.

Haiti Design Co. sells leatherwork, jewelry, and shoes as well as sewn, woven, metal, horn, and bone products. “When working together we can help lighten each other’s load and bring about lasting positive impact.”

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2nd Story Goods creates doors of opportunity through selling jewelry, leather products, and home goods. “There’s an enemy of humanity that would have us think that as soon as we’re broken, we’re no good anymore. God tells the exact opposite story. He says, when you're broken it’s time for the new story to start,” says founder Kathy Brooke.  

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Trades of Hope works with and employs sex trafficking survivors, individuals raising handicapped children, those in war torn countries or struggling HIV/AIDS and/or leprosy. Trades of Hope seeks to provide opportunity for these women who’ve never had many chances in life by selling a variety of jewelry, bags, decor, and accessories from all over the world.

Haitian owned fashion company, deux mains, is currently producing its own ethical fashion collection. In so doing, they fight poverty by employing dozens of Haitian artisans. It all began out of leather sandal making set up by a non-profit responding to the 2010 earthquake. deux mains is committed to some of the world’s most marginalized communities, helping them to become self-sufficient and restoring dignity to families and individuals.

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Coffee with a little boy

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I had coffee with a little boy.  That’s all it took to reveal to me what I love about Haiti. I knew there was something but impossible to tease that out of the heat, the dirt, the desperation. But there was something. I knew it. It’s why I keep going back. And then he sat down.

His father was across the room and kept a smiling eye on him while he ordered breakfast. Maybe because Peter is often friendly with strangers. He pulled up a chair to sit with this tired, language challenged blan like we had a date. Maybe we did. His smiling eyes didn’t ask for a thing. They just took a big look at me and the charm rolled out of him. He knows how cute he is. He sees me melting…his father knows and nods and laughs. Could he be any cuter? But it wasn’t just that. It was the beautiful spirit in this kid. In so many in Haiti. He possessed the self confidence and the friendliness to approach me, engage me and offer me his smile. What a boy.

And his father…absolutely no concern that his beautiful boy was dining with a stranger. And I didn’t worry. I knew I could share my food with him without a panicked apology of “oh so sorry he’s bothering you” coming along to interrupt this connection. Oh the freedom.

We’ve lost that in my home country. Fear paralyzes us and ties our hands in our life. We’re so afraid of “bothering” someone. Whether with our presence, our need, our politics, our religion…keep it to yourself, don’t be a bother. But.We’re.Missing.So.Much. To watch the Haitian people debate politics is a joy. It’s the freedom to debate knowing that we will love each other in the end. The freedom to disagree. The freedom to share our children and the raising of them with family and friends. And Jesus…we can speak of Him and be free of anger, accusations or guilt for mentioning his name. At least in the 10 years I’ve been visiting, it’s agreed that He was good. Period.

Is it the desperation here that feeds this freedom? A divided Haiti would seem to destroy the social fabric that feeds, clothes, educates so many. It’s community there. I’m certain there are huge social challenges in this as well. I’ll never know since I’m not fluent in their language. But there always are challenges, especially in religion and politics and family relationships. But for me, the blan, the outsider looking in, it was just so nice to look into those beautiful brown eyes, share a smile and some coffee before I left.

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Investing in the future of African business (who happen to start out materially poor)

One of our favorite investments is in young people. They are the ones who can literally change the trajectory of their generation and their country if given good tools. We are inspired and grateful for the work of These Numbers Have Faces. They have gotten some great press in their home state! Keep up the great work!

 

http://builtoregon.com/2016/02/investing-in-the-future-of-africa-the-story-of-these-numbers-have-faces/