Ep #24: Wisdom in Giving: Seven Things to Consider Before Making a Donation

Episode Transcript

Spencer
One study shows that in the US, 70% of all charitable gifts are made on impulse. So today we're going to talk about a process for giving basically how we determine where we give our cadence, all those different factors, because there's a lot of room for us to grow in that I think culturally as a church, but also to gain a lot of joy in the process and have rest as we know what the Lord's called us to.

Austin
Spencer, As we start off today, I think we have to continue to remember God owns it all. This is our framework. This is our theme. We're going to come back to this every time that God owns it all. He is our provider. And so as we think about today, where do we give and how do we give? We've been talking about giving quite a bit recently, but I think we come to this crux point of how does it actually change?
We've heard that up to 70% of people give impulsively and while giving sporadically. And when somebody comes to your door, it's not a bad thing. Like if your kids were to come to my house and say, hey, we're selling so-and-so for this cause. Well, yeah, of course I can give. Or if friends are raising money for a missions trip at church, that's a one time sporadic thing.
Yeah, we would love to give, but I think the reality is we want to be more consistent and focused with our giving as we honor the Lord with our wealth as we think about, okay, what are the ways in which we can really participate in God's kingdom come and His will be done. So what are some ways that you see the culture giving that are maybe a little bit different than a really tangible, focused approach?

Spencer
Well, I think when we look at the culture, we see that we are drawn in this stream of desiring control. Ever since the fall, we have known that the world can harm us. We've known that things are not right. And so we can, instead of looking to God as our provider, or we can try to control things ourselves inherently, the way that we use our finances is one of those means that we can try to control or defend ourselves against that which is around us.
So anything that is a gift to another person or institution is going to in some ways move against that cultural impulse of trying to defend ourselves by keeping more than enough. When we just grapple with that. I think releasing funds can be a challenge because we can always question the efficacy of a person or an institution. We can always question whether they need the money or we can always find a way to squirm off the hook intellectually and say, Well, I shouldn't do it now, or this isn't the best time for that institution to receive the funds, or they don't need it now, or I'll be able to give more in a year when I get this settled or that settled, or I can make a really big gift in three years. All kinds of different ways that our cultural direction gives us avenues to kind of squirm off the hook. You know, in terms of actually making those gifts. We can rationalize it. And it shouldn't surprise us, of course, that Amazon and Facebook, they don't want us to give.
They want us to have more disposable income to buy their stuff or to look at their ads and to purchase through them. So even though there's some lip service in the corporate world, I think the thing that we need to acknowledge is that we don't have any allies in this in social media either. So we also see that our institutions have adapted to this so they know that we have short attention spans.
So they get in front of us. You know, there's a reason that we have people out ringing bells at Christmas for the Salvation Army. And again, they do some great work. This is not disparaging them, but they get in our face to remind us, hey, we would like for you to give to us. There's one institution that I won't name that I think that we get a letter from them every week and it's an emergency in some part of the world.
Now, there are emergencies in different parts of the world, but if I get an emergency letter every week from an institution, it just reinforces the skepticism that I have of like what? How are we actually categorizing an emergency? And it looks at this kind of short term side of things rather than the process. I think that is more biblical and also brings greater rest and joy in giving that we'll kind of unpack today.

Austin
I think about some of those letters that I get on a regular basis from institutions that we gave one gift to ten years ago and their expense on the letters has far outweighed the one gift that I gave. And they have since found since we left Denver and still send us mail about their institution from Denver. And again, it's do they have need?
Yes, they have a valid need. And the people that are serving have valid needs. But did my $50 gift merit a letter every six months for ten years? And I think that just questions my questioning becomes then, okay, what do I do? Do I just call them and say, stop? Probably should.

Spencer
Well, and even some of those institutions, they won't. You know, we, we requested that we only receive something once a year from one institution and we get stuff from them at least a couple times a month. And again, that, that reinforces this short term cycle, the skepticism that we have. And it gives us all kinds of other internal reasons, again, not to release the funds to particular institutions. So it's it is something that we really have to grapple with, though.

Austin
I think too, you know, the tension that I feel of the efficacy of the ministry that we're giving to or the organization, I think there always has to be a balance in my soul that checks am I giving based on what I think you should be efficient at, or am I giving based on where the Lord has called?
And I think it's far more it's far easier to say, I know what's best. I know how an organization should be run. And then I get in this mindset where I say, Well, because I know best, because these are the business principles that would work well, then therefore funds should be used X, Y, or Z. Rather than saying no, Are they being faithful to Jesus?
Has Jesus called them to this? And then as Jesus called me to enter that with them? So we're going to dive in and we're going to look at 1 Chronicles 29:11-12. And we've looked at these verses before and we started off the podcast looking at these verses, I think, but it's really this call back to David has set out to build the temple. God has said, No, you can't build the temple. And so David goes and raises funds for the temple to be built so that when Solomon comes, then he has money to give back to the building of the temple so he can still participate in that work. And David says, “11 Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you're exalted as head above all. 12 Both riches and honor come from your hand, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all.” And I think as we come to these verses, I think the one thing that I want to keep being reminded of internally in myself is it's all God's.
He has provided everything for us, for all of our needs, and he has always provided for the church and he will always provide for the church. It may not look how I want it to. It may not be through the means that I think you're right, but God is the one that is providing and God owns all of our resources.
And so I need to both as I think about my giving, as I think about where to give, if I look at these verses one yeah, God owns it all he has provided at all and he will do it in his timing. But then I can use wisdom that he has given me to say God, okay, yes, yours is the Kingdom, but where do I participate in this building?
David didn't participate in the building of the temple. He participated in the raising of the funds. So as we look today, what are some some. Where are we headed with this?

Spencer
Well, some of the wisdom I think, that we're taking from here is from a book called God in Your Stuff by Wesley Wilmer, written a number of years ago. That's been very helpful, I think, for both of us. So we'll just acknowledge that up front. If you want a deeper dive and you want to read a couple hundred pages about, you know, what we're talking about today, a lot of the content comes from that.
But we want to unpack seven different lines of thought around the process, the how of what we set out to give, how we do that in terms of cadence, the thought process there. And so the first one is we come back to really what you were highlighting there is what are our motives for giving and how do we reinforce that godly perspective?
Because if we don't have a strong motivation and we don't have that Godly perspective, then we're at best going to have significant headwinds. And at worst we're going to be just way, way afield. You know, you think about Jesus's critique of the Pharisees. One of them was you are lovers of money. We don't want to be lovers of money.
And yet that's where we're drawn every day. That's where our culture sits. Yeah. So ideally we want to keep coming back and thinking, okay, I'm a steward of resources that God has given and that we will actually be rewarded for being a faithful steward, that we will be rewarded for that level of generosity in heaven. And there's a lot of different scriptures that we could get into there.
But I think picking one or two verses and coming back to those almost daily as we even just evaluate purchasing decisions, I just notice that as I go through Galatians 2:20, for instance, it influences my perception of whether I'm going to eat out in a certain day or how I'm going to spend resources on clothes or other things.
If I really say I've been crucified with Christ, I no longer live Christ lives in me, the life I live in, the body. I live my faith in the Son of God who loves me and gave himself for me. That's, you know, it's an exchange life. You know, we could go to Romans 12 one, we could go other places where we see that, you know, all that we have is God’s. Not just materially, but also spiritually.
So I think if we start with that and we really try to reinforce that because we know that we're going to have a culture that's pushing us in an opposite direction. So if we don't have brothers and sisters, but also kind of that daily reminder that that shot in the arm every day, we need our vitamins, you know, our multivitamins to be stewards. You know, in a sense, if we're not coming back to that day to day and we're going to get lost much more easily.

Austin
And you know, this second one builds off of that and it's establish a process for determining recipients. And, you know, you and I have talked about this quite a bit, but the reality is the more stretched thin that I get, the more random scattershot gifts that I make, the less I can actually be involved in praying and really actually getting engaged with those people's lives.
I talked with a friend last night who we support and it was just it's such a beautiful, joyful thing to talk to the people that we give money to. This is a friend from college. He and I led Bible study together. We've been on staff at the same time with our missions organization together. He's been a longstanding friendship, and when he has needs, I'm like, I want to give to your needs because I know you, I'm in a relationship.
But if I'm giving to 50 ministries and I don't have capacity for 50 people, much less 50 different places that I'm giving, So really thinking about, okay, who are those recipients that I want to give to you? Who's important to our family, who's around, who do we have relationship with? And then thinking to, you know, who can I give bigger gifts to?
If I'm giving to 50 people, they're going to be a whole lot smaller and maybe less efficient and less effective, which, again, if God is called to give smaller, it's okay. But could I lump some of those gifts together, invest in the relationship and invest more that actually helps that individual. And I think about it, too. If I have less places where I'm stretched thin, then I can enjoy those people more. I can enjoy giving those gifts.

Spencer
Well, and studies are out there that would suggest that we just don't have the mental space for more than 6 to 10 giving relationships there. You know, there's studies, obviously, that would suggest that it's hard to have a meaningful knowledge of a person beyond, say, around 100 or 120 people, but even more so as we think about praying for an institution, just getting in that rhythm of prayer, whether it be family or individually, it's really hard to go beyond, you know, say, 6 to 10 and know anything that's meaningful and follow the quarterly reports or those kinds of different issues.
And like you said, from an efficiency standpoint, the $50 gift and the $50,000 gift, the processing of those costs about the same amount. Yeah. So, you know, if you're writing that check in, somebody's got to receive it and then deposit it, you know, whatever the manpower time is, it could take $5 to process that gift.
It's just a whole lot more efficient. If we can hone in again on a set number, smaller number of institutions than the scattershot.

Austin
So the next one is clarify your priorities. And I think for believers that this is really a whole lot more important for Christians because we want to think and we want to look at what does the Bible say about where to give? And we've looked at this in a little bit more depth in other places, but really, we want to give to the local church.
And then we want to think about who is spreading the gospel, who's advancing the gospel, and then we start thinking concentric circles outside of that, the needy around me, the needy being my family, my brothers and sisters in Christ, and then the non-Christian world. And I think we need to continually think about these circles of where we giving as Christians, are we focusing or giving into the church and into missions efforts And then we can start really asking God, open my eyes to where there is need within those spaces.
Does my church have the funding that's necessary? I don't think we can ever assume that. But have conversations with your pastor, with elders at the church, and then if they are in a good spot, maybe it's time to press more money into missions. But I think again, coming back to we need to prioritize where we're giving and then prioritize what are those things that that God is passionate about that he wants us to enter into.

Spencer
So we've talked about determining motives and remaining centered on God. We've talked about establishing a process for thinking about the number of recipients, how we go about that, talk about clarifying priorities, and then we really kind of hone in on the specifics and decide to whom will give. And this is one of those things that's not easy necessarily, because there's a lot of folks that have their hands out and oftentimes friends will say, well, you know, have you thought about giving to this institution or that institution?
But as we do that, you know, we reference, again, one of those podcasts that we just did about what does the Bible really say about giving and about selecting those institutions. But again, we kind of come back to local body of worship, helping with missions, and that really could be divided a lot of different ways, but not just overseas, but local and overseas missions.
It can be the evangelism aspect of things, but can also be discipling believers there. So there's a lot of different piece of that missional component. And then taking care of, again, believers. But as we evaluate those institutions, there's a lot of different ways that we can go about the research there. So, you know, we think basic elements looking at a statement of purpose and making sure that we're aligned kind of theologically and that their focus is what we're really looking for in terms of that part of our giving.
We can look at a list of officers, board of directors through Charity Navigator and others. You can actually see even what some of those executives make. And so there are institutions that kind of give me pause because I say, you know, is this consistent with the gospel? You know, if you're running a large institution, yes, I think you should be well compensated.
But well compensated at $1,000,000 versus a couple hundred thousand dollars, there's a big difference in there to me. So and then looking at the statement for future plans and progress and how they're kind of evaluating success can be helpful elements as we really look in and say, you know, where do I feel called to give in here?
That process of can we listen to the Lord? I think in this and we listen to the Holy Spirit's direction, but we also have some hard data to be able to say, okay, you know, am I missing something here in being able to evaluate things? And then if we make that gift, we also have the opportunity to see, okay, how does the organization respond? Are they caring for my heart as a donor or is this more transactional for them?

Austin
The next, as you think about that is once we've determined who you can give to you, then you start thinking, how much am I going to give to that institution or that person? And really this comes back to God owns at all. He owns it all. He doesn't get a cut of what I own. He owns everything.
And I think we look at Jesus as he's commending the woman that gives her widow's mite. We look at the church in Macedonia and how Paul commends them for giving above their means. They stretch their wallets to give to the church. They stretch themselves. That is a reflection of God owning it all because they trust that God is a provider. We look at those stories and we're like, Well, that's crazy, but do we trust that God owns it all.

Spencer
Well, And we go back to C.S. Lewis, this quote that I think that you brought up a couple of episodes ago where he says that the only rule that we really have is that we need to give more than it's comfortable.

Austin
Yeah, exactly. And so as we think about how much we're giving, are we increasing it every year, both on a percentage basis and on a nominal basis, are we giving more percent every year? Are we giving more money every year? And then how are we doing that? Are we setting funds aside every month and it's going away every month?

Where do we set up a donor advice? One where we say, I'm going to give $20,000 into the donor advice fund every January and then disperse it through the year so that you're always setting the money aside and then the next year goes to 25. There's ways that you can do this to make sure that you're getting the money out of your bank account and into the kingdom.

Spencer
Well, and we do have folks that we serve who their income is a little more lumpy. And so they may have, you know, say, a realtor who has transactions that are significant. And so we think, okay, well, you know, set aside the money as it comes in. It may come in a couple of times a year, many times a year.
But, you know, that level of consistency, we know what we're doing and we abide by it can just allow us to rest in this because ultimately it's really hard to have joy in giving. And that's what Paul pushes us to when he's writing that letter to the Corinthians, talking about the Macedonians. He's saying they have incredible joy. We want to get to that place where we have joy, but it's hard to do so if we don't have a process that we're kind of abiding by.

Austin
So, you want to get into number six?

Spencer
So then we have some guidelines for what we think you ought to expect when you are engaging with an institution at first. Hopefully they know that the gift is more about your worship to God than it is about funding their ministry. Sometimes institutions can get so laser focused on this is my ministry that they're not even really shepherding the heart of the donor in a meaningful way.
So there needs to be also, I think, a statement or policy about how they're going to approach you as the giver so that you just know integrity in reporting financials, results and failures. They how they're there. They're doing a kingdom worldview again that seeks your work with other institutions as well. And this is an important one because sometimes it's almost like institutions are trying to grab you and say, Well, we're more important than A, B and C over here.
Rather than say, oh no, they have a very important function and a very important role within the kingdom, and leaving it to you with the information that they can pass along and just leave it to you in prayer, that you make that decision and, and trust that the Lord is going to provide for them, because that's what it comes back to.
I think ultimately. Another thing I think we do need to expect spiritually mature, theologically reflective leadership. I mean, I can't tell you the number of times that I've heard leaders kind of give a proof text of their organization, pick out one phrase from the Bible that justifies you funding them, and then pushing it on you at every, you know, potential opening.
So that would give us pause. And then it should have a sense of peace and joy. You know, as we give, there are institutions that over time that peace and joy just erodes. There's not a partnership, There's not a relationship there. We're just have to say, you know, is this really what God's calling us to? Whereas there's other institutions where it's just like, wow, they're doing a great job of keeping us in the loop so that we can pray for them and asking us to pray for them and knowing that we're right alongside with them, that that kind of partnership, I think, is what does bring that joy in life.

Austin
So the last thing we want to raise is just things that should make you pause. And we really want to think about these are like premium offers. You get an exchange, you get X for Y for giving class distinctions. James is really hard on this. About the more generous givers getting a front seat of the church that should never happen.
A platinum giver should not be granted a spot on the board of directors because you gave a massive gift. Some things like deceptively playing on your emotion or incorrectly using statistics. I mean, 99% of statistics are made up on the spot, right. Which is an inflated, made up statistic, high pressured giving. Get in the next 10 minutes or we're going to go off the air.
Frequent emergency request. I think this is one that we've talked about earlier but if there's always an emergency, is there an emergency.

Spencer
Or are they just mismanaging their operations or just not confronting reality.

Austin
When you feel like a means to an end. Our Knoxville givers goal is 100,000 and we're at 822 put that little temperature gauge. Get it up to 100. Yeah. You know, and I think I find myself or I found myself doing these things and when I got towards that tail end of raising support was that it's easier for me to communicate.
We need ten people at $100 a month, and we're trying to do this in a month's time. But I didn't ever want to emotionally pressure people for me, it was the internal vision of, okay, we need this many people allow me to pray in some ways, but I think if it's communicated that way, it can feel like, Oh, you're pressuring me to be one of those ten.
So I think there's a difference between an internal organization doing it and an external we need you to be in this with us in this way. So the reality is this is a challenge. Determining where to give and how to give is challenging.

Spencer
I think we really underestimate the joy that we can have in giving and the depth of partnership that we can have as we make those gifts. And so if you're listening to this and you say, I don't know that I've got a process or I have a lot of questions, we'd love to hear from you. Send us an email, Reach out to us. We'd love to set up some time to talk further with you about it, and we'll look forward to seeing you next time.