Why I Give

Warning! Contains religious references, no offense intended. These views are my own and not representative of my employer.

I was recently asked by my pastor Kari Olson at East Falls Presbyterian Church to share my thoughts on tithing and charitable giving.?Since I work for a non-profit and am charged with fundraising, I welcomed the opportunity to share why I give, in the hopes that my message would resonate with others and inspire them to think about why they contribute to meaningful causes.?

Unlike many church-going individuals, tithing was never a part of my family’s philosophy growing up.?Money wasn’t often discussed by my parents, other than to explain that we didn’t have enough of it, and that it doesn’t grow on trees.?This eventually led to my high school-aged brother being a very avid spender, buying all the things he never had as a young kid, and me being an avid hoarder, amassing a sum of well over $5,000 by third grade through birthday and first communion gifts.

As an adult, I have been entrusted by my husband to manage our family’s finances and entrusted by my church as Treasurer to help manage the church’s finances.?I also manage roughly $3M a year through my role as Executive Director of the Spencer Educational Foundation, a non-profit focused on driving more talent into the insurance industry and risk management profession.?I literally have been tasked with stewarding millions of dollars of resources in this lifetime.

And that is the word I love to use when I think about the resources I have been blessed with – stewardship.?Just as the church’s money is not mine, and the money that flows through Spencer is not mine, neither is the money from my husband’s and my paycheck really and truly ours.?As Job says in 1:21, I was born with nothing, and I will die with nothing.?Whatever I think I have ownership of in this life is merely a resource that God has entrusted to me, and I know I had better use it wisely – not store it up and hoard it, not spend it with impunity and waste it, but put it to good work in my family, in my church, in my community, and beyond.

In the New Testament, Matthew 6:11, Jesus teaches us to pray by saying, “Give us this day our daily bread.”?The message is simple – rely on God, not your own resources.?In the Old Testament, Exodus Chapter 16, God physically provides daily bread in the form of manna from heaven, warning the Israelites not to gather more than enough for that day.?But some do, and it rots.

So, today, while I still feel inclined to hoard my resources - for safety, for practicality, for a rainy day - I take heed of these teachings, particularly the ominous Luke 6:38 which compels us, “Give and it will be given to you … For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” ?I’d prefer not to incur the eventual wrath of a God who returns my own stinginess in spades, for all eternity. And so I give, generously and happily, per 2 Corinthians chapter 9, “not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”