Giving money is hard work “I hope you don’t get your wish.” That’s what a wealthy businessman said to me after I told him I wished I was like him — rich enough to give away lots of money. He made the comment as we visited a development project he had funded, taking a look at what his generous donation had been able to accomplish. Now, why would he say that? After all, what could be better than to be wealthy enough to support various good works? “Giving away money is hard work,” he said. “You may spend the rest of your life working on how to give it in a meaningful and caring way.” I think many wealthy people who support worthy causes could say the same thing. While most of us feel besieged by the number of requests we get for money, it’s nothing compared to the number of letters that cross the desk of many businesspeople every month. What makes it even harder is In business we often measure our performance by rate of that some of the requests come from friends or fellow return on investment (ROI). We examine our earnings as a church members, making it even harder to say no. percent of our total assets. Or we use an investment base Plus, there’s the effect that having money to give can of equity plus long-term debt. have on your relationships. I like to think of God as a capitalist (small c) who has “Sometimes you feel that the way people see you has invested heavily in you and me. God equips us. We are changed,” my businessman friend said. “It’s almost like part of his endowment fund. And I believe he expects to they don’t see you as a friend or as a member of their get a good return on his investment. church, but rather as a source of money.” When God audits my performance, I wonder how Then there’s the whole business of saying “no.” It’s he will measure ROI. Will it be by the way I have treated hard to tell people you go to church with that you won’t my partners and employees? By my loving service? By the support their worthy project, he said. Plus, there’s the woramount of integrity that has gotten to the bottom line? ry about what people will think if he declines to provide By the methods I have used to collect overdue accounts? support. If he says no to the mission board, will people By the ways I have used power? think he is anti‑mission? Ditto for the women’s shelter, the Maybe we ought to begin each day with a prayer town library, the local Christian school. “I’d like to help like this: “O Lord, I am your investment fund. You are them all, but I can’t,” he said. my investment manager. Help me today to produce a And sometimes he really can’t — he doesn’t have good yield on all the assets you have credited to my acthe funds. “I may be worth a lot of money, but it isn’t count. May you be pleased with the rate of return on all cash,” he said. “It’s tied up in the business or investyour investment in me. Forgive me when my short-term ments.” And even when he says “later,” there are times performance is a big zero, or worse yet, a horrible deficit. when he can’t fulfill his promise — an investment may do Don’t purge me from your portfolio, but lift me to higher poorly, or a part of his business may fail. ground. Amen.” — John H. Rudy in Moneywise MeditaIn an effort to guide his giving, he and his wife are tions: To Be Found Faithful in God’s Audit (Herald Press) setting up a family foundation to direct his support to a few areas. As well, they took a philanthropy workshop to learn how to be better givers. Through it they learned how to choose good projects to support and how to give in ways that create real change for the issues they care about. Through the workshop he learned that “good philanthropy takes work, a lot of research, knowledge about who you are giving money to and a willingness to get involved enough to be part of the struggle for change,” he said. Without that kind of commitment, he said, it’s just “checkbook philanthropy, and that is often no more than throwing money at problems.” I still dream of being able to give away large amounts of money for worthwhile causes. But maybe, like my friend said, I should be careful about what I wish for. — John Longhurst
God’s ROI
The Marketplace November December 2010
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