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Kendra VanderMeulen       1 | 2 | 3

CIB director John Terrill and CIB intern Donovan Richards spoke with Kendra VanderMeulen, president of Seattle Christian Foundation, about generosity, trends in giving, and what it means to have "more than enough."

John Terrill: You have an interesting background in business. Could we catch a couple highlights from your previous business endeavors?

Kendra VanderMeulen: My husband and I moved here [Seattle] in 1994 to join McCaw Cellular. It was the beginning of the internet. It was clear that the internet and email were becoming a significant way to do business. In 1994, cell phones were relatively new. We started out on a project to get Internet protocol on a wireless device. We were thinking of adding wireless on a laptop, but we soon realized that we needed to figure out a solution on a handset.

In 1996, we launched the first browser-based handset called PocketNet service. In launching it, we demonstrated to the cell phone world what the future would hold. I learned what it means to "hang over the bleeding edge of technology" in the market and how to fight your way to the top of the mountain in order to get down the other side. It was exhausting but a great run. I left AT&T in 2001, and I have served on boards since. I serve on the boards of B-Square, Inc. in Bellevue, Inrix, Inc. in Kirkland, and Perlego Systems, Inc. in Bellevue.

JT: What do you miss most about leadership in the for-profit sector?

KV: Not much to be honest, because I feel like I came to the end of that season. I spent 30 years in telecom and when I was done, I was done. If anything, I miss the camaraderie of a large team and the relationships built when you are battling for something that you care about. In the smaller, not-for-profit world, there is less of that. It was a great run but I love what I am doing now.

JT: Tell me about the transition to the Seattle Christian Foundation.

KV: It probably started in 1998. At that time, I was in the throes of re-launching the AT&T Wireless PocketNet service, and I was diagnosed with cancer. I began to think that however many years the Lord gave me from that point forward, I wanted to spend doing something that felt closer to where God was moving me.

After leaving AT&T in 2001, I took a couple of years off. I got wooed back into the corporate world in 2003 working for InfoSpace, but when I left there I knew I was ready for a new direction. I was introduced in 2005 to the Seattle Christian Foundation by a friend who was thinking about taking the job, but whenever he prayed about it my name came up. It took a couple of years before I knew that God wanted me to fill this role, and I said yes to the opportunity in 2007.

JT: Were there any key discernment moments on the way to taking the job?

KV: It was largely a slow process. It first started with engaging the foundation as a user, realizing that my husband and I could be far more generous than we had been previously. We historically asked our financial advisor, 'Do we have enough?'; we didn't ask 'Do we have more than enough'?

When asking that second question we found out that we could double or triple our giving. This experience opened my eyes to engaging giving in a new way. It opened my eyes to the real battle people face in giving generously. We don't really understand what generosity is from the New Testament perspective, and we don't really have anyone to talk to about the subject who knows how to help.

Donovan Richards: Why is a local Christian foundation needed?

KV: There are two parts to the question. Why local and why Christian? Most communities have local foundations helping donors become more effective in how they give. We do that as well. But, we also see our mission as helping local churches and ministries to be more effective in serving their donors. From a Christian perspective, we believe it is important for believers to be on the same page with the people who give them advice. Sharing a worldview makes a huge difference when discussing the big questions about money and charity.

JT: What kind of advisory services do you provide?

KV: Everything we do is called "donor advised." That is, we are not about choosing where the money goes, we are about facilitating the options for the donors, helping them unlock more of God's resources. Ultimately, we believe that everything belongs to God. While 80 percent of giving in the United States is done out of cash, statistically only 7 percent of people's net worth is cash. Thus 93 percent of assets are not effectively stewarded for churches and Christian organizations.

For example, $2.5 billion of avoidable capital gains tax were paid in 2001. Donors sold things and then gave rather than giving and then selling. There's a huge potential impact for Christian causes if we can learn to steward our resources wisely. Another simple example, 80 percent of real estate gifts are declined. Charities don't know how to take, manage, and sell gifts like real estate and privately held stock. The Foundation can take these gifts in, manage them, and sell them. We can better leverage the value of non-cash assets for charitable purposes.

JT: Who manages the assets?

KV: We are the local affiliate of the National Christian Foundation (NCF), which is a large operation out of Atlanta with a billion dollars under management. Seattle Christian Foundation has an agreement with the NCF to work with givers and ministries in the western Washington region. We teach and build relationships in the area, and we help givers sort through their goals and options. Then all of the difficult technical work is done by the NCF as a part of our agreement.

JT: Could you tell us about the donor advised fund?

KV: A donor advised fund is a charitable account into which a donor deposits cash or assets, receiving their charitable tax deduction at the point of the deposit, and out of which the donor makes grants to the charities they want to support. Technically, the grant-making process is referred to as "advice," because legally they are advising us to make the grant. We, of course are happy to do so, so long as the money is going to a legal non-profit whose purposes are not antithetical to our Christian purposes.

The key idea is that it allows the donor to separate their decisions about how much to give and which assets to use for giving from the questions of which charities they want to support. This allows them to be much more strategic by accumulating charitable funds tax efficiently, and then giving them as they feel called to give. It's about having a plan and being intentional about your giving. If you are giving more than $10,000 per year to more than a couple of charities, it is good to work with a donor advised fund.

JT: What groups have been most resistant to the Seattle Christian Foundation?

KV: The secular community foundations see a competitive situation, but other than that there isn't much resistance. I do find that churches and ministries don't quite know what to do with us because our approach is new to them. Churches are used to passing the plate and asking for checks. They don't know how to engage us. Churches have an idea that they get less because donors are donating to the Seattle Christian Foundation instead of the church. We think it's about how to make a bigger pond in order to give more to everyone.

Read part two of CIB's interview with Kendra VanderMeulen.