Education

Video Transcript:
About SCCF

South Carolina Christian Foundation assists individuals, families and companies in making the most of their charitable giving.

Our mission is discipling hearts and defining stewardship. What that means is we educate the community on the tools and techniques, the strategies and solutions needed to maximize tax deduction while enjoying the greatest impact for your charitable dollars.

I believe that generosity and giving is parallel with our understanding of how much we are loved by the greatest giver, which is Christ.

Our philosophy begins with the concept that God is the owner of all things, and we are simply His stewards, his managers of the assets he entrusts to us.

I think one of the real blessings of the South Carolina Christian Foundation is it provides insight to me into the various ministries in my community.

South Carolina's Christian Foundation, has a component called Ministry to Ministries. That's been super helpful for us, both spiritually, financially, and just getting us connected to the rest of the good things that are happening in Greenville.

That's what really drives the foundation, is to be a convener and a connector in the community so that those who meet God as entrusted with resources can bless those who God has called to the great work of the Gospel.

The South Carolina Christian Foundation has been a blessing to my nonprofit and also to me. I started Beauty Marks because as the daughter of a formerly incarcerated mother, I knew how important it was to create a community for girls going through the same thing I went through.

We're called to bless others with our blessings. As a Christian business owner, I have an interest in helping, but if you don't really have a formal way to do it or maybe a resource that you can go to and say, okay, we have a group of people or lot of money and we want to do something and we want to assist.

The foundation provided the opportunity to vet different ministry opportunities. I could call and find out, you know, those types of things. And in doing that, it allowed me to I think the definitely more efficient and more proactive.

I think that's how we have filtered most of our our giving is by our involvement not just blind giving, but being involved.

I've been going overseas all these years to see that kind of energy and passion but it's going on right here, under under my nose. And these are the missionaries that are in my own hometown, and I don't have to go overseas to find them and to help them and to love them. And that all comes from the beauty of the vision of the South Carolina Christian Foundation

We at the Foundation believe that biblical stewardship is radically different than worldly giving.

There is a different kind of way to give. There's a way to give smarter.

We're grateful that our donations and people that are giving and been generous has been just consistent and some of our best partnerships have been people that we've met through CCF.

I don't look at the South Carolina Christian Foundation as an investor, as a grand tour. I look at them as family.

Nothing feels better than knowing that you have given to help somebody achieve a God given mission that you are now a part of.

South Carolina Christian Foundation can assist you in understanding that better way to be a better steward.

Video Transcript:
What is a DAF?

South Carolina Christian Foundation specializes in connecting you more closely with the charities that you support financially.
We have a variety of ways whether that's a giving fund, also called a donor advised fund or a field of interest fund where you can give to a particular cause.

One of the first things we do when we meet with clients is try to determine what their charitable intents are.
One of the benefits of a community foundation is having your ear to the ground, knowing what the needs are in the community.

Unlike other ministries, people do not give to the foundation. They give through the foundation. Whether it's real estate, whether it's business interest, whether it's stocks, those can be leveraged to make a huge impact.

Clients come to us with investments that have appreciated quite nicely. And so they don't necessarily understand that I can give that directly into a donor advised fund, get the tax deduction, not recognize the tax gain on the appreciation. So they could, in theory, make a contribution in one year and give in subsequent years to charities. And the nice thing about that is they can manage that donor advised fund if they want to.

So often at the end of year, you get rushed where you want to give your money and meet the tax deadline. But with a donor advised, fine, you can take your time. You can be strategic about where you want to give it and allow God to use it for his purposes.

It's like setting up a bank account. if we didn't have the funds set aside, you know, it would be so easy just to say, well, we don't have any money to do those kind of things right now, but the Lord's blessed us in having it set aside like we have, and in a donor vice fund, we can access that when we want to.

God is the owner of all things, and we are simply His stewards, his managers of the assets he entrusts to us.

It's the desire to see the world through a biblical lens.

It allows me to be a more wise steward of what God has entrusted me with.

South Carolina Christian Foundation seeks to assist you in understanding both the tax implications and the tax benefits of using a wide variety
of assets to accomplish your charitable goals.

Video Transcript:
Gatekeepers - Kevin Thomas

My name is Kevin Thomas. I'm a Wealth Advisor with Ignite Wealth Planning and we help clients build and protect their wealth for the future and build a financial plan and navigate through key, pivotal, life decisions.

The stewardship group, to me personally, has, has honestly meant the world, um it's it's completely changed  my heart when it comes to stewardship, and and what that actually means. Going into the group, you know, when people talk about generosity and stewardship people think of it as a money thing but it's it's so much more. It's it's really a heart change and it's not just with money, it's every aspect of my life has been changed by that, and just through the group and collaboration I've been able to take that, and also help, help with my clients and, and discussing different money matters and stewardship and help my clients navigate through it, and I think  having that conviction on a personal level has helped me to guide, and encourage, and speak truth over my clients and um just helping them in their relationship with money and thinking beyond just dollars and cents but but really discussing what's on their heart. What God is doing in their heart, with their money, and what he ultimately wants them and um how he wants to steward their assets through them.

So there's been a few different ideas and topics that we discussed as some main themes in our stewardship group and um the top two things are number one, our identity in Christ, and then number two, a responsive stewardship and just to kind of hit on our identity, um that's that's the foundation to everything. I think so much of when it comes to money and and how we view money, um it's so easy to put your worth in in the dollars and cents, whether it be how much money you have in your bank account, how much money you make, but um but really our identity isn't in any of those things and whether you are a spend thrift and you spend money unwisely, or whether you are hoarding money in your bank account and are trying to protect it, and keep it um both those things are are essentially idolatry and I think um really anchoring our identity in Christ, and and who we are in Christ, that's what changes everything, that changes how we do money, um how we how we steward those assets, and that's just been a complete mind shift change for me, first and foremost, and then like I said that's that's helped change my heart over time with with how I viewed my relationship with money is number one looking at my identity in Christ, and um then that flows through how how I handle my assets and then how I can also counsel clients, and then number two um again I, I've always looked at money and giving as more of like a tie than more of checking the box some a religious aspect but um just after going through the group and wrestling with these different topics with with the other group members and other advisers it's, it's really from a responsive standpoint and responsive stewardship, it's not just checking a box, or giving 10% it's so much more than than that it's it's really looking at what does God want me to do with what I have ,and then what does God want others to do with with their assets that they've been blessed with and um just really having a heart posture for what he's calling us to do and and how we're being responsive and listening to the Holy Spirit and how he guides us, um in our giving and and how he those assets to bless other people.

I would absolutely encourage other financial advisers to, to build community, and and to have community, in a group setting like the stewardship group that that I'm in. I think as believers in Christ we're called to community and to walk through these these different struggles and different things that we're going through together and I think having other um brothers to lean on and to wrestle through things and to talk with things um it's just been so encouraging to me personally and I would absolutely encourage other advisers um who are trying to to really be responsive and um to help their clients not just again plan for the future, so to speak, but but to really look at what's important to them and what money means to them and ultimately what what God wants us to do with our our money and our assets that he's blessed us with. So, I would absolutely encourage any other advisor to to join a group, to be a part of a group because again it's it's what the Bible says and it wants us to be you know, God wants us to be in community with one another and encourage each other and I think it's something that I definitely would not be able to do alone.

I just want to thank the South Carolina Christian Foundation for um hosting these groups, and just equipping us with resources, and um more importantly discipleship, and so much more than than just the money and cents and dollars, it it truly is discipling hearts, and I'm just so thankful to have the opportunity to partner with them and to have them in my life to to walk through hard times and not just things when it comes to money but also just just life and circumstances and just a discipleship that that's had on my family has just been so impactful and I'm just so thankful.

Video Transcript:
CLC and Community Trust - Mike Jette

I'm Mike Jetty, and I serve on the SCCF York County Leadership Team. The the main purpose of what we do on the community leadership team is to really just discern what God is doing here in our community and join him there. One of the main ways that that we do that is through the SCCF Community Trust Fund, and I really think as a team our responsibility there is to be good stewards of those resources and to discern where God would have us use them. Since I've uh been participating on this committee, one of the things that's really been impressed upon me is the diversity of the kingdom of God and I've seen that that close up, through the involvement on on this team.

The kingdom of God is a very diverse place and and we've been given the privilege of a unique perspective. When you're a member of just one Church you you have that perspective, but when you participate in something like this, you get to see so many other aspects of what God is doing there. It's both remarkable and very, very encouraging. You know God can do more in a nanosecond than we can do in a thousand years of striving, and there's a temptation here to think that the work that we do is about money, and it's not. It's about prayer and it's about obedience. I think prayer is integral to this whole process. What God's people pray, things, amazing things happen. We've seen the fulfillment of what Jesus spoke about when he said that you, when you pray, you could tell a mountain go into the sea and I think he was speaking metaphorically but we've seen that here, we've seen obstacles, huge mountains, removed and amazing things happen.

If you're not aware of the Community Trust Fund, or if you've never given to the Community Trust Fund and you're thinking about it, I'd like to share my perspective. When you give to the Community Trust Fund for me it feels like a BOGO, what I mean by that is, uh it's a two for one, every gift you make to the Community Trust Fund will impact your community now, so you have a temporal impact at the same time you're laying up treasure in heaven. Jesus said we could lay up treasure in heaven for ourselves, so in my view that's a two for one or a buy one get one. You're impacting now, the temporal, and Eternity.

My hope and vision for SCCF here. is the same, it hasn't changed. It's uh transformation, not just myself, the whole team, our desire is to see our community transformed. We agree with Jesus, we want to see his kingdom come and his will be done on Earth and here in your county, just as it is in heaven, and just think about it, all the all the best things of Heaven. The beauty, the goodness, and the truth of heaven. We want him, yes, and his Rule and Reign here and in heaven, you know there is no homelessness, there are no orphans, there is no disease, you know all the things that that break the heart of God and break our hearts- don't exist in heaven, so that's our overarching hope for this community - more like Heaven on Earth.