The Haverkamp Family: Teaching the Skills of Stewardship
Good stewardship is a skill. When God entrusts us with his resources, it takes practice and prayer to learn how to use those resources to accomplish his purposes. The family is one of the best training grounds for building the skills of stewardship—especially generosity.
The Haverkamp family learned the value of practicing generosity together when they were blessed with a profitable real estate asset to sell. Brent and Tori Haverkamp knew God was giving them the privilege to teach their children the skills of generosity on a grand scale.
After donating and then liquidating the property in a donor advised fund, the Haverkamps had a significant balance in the fund ready to be granted out to God’s kingdom. They allocated $50,000 for each of their children to choose the recipients.
“We all want to hear the words, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant,’ at the end of our lives.”
– Brent Haverkamp
“We’re all charged to be a good steward,” Brent told us. This significant blessing from God, combined with practical tools like donor advised funds, allowed him and his wife to talk through important questions with their children.
Each family member could log into the donor advised fund to see the balance and research possible recipients.
They discussed questions like:
- Should I give everything right away, or should I wait?
- What important characteristics should I look for in a nonprofit?
- What problems in the world are most important to solve?
By walking through these conversations together, the Haverkamp children learned how to ask the right questions and how to find the answers.
5 Conversation Starters about Family Generosity
Generosity and charitable giving are big topics, but starting the conversation can be simple. Find five questions to generate family discussion about giving, priorities, and the ways God has blessed you.
Start the conversationAbout The Signatry
The Signatry seeks to inspire and facilitate revolutionary biblical generosity across generations. Through donor advised funds and other innovative tools and resources, families are empowered to live generously, modeling biblical values for future generations and making a greater impact for causes that align with their passions. Since its founding in 2000, The Signatry has facilitated sending over $4 billion to organizations around the world that are dedicated to solving the world’s greatest problems.
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