Brent Miller: Charitable Giving – S4E17

On this episode, we're talking with our friend Brent Miller about charitable giving. You're listening to the Dudes. And Dads podcast. A show dedicated to helping men be better dudes and. Dads by building community through meaningful conversation. And storytelling. And now here are your hosts, Joel DeMott and Andy Lehman. Andy, hello. Hola, Joel. Oh. Hola. I spoke a little Spanish earlier this evening. Oh, yeah. I wasn't ordering food. I know you were thinking. Well, you know, tacos are friends.

They are. But no one's out on the football pitch, as they say. Across the. Pond. Matthew had a game or Mateo, as we like to call him, out there. He was going to say, only. Responding to his Spanish name. But yeah, he said some. I shared some encouraging words. Jackie thought I was saying something controversial. No, no, I was just say encouraging. Buen trabajo, mateo Good job, Matthew. Uh, so. So now for all of our Univision listeners. That's or we'll get nasty comments.

You say that's not what you re about and that's. Not what you said at all. No. We're going cross-cultural. Hey, Andy. Hi. Welcome back. Good to see you. Hey, good to see you, too. Andy and I had a lovely dinner out with our spouses the other night. We did. I destroyed a prime rib, and I don't feel guilty about it at all. It was delightful. It was. And I had some shrimp and stuff. Man, we should.

Reach out our good friends down at the channel marker down in beautiful Syracuse, Indiana, provided us with a lovely dinner. And I provided I mean, I paid a lot of money for it, but I don't. Again, I regret nothing. Right, Andy? It was a good time. Yeah, I did. It was it was good to go out with a friend. I mean, it's been a long time since we've been out. We had this experience, and I wanted to capture it.

I wanted to capture it because we said we said, here's the day that we've been waiting for. We have some and the whole group of kids because we had also our friends, but brining camera out with us as well. Our group, we have kids now on the that are on the old enough spectrum that they can take care of the younger kids. So we put them all at our house and we just left them and got them pizza and we left. And it turned out. And no one. Everyone seemed to be pretty okay.

When we got back, Molly. Got a little bruise on our. Foot. But you know what? She. She found the crutches at our house and was using them. Dog on, dog on it. And it's a little overly dramatic, but it all worked out. And I just said, I took this. I took a moment last night. I said, Friends, I believe that we're turning a corner where we can we don't have to orchestrate all the sitters. We don't have to whatever.

We can just leave these kids be feed them pizza, give them a piece for and some and some YouTube in the other room watching whatever they're watching. Shark Tank, you get your coworkers to. I feel like, yeah, that's a no for me, dog. I feel I feel like I think I'm doing something okay if my kids are like, Hey, I wanna watch Shark Tank unless it's because there's some sick need that they have to see other people's drew rushed. I don't know. Hey, Andy, we are. Yes, we're. We're back in action.

Good to have each and every one of you with us. Like I said, at the top of the show,

our friend Brant Miller from from Severance is back with us. So to make a. Comment, you've been talking about charitable giving. But first, I do want to remind this episode is actually sponsored by everyone. No pressure. Get it right. You know, this word from evidence comes from evidence, financial helping members invest in what lasts through financial services. It will impact more at Evans dot com slash Machina Securities offered through Concourse Financial Group Securities, Inc.

Member FINRA SIPC. Nicely done, Andy. I really feel it with each and every plug you have. Just fine tuned that beast more and more every time. I can't get enough of you telling me about everyone's financial now. I just wake up in the morning. I know, I know. You would start my day. Better to hear Andy share more about everyone's financial. That's right. Everyone's financial. Yes. Thanks to the good folks. It happened as I was just telling you. I had received a pastoral grant from evidence.

And we're going to we're apparently we pastors we there's a group of us that graduated from our respective places of pastoral education and then went firmly into an economic downturn. And we have there's some there's some debt reduction things that Evans is trying to help out with. So we're the vans getting paid off and that's what I'm told. Yeah, that's that's Sienna is going to be all mine. Just a matter of time. Well, Bright, welcome to the show.

You've been you've been here before, but we thought we'd bring you back for talking a little bit about charitable giving. Yeah, thanks for having me. Brant. Brant said all the right things last time and none of the wrong things. Honestly, he wants to say in the cup. That's the way. Yeah, I didn't even. Yeah I apparently the cup got implemented right after I. On and we apologize every. Time I watched an episode there I had to watch something else.

On God what's the deal with the cup. Was getting real. Joe Yeah. Yeah. And we're going to make sure. Andy In fact, you know what? Let's make sure we post lots of pictures. Of him, multiple. Angles of Brant signing in the cup. Let's. Let's redeem this situation. Oh, my goodness. Oh, welcome back to the show. Rank you. Hey, so we're talking about charitable giving. We're talking about all the ways in which we can think more intentional about charitable giving.

And, you know, in these times that we live in and I like our conversation that we're having locally, I think non-for-profit leadership right now, all of that in our area is, you know, the economy. We don't know we don't really know what's going on. Maybe Brant does. He's on the inside. I don't know. Maybe he's got the inside track.

My sense has just just been in general as someone who not only works for works for a non for profit and is, you know, my check comes through charitably the only source of my income is through charitable giving of others. But right now it does feel a little bit dicey. And that when people, when, when uncertain times come in, uh, people's giving, we've seen it. We noticed it back in February.

Quite honestly, there was a trend started changing where yeah, like that charitable giving starts to be affected. People start to pull back a little bit there. You know, there seems to be this sense of because we don't know what's ahead, we don't know if we can invest in this way and that sort of thing. So I guess I might just one of my first questions right now is big picture. What on the charitable giving side, on the horizon, what are the conversations going on?

What what what is your sense about where people are currently in for you guys on the efferent side? How are you trying to coach, counsel, help people keep perspective during all of this? Because it's a value. We know it's value forever. It's it's a valuable value for any of us being, you know, again, faith community stuff.

It's kind of like, well, there's a lot of great organizations and really good work out there that that only their work can only continue if people are keeping, you know, charitable giving in front of them. So give us as best you can, what's the lay of the land right now? What are the conversations that are being had? Yeah, I'll I'll talk about a couple different things. We'll see where it goes from there. But one of the biggest things right now is is inflation. Inflation affects everything.

It's a double edged sword that that not only affects goods, but also affects everything from wages. You know, you think of nonprofits, you think of churches. They're not immune to inflation. So when we're when we're when they need to go out and supply coffee and supply all the things that go into making a sun go, that that the cost of that is went up along with nonprofits is the same way. I mean, goods for them is still going up, but not not only goods, but wages.

Wages are probably the biggest increase out there right now that you know, that everybody's dealing with that the lack of people within the workforce and having open positions that you're trying to recruit for, that's hard. That's that's hard for for nonprofits, churches. And so they need it. But also on the charitable giving standpoint, the the people that give that that's eating into their budget and what they give. And those folks that I mean, we've had a market for quite some time.

One of the most common charitable giving type things are appreciated assets. And so when those assets don't start appreciating, people tend to pump the brakes and see where that's going. And they're not thinking about giving those those types of appreciated asset. So it it really does affect charitable giving on a number of fronts out for for any type of nonprofit. I know in our side you know it's we're looking to you know we're talking about staffing additions and hiring and things like that.

And, you know, it's the hard conversation we have with our board of saying we can't get that same employee for the dollar amount that we used to be able to get them for. And for us. There's also an ethical thing attached to that of like, we're not in a place.

Some businesses, it's like we want to get the best candidate for the lowest, lowest cost driver in our in our case, it's we won't get the best candidate for the appropriate for the appropriate investment into them, find them financially because, you know, again, on the military side, not for profit side, I don't want people in a in a bad financial place where they're not able to focus on what they're doing because they've got,

you know, other fires to put out because of the financial the financial crunch. So that hits you know, that hits in the same way no one no one is immune. I just know in our in my world right now, it's like, man, we're feeling we're just absolutely feeling that. And then on top of that, it's like higher the higher the right person. And then pray that they don't have to move because of they also have to move.

That's a whole other problem because the real estate ain't available for them or if it is, if it, you know, is it not fine? Is it within the price range? Is it in the right school system and all that? So, you know, in these times we get it. It feels like there's a lot of crunch, like there's a lot of gateways that people have to get through that in the spectrum in which they can really survive and flourish gets smaller and smaller, and there's a ton of anxieties that are put with that.

In addition to whatever other uncertainties are out there, you know, I would be the first to say, Andy, I've I've just really stopped watching the news like, yeah, yeah. And not so much. I mean, it's part of it on the financial market side. But really the you know, there's a lot of fires burning in the world right now, but that do have implications on global trade and all these all these sort of things.

And as I'm saying this, Andy, this this might be the most professional sounding episode we've had in here in a while on global trade. I just I'm like almost like we should be on the AM dial. Wrong about inflation. Yeah. Yeah, guys yeah. We had a map. Of what? You know what? Yeah, for all of you, that's an idea. Oh, well, you've been writing in saying that we're just not bringing enough hard hitting financial content. Now, it's.

All it's a one big fight over who when, you know, when it comes when it comes to giving. How do you like how do you guys from you know and when you're guiding people through finances and when you're when there's when they're setting up because I know with with evidence like when there's kind of a full, you know, financial inventory taken when you're kind of partnering with people, the giving side is always part of the conversation.

It's something you guys are always introducing to them when we're in the situation that we are right now economically, are you still having that conversation with people, and if so, are you introducing it in the same in the same way? Or are you like like doing what I do? What's the thing I don't want to talk about? I hold that off to the last part of the conversation and be like, Oh, and by then and. By the way. Oh, how do you feel about giving? Yeah. What what do you do?

Well, we talked a little bit about this in the last episode of Of Talking. And you guys have talked with other people from friends about talking, about kids, about money. I think that part that part starts at kind of getting to know people. And that's one of the questions we ask is, you know, how how did you grow up with money? What what was your back story with that? But also, like what was your back story about giving? You know, how did you see that modeled?

Was it modeled when you were younger growing up? Because so so often that that's imprinted on people and has a profound effect of, you know, what they want to include in their financial plan. And so getting to know that back story is important. But quite honestly, in a lot of situations where that wasn't modeled or hadn't even been thought about, people start to think, I don't know, I don't I mean, we haven't started.

So it's just kind of helping them start of, you know, how do you think about incorporating charitable giving, giving to others in those situations? A lot of times it's just starting something. Some type of budget where you're allocating X amount of dollars towards your church or towards charity, towards giving back. That part of that budget is is in that and that that comes in and a lot of different ways. And in the conversation there. Let's make it personal to you.

What's the conversation among your family? How have you guys how have you guys talked about it? Wow. Well, I think a lot of it has to do with modeling. I think a lot of it is having bringing kids into the conversation there and helping them understand that there are organizations like churches like not for profits that give back, that don't just they don't just show up.

And also and later on in in this and that, there's people that give their time, talents, resources to that and make that work honestly. Like one of the best things that I think happens in in the advent setting is when you as a family, a lot of times charitable giving or giving of your time has to do with spouses and you don't incorporate your kids into that.

And one of the most unique things that I have been impacted over my years with everyone is family kind of endowments, family, charitable giving. That happens a lot where people are like, Oh, well, that family had a lot of resources and they left it to their kids. And other kids decide where that money goes. And they in a lot of situations that is the case. But some of the most profound, impactful stories that I have or over my years of working with Evans is just smaller families.

Mom and dad aren't making a ton, but they're diligent about sitting down. I can think of one particular family that that saves, you know, 100, 100 bucks a month into their charitable count. At the end of the year, they sit down as a family and they talk about the various charities that they're involved with. And they they let their kids help them decide. Nice. What where where's should our family get this money?

And so just even that, like something smaller like that doesn't have to be your whole like you and your spouse can still support the charities that you care for. But by bringing them into that, regardless of, you know, what they want to support, putting resources behind that. I know personally one my youngest son for the last number of years when we do garage sales, he does lemonade for Humane Society and he just absolutely loves this thing.

And he did it one year for just trying to make any money. And he didn't make any money like he gave me like, like 20 boxes on like Venezuela or oxide or he did it for the Humane Society and he raised a pretty significant. Dollar. Amount. And then the second time he did it, he had even more. And so he was proud is all can be going over to the Humane Society and taking this money over to them that he raised and telling them the story. That's awesome.

So that's just a real life personal story for me. But I think regardless of what that is, whether it's, you know, you think of growing up and you had the acorns, the little acorns that he used to put money on you and things like that. I mean, that's simple, yet it's so profound that that's impactful for all of us when we got to break that bank and yeah. And give that so every kid has an opportunity to have that seed planted and I think that's probably the most important thing.

What are you passing on to your kids? The legacy you want to leave your kids when it comes to charitable giving. So obviously, you know, charitable giving can be churches, but how does like ever plan to like what if I want to do some charitable giving? Like what? What does that look like if I go to ever and say I want to do charitable giving. So, yeah, yeah, good question.

So Elkhart County is blessed in the fact that we have one of the most profound community foundations that was blessed by a large, very large gift. And, you know, right now I think it's a $370 million that really is a great resource for nonprofits here. So they are very specifically involved here in Elkhart County, not only with with getting the community involved, but also supporting and helping out local nonprofits ever since. Really, on the charitable giving side, we are a donor advised fund.

So we work on behalf of not only the charity but also donors. And so regardless of where it's at, not just Elkhart County, all across the country, last year we gave away about it was a record year, $158 million came in to from folks that wanted to do charitable giving. And that's working with people all across the board, just people just starting off. That's usually done in a donor advised fund.

So that's kind of like a charitable checking account they put money into that, you know, can be any it can be one lump sum. It can be an ongoing contribution. But then you get that charitable deduction, that charitable giving in that particular time, but you don't have to distribute that right away. So you can let it accumulate for a couple of years, maybe save up for a bigger project you wanted to fund, etc. But really anything can be given into that.

So everyone's kind of works in about 60% of our giving is done through cash. Okay. But the other 40% is unique assets. So that would be stock stocks that have appreciated if you could put a dollar amount to it. We have some strange gifts that have come through Erin's Foundation over the years. Gifts of cattle, pigs, toy collections. Yeah. There was a thatched house over in England. That. We helped with. Right now we're actually working.

Working with, believe it or not, manure is a commodity now like that. People are in the business of. Buying, doing stuff like. Manure and apparently is a lucrative business. And so if you can put a value on it, we help folks there. We've had we've had business owners donate part of their their small business as they get ready to retire to help offset some of that that those gains.

So really that's that's where we sit down with folks and we help them kind of accomplish what they want to accomplish from a charitable giving standpoint. And that that also can be family endowments as well with folks that have passed away. And we have family estates that we're we're managing for them. So all across the board, it's it's it's actually one of the more unique and kind of fun parts of our job.

We celebrate not only the assets that we manage at events, but also really relish in being able to help people funnel money to the charities that they love. You know, Andy, I think about and I'll, I'll give as I'm asking you this question, I get to ponder it. But like when thinking about things you want to donate that you want to donate to, you want to give money to.

Like, would you say that you've got to because I would just think of this every day, like, what is the oh kind of the the grid by which you'd like you judge or make determinations of like what, what kind of organization you want to you want to support. Sure. So for us, I would say it's a lot of times the things that have touched our family. So whether we have friends that are in the mission field or things that we're involved with, you know, this church, you know the church that we go to. Yep.

Projects here, but also, you know, like projects or if we hear about somebody that's in need. So for us it's a lot of like personal type of things where we, you know, we, we, we see the need and so we're able to help, help in that way. I mean, you tell yourself, well, you know something. So Jackie and I were with Brendan Christie here a few weeks ago at Big Brothers, Big Sisters, their gala.

And like this is something that so for me as a which is I think it's really interesting for someone who has worked for, you know, 17 years with youth and an adults, you know, big brothers, big sisters, which we've had we've had our our good friend John Coffman actually who's it a big in talking about that organization I, I get behind that sort of thing financially because in my experience with the youth work, the thing that they are doing is addressing the most, the ROI is incredibly high.

Like that's what I'm, that's what I'm looking at direct 1 to 1 mentorship and the like. So I'm just giving Big Brothers, Big Sisters this this plug because I know right behind how they do what they do and why they why they do it. But I know that my dollar, quite honestly, is going the farthest by by supporting that that stuff. Because if you want, if you want to change oh my gosh. If you want to change all kinds of of generational issues.

If you want to if you want to if you want to develop leaders in the in the community that that are going to make that are the by the way, that are in the community, understand the community's needs and can actually speak to them in a way that is relevant and practically helpful. 1 to 1 mentorship and intergenerational mentorship is the magic bullet of all of that. So I look at that organization and I say, Bingo, that hits for me. I know my dollar will go far, will go far this there.

And more and more nonprofits, quite honestly, need to be thinking more that way they they need to take a good because there's a lot of really, really wonderful organizations out there. There's also a lot of ones that in in as a transparency has increased. I think the issue has gotten more and more dealt with words like, hey, you know, X, Y, Z, non-for-profit. You'll find out like maybe 60% of their budget goes to marketing, you know, things, things and things like that or whatever.

That's the sort of stuff that I'm I'm looking out for. Those are the kinds of things. So we want to be smart, charitable givers and not just giving to organizations that, you know, that haven't gotten that piece figured out where they have that they have a ton of overhead in something. They have a ton of marketing costs and things like that. You're never any organization. We as a church, we have marketing costs, you know, right? Yeah. You're never going to avoid that fully.

But really making the determination about every dollar that I give, how much of that dollar is going to the direct thing that I actually care about or the thing that quite honestly, the thing that the organization says they care about. Yeah. So just a consistency. But I don't know if you have any kind of thoughts about I know obviously Big Brothers, Big Sisters is a big passion of yours, but I don't have any. If anything kind of resonates there with you.

Yeah, I think a little bit of this has to do with kind of the more you think about charitable giving and getting involved with volunteerism, giving to nonprofits, you start to think a lot about that.

One of the things that I've I've really dealt with internally just over the last five or six years, I think is probably as my kids get older in and start to say, you know, I don't know the impact of all this that happens, but I, I have this vision of ripple effects of like what is the ripple effect of what you're doing?

And so one of the things that I think nonprofits have gotten pretty good at over the years is finding very specific ways that you can cause a ripple effects within that charitable organization. I would actually this might be a little controversial. I would actually say that that churches haven't done a really great job of of causing ripple effects of of creating like, hey, like, we want to do this and we want to cause this ripple with not only acts of service, but also giving of money.

And so, you know, you think of, you know, whether it's an organization like Big Brothers, Big Sisters, you can kind of dove into and say, you know, I'd like to support a match that cost about $2,000 a year. I want to support, you know, have my money go towards that. You can kind of really kind of say, well, I'm this is the message that I'm going to do. So I think that's important for me to to see where that's going to go.

I mean, even even being over the years, I played baseball at Bethel and and yeah, I've always given to the baseball program, but I start to think of it differently now of like, oh man, you know, 30 plus kids on that team. I think of the impact that baseball had on my, my trajectory of of of a man and why I am today. And now you're starting to be like, well, you know, maybe I can a fact.

Yeah. And allow them to do something as a team that that allows them to grow closer together and impacts their their path. So I think a lot of that has to do with just getting diving into that and just looking for opportunities to do that and leaning in and looking for those. Because quite honestly, if you're not leaning in, you're bombarded with things that you know, hey, who you want to give of your time here? You want to give money here or we get kind of overwhelmed with that.

Yeah. Yeah. It feels like I mean, I sure haven't gained inter and we're talking finances here, but like I sure haven't gained any more hours in my day, you know, on the, on the volunteering side. But it's, you know, trying to and trying to ask the question, okay, again, of my time, where is where is the where is the biggest ripple effect? Where are we creating, you know, creating spaces to for for good things to happen, you know, something?

And I'll just and it's I take zero credit for any of this. It's just something really cool thing that that happened. Walker is a missionary. And so we we partnered with with a local business, the coffee shop that is that's now in Walker Russa.

They you know, it's been this time where if you were trying to do a large construction project, finding finding contractors and things like that in a timely manner to do it where you didn't increase your overhead massively just by, you know, because it's like once the permits start coming in, you need to get built or you're losing or you're losing money, right?

So we with the owners of that organization, we we partnered and we said we, we can provide volunteer labor for you, that it's skilled, qualified volunteer labor for you. We end up putting over 450 hours of volunteer labor into making that coffee shop happen.

But it was nothing more for us was the whole idea of we get to bless the community with this, create a space for there's now there's like there's a there's a, oh gosh, there's various support groups that are that are meeting there, like there's a whole group of ladies that have lost their spouses in the last few years or whatever. We may try to do a live episode there for some time. Yes, garage, coffee shop. Tori, we're coming. We're coming.

I'm by the way, I'm going to I'm going to ask that we get a dos and dad's coffee drink. We should we should to tell the listeners right now, if you imagine what is what is it, dudes and dads special. Right. Write us in. Coffee. In the comments. That include what is that really? For me it's just four shots of espresso. In the comments. Or call our voice. To let us know what what does that look like. But, you know, we partner with that organization which is which is a weird thing.

And some people looked a little bit cross-eyed at us like, okay, why is it why is a church coming alongside this for profit business now? They blessed us with we have use of their facility in their in their off hours. We made that. We made that deal. And that's been really, really cool. But we we said, what is a legacy or something that can leave? Like, I think it's a great I think it's a great story to be able to tell from years later. Oh, yeah.

When people sit down and be like, this coffee shop is here because a bunch of retired or semi-retired guys who were in the building trades or whatever all got together and they help help make this renovation, this thing possible. So I just I think the leaning in getting our hands on the on the thing and actually being physically involved with this stuff, it does it does change you. It fundamentally, fundamentally does. And you end up caring more for the things that around you and your community.

You can. Put in. Yeah, 100%. And now it's like I strangely enough, I care about the flourishing of this, of that local business that we that we partnered with, not yes, I want to see the owners do well financially and all of that, but I want to see there be this community hub and and place because that's really the heartbeat with the Schwartz family that owns it.

Like that's really the heartbeat is to say we want a gathering place where people can get together, have good conversations and be encouraged in life and get a good cup of coffee and and just like help build this community. Help help other other people. Because once because it's always that way whenever you're doing in some of these older towns like Downtown Restoration, one good business comes in that invites another and another. And you do start to see some some things develop out of that.

So we hope that's the ripple effect. We definitely do. But yeah, it's just I think taking the time, get them more invested in it, doing, doing something intentional. And and here's the thing and this is something that I'm being challenged with, you know, in your giving give, give from a place of that it actually like if you're if you're giving isn't actually making you adjust your lifestyle and it'll be my challenge.

But like I think when your lifestyle has to get has to get shifted a little bit and it's an area that I'm thinking about again, it just it further cements your conviction behind that get behind that giving. And that's a financially that's also in terms of volunteering and everything else. Yeah, I would, I would hit the nail on the head on that last part of volunteering, I think, I think our tendency of giving tends to be financial. Yeah, yeah.

In a lot of times we guard, but it's much easier sometimes to just write a check than it is to get involved. Yep. And I was privileged last week. Kevin Deary came and talked with. He's a CEO Boys and Girls Club here in Elkhart County, and he kind of challenged that. It's a group of of employees that everyone's 20 years plus and he kind of challenged us to look the one degree out.

You know, we we get so, so kind of focused time and energy wise of just kind of branching out one degree and looking for another opportunity to do that. But I think you talked a little bit about pushing yourself on a financial standpoint. I think sometimes we need to push ourselves on the time standpoint. Yeah, in in quite honestly, that's dealing with younger families.

A lot of times that is where you start to to plant the seeds for charitable giving later, because most people financially are better off 20 years down the road than they are today and they can give more there. But if you are involved, you're serving on a board, you're doing projects. It's much easier as you start to get an income in that. You're like, Oh, God bless me.

Here. It's much easier to give financially at that point if you're already giving a lot of your time and energy to projects and services, to your church, to nonprofits, get, you know, with kids, etc.. So I think the it's like the gateway drug gets you gets a little taste in them before you know it. Ooh, yeah, you're in, in here. And so for you, Brant, how was, how were some things that you decided to give either financially or with your time?

I know you're a big volunteer person, and I see I see you all the time. You're involved in a lot of different things. It's just nothing but a bunch of charity, golf. Charity, golf outing. How do you decide what you're going to volunteer or give give to? Yeah, I think that does. I think we have to take a step back and and always be analyzing where we where am I at with that? Am I am I getting too out of bounds with this? I think he had a review that just same way you do with your finances.

You know, I was I was changed quite a bit when I started getting involved with my sons at early age, just getting involved with other kids, just recognizing there's a lot of broken homes out there, a lot of kids that don't have father figures. So part of what I started out with was just helping out with coaching.

I've been in athletics my whole life and so, you know, that's one way area where I just kind of started on my path and started to help out as much as I can, even though I really didn't want to say yes, I kind of push myself with that. The other thing I had to kind of ask is where where's my natural connections? I'm with? I'm on the board at Big Brothers. Big Sisters love it. I love that one on one time with folks. I love the organization. But also I was I was modeled when I was younger.

My dad was on the board at Salvation Army. Okay? So I didn't really understand that growing up. I just knew we had to go to these different things. We had to go and do this and that. But that's something that my dad planted many 30 years ago when I didn't really understand what was going on and that opportunity came up to serve on that board. That same board that my dad did that does a really great job of of influencing people in the community.

And so those are two organizations that that I've really gotten involved with. But I think a lot of it just has to to deal with, you know, goes back to that ripple effect of looking for opportunities to help people whenever I can, when everything inside of me is saying, you don't need to take on something else. Everything, everything inside you and maybe some people outside of you might help. Yes, yeah, yeah. When your wife is like what. You did, what? So I think that's important.

And I think I think I've been blessed immensely by that of of saying yes when everything inside me was saying no of you don't have time for that. That, that has meant a lot to me. And and I've also seen the impact of that. And so that's where I've continued to look at that. But financially wise, I think, again, back to Joel's point, is looking for ways that I can get excited. I this past year I got involved with a center for Healing and Hope, had a backpack project and is going back to school.

I was like, You know what? I could help and organize some of that stuff. And it was something that I got very it was it was a specific project. I put specific energy behind that. And you're able to see the kids that are affected with that. So just looking for those opportunities that can have a big impact and have a ripple effect on, on, on people. So we've had a couple different comments on the live broadcast.

The first one is Jackie, Tim says, yes, volunteering has completely fallen off since COVID. Yeah, I would agree. Yeah. It seems like, you know, it's hard to get good help. A good volunteer. I was saying about earlier this football season for seventh grade football, Brant, myself and our friend Travis are out there doing changing and the referees come over and they're like, we're just glad to see adults over here. And like, like there was like and I was like, oh, right.

Because there's a real sense of like even some simple things that used to the people used to step up or it's harder now. You have to admit, like when they come up to you and they ask, Hey, would you like to me? And these, these things, everything in your body is going, I just want to watch. I just want to watch. My son play football. That's right. That's right. But, you know, I think you got to fight through that.

Yeah. And and and the thing is, is that we who's going to model that kind of someone's someone's got to do it like it's not going to come from from some void and the volunteering the volunteer crisis that we're able to call it what it is it is it is a crisis that we're in now.

There's probably some larger like national mental health statistics that are contributing to that, too, because I think people feel there seems to be this ripple effect of like people feel spent in a lot of ways and I think the deeper spiritual truth is when you serve, you will find replenishment in that. It's like it's not it's not the same kind of drain as you go in and work in your stupid job from 9 to 5. It's it's it's a different it's a different thing.

It really is. But it it's a little bit it's a step of faith. You got to step out. You're going to have to you're going to have to overcome, like Brett says, like that inner conversation that you're having yourself, oh, my God, what am I doing? But it's worth it. Well, I think I think also, like we talked a little bit about inflation in in everybody is affected by that I it's okay for everyone to be stressed financially during this time in. You have to lean into that and you have to own that.

What can I give financially wise? But that doesn't affect your ability to give your time in. Quite honestly, those nonprofits, your church, is there a already paying higher for goods if they can get volunteer times and help and more help that way it takes one less burden off of that. And, you know, Salvation Army is a great example. We put those every year. We do bell ringing. And in those kettles set outside at Walmart and Kroger.

And if they just sit out there unattended, it I forget what the percentage it raises like 75% less. Oh, wow. Somebody out there ringing a bell that is out there in front of that bell drawing attention to their interest. So like, just just that's a great example of like, wow. Like, just people just putting a person in there and having a volunteer at those bells ringing those bells.

Yeah. And we're seeing that, I mean, again, speaking for Church World here for the longest time when it came to like a churches like annual general budget on the hour usually on the hour like as far as you paying for employees at a church, the big like bellwether marker was like you don't ever want to go over 60, 60% of your general budget.

That number is his is getting like I know I'm over that right now more and more so again on the volunteer on the volunteer side because you're having to staff more things now that and and that is and that is it's an absolute challenge and so for those people that are struggling in that area, I would I would just say like the the this feels like the pendulum is shifting hard one hard one way I'm my hope is, is that people can reengage in that they can find things that they're

that they're passionate about. So the other comment we had was Charlie Lord says his company did a community day Thursday with projects that range from renovating hope on Haven Hill that provides assistance to women and children in transition.

Another project was the Children's Museum in Dover, New Hampshire, and he was directly involved in helping the Science Center in Stratham when they gave over 400 man hours in one day with, and that was over just over $15,000, including materials to give back to their community. So that was really cool to see too.

And if you and for organizations that are doing that, you put that kind of man hours, you don't have to do it like you get a lot done in a short amount of time when you can orchestrate those kind of things. And we're fortunate here in this community. We've got a lot of a lot of businesses that that do give that kind of time. And it's really amazing just to see what can be, what can happen, the what those efforts can do well.

And a lot times I would even challenge our listeners, like even if your employer is not doing that, what about your department? Is there something that you guys could adopt a family this year? So as far as for for Christmas or some time ago, ring bells for Salvation Army, things that you could do on a smaller scale, even if your employer is not involved with that. But I will say Elkhart County is amazing with at the employer level of of of of supporting employees to do that.

But also, I would just say, if that's if your employer is not in that category, you can have a direct impact in your department by organizing something. Maybe it's only one person this year, maybe it's only two people, but maybe that gains traction and it triples next year. And again, that's a great example of Ripple effects, like absolutely starting. Some people are going to see you that your department got energized and did something and then they're going to want to do something for you.

So, yeah. Do doing good things is good for you people. That's good. You will, if you will, and you will enjoy it. And I, I remember like I started off when I, when I was a gosh, a high school, high school baseball ring. That was if you were on this team that was there, that was a required that was a required thing. And it was you know, it's like well, it kind of caught on. You know, it becomes the norm, becomes the expectation, start to start, that sort of thing. So yeah, man, yeah.

There's the times are uncertain, folks, but we can at least control between our time, our talent and our treasure. We always have. There are things that can be given. We have things that we can give. And so I, I just man is a good challenge for me, something I'm thinking about. We can get strategic about it, be intentional, involve our families. It doesn't have to just be a solo sport. We can we can get everybody on board.

So often we sit down to review our budget and we do this the town as a family. And yes, even if you and a spouse just think about what are we doing given our time right now, what are we doing on a on a dollar amount contribution? Are we there? Is that high? Is that low? Where do we want to get at? It's important to it doesn't just happen. You don't have to be very intentional about that.

And I would also say that one of the other things that that we need to do on on this on the financial side is make sure that our affairs and our are in order. We constantly in this business see a lot of situations where people haven't thought about that. And, you know, mom and dad or your loved one was extremely charitable. But then all of a sudden, kids are left with an estate that they're like, I don't I don't know what mom and Dad wanted to do and how they wanted to support this and that.

And so in those situations, a lot of times there your wishes aren't carried on because you didn't specify what you wanted to have happen. So from a financial planning standpoint, again, just starting where you're at right now and going down the road and saying what if, what if, and spelling that out, it's so, so important to have that there,

not only for your plan, but also for your loved ones, too. So just a little plug in there for for estate planning, for for everybody, regardless of whether or not you have significant resources or not, it is very imperative and we should spend at least some time reviewing that for for a calendar year. And they want to go on record right now. That should should Jackie and I be involved in some sort of terrible calamity.

We bequeath all of our assets to the layman corporations so they don't know nothing. I mean, that's if nothing is signed and probably be, but just in this day and record. Because it's on the back, it's on. The podcast. It's probably official, though. Well, we would do thank you for coming out and talking. Any last things you want to say before we get into the pop quiz? No, I appreciate it.

And again, I, I, I hope that this puts a little spark in the people that to think a little bit about what they're going to do. We're getting ready to go into the holiday time where it is easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of everything and planning. This stuff happens through kind of taking time and thinking about that and just saying, stop stepping back and saying yes when everything is telling you. I don't I don't have time for this. I don't have it.

I don't want to give to this, etc. Lean in, try it. And I'm convinced that you'll be rewarded tenfold. And come and say hi to Brett. Now, when we're ringing the bell outside of Kroger, you just say hello at least, at least acknowledge that we're trying to follow through. Great. Well, it has come to that time in our show.

Now it's time for the Dudes and Dads Pub quiz. Well, and and to those of you who never joined us before, a lot of times what we do is we pepper our guests with questions that they can't expect, and we just random things to get them to get to know them better. However, Brant says, Hey, since I'm already a guest here, I've been a guest of a friend of the show. We're going to do this for you. So they are going to he's going to flip the switch. He's going to ask us questions.

I'm flipping the switch, asking you the question. All right. I know you boys a little bit. Here we go. All right. Here we go. Here we go. Ready? Ready? I guess so. All right. So we talked a little bit about mentoring today. Besides your immediate family members. Who. Was the biggest mentor in your life and maybe give a little background story. On oh, man. Oh, Andy, do you want to go do you want to go first or should I go first?

I'm trying to think. Okay. He threw me off because he said, besides my immediate family member. So. Yes, yeah. So you're here's what I'll say. One of the biggest mentors to me and I'm thinking back to my high school years, I would have been I would have been yeah, I would have been a high school student. Joe Hopkins. Joe and his wife regularly invited a bunch of ragtag high school kids into their home from all these different schools between Elkhart and Saint Joe County.

Was part of this youth organization. They're part of we welcomed us in but us tacos and had us talk about our life and and share together in a really, really safe and a really, really safe place. And that that act alone, I think, largely shaped the direction of my life. What I decided, what I decided to do. And all they were doing is just it was just showing up that just showed up for us.

And, you know, and where I could kind of just talk about all the stupid stuff that I was doing with my life and Joe and Joe would sit there and he would he would not judge me, but but patiently guide me along the way and in that season. So I'm grateful. Joe, if if you're listening, great. And if you're not, start. Okay, this one's for you. All right?

So for me, I'd say my youth minister, I had a couple of different youth ministers over my time, but the one that was there the longest, Keith Watkins, I would say, was probably my my biggest person who had like a shape on my life. He was, you know, similar things. And, you know, he would pick us up from school. We'd go do something. He let us hang out. You know, we just got to really know him and kind of he was teaching us. And for me, yeah, just being there for us and supporting us.

So yeah, kind of long goes along the big brothers thing, you know, we're just there for somebody, you know, we're just a huge, huge. Guiltiest pleasure of snacks that anything can be somewhat. I mean, you could say it's bad for you. All right. I got it. I got it. Okay. All right. So I'm I'm really glad that this place exists here, but not like in Goshen. Okay, crumble cookie. I think so. If you've never had, like. Oh, my God, biggest. Cookies ever?

Like the most expensive cookies ever too, but like all have a meal of a box sitting there and like, I'll wake up the next day and I'll be like, it's kind of like a donut, right? And eat this cookie. Yeah. So, like, yeah, that's the that's my guiltiest snack. You're the second person that has said that in the last four days. Yeah. I mean they have there. Check this. Out. It's a strong they do it like a blueberry crumble like my it's like. Some of them are like kind of like donut.

They're kind of like this tremendous. It's our guiltiest pleasure for me. I've not had this in a little while, but I will eat the whole freaking thing. Some people call muddy bodies, some people call it Puppy Chow. That that's like the Chex Mix with like chocolate. And. Powdered sugar, whatever that is. Oh, my gosh. Now I've said it. I'm just going to. Go get it. I want to I want to go get some. I got I got two more.

Okay so movie that me matinee not your favorite movie, but the movie you've seen the most in your lifetime. You're looking at me. Yeah. Do you know what you know? Yours is. I know mine is. I'm almost I'm some people are going to judge me really harshly when I when I say it's. Probably mine would be Princess Bride. The Princess Bride. That's a good one. That's quotable as I've seen it so many times.

That's what I love about Princess Bride is is that among there's a I don't know what it is among both our generation and just our larger circle of people. All I have to do is what I'm saying. Goodbye is someone go by and say good luck storming the castle and everyone. Yeah. I know. And my kids have really gotten into it too. It's like they've seen it several times. It's like I saw it on the VHS tape. 1% they're, you know, seeing on DVD. But yeah. So yeah.

So this is the movie that pure in judge me for the one I've seen the most times it was a heavy, heavy rotation in college. Particular is The Big Lebowski. Jeff Bridges is my spirit animal. The dude. Thank you. Call me. That's exactly right. That's where we that sound clip from. Exactly right. Yeah. So, you know, The Big Lebowski is not appropriate for children. It is. It's and it is kind of a guilty pleasure because those Coen brothers, it's just it's it's the whole mood of the whole thing.

It's just and Steve Buscemi's in it. And you can't go wrong with. Steve he doesn't listen to me. So anyway. Last one. So we talked about charitable giving. What what is a thought that you've been running through your head, what we've been talking about or something that you kind of feel like is front and center for you. Okay. In all of this? Yeah. Whether it's where or whether it's time, resources, whatever that is. I'm just curious what, what, what your thoughts are.

So oh, gosh, I'm going to say this out loud and I haven't told Jackie this. She's she's wise. About. Yeah. I don't know being that the gal with big brothers big sisters like like I thought very seriously I thought very, very seriously about that. I think again, I mean, number one, it's like was I was like youth pastor for like it wasn't over like 17 years. Like, I know some things about that. I could I could do something like that.

It's, it's approachable and doable, but it's just that whole, like, that initial thought, like, how am I going to make this? How am I going to make this work? And again, I'm saying this out loud and it's on recording now and Jackie is listening. And so I think that's what's rolling around my head right now.

I will say, just to give a little plug for big little sisters with that is I've I've been a big myself and it actually is you kind of psych yourself out that it's going to be way like all kinds of time consuming. It's really not. I mean, again, it's at one degree she's just carving off some time, some extra time, so towards a particular individual. And and they also have baby steps, so you can go in. So maybe it's not a full one on one match, but are ways that you can go out it.

We have we have one on one base, but then there's also community base where you can go in, read to a student, a particular student that has asked to be matched up with an adult. So just give you a little thank you. For a. Plug there. The other push in the through the shallow end there. Gosh. Okay. I would say for me, I think just the volunteering like I mean, I do a decent amount of things volunteering wise. Not all of them necessarily have a like ripple effect and living that by.

For me, the thing that's really rolling around is a ripple effect. You know, like I'm doing, I'm a I work with the scouts and the Boy Scouts. And the reason I joined I did that because before that I had been doing youth stuff and I felt that that was a better and it was a better use of my time that I get to have more of a ripple effect. Yep, there and so that's why I did did switch to that.

And so I think for me it's just continuing to remember like what I'm doing can have a ripple effect and you know, being making sure that I'm I'm doing the things that can have a ripple effect. It was so my so I just I am my number two son is is in scouts and it was it was a special moment a few weeks ago to say I'd gotten a bunch of merit badges and and some recognition things and, and you got to be up front there and hand those things out to him.

And I'm like, Oh, I just love everything about this. So that's really cool. Yep. So yeah. Well, thanks, Brett.

We appreciate you being on the show tonight. And we, you know, encourage you guys to go out and be charitable with your giving. Give some stuff people, your time, your talent, your treasure. It's important. Hey, as always, if you've got some ideas for us. You can shoot us an email, do that podcast at Gmail dot com. Or you can send us a voicemail at 574213870. And we would love to to hear your feedback. We would.

And you know, as always using that podcast dot com for all the show notes episodes catch up on those those things that you you need to catch up on the show. Right over there watch us live when. We launch us. Right. So we do the technology. Yeah, all the technology are brought from the deepest part of my heart. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So great being back. Yeah. Alumni, female alumni. And he's going to get to sign the book up. Hey, guys, have a good time.

Until next time, bring some peace. Head over to Facebook now. And hit the lights. BUZZER.