Herman was one of our first clients. He’d had an account with another donor advised fund firm. But he switched to us.

He liked the fact that our mission was about building the kingdom of God. If he was going to pay an administrative fee, he wanted it to come to us. But the fact that he wrote a letter tells you something about his era. His charge to me always was to “build the Kingdom of God.”

At the same time, he didn’t want to pay too much in fees. So when he wrote the letter, I knew something was up. And sure enough, a simple scan of the letter told me that he was complaining about the minimum monthly fees charged by our national office.

So I called Herman. It was good to catch up with him, to reflect on the old days and the common people who had spurred us on in our walk with God. He took a moment to lecture me about how, when organizations get “big,” they tend to institute policies like minimum monthly fees so they can “keep their boat floating.”

Best of all, I was pleased to tell Herman that we’d changed our back office and that the efficiencies we’d created allowed us to lower our overall fees and get rid of the minimum monthly charges. Lower fees + no minimum monthly fees = more Kingdom impact. He liked that.

It was a good reminder. Be about the customer. Be about the Kingdom. The other things will take care of themselves.

Related articles:
Another Thing You Can’t Do in Heaven
Self-Fulfillment, Selfish Ambition, and the Way of the Cross

Bill High

Bill is CEO & Founder of Vyne Legacy. He works with families to equip them with tools to build multigenerational legacies, and he teaches givers and financial advisers on transformational biblical generosity. He is the co-author with David Green of Giving It All Away and Getting It All Back Again: The Way of Living Generously.

Published May 25, 2018

Topics: Generosity

Charitable GivingDonor Advised Funds