*Originally published by Chattanooga Times Free Press

Chris­ti­ans make tax-deduct­ible char­it­able grants to Church min­is­tries and other eli­gible organ­iz­a­tions.

The 200-plus lunch­eon attendees con­vened to launch an ini­ti­at­ive in sup­port of Chris­tian groups con­nec­ted to Afric­a­nAmer­ic­ans. The new fund reflects a desire by the organ­iz­a­tion, which gives tens of mil­lions of dol­lars annu­ally, to work with an array of donors and bene­fi­ciar­ies that more closely resembles the Chat­tanooga Chris­tian com­munity.

The 200-plus lunch­eon attendees con­vened to launch an ini­ti­at­ive in sup­port of Chris­tian groups con­nec­ted to Afric­a­nAmer­ic­ans. The new fund reflects a desire by the organ­iz­a­tion, which gives tens of mil­lions of dol­lars annu­ally, to work with an array of donors and bene­fi­ciar­ies that more closely resembles the Chat­tanooga Chris­tian com­munity.

“Your love for the com­munity is evid­ent in your desire to respond to the things that break God’s heart,” said Mat­thews, dir­ect­ing her remarks to the plan­ning com­mit­tee of the new ini­ti­at­ive, which has been named “Shar­ing God’s Good­ness.” The com­mit­tee con­sisted of local reli­gious fig­ures such as King­dom Part­ners Pres­id­ent Oliver Rich­mond, who spoke after Mat­thews. He then yiel­ded to another organ­izer, Grace Pointe Church pas­tor Mar­cel­lus Barnes, who sang and played music for the assembled.

“Your love for the com­munity is evid­ent in your desire to respond to the things that break God’s heart,” said Mat­thews, dir­ect­ing her remarks to the plan­ning com­mit­tee of the new ini­ti­at­ive, which has been named “Shar­ing God’s Good­ness.” The com­mit­tee con­sisted of local reli­gious fig­ures such as King­dom Part­ners Pres­id­ent Oliver Rich­mond, who spoke after Mat­thews. He then yiel­ded to another organ­izer, Grace Pointe Church pas­tor Mar­cel­lus Barnes, who sang and played music for the assembled.

TIME FOR GIVING

The hol­i­days are a time when Chat­tanoogans, and mil­lions of oth­ers around the U.S., more ser­i­ously con­sider their char­it­able giv­ing. For dec­ades, the Gen­er­os­ity Trust has facil­it­ated the task for Chris­ti­an­minded givers through its donor-advised funds.

Those funds are essen­tially invest­ment accounts for char­it­able dona­tions. Donors use them to cent­ral­ize their taxde­duct­ible dona­tions, sim­plify what might oth­er­wise be a com­plex tax return — and receive an imme­di­ate tax write-off, even if they wait to dis­burse the money.

Those funds are essen­tially invest­ment accounts for char­it­able dona­tions. Donors use them to cent­ral­ize their taxde­duct­ible dona­tions, sim­plify what might oth­er­wise be a com­plex tax return — and receive an imme­di­ate tax write-off, even if they wait to dis­burse the money.

Gen­er­os­ity Trust is the pub­lic-facing name of the Chat­tanooga Chris­tian Com­munity Found­a­tion. Ini­tially formed to man­age the fam­ily found­a­tion of Dora Maclel­lan Brown, the Gen­er­os­ity Trust now man­ages roughly 700 donor-advised funds, which in 2021 doled out more than $30 mil­lion in grants, largely in the Chat­tanooga area, said Mat­thews by phone after the event.

Gen­er­os­ity Trust is the pub­lic-facing name of the Chat­tanooga Chris­tian Com­munity Found­a­tion. Ini­tially formed to man­age the fam­ily found­a­tion of Dora Maclel­lan Brown, the Gen­er­os­ity Trust now man­ages roughly 700 donor-advised funds, which in 2021 doled out more than $30 mil­lion in grants, largely in the Chat­tanooga area, said Mat­thews by phone after the event.

Mat­thews said the recip­i­ents are too var­ied to name, but the money can go to any non­profit church, min­istry, school or other organ­iz­a­tion, as long as it is not “anti­thet­ical to our Chris­tian beliefs.”

Many of those funds are man­aged for the wealthy Lookout and Sig­nal Moun­tain-set, said Gen­er­os­ity Trust Pres­id­ent Jim Barber by phone before the event Tues­day.

Many of those funds are man­aged for the wealthy Lookout and Sig­nal Moun­tain-set, said Gen­er­os­ity Trust Pres­id­ent Jim Barber by phone before the event Tues­day.

“My heart was burdened by the fact that we don’t reflect the Chris­tian com­munity of Chat­tanooga,” Barber said. “We don’t look like Chat­tanooga as a com­munity found­a­tion.”

Barber said he dis­cussed that with Mat­thews, and they decided to cre­ate cer­tain funds that invited small-scale dona­tions, ori­ented toward dif­fer­ent spe­cific groups. In recent years, the Gen­er­os­ity Trust has helped organ­ize these “giv­ing circles,” as it calls them, for women, mil­len­ni­als and Lati­nos.

Barber said he dis­cussed that with Mat­thews, and they decided to cre­ate cer­tain funds that invited small-scale dona­tions, ori­ented toward dif­fer­ent spe­cific groups. In recent years, the Gen­er­os­ity Trust has helped organ­ize these “giv­ing circles,” as it calls them, for women, mil­len­ni­als and Lati­nos.

“Shar­ing God’s Good­ness,” the new African Amer­ican-ori­ented group, seeks to raise $60,000 by early next year for its inaug­ural grants, which will go to up to two small non­profit organ­iz­a­tions con­nec­ted to the Black com­munity, accord­ing to a pamph­let from the event.

A min­imum $50 monthly dona­tion grants entry into the group and the power to nom­in­ate and vote on recip­i­ents.

“It’s access­ible,” Mat­thews said. “That’s what we want.“

Tues­day’s lunch­eon was largely pop­u­lated by people brought in by “table hosts” hail­ing from throughout the Chat­tanooga reli­gious com­munity, includ­ing Har­rison United Meth­od­ist Church pas­tor Adam McKee, Moody Radio host Tabi Upton and the ecu­men­ical group Chat­tanooga House of Prayer.

Tues­day’s lunch­eon was largely pop­u­lated by people brought in by “table hosts” hail­ing from throughout the Chat­tanooga reli­gious com­munity, includ­ing Har­rison United Meth­od­ist Church pas­tor Adam McKee, Moody Radio host Tabi Upton and the ecu­men­ical group Chat­tanooga House of Prayer.

Tues­day’s lunch­eon was largely pop­u­lated by people brought in by “table hosts” hail­ing from throughout the Chat­tanooga reli­gious com­munity, includ­ing Har­rison United Meth­od­ist Church pas­tor Adam McKee, Moody Radio host Tabi Upton and the ecu­men­ical group Chat­tanooga House of Prayer.

Waiters served chicken salads. Orch­ids sat on every table, and an object mak­ing out the word “gen­er­os­ity” hung on the sup­port struc­ture of every flower.

As forks clinked on plates, Rod­ney Bul­lard took the stage. The Chat­tanooga-raised son of an NFL player, he con­sidered the mean­ing of his long and high-powered career in gov­ern­ment and bey­ond, lead­ing up to his post at Chick-fil-A, where he now serves as the vice pres­id­ent of cor­por­ate social respons­ib­il­ity.

He poin­ted out the diversity of the audi­ence and implored every­one to stand and hold hands and to squeeze each other’s hands. All did as told.

“We are one human­ity, one people, all at the same place at the same time,” he said. “We are not here by acci­dent.”