The Next Frontier in the Generosity Movement

Aimee Minnich serves as Chief Impact Officer and General Counsel of Impact Foundation, which she co-founded in 2015. Aimee brings creative problem-solving to complex charitable transactions, helping Donor/Investors deploy capital for economic, social, and spiritual transformation.

Although her mission is to put more charitable capital to work for good, Aimee’s greatest desire is to lead the team at Impact Foundation, so they know God more and make him known through every interaction.

Spending time with generous people who love Jesus and seek His guidance about how to steward their resources has been the delightful focus of my career. It’s incredibly rewarding. The people we serve are humble, accomplished, and wise. Most importantly, this ministry is precious because it is an expression of the very heart of God. He loves it when we honor Him with what He has given us. The ministry of generosity is nothing less than proclaiming to the world the heart of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords:

He loves us.

He died and rose for us.

He commissions us to go and do the same in the power of the Holy Spirit.

“Go and do the same” encompasses our whole lives, including loving others with the financial blessings we’ve been entrusted. Helping others steward their resources is truly a discipleship ministry—proclaiming the Good News and calling people to surrender their whole lives (the core of generosity) to the God who works redemption in the world. From a financial perspective, this includes surrendering our income, our balance sheets, and our investments. It’s all His, but for many of us, “getting there” is a process that can be challenging.

Having spent nearly 20 years working with Impact Foundation and the National Christian Foundation, I’ve witnessed the modern generosity movement grow and evolve. Beginning in the 1980s, Ron Blue, Larry Burkett, Terry Parker, Crown Financial Ministries, and others taught the foundational principles of generosity. People were discipled through churches and small groups in the three key questions of giving:

Why do we give?

How should we give?

Where should we give?

At that time, those questions focused solely on tithing and granting. And they’re still important questions, especially for those taking their first steps in their generosity journey.

After 40 years of this movement’s growth, we’ve developed new channels of generosity, including impact investing. The scope of questions has expanded as we’ve continued to grow in understanding of what it means to say ‘God owns it ALL.’

These are the new questions about stewardship and balance sheets that are dominating conversations with our clients and partners:

‍ ‍How do I invest well?

How do I screen out the bad stuff?

How can business be a tool to spread the gospel?

What can I do to stimulate economic growth and hope in areas with deep poverty?

How much financial return should I seek?

Is it ok to sacrifice market-rate return for impact, or is that lazy?

Conversely, is it ok to seek great returns, or is that greedy?

How do I bring in my kids, the next generation of stewards, who are more interested in business and investing, and balance that with granting?

Educating and helping people navigate these important, complex questions requires deep biblical wisdom and counsel from a variety of peers and mentors on the journey. For these reasons, cooperation among the ministries in the generosity ecosystem is essential.

Our partnerships with the National Christian Foundation, the NCF affiliates, Kingdom Advisors, Trustbridge, Women Doing Well, Faith Driven Investor, and more provide excellent collaboration and insights as we learn together. While encouraging each other, we also share resources and relationships with Donor/Investors around the world and shape the emerging generosity ecosystem to serve and honor our Father.

We invite you to pray with us because we know every great movement of God has been undergirded by prayer. We also invite your feedback. Please share your ideas with our team and me at aimee@impactfoundation.org.