November 10, 2026
When we think about charitable giving, we often picture donating money to a church, ministry, or nonprofit. But what if those same charitable dollars could be invested in businesses that create lasting change while potentially generating financial returns for future giving?
In this episode of Second Half Stewardship, we welcome Jeff Ebihara, Senior Advisor at Impact Foundation, to discuss a different approach to generosity: using charitable capital to support businesses that align with Christian values and help communities flourish.
Show Notes
Putting Charitable Dollars to Work
Many Christians use donor-advised funds to set aside money for future charitable giving. Traditionally, these funds are invested in conventional portfolios until the donor recommends a grant to a charitable organization.
Impact Foundation offers another option. Donors can recommend investing those charitable dollars in businesses that address real-world needs, such as affordable housing, education, poverty alleviation, and job creation.
These investments seek both financial returns and what Jeff calls missional returns—positive economic, social, and spiritual outcomes that help people and communities flourish. Rather than simply providing financial assistance, these businesses seek to create sustainable solutions to problems affecting communities around the world.
How Does Charitable Investing Work?
Through Impact Foundation, donors can transfer funds from an existing donor-advised fund or establish a new account. They can then recommend investments in businesses that align with their charitable interests. If an investment generates a financial return, that money goes back into the charitable account. From there, it can be reinvested in another business or granted to a church or nonprofit.
Unlike traditional charitable gifts, which are generally distributed once, this approach creates the possibility of using the same charitable capital to support multiple opportunities over time. Of course, these investments carry risks, including the potential loss of capital, and financial returns are not guaranteed.
Real-World Examples of Faith-Driven Investing
Jeff shares several examples of businesses supported through Impact Foundation, including organizations in Kansas City working to renovate affordable housing and provide employment opportunities for refugees, immigrants, and individuals seeking a second chance.
One construction company goes beyond providing jobs by helping employees establish bank accounts, obtain driver's licenses, enroll their children in school, and become connected to their communities. Jeff also highlights a dairy business in Rwanda that has created employment opportunities for deaf individuals who often face significant challenges finding work.
These businesses aren't simply focused on generating profits. They're addressing practical needs, strengthening communities, and creating opportunities for people to thrive. For Christian investors, this offers another way to connect financial stewardship with their faith.
Stewarding God's Resources with Purpose
One of Jeff's central messages is that everything we have ultimately belongs to God. Whether we're giving directly to a ministry or investing charitable capital in a business, the goal is faithful stewardship. Charitable investing isn't a replacement for traditional giving. It's another tool Christians can consider as they seek to use their resources wisely and generously.
The conversation also challenges us to think about what happens to our charitable dollars before they're given away. Are those resources simply sitting in an investment account, or could they be supporting businesses that reflect our values?
Ultimately, faithful stewardship involves more than how much we give. It also involves being intentional about how we manage the resources God has entrusted to us.
5 Questions to Consider
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Episode Transcript
Austin
Welcome back to the Second Half Stewardship Podcast. We're so thrilled that you have decided to join us today. We have Jeff Ebihara with us, who is with the Impact Foundation. Jeff, welcome to the podcast.
Jeff
Hey, I'm delighted to be here. I know that you you all are from Knoxville, Tennessee, one of my favorite cities in the country, having spent some time there building wireless networks. So you're blessed to be in that part of the country?
Austin
Yeah. Thanks, Jeff. We're so glad to have you with us. So for those of you all that don't know, Jeff is a senior advisor with the Impact Foundation, where he builds relationships with donors and investors and helps them steward those investments, those donations for impact investments. The Impact Foundation allows individuals to use charitable dollars as investment capital. Since 2015, donors have deployed more than $900 million through the Impact and their donor advised fund accounts specifically designated to facilitate faith driven impact investing.
So, Jeff, can you tell us a little bit more what led you to the Impact Foundation?
Jeff
Well, again, thanks for having me on. You know, I spent 31 years in wireless telecommunications, including a stint in East Tennessee. And, you know, I really never anticipated working in this kind of industry. Really, what I was really talented at doing is doing business development and helping people build wireless networks. About four years ago, I volunteered to coach cross country and track at a local Christian school, Kansas City Christian and I happened to meet the founder of Impact Foundation, Amy Minnich.
While I coached, I've actually coached all three of her kids or and in in distance and including some a little bit of track with her daughter. And so that's how I met Amy. And Amy somehow thought that the ability to get kids to run really, really fast had a strong correlation to working with portfolio companies and generous givers.
So the Lord kind of led me to impact Foundation through cross country.
Austin
Awesome. Well, what a journey. So tell us a little bit about what excites you about the work that you get to do at Impact Foundation.
Jeff
Well, you know, every single day I get to speak with 3 or 4 portfolio companies that are seeking investment, not just, you know, charitable capital, but also other ways that they they want to fund their business. We I generally see people in seed rounds. Precede round series, eight rounds. We do both debt and equity investments.
So I really talk to a lot of smart entrepreneurs and learn a lot about new businesses. Having been an entrepreneur myself. It's just so exciting to to engage with, especially a lot of young people that have just some brilliant ideas. And then also, I get to deal with a lot of generous givers who have either private foundations or donor advised funds, and they want to be better stewards with that capital.
And I, you know, enlighten them on how they can use that capital to invest rather than just to grant your gift. And, you know, getting to speak with the, you know, both sides of that, just, you know, you meet terrific, generous and smart people. And it's it never gets old. Yeah.
Austin
Yeah. That's fantastic. So as we think about this, you know, a lot of our listeners, a lot of our clients have heard about donor advised funds, and they know that they can invest those in the pooled resources, whether that's at Fidelity or National Christian Foundation or other places. But I think this idea of being able to use donated capital to invest in businesses can be often very surprising.
So how is that actually facilitated? How do you describe this in plain English to folks?
Jeff
Yeah, we talk about is people oftentimes don't realize they can do more than granting or gifting out of those accounts. And a lot of times people have a wealth event and they'll put money into a donor advised fund, and they really don't pay a lot of attention. They're looking for the tax deduction, but they don't really pay a lot of attention to where we're it's invested.
A lot of it's sitting in an S&P 500 fund. A lot of it's sitting in other funds that maybe they don't you know, they've just parked it there until they decide what they're going to do. And time just goes on. And a lot of times maybe they don't do a lot with it. I think the, the thing that we spend a lot of time doing is helping people understand that, you know, it's all God's resources, and we help people just like you become better stewards of those resources.
And how we help people steward it is really we serve as the conduit between that charitable capital, sitting in a donor advised or private foundation and a for profit redemptive company. And I think a lot of people are just amazed that, hey, I have a passion for Rwanda, or I have a passion for affordable housing in Kansas City, and they don't realize that they can do that kind of targeted investing that has both missional as well as financial returns.
And, you know, that's that's really what we do every day. And I'm joined by just a whole cadre of talented, people that back me up because, I'm literally we have a just been an incredibly smart and talented group of people that make me look good every day.
Austin
Well, I think you do look good in times we've talked, Jeff, you've you've come across and really shared some profound insights with us. So don't sell yourself too short. So, you talked about coaching Amy's kids in cross country and track. We know that Amy was one of the co-founders of Impact Foundation. How did the Impact Foundation get started?
Jeff
Yeah, I think it was probably about 11 years ago now. We just celebrated our 10th anniversary. I've only been with the organization all over two years, but Jeff Johns and Amy Minnich were both employed by the National Christian Foundation, one of the largest donor advised funds in the world. And I think Amy was president of the heartland office here in Kansas City.
And Jeff was establishing new offices around the globe for National Christian Foundation. But from what I understand, they started wondering, what if you could do more than grant or gift out of a donor advised fund? What if you could actually invest it in for profit, redemptive businesses that had some sort of return? And could you grow the kingdom through investing in companies that allow for human flourishing?
Jeff
So we traditionally look for companies that have some sort of economic, social and spiritual return. Oftentimes it's environmental as well. In addition to financial returns. And, I think, you know, people like Henry Kaestner have said, hey, you're probably not going to charity your way out of the world's greatest problems. And that's kind of where we fit into this.
We want to allow for the investment of that charitable capital, to grow the kingdom. And I think you could look around the world right now, and all of the charity that the United States has put into certain places, you know, we haven't seen the economic growth in the human flourishing that we would expect out of that amount of capital that's been invested.
Austin
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So we talk about this idea of there are businesses that solve problems. The reality is there's no entrepreneur that ever just sets up a business because they just want something to do. They're often looking and saying, hey, this is a targeted problem that I want to solve. Similarly with charities. And so each business has a problem that looking for charities have problems they're looking to solve in government.
So there's kind of multiple entity layers here. But you mentioned the returns that a business is trying to generate. So let's say a donor invests in a business through the Impact Foundation through the donated capital. Maybe they have funds at National Christian Foundation. They transfer it to Impact Foundation and they deploy it to a company. What is typically the process there?
How to how does this actually work out?
Jeff
It's a really simple process that we work through, you know, target the department store. At one point in time, we used to talk about hitting the easy button. We're kind of the easy button of charitable investing like this, right? A generous giver basically takes two minutes to open up an account with us. We are a donor advised fund.
We're a 501(c)3 nonprofit. But, we make it easy for them to open that account and transfer funds from their existing donor advised fund, whether it be at one of the the large financial institutions you talk about or just any other. If they don't already have a donor advice fund, we allow them to set that up with us.
We send them their their tax receipt and, we don't ask them to fund it at that point in time. But really, what most people, when they come to us, they have some sort of idea of where they want to invest that or they've come across an opportunity. And at that point in time, if it's a company or a fund or a nonprofit organization, they want to lend money to, if we've already done that, we can quickly facilitate that.
If we haven't already invested in one of those organizations that they're interested in, then we asked that organization to fill out a very simple job form. It takes them about 30, 40 minutes to fill that out. We ask them to give us some, associated documents for similar to what they would provide any sort of commercial lending institution.
And we take about five business days to vet that, that company, just to make sure that, you know, that all lines with the kind of companies that we want to invest in, that there's nothing that they're doing from a business standpoint. There's contrary to our biblical beliefs and that, and it helps support human flourishing. After that five day period, literally, the donor investor makes that transfer of funds from their existing data for another account.
They come into the account, their account at Impact Foundation. We ask them to electronically sign an investment recommendation letter that basically summarizes their intent to have us invest on their behalf in that company, and then we sign subscription agreements with the company. Will there be a promissory note for a loan or some sort of equity investment, including simple agreements for future equity?
And then once those are all signed, we basically fund that investment. The donor investor gets login credentials into an account that looks very similar to any other brokerage account that they might have, or for one account, and they can monitor the returns on those investments in that account. And so we just make it very, very simple. There's very, very little work involved for the donor investor through this process.
Austin
Yeah that's great. So let's think about that. Then. You talk about returns several times, whether that is the loan being paid off or whether it is a private company that you've invested in that has a liquidation event. What happens with any of those returns in the donor advised fund?
Jeff
Yeah, that's fantastic. Right. Because, most people see their donor advised fund as a granting and gifting mechanism where the money goes out and it's gone. In this case, our portfolio companies have returned. Some have some sort of return or distribution or repayment of principal and interest. It comes back to impact Foundation. We put it in the donor investors account, and now they have the ability to reinvest in that.
In that same organization, they can invest in a different redemptive organization they could grant or gifted at that point in time to another 501(c)3 or the church or anything else. Or if it's a donor advised fund, they can return that cash back to the original donor advised fund. So it's complete flexibility. For the donor investor.
Austin
Yeah. So kind of in a similar way where if they are invested in an index fund within their their current donor advised fund, there are returns that are generated that are just pushed back to the donor advised fund, increasing the capital that they can then grant to organizations. So it's a very similar process. It sounds like.
Jeff
Yeah, absolutely.
Austin
Great. So let's think it through then. We've got clients that may say, hey, I'm really passionate about X, Y or Z. Are there ways that they can look at funds, companies, options that are currently at Impact Foundation, or do you guys work with clients directly to say, hey, you've got $100,000, you've got half $1 million to grant? Here's maybe some ways that we can help you sift through the options that are on the Impact Foundation, kind of how does that work?
Jeff
Well, first off, we're not investment advisors, so we don't really recommend investments to anybody. We leave that in, you know, hands of people like yourself. And you do a much better job at that. What we do do is we, basically divide our portfolio companies into 12 different areas. And some of those include poverty alleviation and generosity and health care or education.
Ending human trafficking, addiction recovery, things like that. Humanitarian aid generally. Somebody will call me and say, hey, I have these funds. I want to invest them. I want to get both emotional as well as a financial return on this. And here's what I'm passionate about. At that point in time, I can direct them to our website where they can see some of those companies, but more often I will just give them, you know, information on some of the most recent companies that I know.
They're still open for investment in those areas, and if they have an interest in it, I'll connect them directly with the CEOs of those companies or the or the investment, you know, representatives of those companies. And I will tell you, our portfolio companies and the funds that we deal with are so generous with their time and whether it's a $25,000 investment or $2 million investment, they treat these, the people that we bring to them equally because they know that the importance of this and that we are helping believers grow the kingdom through our investments.
Austin
Yeah. That's really helpful. So let's talk about that idea then of you've mentioned redemptive transformational missional investments. How how do you guys classify like that can be something that is is a challenging thing to maybe understand. So how do you guys characterize redemptive investing?
Jeff
I think what we really look for is we always say we're looking for things that have some sort of economic, social and spiritual return. But really what we strive is to figure out ways we can invest, help people steward money for investment that helps human flourishing. Because what do people really, really want, you know and need? People need housing.
They need jobs. They need to be able to, feed their families. They they want education. It goes in those 12 areas of how we break down our portfolio companies is how do we facilitate capital so that people can flourish in those 12 areas. And that's really what we're looking for. You know what? What are things that, you know, Jesus taught us that how we can help facilitate some of the those organizations that can help people flourish.
Austin
Now that's great. So let's maybe think about from an investor investor perspective, what are maybe the benefits to using Impact Foundation. Let's say they've had a liquidation event. They've got cash sitting whether they've deployed it to a donor advised fund, their deciding via direct investment versus donor advised fund with Impact Foundation. What are maybe some of the benefits of going with the Impact Foundation versus making a direct investment, if that's an option that they have?
Jeff
Well, see people use Impact Foundation because we make it easy for people. We talked about the easy button before, and I walked through that process. But in reality we allow that investment to go through the the donor investor doesn't have to file taxes on it. They can monitor it on their website. The portfolio companies love it because we're able to aggregate many investors and we're the single entity and the cap table.
The issue of single K-1 at the end of the year. So we make it easy for both the donor investors as well as the portfolio companies to put charitable capital to work. And every single year we send out a metrics report. Our metrics report just came out a little while ago, and most of our donor investors are very interested in not only the financial return on their investment, but also the missional return.
And that's something that why people come to impact foundations, because they have a passion for the missional side of it, but they also want a financial return. And we do a really good job of providing that opportunity for people.
Austin
That's super helpful. You know, I even think in our circumstances, we looked recently whether we were going to make a direct investment or a direct investment through Impact Foundation. I think the reality is sometimes clients are deploying these investments to resource to companies that may be in more high risk areas, too. And so if we are making a decision between, do I want to make a direct investment in a high risk area or a charitable investment, maybe the the calculus comes down to, well, if this goes to zero one, am I okay with it?
And two, if it goes to zero, do I also get that immediate tax benefit by making that donation investment? And so, you know, I think there's for us, when we looked at when we first started engaging you guys with an investment in the 1040 window, it's like, well this could do really well. And I'm really excited about the potential here.
But also there's a lot of risk by investing in a business mission company in the 1040 window. So I really appreciated working with you guys in the simplicity that you guys made it by which we could make that investment. And again, like you're saying the simplicity to view it.
Jeff
Well, yeah. You know, one thing that a lot of people don't realize is we represent us taxpayers when they open up a donor advised fund, as you know, they basically given that money away and they've taken a 40% tax deduction in most cases. So when you're coming into thinking about investing charitable capital, you're already 40% ahead. And and I think you're a lot less risk averse and you're willing to invest globally and you're willing to invest in things that are, you know, higher, higher risk.
And, you know, it comes to bear in that we're invested in over 175 different countries right now in over a thousand different businesses. And, you know, we have a very large global reach. And we allow people enable people to invest in places that like Uganda and Rwanda and, you know, Morocco. I actually funded a Christian climbing company in Morocco, of all things.
Jeff
Cool. So, you know, there's no area of place that, you know, we won't invest in if we're able to do do that. Yeah.
Austin
That's fantastic. So I would love to maybe here in the last couple of minutes that we've got, is there a story of a company that you've seen that's received capital from donors that you can share just a couple a story or two about some of the successes that you've seen through Impact Foundation?
Jeff
Yeah. Let me talk to you a little bit about ones that we just recently. There's so many, like I said, we've got a thousand portfolio companies and I could go on and on about, you know, places like Masaka Creamery that basically, you know, mix yogurt and other dairy products. Unfortunately, they had a fire and they, temporarily shut down of late, but they hired they hired deaf Rwandans.
And apparently in Rwanda, it's very difficult to get a job if you're deaf. And, you know, John Porter, I think there's chairman of the board, started hiring deaf Rwandans and I think their turnover rate amongst employees is ridiculously low. And the these employees are so grateful to have the opportunity and do a terrific job there. But I want to talk to you a little bit about what we're doing just right here in Kansas City, my hometown.
Right. We had a generous giver come in and say, look, I want to help figure out how do we provide more housing in the urban core, Kansas City. And so we ran into opportunities where, one company, Jolley and Associates. They're basically renovating large single family homes east of trust in an area that has gone largely, you know, undeveloped for quite several decades.
And he's renovating these large houses so that if you have some sort of government assistance, you could actually use that to rent in one of these larger houses. And why that's important is it allows people to keep their families together. And we're we're facilitating investment from Kansas City in their own hometown. Another one is a company called Arc contractors, who actually does a lot of these renovations in the urban core, Kansas City.
Jeff
Their main focus is hiring, refugees, immigrants and second chance offenders. They not only hire and train them on how to do construction, but they basically help them get integrated into the community, meaning getting bank accounts set up, getting driver's license, helping their kids get registered in schools, connecting them into the into a local church, doing all the kind of things that help these, these employees, you know, just get through the initial, you know, settling settling in the Kansas City and, going way beyond just employment.
So we've invested, done loans into that company. So those are just two examples. So people oftentimes want to use charitable capital globally. But we're seeing an increasing number of people say, hey, look, I want to put this capital to work in my own hometown. We've got issues here. And we could resolve it with charitable capital.
Austin
Yeah that's fantastic. What a what a cool story to just see the need in a local place, see businesses that are willing to adapt and then be able to match that charitable capital to both the donor desire and the local need. That's just such a powerful story. Jeff, before we close out, anything else that you want to share about Impact Foundation, the work that you guys do or anything that we should have asked you that we didn't ask you?
Jeff
You know, I would just tell you that a lot of people come to us and say, hey, look, I only have $25,000 to invest. Is that too little? And you know what? We don't treat somebody that wants to put $25,000 to work any differently than somebody wants to put 20 million to work. As I said earlier, it's all God's resources.
We're just want to be here to help people be better stewards of that capital, just like you are. And every single person that I come in contact with, it's a blessing for me to be able to serve them. And I think that in my, you know, I retired after 31 years in telecom, this is just the most fantastic opportunity to do something to help grow the kingdom, improve people's lives, and help people just steward their money better.
And, you know, I'm just blessed to be here. And I work with, probably 25, 26 other people that feel the same way. And so when you come into contact with anybody from Impact Foundation, you just find this energy in this, you know, friendliness and, you know, people that just want to help. And I think that's unfortunately unusual these days.
Jeff
But I think one of the keys that is, is we hire we have two prayer coordinators in every single day, at 9:30 in the morning, our team gets together and pray. On Wednesdays we break up into smaller groups and we pray in smaller teams. But I think prayers, you know, just something that's so lacking in organizations these days.
And our from the top down that that's kind of the, you know, the culture that's been built and that's why you see us have the success that we do.
Austin
Yeah. Fantastic. Jeff, it's it's a pleasure to be able to talk to you. It's a pleasure to be able to hear from you about the Impact Foundation, about that foundation of prayer, even that you guys have. That's such a compelling reminder to come to the Lord daily with the work that we do. So thanks again so much for taking the time to talk with us.
Really appreciate you joining us today.
Jeff
Well, thank you for the opportunity. Thank you for the opportunity. You know, it's it's it's a it's a pleasure to continue to, you know, have these kind of conversations with you and your clients. And, I just appreciate this.
Austin
Awesome. Thanks, Jeff. Well, clients, if you do have questions about Impact Foundation or how you guys can deploy resources, or if they're portfolio companies that you would want to connect with as you look through the Impact Foundation's website, we would love to connect you with Jeff and his team, and we look forward to seeing you again next time.
Take care.
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This content was provided by Second Half Stewardship. We were in Knoxville, Tennessee and you can visit our website at www.secondhalfstewardship.com. The information in this recording is intended for general, educational and informational purposes only, and should not be construed as investment advisory, financial planning, legal, tax, or other professional advice based on your specific situation. Please consult your professional advisor before taking any action based on its contents.
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