Latest / Solving the World's Greatest Problems / Episode 6 - We're Betting Charity Like Venture Capital. Can It End Hunger? | Zac Sicher

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Episode 6 - We're Betting Charity Like Venture Capital. Can It End Hunger? | Zac Sicher · Solving the World's Greatest Problems

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_03: Like we have this approach, and I like how you break it down of like this Jingle block piles.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_03: We think the only way to solve the problem is to take every one off the top.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_03: Start at the top, work the longest way down.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_03: When if we've all played with kids, we know like you just find that one structured one and you knock that out, or somebody knocks that out, and it all comes some way down.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_03: And that formula is there.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_03: We have more tools at our disposal than ever before when you really think about it.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_02: When you look at a problem the size of human trafficking, or you look at hunger, or whatever it is, there are certain you know Django blocks that if you can pull those out, if you can prove a hole in the value chain there, and you can attack that, that the rest can come crumbling down.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_05: Solving the world's greatest problems is an audacious proposal.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_05: And yet, no generation has more talent, capital, or tools than ours.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_05: The time has come for entrepreneurs, investors, givers, ministry leaders to reclaim the church's ancient calling.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_05: The scale of brokenness is too big for us to do this in silos.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_05: Under its power, for its glory, together.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_05: Welcome to the Solving the World's Greatest Problems podcast.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_05: Solving the world's greatest problems requires coordinated generosity.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_05: If we give together, we can go further.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_05: In this episode, Henry Kasner, Justin Foreman, Zach Sticker, and Rebecca Ustack talk about how solving the world's greatest problems movement is bringing entrepreneurs, investors, and givers together with curated funds, targeting trafficking, hunger, Bible translation, and more.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_05: It's not just about writing checks, but it's about building, investing, and giving as one community.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_05: Let's talk about solving the world's greatest problems, giving funds.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_03: Welcome back to the Faith-Driven Investor Podcast.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_03: Today we get to talk about something really exciting, a conversation that's been happening where it's not just about investing.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_03: It's not just about a method.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_03: It really is about examining the why.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_03: Why are we in this in the first place?
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_03: And what does it look like to step back and to use all the tools at our disposal to really solve some of the big problems?
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_03: Because at faith-driven investing, it's all been about what does it look like to deploy capital to really solve some of these big problems?
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: So now we've got this new initiative.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I love that video we started the segment off with, of course.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: In that entrepreneurs are problem solvers.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: And so when you and I have been talking over the last several years about how do we bring in more of a holistic look at solving problems?
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: Do we talk about faith-driven giving?
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: Do we talk about faith-driven stewardship?
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: Because you know we have faith-driven entrepreneurship, we have faith-driven investing.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we're you came back and the team helped us understand it's really about solving problems.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: So let's call it that.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: Let's call it that for a generation of people who really want to get in the game and be about solving problems.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_03: And a generation that's not in the game currently.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_03: Because then people hear that language, solving the world's greatest problems.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_03: There, there's a boldness to it.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_03: Some might say a pride to it, some might say something about it, but we gotta say, like, really at the end of the day, it is about solving the problems, but it's appealing to some people who are otherwise driving past language that might be tired, they've been inoculated against, and they just haven't had a chance of something to stop them in their tracks.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: We wanted to be bold about 100%.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_01: And when I think about that, I think about my young adult children who don't get really excited about necessarily uh supporting org or donor advice fund or stewardship, but they want to be involved with their friends and solving big problems.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: So, what does it look like to use what God has shown us thus far with content and community groups toward that end of solving great problems?
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: And for a lot of these folks, they're less concerned about what's investing and what's building and what's giving.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, how do you bring it all together to start trafficking?
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: Because trafficking is something like, oh my goodness, I've come out and I've realized in the marketplace, trafficking is a big deal.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I feel compelled to do something about it.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: And it feels like I can't, maybe the answer isn't just to give to somebody.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe the answer is to go out there and build or be inspired by stories of people that build, right?
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_03: And I think we need to start with that building idea because this is a problem solver that hasn't typically had a seat at the table.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, a lot of times we've talked about it, hey, we're gonna solve this through charity, or that's gotta be a nonprofit or a ministry leader.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_03: But when you bring the entrepreneur to the table, you're bringing a whole new level of thinking.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_03: You're bringing a positive, redemptive, disruptive framework that says, wait a second, how do we take a new look at this?
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_03: Because trafficking, tragically, has been a dark spot for a long time.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: That's a great place to start.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: So when you think about trafficking, I think that there are some incredible ministries to give to, to be clear.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: I think you know, IGM's done incredible.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: But I think that the work that that we've seen through our friends, West Lines, Vip Vipperman, Tim Tebow, et cetera, and the Eagle Fund has those other two components that we've been looking at for a long time, which is FateRood Entrepreneurship and Fait Trade Investing.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: Through the Eagle Fund, they've come up with a for-profit investment vehicle that invests in these entrepreneurs you're talking about.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: So some number of entrepreneurs saying, that's wrong.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: If we can create a business that helps to expose them andor helps companies understand their supply chain better, I can solve a problem by meeting a real market need.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: And then investors coming in to provide the capital behind them.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: When you then later on, places where you really actually need to roll up your sleeves with philanthropic capital, maybe to start catalyzing that whole process, then you bring it all together.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: You've got the build part for the entrepreneur, you've got the invest part with the, in this case, the eagle fund, and then you've got the give part too, because in many cases, particularly in places like Pakistan, you need to start off with just some of that philanthropic first loss capital.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_03: Well, when you look at all those, all are needed.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_03: I think too oftentimes we debated like, well, is it investing?
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_03: Is it giving?
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_03: Is it sustainable?
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_03: Is it not?
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_03: Whatever it is.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_03: All are needed in the fight.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_03: I think there's been a reshuffling of the deck.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_03: And I think part of it starts with we have to really understand the scope of these problems.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, we've heard this from uh friends like Brett Hegler and others.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_03: We hear this in uh Eagle and Freedom and West Lions is like the scope of these problems are on orders of magnitude that charity alone just can't solve it.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, if you really break it down when we look at like Brett's work on housing crisis, and he says, like, man, God brought me, called me, got me in this fight.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_03: It wasn't until I was in the fight that then I realized the scope of the problem.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, like to solve housing.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_03: I think some estimates is it$14,$16 trillion, somewhere in between there.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_03: But US charitable giving alone last year was just$592 billion.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_03: So less than four or five percent for just what is needed to solve one problem that can come from philanthropy.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_03: So we've got to start with this place of like the decks being shaken up, and that's a good thing because I think it's leading to the possibility of indeed some of these problems being solved with a solution that can't scale to meet it.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_06: Yes.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_03: Because what we haven't realized before is we were playing a dead end game in many instances.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_03: Charity alone was never gonna get us there in many of these times.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: But charity plays a big role.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna go ahead and I'll put one of our guests on the spot because I've heard him speak recently about the role that philanthropic capital can really play in the free market.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: So it's not just necessarily just one or the other, but in combination and an ordering, I think that there's in that we can find as Christ Father says a great recipe for solving problems.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: So we have Zach Sicker on the program today.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: And Zach, we're gonna put you on the spot, but it's not that much on the spot because you've helped us to understand this perspective more.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: When you think about some of these big problems that we see, that the marketplace has come behind with marketplace capital to solve problems.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: What was the first point of entry?
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_01: How did that problem first get starting to solve?
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: So why don't you tell us a little bit about some of these different issues that we see in the marketplace solve and how they all started?
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_02: Well, look, like capital, when structured properly, has the ability to solve the world's greatest problems.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_02: Not exclusively, but to play an important role in solving these problems.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_02: And so when you think about some of the greatest innovations that have happened over the last 50 years, I mean, think about solutions towards HIV and AIDS or solar energy, wind energy, the internet, AI.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_02: If you look back in history, the root of those actually started with philanthropic capital.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_02: Philanthropy doesn't fuel those vehicles today.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_02: We know that all of those, aside from HIV AIDS, is very profitable, right?
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_02: But philanthropy was willing to come in and take the first loss position or take risk when businesses weren't, when investors weren't, when there's a 5% chance of success rate, and venture capital firms needed a 15 or 20% chance of success rate, philanthropic people could come in and say, you know what, I wasn't expecting a return on this anyway.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_02: I'll give you a guaranteed demand if you can prove this out.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_02: Or I'll come behind you and put the fuel that you need to prove this out.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_02: And so whenever we can partner with investors in, you know, philanthropy, charitable capital can come in and prove out an opportunity set.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_02: You can go in, find that Jenga block that we like to talk about, prove an opportunity set.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_02: And once you poke a hole through that and show that there's a potential viable solution to this problem and it's profitable, you can hand the baton off to the markets and they will run with it.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_03: I think there's such a difference that we miss there is the idea of eradicating something versus solving the formula.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_03: Like what you're getting at is like we have this approach, and I like how you break it down of like this jingle block piles.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_03: We think the only way to solve the problem is to take every one off the top.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_03: Start at the top, work the longest way down.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_03: When if we've all played with kids, we know like you just find that one structured one and you knock that out, or somebody knocks that out, and it all comes some way down.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_03: And that formula is there.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_03: We have more tools at our disposal than ever before when you really think about it.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_02: 100%.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, when you look at a problem the size of human trafficking, or you look at hunger, or whatever it is, there are certain, you know, Jenga blocks that if you can pull those out, if you can prove a hole in the value chain there and you can attack that, that the rest can come crumbling down.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_02: And so I think you know, in human trafficking, it's a business model inherently, right?
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_02: There's supply, there's logistics, there's demand.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_02: And in a business model, if you want to dismantle it, all you have to do is bankrupt it, right?
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_02: You make the cost of it greater than the revenue of it.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_02: How do you do that?
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_02: You make it more expensive, you make it harder to transport, you make it more risky to consume.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_02: When you start to attack these different angles, you can have a catalytic impact on solving the problem.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_02: And oftentimes, investment capital, though it's the largest bucket and can really take you know something from point B to point Z, oftentimes you need that philanthropic capital to come in at point A and just be the first movers.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_02: We talk about taking righteous risks.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_02: Someone has to go first.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_02: And what I've seen in my times, time trading bonds in the markets, like there is no shortage of money willing to chase profitable solutions.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_02: There is no shortage of money willing to follow.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_02: There is an immense shortage of money willing to go first.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_02: And so if we can come first, if we can reposition philanthropy, think differently about our charitable capital in coordination with our investment capital, that say, I'm gonna use this point to drill a hole through this theory of change to prove out an opportunity set, then you can bring the investment capital behind it to really stay.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: So now I think you're really on to something there.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that if we can help us, if we can understand our role as stewards of capital, but with the desire to see leveraged scale change, we can find out that that first little bit of tranche capital and going from, as you say, point from A to B, we then get to see the whole Jenga block kind of just happen.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: Or I like to think maybe more proactively, just see something bloom and blossom, where we get to see that God was able to use this capital to impact something that really is making a difference at scale that we like, the boy of John 6, we love talking about the boy of John 6, can sit back and wonder, in wonder as we see God's miracle happen, as he takes our little bit of charitable capital up front to then, under his power for his glory, feed 5,000.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_01: And I shouldn't say that the marketplace replaces the role of Jesus in God expanding things.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_01: And yet I think it is a good illustration to help us see, just takes that first view of stewardship and wanting to be all in on a problem, yeah, to whatever it takes to see the biggest impact.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_05: Trafficking, structural hunger, a billion people without the Bible in their language.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_05: These are unsolvable.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_05: They're just uncoordinated.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_05: At solving the world's greatest problems, we're a community of givers taking on the root causes of the world's deepest suffering, and we're taking them on together.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_05: We've identified more than 30 of the world's greatest problems, and the list keeps growing.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_05: We work alongside the entrepreneurs, investors, and ministry leaders already in the fight, and we fund the breakthroughs happening right now.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_05: Here's where it starts.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_05: Choose your problem and start your journey with one of our foundation courses.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_05: You won't just hear about the work, but see the breakthroughs, and give directly towards them.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_05: Come on your own, bring a few friends, or host a room and set the table.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_05: Come join the fight and find your people.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_05: Learn more at solving.org.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_05: Under its power for its glory together.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_03: And I think it starts there.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_03: We have to make sure that this is this is under his power.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_03: This is for his glory.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_03: This is that's the why that drives us.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_03: And when we have that posture of saying, like, listen, you like to say it all the time, it doesn't matter what's on the back of the jersey, it's what's on the front of the jersey.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_03: And it's like making sure that like the home team, God's team, this is the real reason why we're in it.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_03: That's where it has to start.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_03: And so if people are listening to this though, I I know oftentimes they see events, they see conferences, they see a bunch of these different things, and they probably wonder how do these fit together, whether it's a puzzle piece or Django blocks.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_03: And I think it's important for us to step back and say, hey, each one of these things has a concentrated strategy of what we want to get at.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_03: And so we spent time really in partnership with so many other friends in the space that have done intentional research and some great, you know, UN sustainability goals or praxis and others to say, hey, what are some of these known problems that are out there?
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_03: So on the website, people can find a list of those 32 problems that have been identified.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_03: And we've said, okay, what does it look like to really tackle this?
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_03: And I think the beautiful thing about what God's doing right now in this moment is he's bringing really all these things together.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_03: Because in the past, you know, you could create a documentary.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_03: There's been tons of great documentaries created over the years about causes and issues, and it might change mindsets, but it's like a bunch of hype and a pep rally, but nobody knows what to do.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, yeah.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_03: There's also been sometimes even funds that can be happen that can happen, but it feels transactional.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_03: It feels like something's missing.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_03: And I think it's important that as everybody sees this, is each one of these problems, we think the solution set includes content that inspires people, that stops people, that tells story that real things are happening, a community of problem solvers that are really rolling up their sleeves and saying, Hey, what does it look like to say, hey, the next couple of years, decade, whatever it might be, God's got me in this fight.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_03: This is the fight I feel called into.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_03: But then saying, What does it look like to do that together?
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, by pulling some of these resources and these collaborative giving funds.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_03: And I think it's really important that we have to see all are needed for these fights.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so that's nudos.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: That last part is nudist.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_01: So through the grace of God, we've seen how content and storytelling, the storytelling team's told more than 200 stories now.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_01: You get storytelling, and then these peer groups come together with other investors or entrepreneurs, 12 to 15 at a time, and processing it together and looking at it.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: But then, as we're able to then say, all right, how might we go ahead and take what we've learned and have a collective impact fund where 100% of the capital goes into the field?
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_01: That's new for us.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_03: It is so content but it's not new for the movement.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_03: And I think it's important to point out there's been some incredible work that's been done, kind of set in the bar there.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: And through the grace of God, you and I have both had experiences in the past that have helped us that we can tie into.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_03: Eagle illuminations, so many other great stories, the Bible translations that like this has happened where people have come together and said, gosh, we can propel some things forward faster if we do more of that together.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_01: And then placing capital work in the markets with excellence is a big part of a pedigree that that Luke Roush and I and you and others have been a part of in the movement.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: So bringing them all together, yeah, so that it's a pip rally with a football game in community.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: Now, in order to do that, in order to do that well, because there is something different about placing capital holistically, not just in for-profit investments, which is the work the sovereigns did, but also being really good at the grand side.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: We had to bring in a rock star.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_03: What do we bring in?
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_03: And it's incredible how God does it, right?
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_03: Like it's just those moments where like you find like the way the season and the moment that God brings people to the team.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_03: And you just, we've been on this journey, and it was great to connect with Rebecca to hear her story and saying, like, man, I've been looking for a place for faith to come alive.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_03: So, Rebecca, tell everybody a little bit about your journey and where you're coming from.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so it's been beautiful to come on board and to step into this season.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: And just like you said, Justin, God has just been bringing me through this journey and pulling the heartstrings, both in my background and my career.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: So most recently just came off of spending about a dozen years at Prudential Financial and started in private investment management, and then God opened the door where I stepped into their corporate social responsibility unit.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: So spent about 10 years there, growing, learning, and eventually leading the grants management and the operations behind the corporate unit.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the grants, the corporate giving from their both foundation and corporate side, but saying, how do we deploy capital well to our nonprofit partners domestically?
• 18:52
  unknown: Yeah.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_03: And as you've been on that journey, what's been fun is like, I just love the fact that God had you on this journey.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_03: You started learning a little bit about faith-driven investing, National Christian Foundation, some friends there.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_03: And there was just this point where God was saying, like, hey, I've given you some of these experiences, but man, it's time to like go all in.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_03: Can you just talk about just like what was God doing in your heart that led up to that?
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so to step in, I'll probably go a little farther back to my early years, and God brought my family on this journey of saying, what is it like to say and truly live out the Lord, let your will be done in our lives?
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so as my parents grew in their faith, they brought my sister and I along and said, what would it be like to serve community?
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: And that's really where we felt our family called to.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so for us, that meant at a young age, my my parents uh moved us uh out of the suburbs and into the inner city and and started a nonprofit and started a rescue mission that was boots on the ground serving those people, people in need in their different time and walk in life, and that could mean anything from finding a drug and alcohol detox reprogram or to help with uh social security cards.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: And it was an incredible environment to grow up in, and I got to meet incredible people from donors and nonprofit partners to the people that we served.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: And the when you grow up in an environment like that, it changes how you see the world, it changes how you see your work and what you want to do.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so I knew from a very young age that I wanted to say, how do I help get resources to the people that are doing the work?
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I wanted to align my faith, but really felt called to building that tools, building that uh kind of back-end learning and operational skills.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I knew that learning the give side from a corporate foundation was where I wanted to be.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: But at the same time, as God has over the past 10, 12 years grown that desire and grown my skills and given me incredible opportunities, there'd always been that tug in my heart of I would love to do this and to serve him in my work as well.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so about two years ago, he really just started tugging on my heart.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I had met friends that now work at NCF years before that, and they had heard my heart and just really coming to the Lord and saying, what would this look like?
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's a big bold step to leave corporate philanthropy, but I just so want to be in the game and doing this on the ground and doing it in a different way and saying, I've seen what's out there and it works, but but what would it be like for Christians to come together and do things that I'm seeing happen all across the world, but come together under Jesus' name and say, how do we lean into innovation?
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: How do we lean into entrepreneurship and really make a difference and solve some of these problems?
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so when I heard about what you guys were doing, it was an immediate, oh, there's people doing it, and that God has been putting this on the heart of others and he's preparing others, and it what would it look like as we all cross paths in this time?
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it not only do we cross paths in this time, but we widen that path.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_03: And that's what I love so much about the work that you're doing is you're taking the ideas and you're making it a path for people to follow.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_03: Because I think so oftentimes people want to get involved, but they feel like it's a 27-step process of, oh, go to this conference, talk to this person, do this, do this.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_03: And people get paralyzed.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_03: And I think what what's so great about what you and the team are doing are saying, like, hey, we need to make the complex accessible.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_03: We need to make this path something that others can follow.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_03: What I'm also encouraged, I want to come back to your story, Zach, because like God's doing something where He's stirring some just incredible stories of talent.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_03: Tell everybody a little bit about just about your journey and kind of how that U-turn happened for you while you were at Goldman.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, I feel like God had given me a passion for helping to advance economic development around the world for a while.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I spent time when I was in middle school going to Haiti on a mission trip, and it was kind of your orphan type mission trip, and I just left feeling hopeless.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, what did we actually do here that was any sort of long-term help?
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_02: And the answer is really nothing.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, we left on people, and that's important, but uh I had this longing for more.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um and a few years later he gave me the opportunity to go back to Haiti, but on a business trip where we spent time just listening to local entrepreneurs talk to us about their business.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_02: And I left feeling inspired and feeling hope because business and entrepreneurship and investment and all of that has the power to advance sustainable economic development.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_02: And so I went back to college and spent the next three years writing a thesis on the power of investing to alleviate poverty.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_02: And I was really passionate about this idea of the power of capital when structured properly and put in the right hands to solve problems.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_02: So I had this passion, but I didn't know what I'd do with it.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um I knew I needed hard skills, and so I took a job at Goldman Sachs, started an operations there, got a call a year and a half in to join the trading desk, spent time on the trading desk.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_02: Um, for several years getting to trade some of the most interesting things in the market, from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse to Russia's invasion of Ukraine and all kinds of other stuff that really helped me to understand the flow of money and how to structure capital and things like that.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um but about a year and a half ago, God reignited this tug on my heart, this passion for helping to advance economic development.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_02: And through a series of just praying and spending time out in the mountains alone with him, just asking him what he'd have me do with my career, it became clear that he wanted me to spend my time on helping to advance economic development around the world.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_02: And so I said, I don't know what this looks like, God, but the answer is yes.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_02: And after that, he started opening doors that only he could open.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_02: And I got to meet Henry and quit my job and started traveling across Africa, trying to figure out how faith-driven investors can be more effectively involved on the continent, not bringing solutions or strategy or capital, but just listening.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_02: Because I think that we often get it wrong when we jump in with solutions to problems we don't understand and cultures we don't understand.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_02: And so I spent time traveling the continent, meeting with probably over 400 people, from farmers to investors to entrepreneurs to political leaders, and just trying to see what God's doing, who he's doing it through, and how we can be involved.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_02: And what I came to understand about Africa is that the talent in Africa is extraordinary.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_02: God has provided just brilliant people on the continent doing extraordinary things.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_02: And so I don't think that and I don't want to speak for the way that God works on people's hearts, but broadly speaking, I don't think that the American response to Africa has to be to go and build businesses because I think they're really business operators in Africa and entrepreneurs, but really it's a call for us to come alongside our brothers and sisters and partner with them.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_02: They don't have the same access to capital.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_02: There's ways that we can partner with them.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_02: And so I'm super excited about you know what we're doing with solving the world's greatest problems because it's not Americans trying to come around and solve the world's greatest problems, it is us trying to rally the world behind the greatest problem solvers.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_02: And in our work in Africa, it's rallying the world behind Africa's greatest problem solvers.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that, you know, when we can provide a structure and we can help to aggregate and structure capital and put it in the hands of the innovators of the next generation in really innovative and unique and creatively structured ways that we can solve problems.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_01: So, Zach, you're part of a squad of portfolio managers, fund managers responsible for deploying this capital towards the end of solving a problem, along with a class of peers that you have that are around over top of an evangelism fund and adoption, foster care, and trafficking, et cetera.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_01: Most people are gonna not be familiar with the concept of a collective impact fund.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: But what does it what does it even mean?
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_01: Is it is it when you're talking about fund, does it mean it's an investment fund?
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_01: And so therefore I should get a financial order.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_01: Help us to understand what it is, and then maybe you maybe I'll go to Rebecca.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_01: Why don't you tell us what it is?
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_01: And then just also between the two of you, like you know, you know, a year and a half ago you're trading bonds at Goldman Sachs.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_01: So you can't possibly know all there is to know about hunger or joblessness, right?
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_01: So how do you how do you navigate through that so you get to make good investment decisions?
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_01: But maybe we'll start off with the structure with Rebecca.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: I could settle the landscape and then hand it over to Zach to extrapolate on.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: So at its core, these are donor-advised funds.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: So these are charitable donations going into these funds, pulling the the donations from individuals, and then deploying them in either grants or gifts, so charitable out or investments.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: Any return on those investments they'll go back into the donor-advised fund to be deployed towards solving that problem further.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so at its core, it is a charitable vehicle, tax deductible that goes in and no return goes out to the donor.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: But Zach, do you want to add a little bit?
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_01: So 100%.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_01: So let me make sure.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_01: So money comes in, I get a tax deduction up front.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_01: So money goes in, and then a fund manager like Zach can either make a grant towards solving the problem or make an investment into a fund or an enterprise, an entrepreneur that's looking to solve the problem.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_01: In the event that there's a financial return from that second part, that money then comes back in to continue to solve the problem, maybe back to and make another investment in entrepreneur, et cetera.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: And each of the fund managers that are responsible around each of the different problems.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: So for Zach, it's hunger and joblessness, is the one to work towards a strategy and with the community around them to say what does that look like?
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: Is that more on the grant side?
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: Is that more on the investment side?
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: Where are the problem solvers?
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: How do we stand beside them?
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: What is the support they need?
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: And that's really the skills that Zach has and is stepping into beautifully.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_03: Well, and you've got a committee.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_03: And to be clear, there's an investment committee that's made of peers and families that maybe are giving with intentionality or have been and can be kind of initiating or leading some of the conversation.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_03: You have subject matter experts, and you have people that might have some influence and some access to kind of get the word out.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_03: It's really a collaboration of those that you're partnering with with each one of these funds.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_02: And so each fund has a fund manager and then an investment committee around it that helps to make allocation decisions and a board of advisors around that helps to speak into the broad strategy of the fund.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and obviously a whole suite of operations around that, and Rebecca's team and all of that doing incredible stuff to support that.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but each fund, when we kind of what we're leaning into is this risk on nature, where each fund is going to have a strategy component and a capital component.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_02: And each fund will look different, but broadly speaking, we'll have somewhere around three to five theories of change of how we might be able to solve a problem.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_02: Different Django blocks, if you will, that we're trying to pull out, and then we'll bring in capital behind that to support that.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_02: And so step one is developing the theory of change, step two is capitalizing the theory of change.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_02: Step three is proving the theory of change, and that can take a year or two, three, four, five, who knows?
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_02: But after it's proven, then we use our content team to really come behind it and publish that theory of change, scale that theory of change.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_02: We partner with other market-driven firms and things like that after that to take over.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_02: And then, you know, market forces will catalyze the solution uh beyond that.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_02: But we really look at success for us as catalyzing a solution until market forces take over.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_02: And so what we're trying to do is to use these donor advice funds, and the advantage of these donor advice funds is that we can be risk-on, right?
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_02: Because we're not returning money to investors.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_02: We can be a little bit more risk-on.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_02: It doesn't mean that we're reckless, we're very strategic, we're very tactical, there's a lot of thought that goes into how we deploy capital, but like we talked about earlier, there's plenty of capital willing to follow, not a lot of capital willing to lead.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_02: And so what we're trying to do is say, we'll be the ones to lead.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_02: We'll be the ones to put a$500,000 grant or investment into something to prove the viability of it.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_02: And then we'll come behind it with five million, if it makes sense.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_02: And then we'll partner with market-driven firms who might have 50 to follow behind that and really punch a hole through the problem.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_02: And so what we're really trying to do is be risk on, be flexible in the way that we deploy it.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_02: We'll fight be flexible with whatever solves the problem.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_02: If it's a grant that solves the problem, we'll make a grant.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_02: If it's a loan, it's a loan.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_02: If it's a venture capital investment, it's a VC investment.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_02: We'd be flexible, and then we're gonna be really smart.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um I was working on Wall Street is we classified clients as smart money or dumb money.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_02: And smart money skated where the puck was going.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_02: They were innovative, they were strategic, they attracted more capital because everyone knew that they were really smart.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_02: Dumb money skated where the puck was.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_02: By the time they got there, they missed out on half the upside.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_02: When people saw that they were involved, they backed out because they said, I'm missing something.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_02: And so we want to be really risk-on, flexible, and smart in the way that we deploy it so that in five or ten years, when people see solving the world's greatest problems is going after this problem and they're sh taking the shot.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_02: I should watch because I want to follow along.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I want to come back to that in a second.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_03: But before we do that, I want to kind of call a quick time out to show a short video, three or four minutes, that really kind of illustrates everything what you're talking about.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_03: The content team is certainly going to tell the stories of things that happen years down the road, but also the season that we're in right now is telling the stories of like, how do you take these really complex topics and make it something that somebody can understand, something that you can internalize and be able to share with friends.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_03: And I love the work that the two of you guys have done, specifically on this hunger fund, to really break it down into a simple language.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_03: So let's go ahead and watch this short video and then we'll come back.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_04: Hunger is the fault line beneath countless crises.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_04: It drives sickness, fuels desperation, and leaves communities open to exploitation and instability.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_04: Solve hunger, and the scaffolding of suffering begins to collapse.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_04: Right now, 673 million people around the world are undernourished.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_04: 295 million face acute hunger from war, drought, or economic collapse.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_04: But even more, 378 million are trapped in structural hunger driven by low agricultural productivity, broken supply chains, and low income or purchasing power.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_04: Acute hunger demands emergency aid.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_04: But structural hunger, that can be solved with markets, with innovation, with bold investment.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_04: That's what the solving the world's greatest problems, hunger fund, was created to do.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_04: We start in Africa, where the greatest needs and opportunities collide.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_04: Africa is home to the hungriest population on Earth because while it holds 60% of the world's remaining arable land, it spends$50 billion a year importing food and only exports 4% of the global food supply.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_04: The solution to solving structural hunger in Africa lies within the very soil of the continent itself.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_04: We don't solve the problems ourselves.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_04: We exist to come alongside and empower Africa's greatest problem solvers who are already doing the work.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_04: We raise capital through collaborative giving donor advice funds and deploy it in the form of grants and investments to give local solutions a global voice, build value chains, and fuel innovations with the power to accelerate progress.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_04: The majority of our capital goes to building entire value chains that increase yields, fix logistical bottlenecks, establish local buyers and processors, and connect products to world markets.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_04: Our model is local and practical.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_04: We invest in hubs where every piece of the value chain is developed at once, because when markets take root, they spread, lifting farmers, families, and whole economies out of poverty.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_04: To us, winning means farmers moving from hunger to sustainability to surplus.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_04: It means people shifting from undernourished to nourished.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_04: It means economic growth that no longer depends on food aid, but on food abundance.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_04: This is about more than food.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_04: It's about breaking the base problem that holds back health, stability, and prosperity.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_04: Solve hunger and unleash a generation of African problem solvers who solve problems under God's power and for his glory.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_04: Solving the world's greatest problem funds are professionally managed donor-advised funds in collaboration with a board of directors of seasoned investors and givers.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_04: Each fund is backed by a full stack of content to multiply its reach and a growing community that goes deeper as the movement expands.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_04: You can access these donor-advised funds through our partners or make direct donations on our website.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_04: Solving problems is what God calls us to do under his power for his glory together.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_03: Such a powerful video.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_02: It's hard to get ahead of.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_02: It's hard to get ahead of.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_02: But structural hunger that's caused by low agricultural productivity, broken supply chains, low income and purchasing power, that can be solved with markets and innovation and all of that type of stuff.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_02: And so that's what we're really after.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_02: We're saying we're gonna focus our efforts on the 378 million people facing structural hunger and find those Jenga blocks in terms of sustainable agriculture, ways that we can, you know, poke holes in this.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_02: What are potential solutions?
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_02: Let's be the ones to fund it.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so poke holes in two of these.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_03: I want to put you on the spot specifically too.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_03: There's such a visual that you and I had traveling through Africa together of like the yield, yeah.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_03: Specifically, when we just think comparing, you know, Africa to what some might have access to elsewhere.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_03: But then also talk about the waste.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_03: If we could solve some of those two problems.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and so you know, we can flash that picture back on the picture up on the screen.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_02: But I was traveling across Zimbabwe and and they showed me a kernel of corn that was the average size of a kernel of corn that a Zimbabwean smallholder farmer produced year of corn.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_02: And it was about 35 kernels in that year of corn compared to an American kernel of corn, year of corn cob cob of corn, has 700 kernels of corn in it.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_02: And so there's a 21x difference between what we're producing and what they're producing, but it's not a matter of soil, it's a matter of technique.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_02: And so when you can come behind different organizations, foundations for farming and others like that, that help to teach people how God created the earth to be formed and to be farmed, then they can take advantage of that and they go, as Zimbabwean farmers go from producing that cob of corn with 35 kernels to a cob of corn with 700 kernels, and all of a sudden, food security happens.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_02: So that's one of those angles is if we can increase ag production of the smallholder farmer, just the visual of that is just so stark, isn't it?
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_03: Like when you just say, like, there's no way that your best efforts, intentions, you can catch up or even make it when you see that disparity.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_03: I think the other thing that struck us was just the amount of waste.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_03: Like how much, like, if we can like really plug that and do something better there, there's so much opportunity fields.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_03: There is.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_02: And I think the irony for me is that uh a majority of the world who are structurally undernourished are actually farmers, which is kind of mind-blowing, right?
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_02: Because they're the ones producing the food.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_02: And so on the one hand, it's like, hey, let's if we can increase ag production for the small-scale farmers, if we can help them do that, then they can be food secure.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_02: But there's other people in the cities and whatnot that that aren't producing the food that are still structurally undernourished because of low income or purchasing power or broken supply chains.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_02: And in Africa, what we see is 30 to 40 percent of the food that's produced is waste because it spoils before it gets to the end user.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_02: And so there are plenty of market innovations that you can come in and produce from you know, ways to coat food that will then expand shelf life to cold storage, to quicker logistics, to all kinds of stuff like that.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_02: When you can come in and plug those two gaps, you can eliminate a lot of structural hunger.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_03: And we're so used to like the cold chain.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_03: And what I love, and I mean, company names or organizations aside, there's in this moment where entrepreneurs just look at the limitations and they say, Okay, but let's solve this a different way.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, just because we don't have the cold chain, great, let's find another way.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_03: And there's that dynamism that we see across the continent in different places where people are just saying, What does it look like to really get to the answer, the solution?
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_03: But it's just gonna be a different path to get there.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but it takes time and it takes people willing to bet on those solutions, yeah.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_02: And so if we can come in and we can look at a company that's creating an innovation that's solving this problem of the logistics, of the storage, of the yeah, post-harvest loss, and we can prove viability of the product and the market opportunity, then you just unleash tons of capital to come and fall.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_03: Henry, I want to come back to you because like there's a moment here where this is this is a road we've traveled before.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_03: When you think about the ways that investing was done, and we used to do it one way, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_03: And it's different now.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_03: And as Zach's talking about, you know, we we used to do giving, or we're maybe we're doing giving when there could be a better way.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_03: Can you just talk about the parallels there?
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_01: Sure, sure.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_01: So when I think about the way that my grandfather invested, he would buy 100 shares of IBM or 200 shares of ATT.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_01: He was a stock picker, and then in the 1980s, some professional managers said there's a better way.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_01: So I think about Fidelity and the advent of the Magellan Fund run by this infamous guy named Peter Lynch.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_01: And he thought, and we found that if he, together with a group of analysts, were to look really intently at the opportunities of investing, they could invest better than the average stock picker.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_01: And so we stopped stock picking as a culture really in the 1980s.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_01: Now we do that a little bit on the side, but by and large, most people run their money professionally.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_01: And yet, with our giving and solving some of these problems, we're just we're stock picking still.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_01: There's 6,100 clean water ministries in America, and so that's a lot.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_01: Now, these are being funded by well-meaning folks who uh want to solve the problem of clean water or the problem of dirty water.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_01: And so, what does it look like for them to invest?
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_01: But there's not a place where people can come and really understand the magnitude of the problem, the different working theories of change, understand the history of the movement, what's worked, what hasn't worked, sharing best practices, identifying some of the interventions that have really, really worked, and then bringing people together as they discover that in a community where they're finding new friends and like I thought I was the only person who cared about clean water and like say Eswatini.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_01: And so what we're seeing is an opportunity to move towards professional management, but not in a way, as you said at the outset, that's all about a transaction.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_01: But doing it in a community that brings us a sense of joy and purpose and understanding and mission as we do that.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_01: And that's a big role that you play, but it's also a big role that our community team plays.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_03: It's it's a big moment where entrepreneurs are saying, like, hey, I love being on mission together.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_03: I I love this opportunity to do it because few times you feel understood than when you talk to a fellow entrepreneur up here, and you're like, Man, you get it.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_03: You understand the challenges, you understand both the opportunities.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_03: And I think we're seeing that joy element of people coming together.
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_03: Rebecca, bring context to this because as people are listening to this episode, we've talked a little bit about the hunger fund, but it's not just one, it's really a platform that's being built so that people can have the same levels of expectations of content and community and trust across a couple of different funds.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_00: So we are launching funds around different topic areas that we have heard from individuals in our community that God has put on their heart for this season.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so you see uh topics around Bible translation, evangelism, hunger and joblessness, uh, human trafficking, fractured families, and Bible access and engagement, and saying what would it be like to see what is going on, what are the problems, who's already in the game doing the great work?
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_00: How do we amplify what they're doing?
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_00: How do we create inspiration?
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: And in a whole lot of, and I love this was said before of some people just feel like, can that ever be solved?
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_00: Is there anyone doing it?
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_00: And and it can be so disheartening.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so bringing people together and saying, This work is already, some people are already in the game on this work, helping amplify those voices.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then where there's not that collaboration, saying, How can we create that?
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_00: How can we inspire others?
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so when they come to our websites, they can see information, that content, how to get involved in community and how to donate to these funds all in one place and learn so much.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_00: It is a wealth of information on these different topics.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, information.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, we think about it 25 years ago it was scarce, it was hard to find.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, Google solved a problem because we couldn't find it.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_03: Today it feels like we need something or some AI to make sense of it all.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_03: And our hope behind this is to say, how do you make these complex things accessible?
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_03: How do you make it normative to do it together, to do it for a fund?
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_03: And I think it really solves a pain point that a lot of people are feeling.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_03: You know, if you're the busy entrepreneur and you want to be intentional about your generosity, but you're building a business, you're building a family, you don't have all the time to do the due diligence on this.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_03: Well, now you can know that there's a community and a team and the professionalism being done to it.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_03: And maybe, you know, you've been doing this and you like doing it your own, but you felt alone and you've you're you're giving generously.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_03: Now you get a chance to do it in community and to doing it together.
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_03: And I think that's a fun moment that we're all stepping into.
• 45:28
  SPEAKER_03: We get a chance to experience it, but we're also even seeing on each one of these communities, people are starting to get a chance to experience that.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_03: So um it's a fun moment, it's a fun thing to be doing this together.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_03: Um it's just man, it's just feels like something is just starting to happen.
• 45:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I do the encouragement that we've gotten back from some of the entrepreneurs that we talked to about this is really exciting.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_01: And you get this sense that God is moving, and that's where you want to be.
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_01: And gosh, I gotta tell you, God was moving in telecom.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_01: That's my old job, but this is infinitely more fun and rewarding.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_01: So grateful to be on this journey with all of you.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 46:07
  SPEAKER_01: And then with the you know, the folks that are facilitating faith-driven entrepreneur groups around the world, 130 countries now, and to be able to tap into their networks and get their ideas and for them to find here are the fate-driven entrepreneurs that are solving these problems so we can tell their stories, yeah, and then for the first time ever, think about how do we support them financially as well.
• 46:27
  SPEAKER_03: Friends, if you're listening to this episode, you know that we always like to leave you with the next step.
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_03: We don't want this to be hype, and this episode is all about taking action.
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_03: So here's a couple of things we want to leave you with.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_03: One, if you're still wrestling with what this looks like, there's a couple of tools that you have available.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_03: There's some things on the website where you can kind of go through these little bracket challenges just to try to get unstuck.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_03: But better yet, there's a foundation course, just like what we've done with Faith-Driven Entrepreneur and Faith-Driven Investor, there's a five-session course that you can go through together as a couple, as a family, or with friends in your church to say, what is the fight that God's calling us to in this moment?
• 47:01
  SPEAKER_03: And as you get free and then you get clear and you get going to what that is, there's also all of these communities to join.
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_03: And as Rebecca mentioned, there's eight of those where you can find content to share, to process, to go through together, a community to connect with and to think about some of the solutions and engage with.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_03: But then you can find some of these funds that you might be called to give to, again, as a family or as a business.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_03: But my encouragement when we take a step, whatever it is, whatever the size or place or wherever the season that God has you in, don't sit still.
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_03: Don't be stuck, get unstuck and take that first step.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_03: It's not only that you get to help be a part of solving problems, but you get to experience a joy of knowing God more fully in the process and doing it with friends.
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_05: So, what are your next steps?
• 47:47
  SPEAKER_05: Give together, meet friends, and discover how you can go further.
• 47:51
  SPEAKER_05: Join us on a call, and we'll give you a 30-minute overview of giving funds and how they work.
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_05: Visit solving.org to join the call today.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_05: Pick a fund and step into the story.
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_05: Breakthroughs are happening right now.
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_05: God is already at work, and you're invited to join him.
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_05: To learn more, visit solving.org.
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_05: That's solving.org.
• 48:14
  SPEAKER_05: And if you're watching on YouTube, please subscribe.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_05: Thanks for listening, and we hope that you join us in solving the world's greatest problems.