Dick Weidner is a career long accountant and financial advisor. He finds time along with his New Jersey business to provide stewardship leadership and the capitalization for kingdom startups. He puts out a regular memo and it is our privilege to reprint some of them here. He is the Founder of Legacy Ventures Network which is a part of the Triventure BAM launchpad along with Third Path Initiative and IBEC Ventures.
Larry W. Sharp, BAM Support Specialist, IBEC Ventures
Larry.Sharp@ibecventures.com
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As I reflect on what God has done, and continues to do, in the BAM movement in the past five years in which I have been actively involved, I can’t help but envision what could be accomplished going forward were He continues to unlock the purse strings of God’s people.
As of this writing, the vast majority of these purses are owned by Baby Boomers. Many surveys, and my personal experience as a financial planner for over 40 years, is that Baby Boomers’ primary financial concerns are having sufficient investments and income to live out their lives in comfort and security and to pass some wealth on to the next generation.
A recent Bloomberg Report projected that the next generations, Gen Z’s, and Millennials, will inherit $73 trillion dollars over the next 25 years. There is a vast disparity between the Baby Boomers’ concept of wealth, and the Gen Z’s and Millennials’. A recent survey by Financial Wealth Magazine found that 79.6% of those in the younger generations of wealthy families were much more likely to engage in philanthropy than their parents. In addition, they want their investments to reflect their values, missions, and worldviews. Basically, they want their investments to produce more than a monetary return.
For those of us in the vanguard of raising capital for BAM projects who are caught up in the need to raise funds now, there isn’t much time or energy left to plant the seeds of stewardship investing, especially when the harvest is 10 to 25 years from now as the wealth is transferred. However, those Christian Gen Z’s and Millennials who will be the recipients of the trillions, for which they have not labored, need their hearts and minds exposed to what God is doing now through His Holy Spirit-motivated BAMers. They need to understand how their desire to see an end to poverty, societal change, pursuit of justice and creation care can be combined with the call of the Great Commission through four-bottom-line BAM projects.
There is great provision on the horizon, and a significant portion of it will end up in the control of many of our children and their contemporaries. In many ways, God is already working on their hearts and consciences. Our job is to educate and encourage them so that if, and when, God blesses them with the resources, they have already made the decision to put them to work for Kingdom purposes.
If you would like information on how you can become involved in missional business opportunities, please contact me at: dweidner@legacyventuresnetwork.com