OPINION:
Donald Trump’s support of a government efficiency commission headed by Elon Musk came as welcome news to those who hope a second Trump administration could successfully drain the D.C. swamp.
Unfortunately, Washington’s bureaucracy is not the greatest of our nation’s problems.
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Extreme leftists have for decades used their wealth to play a long game, watering down the traditional values of our cultural and religious institutions and replacing them with woke ideology.
The most famous and disastrous of these campaigns has been the move to install radical Marxists as attorney generals and prosecutors in cities and states around the country. George Soros-backed groups have been remarkably successful in these efforts, and the result has been spiking crime rates and rampant lawlessness in many of our nation’s communities.
Leftist philanthropists have also used their charitable giving to prop up nonprofits that supposedly offer humanitarian aid to immigrants. In reality, these groups enable illegal immigration and have worked hand-in-glove with the Biden-Harris administration to enable the humanitarian crisis we see at the border today.
If conservatives want to see a shift back to traditional values, we need to be just as smart with our wealth. More than political contributions — that means giving to nonprofit organizations and institutions that move culture upstream from politics.
That’s easier said than done, of course. From the outside, it isn’t always clear in which direction a large institution is trending, and a donor’s money is often used in ways he or she would never support.
I once knew a philanthropist who made a $10 million gift to a Christian university. Not long after, he watched the university’s administration throw its support behind of-the-moment gender ideology. When he advocated for the university’s historic, traditional values, the university said in essence that he’d already given the endowment. His voice no longer mattered — the money was in the bank.
This is a prime example of “mission drift.” Organizations change over time, and the organization a donor knew as a young adult might not be the same today. That’s why it’s imperative that philanthropists practice smart stewardship – not just with our money, but with our minds.
As my friend tech entrepreneur Wayne Allen once told me, “Stewardship is how you catalyze the totality of the resources you’ve been given — your heart, soul, mind, and money.”
That formulation should sound familiar to anyone who’s read the Christian scriptures. Jesus highlights the importance of philanthropy in the Parable of the Talents, in which the Master praises the servant who invests his talents wisely but condemns the servant who wastes them. Using your “talents” wisely doesn’t just mean investing your wealth. It means loving God, as Jesus says elsewhere, with your entire person: your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
I think conservatives could do a better job using their minds to give strategically in ways that can have lasting cultural impact.
And I’m not alone. Conservative donors and businessmen have begun waking up to the problem of mission drift, and they’ve launched institutions that can help hold organizations accountable.
The 1792 Exchange, for example, founded by longtime P&G executive Nathan Estruth, is working to emulate another successful strategy of the left. The Human Rights Campaign has had an untold impact by scoring businesses based on their adherence to the tenets of diversity, equity, and inclusion. In answer, the 1792 Exchange publishes Spotlight Bias Reports to uncover corporations that engage in biased behavior. This allows other businesses as well as nonprofits to choose vendors that adhere to the principles of freedom. This ensures their money doesn’t line the pockets of woke ideologues, but it also decreases the risks associated with working with companies that are pro-cancel culture.
In a similar vein, the WaterStone Impact Fund led by my friends Tim Tebow and Ricky Caplin, seeks to invest venture capital in companies that are innovating in areas like AI and healthcare technology. They’re specifically looking to support founders who value faith and want to remain free from the woke restrictions of Silicon Valley private equity.
It is possible to restore our country, but it won’t happen with wealth alone. We need to practice smart stewardship and engage our minds as well as our money to strengthen traditional institutions and invest in the future we want for our children’s America.
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Ken R. Harrison is CEO of WaterStone, a Christian donor-advised fund based in Colorado Springs. WaterStone gives away more than $3 million a week to charitable organizations aligned with Judeo-Christian values.
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