December 2023
Jessi and Stacy suggest attending charity events and conducting proper research using sites like Charity Navigator and GuideStar to know which organizations you’d like to donate resources to. Volunteering one’s effort, expertise and mentorship can have a profound impact on your community- help does not always have to come in a monetary form.
Kevin, Jessi, and Stacy also recommend listeners to consider Donor-Advised Funds (DAFs) as a way to donate efficiently by contributing appreciated assets and planning multi-year donations. Donors retain advisory privileges over how DAF funds are distributed and contributions to a DAF are usually tax-deductible in the year they are made.
Watch our pilot episode of Couchside Conversations:
How to Maximize Vacations for a Better Life
How's everybody doing? Appreciate you being here. I know everyone's got busy lives, so thank you for giving us some time, spending it with us. Hopefully we can learn some things and I'll live more fruitful lives. My name is Kevin Rex. I'm one of the advisors at Morton Wealth, and today I get the pleasure of being joined by Jessi Bierling and Stacy Swanson.
Jessi's with James Storehouse and Stacy's with Interface Children and Family Services. And we're going to be talking about investing in our community. So oftentimes as advisors, we're just talking about investment, but we all live in such a beautiful place. I mean, just the world around us is so, so wonderful and how do we keep it that way? But also there are others out there, maybe some of us that we have needs and there's things that we need to work on.
And so even in this community, it's masked sometimes by all the wealth and all of you know, you look around across the tables, at the restaurants, it's like everybody's doing so well, but that's not the case. And so today we're going to talk a lot about continuing to build this community in a way that we can all enjoy it for years to come from generation to generation.
So thank you both so much for being here. One other piece to talk on. So more than wealth, we have a charitable committee and every year we try to find two charities that we want to partner with. And fortunately, this year we asked both James Storehouse and Interface if we could be partners with them, and they both kindly accepted and so this year we've been able to attend events, support them by volunteering financial support, but really seeing the inner workings of what the two of you and your organizations are doing in the incredible work.
So I'm excited to share that with you today. I'm excited for us to have this discussion around how to give, how to give more efficiently, where to start. So I think from
Sure. Thank you.
So thank you. I'm Stacy Swanson. I'm the Chief Development Officer at Interface Children Family Services. So just a quick summary of what we do. We're a comprehensive social services organization. We're based in Camarillo, but we serve all the Ventura County and the Central Coast region. And then we also operate 211 information assistance, which is a non-emergency kind of assistance line for people who are looking for support with maybe food security or unemployment or housing security.
And we operate that statewide through 39 counties. So we do everything from domestic violence, intervention and prevention. We do prevention, education and schools to help kids understand their bodies and language around their bodies. Healthy relationships. We offer mental health and trauma care for children and families, justice services, which is for recently incarcerated people to really come into the community and all that, and runaway and homeless youth as well.
So a variety of services to support individuals and children and families across the region.
Interface is celebrating their 50th anniversary this year. So been supporting the community for half a century. It's incredible. But listing all of those things and all those services, there's so many things you're doing and we're super lucky because Kevin's on our board of directors as well.
So it's a wonderful organization and Jessi, we would love to hear a little bit about James Storehouse as well.
Yeah, I'm the Associate Director at James Storehouse. So I just want to thank Morton and thank all of you because everything that we get to do comes from the community in some capacity. So your donations are going to these kids and these families. So who are these kids? We serve children who are in foster care.
And our little tagline is From cribs to college, which just means babies all the way up through youth who are young adults up to age 25. More specifically, that population looks like children who are currently in foster care in the child welfare system, and their caregivers. We also serve youth who are aging out of foster care. When they turn 18, they're often left with very little support.
And then we've also added on an extra program which is serving youth who are at risk of removal, which means these families, usually due to poverty, which is heartbreaking, might be separated. So we want to do both. The intervention and the prevention aspect all around the child welfare system. And so how do we do that one free, essential resources.
So all of you, as financial experts probably know things for free are awesome. So we let these families come in and go shopping completely for free for essential items. That's the first the bottom of the pyramid. If you guys are familiar with Maslow's pyramid, free and resources matter for these families, that comes first. And then from there we go into a more meaningful relationships like mentorship, life skills classes and so on to kind of further, deeper healing for these families.
And we're located right here in Newbury Park. And so if you ever want to come check us out, see what we're doing or be part of our local events, we would love to see you there.
Awesome. And I highly encourage you to check it out. So one Friday month, our team gets to go and help support the the warehouse, what have you. But what they've done over there at James Storehouse is it looks like you're walking into a high end retail store. So every different room set up for different ages. These these children and their families, they get to come in and they get to kind of shop around.
Almost everything's brand new. Some of the stuff is lightly worn. But it's not just the hand-me-downs that all of us don't want any more. It is really nice stuff, but it's not also just in boxes. It's hung up. They get to go into a dressing room. There's mirrors, all of the sayings of just talking about how powerful they are and just really truly supporting them beyond giving them stuff.
But the emotional and all of that aspect that we've seen from being there is incredible.
Yeah, dignity is huge for us. We want these kids who probably don't feel loved, empowered, confident and based on the experiences they went through to feel about when they come here. So that's why we set it up that way, so that they feel like they're worthy of the best things.
I'm going to jump to you, Stacy. So now we're going to talk a little bit about the community. I brought up the fact that we live in an incredible place in the world. And in my mind, it's the best place in the world, but there's still so much need out there. Can you talk a little bit about what you see?
What are some of the needs that you see that, you know, we're sitting there eating dinner at Mastros’, but just around the corner, there could be families that have, you know, things that they're really struggling with.
It's easy when you live in a beautiful place like this to think that problems are happening elsewhere. Right. But domestic violence is a real thing no matter what your socio economic status might be. Right. Every year at an event or, you know, even a workshop that we're having, someone will say to me, I didn't even really realize that I grew up in an abusive household and still I heard somebody talking about that was just normal.
They just thought that's how people were. That's how people argued. Right? And so it's really important to recognize that anyone you talk to might have those sorts of needs. I think one of the I guess we can call it the silver lining of COVID is the normalization of the need for mental health care and trauma support and recognizing that not everyone can afford to access those services.
So organizations like Interface that can provide those for services for free are just more important than ever before. That demand is greater. And so we need to continue to expand and evolve to meet the needs of the community. One of the reasons that interface has been around for 50 years, we started by, believe it or not, the very first shelter for it.
Back then it was called the Shelter for Battered Women. In 1973, the first one in the state of California was Interface here in Ventura County, and it was 1973 as if it wasn't happening before. Right. But from there we recognized that not only is there, it's usually not just one thing. It's not just a violent situation that causes someone to
There are all sorts of other issues that led up to that moment that led to the person leaving that might lead to them going back. But there are services that those individuals and families need, which is why we expanded to do mental health care, why we expand, to offer the variety of wraparound services that we have to try to help those families in those situations.
So Interface James Storehouse, other nonprofits across the region, we're trying to just continually evolve to meet those expanding needs to recognize and to help to with dignity, treat people with dignity. Because some of it, it comes from a place of shame that shouldn't be there. You know, it's not your fault that you're in a violent situation. You need to get those services.
You need to get the help that you need. And there are organizations that can do it right here, right down the street. And it should be for anyone from the, you know, the streets of Oxnard or Santa Paula to the streets of Westlake Village, right?
Yeah. The need doesn't just stick to one socio economic level. It really transcends all of them. And I, I do think with more wealth comes a little bit more shame or embarrassment, and you don't want to come out and say that you need help. And so just the awareness around it and breaking down some of those barriers where it's okay, like we can seek out help and what the two of you and your organizations are doing are incredible.
So there's a need out there. Let's talk about giving. So how do we give? Where do we go? How do we do this? So oftentimes I talk to friends and family and they're like, we want to give, but we don't know where to start or we don't know what organizations to give to, and we don't know where our money's actually going.
So what are some things that we could be thinking or doing that can help us understand what organizations are out there? Where's our money going?
Yeah, well, first of all, I think all of us kind of have a passion of our heart. And so to listen to what that is and there's probably an organization out there that's doing something along those lines and once you've nailed that down, there's a lot more tangible, practical ways to know how is this organization actually serving? I don't know if you are familiar with Form 990, but that's what the IRS uses to gather information about tax exempt organizations like us.
there's websites that actually gather these 990s. They're called Charity Navigator or Candid, and they're national and they go through and they take all these nonprofits who are serving the community and based on information they put on the 990, they assess how is this organization using their money, well, what are our funds going towards?
And then they even give rankings and that kind of thing so that you can trust and know that your money is really going where you want it to go. So that's kind of an actual, practical, tangible way, but also going to these spaces. I know most organizations I have ever worked with have places or events that you can go and you can see the actual impact of your giving.
And I think that also makes the makes the game so much more impactful for the donor as well. They get to see the kids and their faces light up. We host a huge back to school event every year and this year almost 2000 people attended that event. Kids and their caregivers. And you get to see these kids light up over a brand new pair of shoes.
And, you know, for me, probably I guess for most of you, getting a new pair of shoes is fun. But it's it's not something special the way that it is for these kids. And getting to see that joy and that emphasis on the how the impact of what you're actually doing in this community, those are the three ways I can just recommend how, you know, this is how my money is actually making a difference.
Yeah, those are great because again, it's you just don't know. So there are resources out there for us to figure out, okay, what organizations do we want to give to and where's our money going? We always talk about the gifts being financial, but when I talk about charitable giving, it really comes down to three T's. So it's giving of your time, giving of your talents.
So more than wealth, looking to give a financial advice and then giving of your treasure. So giving of money is only one element or aspect of it. And Stacy, can we talk a little bit about the impact of going to an organization volunteering? Because I'm just thinking through if organizations just get money but they have no money to actually execute or be a part of serving you.
Can you talk a little bit about hands on the ground, boots on the ground getting involved and what that means?
Sure. Well, I always you know, I think to echo what she was saying about it, it's about your passion, Right. So figuring out what you're most excited about or where where you feel like you can make a difference. And then getting personally involved in that organization, really investing your time will help deepen that and strengthen that and educate yourself on those things as well.
At Interface, it's harder to have those tangible like going in and and, you know, packing a bag for someone because we have when we're offering, for example, help in our shelters or through mental health and trauma care, you need specialized training to do that. We're not just going to invite someone to come in and volunteer in that space.
But we do have a lot of ways that we can help to engage and inform the community and we need support around those. I mentioned prevention, education. All of the schools across the county want that program. We only have so many staff that can do it, but we can essentially train trainers to go and offer those programs. And what that does every time I speak at an event, every time I go alongside one of our our highly trained staff, I learn something new and I get more excited about the work because it's just so important.
And there's there are these experts and they have all this knowledge and every like I said, every time, like a Kevin hosted an event in his home, actually, and we talked about human trafficking. Every time I hear them talk, I think I just I didn't even know that. I didn't know that was happening here. I didn't know I could do this to make a difference.
So it just deepens your resolve to be committed to that organization. I mean, I think we all we all probably give to organizations that you have zero relationship with. But like my cousin has lupus and every year she walks in a lupus challenge and I always donate because it's super important and it's important to her. And I will confess, I really have done literally no research on the organization.
I'm trusting that they're doing good work and research with my dollars, and it's really important to her and I care a lot about that. I care about her. But if I'm going to invest my money locally in an organization makes a difference. I want to know more. I want to dig a little bit deeper. And so I would definitely encourage you, if there's a cause that you're passionate about, like Jessi said, find that organization locally, go visit, go to one of their events, go to a fundraiser, go to an event that they're going to be speaking to and see what you can learn, explore their website, ask questions and find ways to get involved.
A lot of organizations like ours, we have committees where we're seeking advice and guidance as well as, you know, eventually being a board member. You know, we're always looking for really great, passionate people in the community.
Perfect. Thank you. And I'm going to talk a little bit about giving a finances now kind of geek out over the financial side of it. So oftentimes many of us are asked to give to a charity that our friends involved in or maybe you find one that you like, and most of us will just write a check or we'll put in our credit card information and the money goes.
That's typically the least efficient way to give to charities. And so just a couple of tips are things to think about. One thing you might have heard of is called the DAF or a donor advise fund. What are a donor advice fund is as you make a contribution today. So you get the tax deduction in this year, but you don't have to give that money away right away.
So thinking about planning ahead, if you have a year of high income or if you have a year where you sell a property or you have stock options, come do you can give in that year because maybe you write a check for $10,000 every year, but why not put 75,000 in that year, get the deduction and then in future years you can plan on giving that money away.
Another thing to think of with a donor advice fund is you can get your family involved. And so because you don't have to give right away, you can sit down and meet and say, look, we want to give away $10,000 this year. Everyone go look at 990s and figure out what organizations you're passionate about and you can put beneficiaries on these accounts.
So if anything was to happen to you, your children or grandchildren can then take over and continue the legacy of giving. And then one other fun little tip rather than writing a check, if you have appreciated assets So you know, many of us might have a stock that you bought Apple for a low price and now it's gone up and you have huge gains and if you sold it, you would pay tax on it.
A donor advised fund or even these charities you can give that appreciated asset. So let's say you had $10,000 worth of Apple with a basis of $5,000 if you were to sell it, you're paying tax on that $5,000. But if you gift it and then you can just go back and buy Apple for the $10,000 in cash you were going to give, you've reset your basis.
So now you don't have any tax implications on it at that time. So you were able to give the same impact, but also get a much bigger tax benefit. And, you know, we hate talking about what the benefits are for you when you're giving to charity. But if there's ways to give more efficiently and give more effectively, you know, talk to your advisor and talk about planning around charitable giving.
So we're winding up on time, but I would really love to hear from each of you. Jesse, I'll start with you. If you have a story that has just kind of pulled on your heartstrings that you've just experienced either recently or at your time, it James Storehouse, that you know, I love to hear these. That's what gets me passionate and fired up.
So I'd love to hear something that you can share with us.
Yeah, definitely. The story is what draws me into our mission as well. But at the beginning, when I mentioned kind of what we do, our Northstar is to break multigenerational cycles of abuse, neglect, poverty. Sadly, it's very cyclical and we see that. And particularly for those youth aging out when they turn 18, they are left with very little financial support and very little adult support in their life.
So sadly, these youth often end up incarcerated, homeless, trafficked because it's they're desperate, they have nowhere to turn. So we met this young man named Chris. He had aged out. He was 18 years old, living homeless. And the collection in Oxnard just because he was kind of in between housing and had nowhere to go, he couldn't go to mom's house.
So we found him and he we set him up in an emergency hotel room until he was able to get into a housing opportunity. And then from there he came and he got to go shopping and get all the apartment resources that he needs at James Storehouse, ongoing resources. He was part of our leadership academy, which was for youth aging out to equip them with essential life skills.
And then finally he got plugged into our mentorship program. And that's people like you who are capable, equipped adults in the community who want to help these young people. So we set him up with this table. And I can tell you that today he is now in the Air Force and he came from just in a few years time, homeless on the streets, too.
He has financial stability, a vehicle of his own, and he's a member of our military. And a super sweet story about him is that you have to be tapped out of those ceremonies when you graduate. That's the military protocol. And he had no one that would have tapped him out, no parent who would have come but one of his mentors from his table flew out and actually tapped him out at his ceremony and gave him this big hug like a mom.
He started crying. And to this day, he's still in relationship with them and I still talk to him. He sends updates. He sent us his headshots from from the Air Force. And he is just totally has changed his trajectory from where he would have been without support.
Yeah, getting me emotional, just hearing it. I apologize to cut you short. I thank you for being here. There are so many incredible organizations out there. If you're looking for a place to park your money, donate your time. These two are two that we would definitely suggest they're going to be out and have books out there so you cutearn more about the work that they're doing.
But if you have questions just around giving in general, please find an advisor will be out in the area too, to talk through different topics and different questions that you may have. So thank you ladies.
